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Why Muslims Should Support Intelligent Design
I
have traveled a lot around the United States and the United Kingdom,
lecturing to Muslim audiences. One common trait I have noticed is
the concern Muslims feel for the future of their children. Several
conferences I attended had topics such as “Saving Our Families”
or “How to Raise Our Children as Good Muslims.” The reason for
this concern is obvious: These Muslim families are living in a
highly secularized society that has cultural traits that are
destructive to traditional values. The profane culture of MTV,
pornography, consumerism and hedonism—what political scientist
Benjamin Barber calls “The McWorld”—is at odds with Muslim
values.
The
McWorld is powerful in winning converts. Many Muslim parents living
in the West are dismayed to see their kids envying the lives of
pop-stars instead of Islamic sages. The solution many Muslim
families find is to create cultural enclaves where, they hope, the
McWorld cannot penetrate. They want to educate their children in
local Islamic schools and keep them in an “Islamic atmosphere”
as much as they can. However, such cultural enclaves have little
chance of matching Western society in terms of appeal. For Muslim
youngsters living in the United States or in Western Europe, the
popular profane life is colorful and attractive. They may not lose
their faith altogether, but they lose a coherent identity based
on that faith. They become cultural wanderlings.
The
resulting psychological trauma in these young people can have a much
worse side effect: As we have seen in the September 11 conspirators,
an identity crisis can turn some young Muslims into terrorists.
Seeking asylum from the distress they feel for being renegade
Muslims, they think they can find peace in a radical political
ideology, a kind of necrophilic nihilism, hidden under the cloak of
Islam.
Let’s
Face Modernity
But
perhaps Muslims don’t need those cultural enclaves. The colorful
life of the West that we call modernity may not be totally bad, but
only in some of its aspects. There might be no problem in wearing
jeans, eating fast food—health problems notwithstanding—or
listening to pop music as long as one knows that God exists and that
he has a moral obligation to Him. If a young person gains this
consciousness, in fact, he will be more powerful and confident in
the modern world, by being open to its opportunities and offerings,
but consciously aware of the necessity of maintaining his integrity
and moral standards.
Materialism
is the philosophy that argues that matter is all there is.
It denies the existence of all spiritual entities, and, of
course, God. |
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The
core issue, surely, is to have faith in God and see the world out of
Godly hearts and minds. Once a believer is standing firmly on that
solid ground, he doesn’t need to close the door to foreign
cultures. When he has achieved a continuing consciousness of God,
then he walks with God in every path that life opens for him.
Yes,
but how will the Muslim achieve that consciousness?
To
find an answer, first we have to understand the problems we face.
The problem with modernity is its neglect of the divine: It makes
people live as if God does not exist. Only doctrinal atheists
declare the Nietzschean claim “God is dead,” but many ordinary
people live as if this is reality. Movies, books, soap operas, and
songs portray a lifestyle in which nobody thinks about God. He is
absent from their minds, yet they have an appearance of happiness.
Advertisements impose the big lie that we can find happiness by
consuming some special product. Insurance companies are what people
trust. Popular science ascribes to us humans a nature that has
originated wholly by natural laws. And opinion leaders dismiss
religion as a thing of the past.
The
Qur’an tells us that Prophet Shu`aib (peace and blessings be upon
him), who was sent to the people of Madyan, warned them that they [neglect
God as a thing cast behind your back]
(11:91). This is the dominant culture in today’s world. Man turns
his back on God and rarely gives Him any thought.
But
this neglect does not result merely from ignorance or lack of
thought. There is a doctrinal basis for the modern neglect of God.
That basis is a grand narrative lying beneath every aspect of the
secular world. It is called materialism, and it is the principal foe
we must face and deal with.
Materialism
Is Our Adversary
Materialism
is the philosophy that argues that matter is all there is. It denies
the existence of all spiritual entities, and, of course, God.
According to a materialist, the universe is not created by God; it
is self-existent. He, therefore, assumes that everything in the
universe, including the life within it, is the product of blind,
purposeless forces of physics and chemistry. Materialism denies the
existence of the human soul, too. According to this view, we are
nothing but highly organized molecules, and our ideas, feelings, and
emotions are simply chemical reactions inside our brain cells. In
short, materialism is the philosophical underpinning of atheism.
Since
its beginning, Islam has carried on an intellectual war against
materialism. The Qur’an emphasizes the irrationality of men’s
denial of God: [How
do you deny God when you were dead and He gave you life? Again He
will cause you to die and again bring you to life, then you shall be
brought back to Him]
(2:28).
Yet
the sharpest encounter between Islam and materialism occurred when
medieval Muslims read the works of the philosophers of ancient
Greece and translated them into Arabic. Some of those ancient Greeks
were materialists. They argued that the universe had no beginning,
that it existed from eternity. This idea seemed attractive to some
Muslims of the time. That is why Imam Ghazali, the Muslim equivalent
of Thomas Aquinas, wrote extensively against “the philosophers”
and their materialism, especially in his monumental work The
Incoherence of the Philosophers. Ghazali insisted that the
universe was created ex nihilo (from nothingness) and this
was evidence for the divine. It is interesting to note that
Ghazali’s thesis was confirmed in the 20th century with the
commonly accepted big bang theory, which implies a beginning for the
material universe.
Ghazali’s
powerful authority expelled materialism from Muslim minds for a long
time, but it reappeared in the 19th century. Europe of that time was
flooded with materialist theories from thinkers like Marx, Darwin,
Comte, Durkheim, and Freud. The Westernized intellectuals of Islamic
lands, especially of the late Ottoman Empire, were influenced by
these theories and became voluntary tools in transferring them to
their societies. Atheists or agnostics like Abdullah Cevdet or Suphi
Ethem, quoted the works of Charles Darwin and Ernst Haeckel to argue
that man is a mere animal. Muslim thinkers countered their
arguments. Ismail Fenni Ertugrul, for example, in his book The
Collapse of the School of Materialism argued that the universe
is not a self-existing entity as the materialists claim; it was
created by God. Ertugrul also explained that the universe and life
within it are designed by God and they tell us about His infinite
might and knowledge.
After
the collapse of Ottoman Empire in 1918, the war of ideas continued
in former Ottoman states, especially in the most Westernized one of
all, Turkey. Materialist theories quickly became the worldview of
the Turkish intelligentsia and the ruling paradigm in the
country’s education system. This is why Said
Nursi (1878-1960), probably the most influential Muslim
scholar in Turkey for the whole 20th century, put great emphasis on
the fight against materialism. During the Second World War he urged
his followers to concentrate on the greater war, the war of ideas.
The biggest problem, he said, is that “many are losing their faith
because of the plague of materialism.” Based on the same
conviction, contemporary Muslim intellectuals like Harun
Yahya put great emphasis on the case against materialism and
its main pillar, Darwinism.
There
is no inherent clash between Islam and Christianity. |
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That
emphasis is right on target. Materialism is the problem Muslims have
with the modern world, and it is the worldview we must stand
against. Muslims should have no objection to modern science and
technology, art and esthetics, the good things of life and open
society. Our objection should be against the intellectual
“plague” which invades our lives and leads people to
believe in a godless world.
So
the way to save our faith and our families in the modern world is
not to shut them away from it, but to understand and refute its
underlying misconceptions. This will give us dignity and integrity,
and may help others to see the ultimate reality. But how can we
refute materialism, a philosophy so powerfully incorporated into the
most powerful civilization, the West?
Well,
there is good news. We are not alone in this battle. There is
another powerful component in the West that is determined to root
out materialism. That force is Christianity.
Christianity
as Our Ally
Some
political conflicts in history, like the Crusades of the medieval
age or the allegedly “Islamic” terrorism of today, have created
distrust between many Christians and Muslims. However, there is no
inherent clash between these two great religions. From the Muslim
point of view, in fact, Christians are the closest friends and
allies in the world. The Qur’an boldly declares [Nearest
among men in love to the believers will you find those who say,
‘We are Christians’: because amongst these are men devoted to
learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not
arrogant]
(5:82).
Muslims
share many details of faith with Christians. Besides our common
faith in God the Creator, we both believe that Jesus Christ was the
Word of God (An-Nisaa’ 4:171) and that he had a virgin birth and
performed many miracles (Al-Ma’idah 5:110). Islamic tradition also
holds that Jesus will return towards the end of time and save
humanity from unbelief.
Our
common faith in God is so important that God commands Muslims to
make a call for alliance to Christians and Jews, the People of the
Book (Scripture): [Say:
O People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between us and you:
that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no
partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords
beside God]
(Aal-`Imran 3:64).
Based
on this Qur’anic vision, we can confidently conclude that Muslims
should cooperate with faithful Christians and Jews in matters that
are important to each of these three monotheistic faiths.
And
what can be more important than the case against materialism, the
modern denial of God?
Intelligent Design as Our Common Cause
Interestingly,
Said Nursi, in the 1950s, foresaw an alliance between Islam and
Christianity against materialism. He prophetically wrote, “A
tyrannical current born of naturalist and materialist philosophy
will gradually gain strength and spread at the end of time, reaching
such a degree that it denies God. ... Although defeated before the
atheistic current while separate, Christianity and Islam will have
the capability to defeat and rout it as a result of their
alliance” (Nursi, Letters, s. 77-78). Half a century after Nursi,
the stage for that alliance is set.
Intellectual
Muslims, fed up with the pathological anti-Western hatred of the
radicals who defame Islam by their violent acts, are seeking the
right way to express and stand for their faith and identity in the
modern world.
Intellectual
Christians have already found that way. They encountered materialism
before we did, because it grew right in the heart of Christendom.
They have been standing against it for several decades. And recently
they have initiated a bold movement—a “wedge” as they call
it—to split the foundations of materialism.
This
“wedge” is the code name for the Intelligent Design Movement,
formed in the early 1990s by Christian scientists and intellectuals.
The leader of the movement is Phillip
E. Johnson, a prominent professor of law from the University
of California, Berkeley. During a sabbatical year in London in 1987,
Dr. Johnson read about Darwinism and noticed that Darwinian
ideologues like Richard Dawkins use deceptive arguments to sell
their unsubstantiated story. He decided to dedicate the rest of life
to unravel this sophisticated fallacy. His first book, Darwin on
Trial (1991), annoyed the Darwinist establishment terribly, but
it was just a beginning. In the following years, serious scientists
like Michael
Behe from Lehigh University, William
Dembski from Baylor University, and Paul
Nelson from the University of Chicago joined the ranks of
the movement.
Today
the movement, headed by the Discovery
Institute in Seattle and the Intelligent
Design Network in Kansas, is leading a great battle first to
free school textbooks and then the whole of society from the
Darwinist dogma and the materialist philosophy it supports.
Hundreds
of verses in the Qur’an call people to examine the natural
world and see in it the evidence of God. |
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Intelligent
Design (ID) is a term that implies creation. The universe and life
are not products of blind forces of nature, ID holds, but show
evidence that they were designed by an intelligence. The ID Movement
has deliberately chosen not to specify the identity of the Designer.
Through science you can demonstrate convincingly that there is a
designer, but you can’t go further without invoking theology.
Everybody has the right to believe in a Designer according his own
theology. What makes the movement effective is its emphasis on solid
scientific evidence.
This
non-theological nature of the ID Movement also makes it
inter-religious. Whether you are a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, or
any other kind of theist, you can identify with the movement. This
movement defines the particular paradigm of science we would like to
have, and it is science that defines society in the long run.
Muslims
should also note the great similarity between the arguments of the
Intelligent Design Movement and Islamic sources. Hundreds of verses
in the Qur’an call people to examine the natural world and see in
it the evidence of God. Great Islamic scholars like Ghazali wrote
large volumes about design in animals, plants, and the human body.
What Intelligent Design theorists like Behe or Dembski do today is
to refine the same argument with the findings of modern science.
In
short, Intelligent Design is not alien to Islam. It is very much our
cause, and we should do everything we can to support it.
A
Call for Action
Here
are a few suggestions:
If
there should be a clash in the 21st century, it should not
be between Islam and the West, but between theism and
materialism. |
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Muslim
Students: Go and learn about Intelligent Design. Learn why
Darwinism is wrong. Then raise this issue in your classrooms.
Question your biology teachers and your textbooks. Form Muslim
Student Associations and get in touch with the Intelligent Design
groups in your area. Organize lectures by ID scientists and write
under the title “The Fall of Darwinism, The Greatest Myth Ever.”
Muslim
Families: If you have children in schools, pay attention to
their biology classes. Are they being indoctrinated by the myths of
Darwinism? If so, appeal to your school board and question this
theory by appealing to the work of the ID scientists. Get help from
Christian families who support the Intelligent Design cause in your
school board.
Muslim
Intellectuals: Write and speak about this in your newspapers,
magazines, Web sites, lectures, speeches, khutbahs (sermons),
and the like. We cannot raise a Muslim generation by merely speaking
about the Islamic victories in the past; we have to do something for
today. And don’t think that Darwinism is compatible with Islam by
referring to some vague theories of limited evolution developed by
some medieval Muslims. The real issue at stake here is not whether
some organisms have a common ancestor or not. The real issue is
whether life is created by God or evolved by itself. We cannot be
neutral on this. We have to defend faith against unbelief. This is
our raison d’être, the reason why we exist.
If
Muslims get involved in this debate, they will help both themselves
and Western society. They will also see their common values
with Christians more clearly. This alliance will help counter the
doomsday calls for a “clash of civilizations.” In fact, if there
should be a clash in the 21st century, it should not be between
Islam and the West, but between theism and materialism. And since
the battlefields in this clash are labs, lecture halls, and Web
sites, it will be a much safer place for controversy.
*
Mustafa Akyol is a political scientist, journalist, and
freelance writer from Istanbul, Turkey. He has lectured on religion,
philosophy, and science in several universities in the United States
and the United Kingdom. He is director of the Intercultural
Dialogue Platform, based in Istanbul.The
writer can be reached at: akyolmst@superonline.com
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