Saturday, August 06, 2005

intelligent design

On the Gene Expression blog yesterday. there were some thoughtful remarks on the whole "intelligent design" contraversy. (I didn't agree with the thrust, but the way the issues were laid out seemed useful to me).

And on Islam Online, last month there was a piece by Ahmed K. Sultan Salem called The Non-Science of Intelligent Design. Salem tries to walk the line betwteen asserting (since he is Muslim) that the universe actually does have an intelligent Designer, while still being critical of ID as a movement. Personally, I'm coming down to a similar position but I want to think about the subject a little more before inflicting my ideas on my readers...

Wikipedia on Intelligent Design and the Intelligent design movement

3 comments:

Julaybib said...

Salaams

Personally, I believe in theistic evolution, which is the thesis that Allah created this Universe and this Earth, and all life upon it. This process was accomplished over billions of historical years. Allah has commanded this process since the beginning of time, directing the unfolding of life forms through a process of evolution.

Wasalaam

The Muslim Anarchist

Abdul-Halim V. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Abdul-Halim V. said...

wasalaam,

yeah, I think something like that makes sense. I was sort of trying to find something online with some kind of reference on the subject... but I haven't come across it yet.

I found a mention of an article that Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller wrote on the subject of theistic evolution but I haven't seen the paper itself.

The other point that I wanted to get across with this whole science in religion discussion is the concept is that Islamically (at least as described by certain scholars) EVERYTHING is created and caused by God in a very direct and thorough sense, even the things which we think we see being caused by other things. So if you have a headache and take an aspirin and your headache gets better, your aspirin didn't cure you, God did. Healing doesn't come from medicine, it comes from God. It just so happens, it's his habit, his sunnah, to ease the headaches of people who take aspirin.

In fact, I remember a sermon I heard a few years ago where the khatib made the point that according to one scholar, it was a minor form of shirk to say "the fire caused the paper to burn".

Burning doesn't come from fire. If burning came from the fire, then Abraham would have been burned up. Instead what happens is that God creates fire. And God creates burning. And according to the Sunnah of Allah, he makes one of them to frequently accompany the other. But that doesn't mean that there is a necessary connection.

And so God created a world where A often follows B. But ultimately God causes both.

In Christianity (at least, nowadays) there is a belief in miracles. There is God, and there is the world. And the world has its own independent existence with its own laws. And every once in a while God pops in and goes *pop* heal a sick person *pop* send a prophet *pop* start a flood *pop* raise the dead *pop* make the Cubs win the World Series *pop*

But in Islam, at least as I understand it God never *pops* in, because he never *pops* out.

God is always in control, of every moment. No moment is more miraculous than any other moment. A miracle is just an exception of the sunnah of Allah. It's just an uncommon event.

I'm not sure how well I explained that, but the larger point (for me anyway) is that science and religion don't have to get in each other's way. God created all the life on this planet. God makes the earth go round the sun. God makes objects fall to the earth. God creates time, and space, and everything. That's the religious part. That doesn't mean we have to throw out Newton and Einstein.

God created the world, but science describes it. (And pretty well from a certain perspective)