CONTEMPORARY SCIENCES AND ISLAMIC VIEW

1. I C A S Jakarta Islamic College For Advanced Studies CONTEMPORARY SCIENCES AND ISLAMIC VIEW By. Husain Heriyanto

2. The discourse of the relationship between religion and contemporary science arises mainly as a result of three factors:

3. (1) The amazing development of modern science that raises many fundamental questions, which are deeper, radical, and more mysterious, demanding philosophical and theological discussions. Those questions have been raised by physicists about quantum and relativity theory, by cosmologists about our enormous universe, and by biologists about our evolutionary past and future.

4. Ian G. Barbour says, “Now we know that the cosmos has included stretches of space and time that we can hardly imagine. What sort of world is it in which those strange early states of matter and energy could be the forerunners of intelligent life? Within a theistic framework it is not surprising that there is intelligent life on earth; we can see here the work of a purposeful Creator. Theistic belief makes sense of this datum and a variety of other kinds of human experience.”

5. Today many scientists and other scholars have been concerned about both religion and science particularly in order to establish a dialogue and an integrated viewpoint between them. We can list some of them:

6. Ian G. Barbour, When Science Meets Religion Ian G. barbour, Religion in an Age of Science Mehdi Golshani, From Physics to Metaphysics Mehdi Golshani, Issues in Islam and Science Osman Bakar, Tauhid and Science Paul Davies, God and The New Physics Paul Davies, The Mind of God

11. Arthur Peacocke, Paths From Science Towards God: The End of All Our Exploring John Polkinghorne, Beyond Science John Haught, Science and Religion John Barrow and Frank Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics Robert Russell, William Stoeger, and George Coyne, Physics, Philosophy, And Theology: A Common Quest for Understanding

12. (2) The responses of religion to challenges posed by sciences. New theories and discoveries in physics, cosmology, biology and life sciences (neurology, sociobiology) have brought challenges to some traditional religious ideas both in theory (theology, metaphysics, epistemology) and practice (ethics).

13. Arthur Peacock says, Today it is the scientific worldview that constitutes the challenge to received understandings of nature, humanity and God – in a way that can be initially devastating yet is potentially creative. The credibility of all religions is at stake under the impact of new understandings of the natural world. The impact of science is a challenge primarily to theology, which is concerned with the articulation and justification of religious assertions about God and about God’s relation to nature and humanity.

14. (3) The responses of wise scholars (scientists, thinkers, philosophers, religious scholars) to problems of humanity, which are set up by science along with its technological implications.

15. Mehdi Golshani says, There is no doubt that science and its technological offspring brought a lot of blessing for humanity, but the promised utopia – science can bring felicity and prosperity for humankind – did not materialized. Instead, science produced means of mass destruction and environmental pollution, and it disrupted the balance between the spiritual and the materialistic aspects of life and humanity witnessed world wars, poverty, injustice, moral-void, and violence.

16. Regarding the relation of science and religion in Islam, Golshani points out that this issue has been one of the hot topics of the last hundred and fifty years. Because the relation of science and religion is a controversial issue in the West meanwhile the progress of science and technology in the West has had a great impact on the Muslim societies, this controversy also is transferred to the Muslim academic circles.

17. ‘ULTIMATE QUESTIONS’ RAISED BY SCIENCE

18. Perhaps it is out of expectation of many scientists themselves that the development of modern science has led them to raise philosophical or theological problems, which are called ‘ultimate questions’. Prior to the 20th century the problem of creation has always been exclusively one of the major problems of theologians and philosophers. But, since the first quarter of the 20th century it became the concern of scientific cosmology circles as well. Why does science come to this issue?

19. Theory of relativity and quantum physics, the main pillars of contemporary science, have brought about a lot of questions in which science can’t answer more. One of the most important discoveries of modern cosmology that appeals for theological studies is a conviction – which has been gaining more acceptance – that the universe has a beginning. 

20. How did the universe come into being? How did it begin? Was the universe created? Why are the laws of nature what they are? Why is there complexity in nature? Does evolution rule out God’s existence? Does the universe have a design and purpose? What does it mean to be human? What are we all here for? Are we determined or free?

21. Those cosmological, philosophical, and human questions are beyond science for which philosophy and theology can play a significant role. Nowadays we witness the effort of theoretical physicists for the unification of the fundamental forces of nature. For a believing scientist it is the first step in the quest for the Creator and the Sustainer of this harmonious universe.

22. Cosmology and The Quest for Meaning

23. In 1929, the astronomer Edwin Hubble published the linear relationship between the speed of the galaxies and their distance. It was then known the velocity-distance law or simply Hubble’s law. The law states that the more distant a galaxy, the faster it moves away. This discovery along with Friedman’s theory on an expansion of space have been accepted as a generally correct model of universe.  

24. If the space is expanding, we can imagine running the process backward in time to watch the galaxies moving closer to each other. As the shrinking space compresses its contents together, the temperature dramatically increases. At about 15 billion years from the age of presently ‘observed’ universe, the whole universe as we know it is squeezed to an ever smaller size with unimaginable density and temperature.

25. Cosmologists called the initial state of maximum concentration the “primeval atom”. It was the first scientific of the origin of the universe, which led to the presently accepted Big Bang model.

26. So, initially, everything was squashed together at a point (t = 0). There was a Big Bang; the universe expanded and has continued doing so ever since. Considering unavoidable evidence for the Big Bang cosmology, today almost all cosmologists leave the steady-state theory and embrace the Big Bang theory on the “problem of beginning” of the universe.

27. The Big Bang theory provides a mathematical description for the evolution of the cosmos, according to which the universe started from an infinite density and very high temperature and then expanded, thinned out, and cooled.

28. This theory explains that the universe has a beginning: after an initial singularity, the entire cosmos came into existence abruptly in a sort of a gigantic explosion. This explosion did not occur at a point in space or time. Rather, it marked the ‘beginning of time’. According to this model, space and time themselves came into being. Therefore, the question of the Big Bang’s “when” and “where” is meaningless.

29. Paul Davies puts it: “.. the question “what happened before the Big Bang” is meaningless . there was no such epoch as “before the Big Bang,” because time began with the Big Bang. Many scientists clarify what it means to think of God as “Creator”.

30. The beginning of time  coming-into-being of the universe  proof of God’s existence General Theory of Relativity  the Big Bang theory  t = 0 (and astronomical evidences )

31. Bruno Guiderdoni Abd-al-Haqq, a French Moslem and a Director of Research at the French National Center for Scientific Research, points out, “The fundamental mystery that subtends physics and cosmology is the fact that the world is intelligible.”

32. As we know that the primary goal of cosmology is to make the universe intelligible, but intelligibility raises some philosophical and theological questions. That is why Guiderdoni says, “For a believer, the world is intelligible because it is created. The Qur’an strongly recommends to ponder, reflect and mediate upon the Creation to find the traces of the Creator in its harmony; hence the so-called cosmic verses, which are frequently quoted as one of the intellectual miracles included in the Qur’anic text. “

33. Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men who understand (men of sense). Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth : Oh Lord! Thou have not created this in vain. Glory be to You! Save us from then from the chastisement of the Fire. (Sura Ali Imran verses 190 –191)

34. We then know that the Holy Qur’an refers to natural phenomena as the signs of God and recommends the study of various phenomenon of nature as a path towards knowing and serving God.

35. Say, travel in the earth and see how He originated the creation (He makes the first creation) (Sura Al-Ankabut verse 20)

36. The Islamic tradition itself considers the reflection on God’s Handiwork as one of the best types of God’s worship. For example, it is narrated from Imam Ali (as) that: There is no worship like reflection on God’s creation.

37. Theory of Everything and The Unity of God (al-Tawhid)

38. Some contemporary physicists are devoting a lot of efforts to find a unity behind the apparent multiplicity of the natural order. They are trying to present a unified picture of the world. They are seeking the unification of the fundamental forces of nature and they call a “theory of everything”.

39. In fact, the unitary view about the created order was common among all celebrated Muslim scientists of the past (the Islamic Civilization Golden Era). It was under the influence of Qur’anic teachings that Muslim scientists emphasized the organic interrelatedness of various branches of knowledge and tried to embed all imported knowledge within the God-centered matrix of Islamic knowledge.

40. We also know that the idea of oneness of God is the most basic concept in Islam. It implies the unity of the creation, i.e. the interrelatedness of all parts of the world. This, in turn, implies the unity of knowledge.

41. Thus, the goal of scientific enterprise has to be the manifestation of the underlying unity of the created world. This means that various scientific disciplines should be synthesized to give an harmonious picture of the world.

42. According to the Holy Qur’an, the unity of nature is a reflection of the unity of the Creator: If there were (in the heaven and the earth) other gods besides Allah, there would have been confusion (in a state of disorder) in both. (Sura Al-Anbiya: 22)

43. The Holy Qur’an mentions the regularities that are present in the world: You will find no change in the Course of Allah (Sunnatullah). (Sura Faathir: 43) There is no altering in Allah’s creation (Sura Ar-Ruum: 30)

44. Clearly, this does not mean that the Creation is immutable. But, that there is a stability in the Creation that reflects God’s immutability. We know that there are the numerical aspect of cosmic regularities. The Holy Qur’an says:

45. “The Sun and the Moon (are ordered) according to an exact computation (husban). (Sura The Beneficent, Ar-Rahman verse 5).

46. So, a Muslim cosmologist is not surprised that the laws of physics we design and use to describe cosmic regularities are based on mathematics. In other word, we can say that the concept Tauhid is the only viewpoint accommodating intelligibility of the universe, interrelatedness of all parts of the world, and unity of the world as scientists today seeking (theory of everything).

47. Just as the Big Bang theory recommends having a view in which a creation is constantly renewed, there are verses in the Qur’an which have been interpreted by Muslim scholars (such as Mulla Sadra) to indicate continuous creation:

48. All those who are in the heaven and the earth ask of Him; Every moment He is in a state (of glory). (Sura The Beneficent, Ar-Rahman: 29) Were We worn out by the first creation? Yet they are in doubt with regard to a new creation (Sura Qaaf: 15)

49. Mulla Sadra, a great Sufi and Muslim philosopher, in fact, has viewpoint that coincides with the Big Bang theory, which based on relativity and quantum theory. Mulla Sadra says,

50. The essence of everything is continually renewed creation at every moment. The creation did not take place in time, but occurred with time. Time is the measure of the universal motion.