"[An] 'ism' of great danger to
Islam... is Darwinism," said Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the
leading Muslim thinkers of our time, in his book Islam and the Plight
of Modern Man. He is certainly right. Darwinism is indeed a dangerous
idea, and the reason for that is its seemingly scientific affirmation
of the naturalist philosophy — the belief that nature is all there
is and that life on Earth, including humans, is the product of the
blind forces of nature. If one accepts that philosophy, then one will
have little reason to believe in Allah, the Lord and Creator of
everything.
That's why Nasr thinks that accepting the
Darwinian evolution theory would be to "surrender Islam" to
modern atheism. And he warns fellow Muslims against this risk as
follows:
Those who think they are rendering a
service to Islam by incorporating evolutionary ideas, as currently
understood, into Islamic thought are, in fact, tumbling into a most
dangerous pitfall and are surrendering Islam to one of modern man's
most insidious pseudo-dogmas, one created in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries to enable men to forget God. (213)
Some Muslims might find Nasr's warning too
farfetched because they think that Islam actually doesn't have any
problems with the theory of evolution. Evolution, they would argue,
might simply have been the method through which Allah manifested His
creation. Besides, there are some medieval Muslim scholars who toyed
with evolutionary ideas long before Darwin. So isn't evolution a
problem for Christians — whose scripture is at odds with evolution
in a literal reading— but not for Muslims?
Yes and no.
|
Few Muslims have
taken part in the scientific challenge to
Darwinism |
It is true that the Islamic doctrine of
creation could allow for an evolutionary interpretation, and thus the
theory of evolution, per se, is not unacceptable in Islam. But
Darwinism is not evolution. It is a special theory of evolution that
insists that evolutionary mechanisms are undirected and unguided.
Modern Darwinian theory accepts only two creative powers — natural
selection and random mutation. These blind, purposeless mechanisms are
the only accepted causes for life, and any divine guidance and
intervention are never, ever allowed.
An End to the Ulama and Imams?
In his famous book The Meaning of
Evolution, George Gaylord Simpson, one of the arch-Darwinists of
the 20th century, explained this special meaning of Darwinian
evolution quite clearly. "Man," wrote
Simpson, "is the result of a purposeless and natural process
that did not have him in mind."
Another prominent Darwinist, Richard
Dawkins of Oxford University, is even blunter. Dawkins is a militant
atheist who defines
religious faith "as one of the world's great evils, comparable to
the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate." And he is Darwin's
greatest fan, because, according
to him, Darwin "made it possible to be an intellectually
fulfilled atheist."
William B. Provine is even blunter yet when
he proudly says,
"Evolution is the greatest engine of atheism ever invented."
We should carefully note that this
"engine" is not running only in the Western world. Its
target is to undermine all theistic religions, including, of course,
Islam. Just take a look at what Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, a
hard-core proponent of Darwinian evolution, said
in accepting an award from the Freedom from Religion Foundation:
I personally feel that the teaching of
modern science is corrosive of religious belief, and I'm all for
that! One of the things that in fact has driven me in my life is the
feeling that this is one of the great social functions of science
— to free people from superstition. ... I can hope that this long
sad story will come to an end at some time in the future and that
this progression of priests and ministers and rabbis and ulamas and
imams and bonzes and bodhisattvas will come to an end, that we'll
see no more of them.
Ulama and imams coming to an end?
Although this is wishful thinking, it is
noteworthy. And it confirms that Darwinism is indeed "a great
danger to Islam," as Professor Nasr rightly says.
The Sun From the West
|
|
Charles Darwin
|
However this "danger" is not too
hard to deal with because Darwinism is in fact a pseudo-scientific
theory. Observable and testable data do show that there is some change
in nature and that living beings have a capacity to adapt to their
environment, but there is simply no evidence for the kind of
macro-evolution that Darwinists envision — a chance-driven natural
process that created all life without a Creator. That's why, in the
past few decades, there has been a growing body of scientific
literature that challenges Darwinian evolution and argues that this
theory is not the correct explanation of biological origins.
Professor Nasr talks about this scientific
challenge to Darwinism in his Islam and the Plight of Modern Man
and emphasizes the works of Western scientists who criticize Darwinian
evolution.
However, according to Professor Nasr, there
is a problem. "Unfortunately," he writes, "few
contemporary Muslim thinkers have taken note of these [Western]
sources and made use of their arguments to support the traditional
Islamic view of man" (212).
In other words, few Muslims have taken part
in the scientific challenge to Darwinism.
Perhaps this was because, until recently,
the challenge was mostly associated with the US-based Christian
movement called creationism. Creationism was the effort to merge
science and Christian theology. Some of its arguments — such as
Young Earth — did not correspond to any traditional Islamic
doctrine. Therefore Muslims had a good reason for not being associated
with creationism in this narrow sense.
However a revolution took place in the
early 1990s with the rise of a new theory called Intelligent Design
(ID). ID does not try to infuse any theology into science; it just
uses scientific evidence and rational inference. It argues that
Darwinism is wrong in its assumptions about randomness, and that the
complexity of life on Earth — and the fine-tuning of the physical
universe, for that matter — can only be explained by positing a
designing intelligence. In the same way that a book points to an
author, ID theory argues, the universe and life points to a Designer.
It is not hard to see that this reasoning
is very compatible with the Qur'anic verses that tell us that nature
is full of Allah's signs and we should examine them to see His
majesty. In his article "Taskhir,
Fine-tuning, Intelligent Design and the Scientific Appreciation of
Nature," published in the journal Islam & Science,
Dr. Adi Setia of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and
Civilization in Malaysia confirms the parallels between Qur'anic
concepts and intelligent design.
In other words, although ID is a theory
developed in the West, it is fully compatible with, and profoundly
supportive of, the core faith of Islam. Just remember what our Prophet
(peace be upon him) told us: "Knowledge and wisdom are the lost
property of the believers, so if a believer finds it anywhere, he
should take it." Today, ID is such knowledge and wisdom to be
taken.
Sign the Dissent From Darwin Statement
I have written about Intelligent Design
before on IslamOnline.net, in a piece titled "Why
Muslims Should Support Intelligent Design." "Intelligent
Design is very much our cause," I held, "and we should do
everything we can to support it." After that piece, many Muslim
sisters and brothers sent me supportive e-mails and I am so grateful
for their responses.
This time I have a more solid suggestion to
Muslim scientists who would like to join the global effort against
Darwinism: Come sign the Dissent From Darwin Statement, which simply
reads
We are skeptical of claims for the
ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for
the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for
Darwinian theory should be encouraged. (Learn more at the Dissent
From Darwin page)
The Discovery
Institute, the main organization supporting Intelligent Design and
the criticism of Darwinian evolution, launched this two-sentence
statement in 2001 and so far more than 500 scientists have stepped
forward to sign their names. The list
is growing and includes scientists from the US National Academy of
Sciences; Russian, Polish, and Czech National Academies; universities
such as Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and others.
Muslim scholar Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal, the editor of the journal Islam
& Science, is also on the list. Several others from Turkey are
just to be added.
It will be invaluable if more Muslim
scientists sign the statement. It will empower the scientific case
against Darwinism and it will show that it is a global phenomenon,
despite the claims to the contrary by the Darwinist establishment. It
will also have a deeper intercivilizational message: that the world is
not necessarily divided between East and West, and that people of good
faith and reason in all civilizations can join in proclaiming
scientific truths overshadowed by materialist prejudice.
If you agree, and if you are a scientist,
would you consider adding your name to the Dissent From Darwin list?
The list comprises scientists who have
doctoral degrees and doctors of medicine who are professors of
medicine.
If this fits your description — or if you
have suggestions about reaching Muslim scientists whose do — please
contact me at akyol@mustafaakyol.org.
Disclaimer: The article reflects the
opinions of the author.
Note from the editor:
IslamOnline.net invites its readers to join in on the debate
surrounding Darwinism and evolutionary theory. You are welcome to send
your writings and opinions, regardless of which side your argument
supports, to the editor at sciencetech@iolteam.com.
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