Islamic Culture and Religious Studies Book -4

Lesson 5 : Using the System As Proof of God

Part II

In the previous lesson we reached a conclusion that in any system, every part has its own special duty, but that each parts is varied in shape, size, position and function. We also saw that a particular element may be excluded due to lack of functionality or efficiency.

Having said this, we can ask the following questions:

• Why is it that from all the different things in the world, only certain entities have been assembled in a particular group?

• And in addition to this, why have elements with certain qualities and functions been selected above the countless other varieties available?

When we contemplate the details of an orderly group, our intellect will show us that the creator of the group must have had an aim to begin with. In order to achieve this aim, he then laid down a design or plan for what would have to been done.

Based on this plan, he would choose special components to perform the functions required. However, the choices would have to be made by an expert in the field so that each part would perform up to the standard desired.

From the above assessment we can derive four principles that every organized system must be based upon:

1. Aim
2. Plan/Design
3. Choice of parts/elements
4. Expert advice on choices

Qualities Of A Maker

Of course, it is now obvious that the Maker or Creator of a system must have an Aim to begin with, design the system, select its components and have the relevant knowledge at hand to make these selections wisely and correctly.

However, despite having these abilities, if he does not possess one fundamental quality then the others are void/useless.This basic quality is that of consciousness. If the Maker is not aware then the system cannot survive.

Would you expect a child who is unaware of any of the laws governing this world to produce an article explaining the workings of his remote control car? Hardly! Or try to imagine that this book you are holding is the result of a series of coincidences where a sudden reaction of gases and matter created the paper and then brought together atoms in pattern that just happened to form characters into sensible sentences. A little too farfetched, is it not?

Thus, for anything to exist and especially those things that are related to the intellect, there has to be some sort of pre-planned program that has been set into action. Logic cannot accept that anything remotely organized can 'just happen'.

The world around us is full of information and the very fat that we get much of our knowledge from it shows that it was created by an intelligent entity that was capable of not only creating a complex, working system but also hiding knowledge within it for us to find.

The universe is more complicated in itself than all the technology that man has discovered in the past thousands of years! Many inventors have got their inspiration for their discoveries and inventions from the natural systems around them, thus it is possible to say that the efforts of mankind are only a weak reflection of the natural world around us.

Inspiration From Nature

One of the wonders of our natural world is the ability that bats have to hunt and move about in darkness. Man, through observation and experiment, discovered that this is not due to extremely sharp vision (as was first believed) but rather is a result of an echo-signal that the bat uses to detect objects in its path.

The bat send out high pitched squeaks all the time as it flies and its extra sensitive hearing picks up on any echoes that bounce back, indicating a physical obstacle.

Based on this phenomenon, Man developed his radar systems which is a similar process, in that radio signals are sent out and radio echoes detected and translated to show where obstacles are. Sonar is even closer to the example set by the bat because it uses sound echoes and can be used under water and for deep geological research where radar does not work.

Once they realized how much there was to be learned from nature, scholars founded a new science with the name BIONIC which is aimed at examining and researching living organisms and applying their techniques to our computerized systems.

Borrowing From The Solar System

Isaac Newton is a famous 17th Century scholar. He was known to have made a model of the solar system using marbles, ropes and belts that showed the position and movement of the planets. Once a friend who did not believe in God came to visit him and saw the model for the first time. Amazed by the structure, he asked Newton: "Who made this model?" Newton replied: "Nobody."

The man was surprised at this answer and asked him again, "Didn't you understand my question? I asked who made that?" Again Newton replied, "It brought itself into existence."

The man stared at him. "Do you think I am crazy?" he asked. "Someone must have made this model and from its complexity it must have been a genius! I would like to know him."

At that Newton said to him, "My friend, this model is a small imitation of our entire solar system. It shows the earth we live on as a simple, small marble and yet you say it needs a creator to have made it and call him a genius.

"How can you then believe that this magnificent world came into existence without a creator?"

This is an extremely solid argument that can be presented to prove the need and existence of a God. We need to realize that we have studied this nature around us for centuries and have managed to barely scratch the surface of the wonders hidden in it. We then need to ask ourselves:

• If all the efforts of the best minds of our species have taken so long produced so little, how is it possible for the very source of this knowledge to be an accidental one?

• How can we derive so much law and order from something we consider a product of chaos?

• Why do our theories hold steady and our laws of science provide foundations for more laws to be derived from them? Surely, if the world came about as a result of coincidences then there should be flaws in the system.

Francis Beacon, who is known in history as the Father of New Science says: "I can not accept that the constructor of this world, created it without consciousness and intelligence. This philosophy can lead a man to infidelity, but profound philosophy guides man towards the realization of religion."

Theology And Its Development Theories

When man became well versed with the sciences, he began to believe that there was no need for a superior power in this world. His ego prompted him to develop a theory that would allow him to be the highest intellectual in the universe and leave him free to do as he wished with no accountability to anyone else. This theory is that of evolution.

The idea of evolution is based on the belief that things that exist today first began in a different raw form. Through the times, these basic simple forms then developed and adapted in the innumerable varieties of organisms and species that we see today. The people who hold this concept to be true believe that such an explanation of our origins would remove the necessity of having a Planner and Creator. Thus, their fight is not against any one faith but against religion in its entirety.

To prove them wrong we do not need to go out and search for more information. Just developing their concept to its full meaning allows us to see that the argument actually proves the need for a Creator rather than disapproving it! Consider the following:

1. The theory of evolution may have an answer to how we came to be today and explain this saying that it is the result of gradual development through the millennia. However, if we go back as far as the origins, there still remains the question of "Where did that origin come from?" Continuity is possible once a system is started but to set the system into action, you require a Creator. We see plenty of automatic machines in the world that work on their own, but that does not cause us to believe that they came to be without a creator or designer.

2. To accept that the amazingly complicated systems that exist today came to be through coincidental changes along the years is to ask human beings to accept something without using their intellect and logic.How can it be possible that just the right change should occur in the right order to result in the different perfect structures? The probabilities we would have to rely on in each case are unbelievable!

Let us take an extremely simple example to illustrate this point. Say a man wants to walk from his house to particular building across the town. He has to cross certain streets and take certain roads in order to reach it.

If you see him when he is on this walk, you would not understand why he was taking the corners he chose and wonder at them. On the other hand, if you happen to know his purpose then you immediately understand that he chose the particular route in order to reach his destination.

Now, ask yourself, if he had begun walking without thought and crossed streets and roads at random, what were the chances that he would reach that building at all? At every point, his choices would have had one right one and numerous wrong ones. Had he chosen a wrong turn even once, he would have deviated from his path and with every choice after that, he would have moved further away from the right road.

It is the same with nature. Even according to evolution, for us to be who we are today, there must have been a pre-planned route that we would have to follow. Even the smallest disorder would have had a totally different and most probably chaotic result. This means that we have to accept the existence of a Plan and therefore of a Planner.

From the above we can see that gradual development theory does not really cause any hindrance to the Proving System and its arguments.

The Creator is One

In the world around us there are systems that work in different manners on different principles. Two basic kinds are as follows:

1. The systems we create in our factories e.g. clocks, cameras, binoculars, computers, etc. In such systems, the different parts of the whole are created individually and then set together in a special way in order to make them work in co-ordination.

2. The system we see in man's words through speech or writing. In this case, we do not just pick words and then arrange them. Rather we think of what it is that we want to say or express and then use or create the words required giving them a link to each other and thus forming a system. Writing is the same where we place every word and sentence in a particular place to give them meaning. This changes depending on our aim.

The system in the world of nature is of the second type. The various parts within it were not created once and organized in a fixed manner to perform a function. All the things created have their special place in the universe and changes do occur in order to meet the final aim of the Creator of the system.

Just as when speaking, it is a person alone who expresses himself, the Expresser of the system is also One and Alone in His creation.

Lesson 6 : God in The Mirror Of Nature

What is Nature?

The qualities that man possesses are of two types. Firstly, those that are gained through instruction like reading, writing, driving, sports etc. The second are those qualities that are inborn in him and require no training like affection for friends and family, curiosity, sympathy, self-preservation and the like.

The second type of qualities may be categorized as instinct and while some them are found in both humans and other lower animals, others are specific to man alone. These include love of knowledge, hope of attaining perfection and inclination towards good.

These qualities are part of the Natural tendencies. They are found in animals and some are particular to man and most importantly they are not acquired.

God In Man's Nature

It is in this nature of man discussed above that he should seek out and accept God. Although, the actual knowledge and proof comes later in life when he can speak, read and think consciously, Man has this information imprinted in him from birth.

It is his inclination to submit to a Power worth obeying and worship that Supreme entity. Every individual seeks this entity and that is why we must put a conscious effort to learn about and know God. This will allow us to fulfill our inner desire and complete our goal.

While it is true that such feelings exist within a human being, a person has the right to ask for proof for such statements. So, how can we prove that the inclination towards God is inbred in the human character? There are several ways but we will explain only two:

I . Reaction in Danger

One of the clear signs of theology (religion) being natural in human being is that when a person finds himself helpless and has no hope of protection against impending danger, he finds himself instinctively calling out to a Someone - a higher power - who can save him when no one else can.

This is usually the most sincere call a human ever experiences because he is faced with his own finite and weak self and realizes how little he can control the things that influence him. If the knowledge of God was not in his self, then how would this hope and plea arise?

One day a man came to visit Imam Ja'far Sadiq (a.s.) and asked him to prove the existence of Allah (S.W.T.). Imam (a.s.) asked him a question in return. "Have you ever traveled by ship?" he said.

The man replied, "Yes, I have." "And have you ever been caught in a storm that you did not believe you would survive?" the Imam (a.s.) asked him.

"Yes, I have experienced that too," the man replied. "At that moment of despair, did you give up all hope and resign to your death?" The man thought about this and then told Imam (a.s.), "No, I did not, O Imam! I had a hope that somehow I would survive through some miracle."

Imam (a.s.) immediately told him, "That hope, my friend, and the one you expected to perform the miracle was no other than Allah (S.W.T.) who is always in your heart and comes to your help when you call."

There are also several verses in the Holy Qur'an that explain that in times of hardship, man tends to remember Allah (S.W.T.) and when his difficulties are removed, he forgets Him.

"In that situation when the sea waves stack on them, they supplicate to God with pure and sincere hearts, but when they reach the sea-shore safely, a group of them put moderation aside (and the other group deviates) and other than those who are ungrateful, nobody can not deny the signs of God." Sura Luqman, Verse 32

The Qur'an speaks of these people as those with whom Allah (S.W.T.) is displeased. Remembering God at times of distress is a sign of being aware of Him, but if we remember Him only at these times then it also indicates our ungratefulness and negligence.

II. Endurance in History

The second proof we can use in our argument that knowing and needing God is in man's nature is that of the endurance of theology. Man's needs and desires control the existence, invention and lasting quality of anything he come sin contact with.

We know that as times pass, man looks to improve on what he has and with the coming of new things, the older models become rare and obsolete. Examples of such object are everywhere like the carts of long ago that have been replaced with cars and buses, or the use of electricity over the old kerosene lamps.

However, those things that are inbred in man do not change. They remain the same through the ages. Man's desire for peace and happiness, his loving nature, his eagerness to learn and need of perfection have always been present and will continue to be because they are qualities in his nature.Nothing substitutes these and even if people have abandoned them in history sometimes, they always come back later to seek them out again.

The inclination to believe in a supreme deity is one of these natural qualities and has existed since the dawn of human history. Archeological investigations show that even during the days when language and society barely had any solid structure, the worship of God prevailed even in the form of idols.

It is believed by some faiths that worship began with that of one God but later with civilization, polytheism developed.

This endurance shows that the belief is so well ingrained in the nature of man that despite all his progress and advancement, it has not been removed from his nature to this day.

What the Qur'an has to say The Holy Qur'an introduces piety and the inclination to God as rising from within man:

"Then set your purpose (O Muhammad) for religion as a man by nature upright - the nature made by Allah (S.W.T.), in which He has made men. There is no altering of Allah (S.W.T.)'s creation. That is the right religion, but most people do not know." Sura al-Rum, Verse 30

Several points are found in this verse.

1. God has created mankind with the inclination of seeking Him.

2. Man's nature is unalterable and thus the seeking of God cannot be separated from him.

3. Most people are unaware of this reality and come up with doctrines that have no foundation according to their nature.

The Secret of the Prophets

We know that Prophets greatly influenced human history and that they did this with no great force at their liberty. Most were simple shepherds without any material wealth or power. Despite this, they managed to transform the world in their respective time, destroying great tyrannical empires and establishing new cultures.

Where did they get the ability to achieve all this? It is obvious that they did not force or bribe the people to accept their message and neither did they hypnotize them. Instead, they used the very power of the people themselves to bring about their revolutions.

By encouraging people to become familiar with God within themselves and rely only on Him, they made them aware of the fires hidden within their nature. This was what led to their amazing success.

The prophets only brought messages to remind the people of what they already had. This is why the Qur'an calls them Reminders and Warners.

"Remind them for you are but a reminder. You are not dominant over them." Sura Ghashiyah, Verses 21 & 22

The Prophets could not create the desire to seek God in men, this he had the capability to do himself. Rather, they showed the ways in which to use this desire and guided their strong inclinations in the right direction. The Prophets were sent to stop deviation towards idol worship and other wrong means of worship and the tendencies of man led him astray when he had no guide to help. Why do Some go Against this Nature?

Having established that the inclination to God is a natural desire, why then do some people turn against it and deny God? Do they lack this quality? Why does it not push them towards God?

The reasons for this may include:

1. Man's different tendencies. Each individual gives priority to different desires and those wants that dominate in his personality overshadow those that do not. For example, you will always see in a class some students who spend their time on their lessons and others who concentrate only on enjoyment and do not bother about studying. Thus, while some people search for the truth, others deny it.

2. The natural qualities in any man need conditional assistance for their progress. If the family and social atmosphere around a child is not positive for the nurturing his character then these qualities may be suppressed or distorted.

* Note that this is a probability and there are cases when a person has the inclination to turn to God even when he has been brought up in an environment that was against this or vice versa.

In conclusion, we can say that all worshipping systems that exist preach humility and submission to One Supreme Being. This conforms to the nature of humanity.