Limits of Science

Question:-

There appears to be a contradiction in the Islamic or Muslim attitude about science. On the one hand you state that the scientific attitude of seeking truth by "consulting" nature as made by Allah, rather than intellectual speculation derives from Islam, and on the other hand you also say that Truth transcends experience and reason. What is the Islamic position?

Answer:-

I can only tell you how I see things from the point of view of a Muslim who has studied Islam.

Science is a human activity, and like all other human activities has powers and limitations that derive from human abilities and limitations. This means that though it has certain advantages, its limits must also be recognised otherwise applying it beyond those limits creates disadvantages. Yes the Quran does tell us:-

"And follow (or pursue) not that of which you have no knowledge; verily, the hearing, the sight, and the heart, of all of these it shall be asked (to give an account)." 17:36.

The verse can be interpreted as referring to verbal knowledge, personal experience and deeper feeling or awareness when verses such as 2:6-7, 6:25, 22:46 are taken into consideration. The verse is found within a context of 17:35 and 17:37 that can be understood at a deeper level than the more obvious. Verse 17:35 requires one to be just in measurement and to use the correct balance or measuring device and verse 17:37 requires humility where a person does not allow his own subjective desires or opinions to override the facts of creation:-

It has been pointed out that Islam recognises three sets of human faculties that correspond to the physical, mental and spiritual spheres. There is the realm of experience through the inner and outer senses, the realm of reason and data processing, and the realm of consciousness, conscience and will. In general, all three sets of faculties are engaged in all activities but to different degrees. The emphasis in science is on the first two, but even these to a limited extent. There is more to the senses than we are normally aware of, and even from this we select by directing attention according to interest driven by motives, presuppositions based on conceptual systems and a set of activities that elicit corresponding responses. The same limitations apply to reasoning. Ultimately, the awareness of Truth requires that all our experiences and ideas should form a unified self-consistent system that is also consistent with the processes of the world and our being and living. This is because the same materials, forces and laws operate in us as in our environment, with respect to which we have arisen. We have a limited capacity for such consciousness, though much greater potentialities which educational and cultural systems tend to gradually actualise.

In the mean time, it is, or should be, part of the scientific attitude that our knowledge is limited and relative to the stage of development and the persons who understand it. Though many underlying regularities or laws have been discovered, it is no proof that all are known. Nor does it make it possible for us to explain or predict all events owing to the fact that events arise from the coincidental combination of numerous factors, not all of which are known or measurable. Much ignorance remains and is attributed to "chance".

Whereas it can be proved experimentally that a Law of nature as defined by science is true to a degree of certainty, it is not possible to prove that it is Eternal. In fact, there is evidence that the Universe is evolving and that it started with a Big Bang before which there was neither time nor space. The question for Science is: What could be the cause of the Big Bang? What was there before the Big Bang? What does "before the Big Bang" mean? And why did just the constants and laws emerge that we now see? Perhaps there was another Universe before that or this Universe is a small part of a much Larger Reality.

It has been proposed that the Biological process of Evolution provides us with clues as to how the Universe evolves, that its Laws also arise from random events and natural selection, the survival of the fittest. This requires that the Laws of the Universe L1 evolve according to another more fundamental Law, L2, which may also evolve according to an even more fundamental L3, and so on. There are different levels and these cannot co-exist in the same Time. There must be different levels or dimensions to Time. The Laws of nature as described by science are symmetrical and ignore the direction of time, regarding it as a dimension of space-time. In this respect scientific descriptions do not correspond to our experience of the world. Perhaps flowing Time is an illusion and it is we who are passing through a fixed landscape.

The Laws described by Science are deterministic so that if we know the present condition one can predict the future and retrodict the past. This requires not only knowing the laws but also knowing the initial conditions and the basic constants that determine the materials. We cannot explain the present Laws because we do not know the initial conditions. One way of overcoming this is to study the present fundamental building blocks and derive the Laws from their nature. This gives us an area of possibilities rather than actualities which are only a small area within the area of possibilities. This releases us from slavery to determinism by shifting the notion of what is real.

But the problems for science go much deeper than these. Whether the Laws of the Universe are Eternal or change according to an underlying Law, there is still the mystery how Laws came into existence. Ultimately, if there is something that explains everything else, that something must itself remain inexplicable by anything else. The Biological process of random events and the survival of the fittest cannot be an explanation for two reasons. Firstly, there must be something in which the random events take place and that which arises randomly can be undone by the same process. Nothing permanent can exist unless there is some cause for it. Secondly, the notion "fittest" refers to some condition for which something is fit. The notion involves a vicious circle - It survives because it is fit and it is fit because it has survived. This is not really a natural law but a logical notion.

It is also obvious that Mathematics on which scientific descriptions depend is also a matter of logic or reason. In fact, though there is certainly something "out there" apart from human observers, the world as seen and described by human beings exists in their consciousness. In particular science does not consist merely of sense data, but also of organising ideas and explanatory devices such as models, formulae and graphs. There can be no complete description of Reality without an explanation for consciousness. In fact, all descriptions, scientific or not, are relative to consciousness. And it is necessary to have a stable consciousness to be able to compare changes. Perhaps reality is much greater than is supposed and we see only a small part of it because of the limits of our faculties.

From an Islamic point of view, there is a fundamental self-existing Reality, the origin of all other things, known and unknown, whom we call Allah. We do not require proof for this, only awareness. It is integral to existence, the foundation of experience and self-evident. He has created 7 levels of existence or heavens, each higher one of which may be regarded as containing many smaller lower spheres. Only the lowest of these levels refers to this actual Universe that we see. The world we see depends on what we are and on the state of our psyche. There is a Universal Consciousness, which can be symbolised as the Mind of Allah, of which ours are small parts, like a small circle M within a much larger one A and our knowledge and awareness increases as M expands.

"He is Omnipotent over His servants, He is the Wise, the Aware!" 6:18

"Vision comprehends Him not, but He comprehends all vision, for He is the Subtle, the Aware." 6:104

"Now has insight (or proof) come unto you from your Lord, and he who sees therewith it is for his own good; but he who is blind thereto, it is against his own soul. And I am not your keeper. Thus do We expound Our Signs in various ways, that they may say: You have studied, and that We may make clear to those who have knowledge. Follow what is inspired in you from your Lord; there is no god but He, and shun the idolaters." 6:105-107

However, owing to the fact that our knowledge and understanding and awareness is limited and that hopefully it progresses, we cannot be certain of it and should seek to increase it. This applies also to the views expressed here. We, therefore, have the Formula of Uncertainty "Insha allah" (If it is the will of Allah).

Question:-

Are there many Universes and was the Universe made for man? What about the Anthropic Principle? 

Answer:-

You have three questions to which three answers are needed:-

(1) As Allah, the creator of Laws, transcends the Laws of the Universe, there may well be many Universes each consisting of a different set of Laws.

(2) It all depends on what you mean by man. Is it the physical entity that arose on earth, and adapted to it? The Universe was made for spiritual evolution, not necessarily for man in the restricted sense. Study the following verses:- 

"Assuredly the creation of the heavens and the earth is a greater thing than the creation of mankind. But most of mankind know not."  40:57 

"Have they not pondered upon themselves? Allah created not the heavens and the earth, and that which is between them save with Truth and for a destined end."  30:8 and 38:28 

"If He will He can be rid of you and bring in your stead some new creature." 35:16 

" If He will He can remove you and cause what He will to follow after you, even as He raised you from the seed of other folk."  6: 134

(3) There are several versions of the Anthropic Principle. According to one version:- It is known that the laws and constants upon which this Universe is based appear to be finely tuned to allow life and conscious human beings to arise. There is no discernible natural cause for this to be so. They could be anything else. Therefore, it is claimed that the Universe was made for man to arise and think about the Universe. Many scientists reject this view because of reluctance to admit that there is a Creator and a purpose to the Universe. But this, by itself, is obviously a prejudice. As already indicated there will have to be something that is the self-existing origin of all other things including matter, energy and consciousness. And when Time is taken as a dimension, then the direction of development can be attributed to a purpose just as validly as to a cause. On the other hand, it could be argued that man has only arisen because the conditions were right. If they had not been then there would be no man who understood the Universe the way we do. There may be other Universes where no conscious beings arise or where there are conscious beings of different kinds. All these Universes can be regarded as arising by chance or by some underlying law. But neither that law nor chance can be explained. Law requires something that creates regularity and persistence and is understood relative to chance. The notion of chance can only be understood if there are particles that can combine in various ways without something making the combination persist. The existence of these must also be explained. In fact, the existence of all relativities on which knowledge depends must be understood relative to some Absolute.

As already indicated above we only see that part of total reality which our minds allow and these minds have arisen in adaptation to the environment in which we have to live. So there is an inter-dependence between them and there is a process of development. As learning proceeds and consciousness grows through this interaction then not only will conscious beings be transformed, but so will their view and understanding of the Universe and of Reality and of themselves. Indeed, the earth and the Universe also will be transformed.

We see, therefore, that the kind of problems that confuses Western thinking does not exist in Islam except, of course, in those Muslims who have been misled by inadequate alienating education.

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