Re: Islam and Apostasy
Hi Sharvy,
Similarly, justifiably claiming to "know" that God doesn't exist does not imply absolute certainty - and my colleague - let's call him Salim - would not claim such certainty.
Right. But the problem here is that you are claiming that Salim had
certainty of Islam and its veracity and then something so dramatic happened to him that he spun around completely to the complete rejection of God, believing His existence to be unlikely.
You ask "why" Salim became an atheist. I know his mind well on this matter, both from his writings, but also his lectures and personal discussions. He would say it was because he developed a much deeper understanding of science, evidence, and explanation than he had living in Egypt.
Then if he found conflict between science and religion then I would definitely question his religious understanding. There are millions of well-educated Muslims in the west who have a sound grasp of various branches of empirical science, it's not all Muslims are ignorant people living in third-world countries. I live in the west, am well acuainted with scientific theory and yet I find no conflict between that and my religion. But a Muslim who does not know their religion very well might. And that is why such individuals should rely on scholars and go to them to seek clarification on the issues concerning which they have doubts.
For example, at the time he moved to the US, he was convinced that Darwin's theory of evolution was flawed and not good science. But after studying the issue in great detail, he became convinced that it was good science - and strongly supported by the evidence.
First, Evolution theory itself is an extrapolation based on the observations we have gathered. And contrary to the prevalent perception, scientific theories are not at all concerned or formulated in the search for truth; they are utilized on the basis of their ability to provide the most parsimonious explanation for observable phenomena. And when one analyzes the premise of the theory we find the same basic assumptions. For example, orientalists will say that based on the similarities between Islamic practices and what some of the pagan arabs did, they theorise that Muhammad pbuh simply borrowed pagan traditions. Muslims point out that one need only look at the facts the other way, in that these practices were revealed by God to Prophet Abraham and passed down through the arabs; Muhammad pbuh confirmed some of the arab practices and clarified their divine origin, while rejecting those that were innovations. So the same basic facts can be analysed in multiple ways, and that is true with any theory in science.
Secondly, the foundation of biological evolution is not in any way conflicting with Islam. To quote the Fatwa committee of Shaykh Abdul-Wahhab At-Turayri:
Therefore, with respect to other living things, the Qur’ân and Sunnah neither confirm nor deny the theory of biological evolution or the process referred to as natural selection. The question of evolution remains purely a matter of scientific enquiry. The theory of evolution must stand or fall on its own scientific merits – and that means the physical evidence that either confirms the theory or conflicts with it.
The role of science is only to observe and describe the patterns that Allah places in His creation. If scientific observation shows a pattern in the evolution of species over time that can be described as natural selection, this is not in itself unbelief. It is only unbelief for a person to think that this evolution took place on its own, and not as a creation of Allah. A Muslim who accepts evolution or natural selection as a valid scientific theory must know that the theory is merely an explanation of one of the many observed patterns in Allah’s creation.
As for the fossil remains of bipedal apes and the tools and artifacts associated with those remains, their existence poses no problem for Islamic teachings. There is nothing in the Qur’ân and Sunnah that either affirms or denies that upright, brainy, tool using apes ever existed or evolved from other apelike ancestors. Such animals may very well have existed on Earth before Adam’s arrival upon it. All we can draw from the Qur’ân and Sunnah is that even if those animals once existed, they were not the forefathers of Adam (peace be upon him). (
SOURCE)
But Salim became convinced that as the evidence piled in over the past 150 years, it is not reasonable to suppose that the human eye was deliberately designed by some supernatural deity.
Then Salim should be kindly reminded about some basic facts concerning the scientific method, and perhaps the example of the Newton's (d.1727) corpuscular theory of light which remained the dominant theory amongst the scientific community for over a century (chiefly because of his intelelctual status). However, due to discoveries in the early 19th century, Huygens' (d. 1695) wave theory was revived, and soon became widely accepted. Finally, quantum mechanics caused us to return to both theories and today we affirm a particle-wave duality of light.
Coming to the specific mention of the eye, I think it is worth noting the example of
Dr. Laurence Brown MD, an american ophthalmologist, who converted from atheism to Islam. Did he willingly embrace illogical beliefs about a field he had spent his life studying?
Salim sees a clear pattern in the history of human knowledge: in the past, things and phenomena that humans couldn't explain by a natural means were assigned a supernatural explanation: lightening, disease, famine, even the rising and setting of the sun.
Salim seems to forget the distinction between cause and mechanism and again the goals and intent of scientific methodology. Saying that God causes the rotation of the earth explains the cause but not the mechanism. Analyzing the centripetal force on the earth, the angular momentum, and so on is an investigation into the mechanism. Religion has never explained the mechanism, at least not in Islam, but rather explains that God is behind the mechanisms which govern our universe.
When science deals with one "gap" in our knowledge, to support their belief in God, the theists move on to a gap that science has yet to adequately explain to their satisfaction.
In addition to what I've said above, I'd like to also point out that science is not a living entity which researchs and theorises on its own. It is the scientific community which does that, comprised of individuals like you and me; human beings subject to the same societal influences and pressures as anyone else. For example, homosexuality was always classified by the scientific community as a psychological disorder until recent times when it was replaced by homophobia!
Islam does not relegate God to the yet unexplained phenomena in our universe, or 'gaps' as you call them. On the contrary, Islam points out that God is the Creator behind these mechanisms and it is He who has ordered the universe as it is. You can provide reasonable scientific explanations for almost all phenomena based on the four fundamental forces we know of, but you still haven't answered what the source, cause or origin of these forces is, or what exactly they signify. You can postulate several laws about the transfer and conservation of energy in our universe, the unchangeable decrease in order and increase in entropy, without even arriving at the question of who infused our universe with this energy and order in the first place.
If, without any evidence, someone claims that there is a very large pot of gold buried 30 meters in the ground at a specific spot outside my front door - I recognize that the claim is *possibly* true, but nevertheless won't believe it and won't waste time and resources digging the hole.
This is an issue I have argued in great detail with atheists on; see the following posts for my debate on sufficient basis for the denial of God:
Ansar Al-'Adl
czgibson
Ansar Al-'Adl
czgibson
Ansar Al-'Adl
Root
czgibson
Ansar Al-'Adl
HeiGou
Ansar Al-'Adl
Within the context of the present discussion, I would just point out that 1. the entity in your example is inconsequential to your life and 2. in your example, Salim was
already convinced and absolutely certain of the pot's existence and had been undergoing
years of massive preparations and plans to uncover it, when suddenly he just abandoned it all and decided not to bother.
So the error that Salim finds is not a contradiction, but rather more historical in nature: He thinks that the evidence of science and history makes it probably false that the Prophet communicated with God and really was a prophet.
See the following posts for my arguments for why Muhammad pbuh
must have been the Messenger of God:
http://www.islamicboard.com/193795-post26.html
http://www.islamicboard.com/176538-post11.html
Let's further suppose that while in error and not properly educated, this hoax proponent left Islam because he sincerely believed it was a hoax. Surely you agree, that would count as a case of leaving Islam, "because they *felt* there was a flaw" (in your words), right?
Yes it would be, but look at what I said in the same sentence as the above, and what you have yourself admitted as highlighted in bold - education. Of course it is entirely possible for someone to hold an erroneous belief concerning Islam and consequently loose their faith - but this is only reflective of their own ignorance of the religion, hence my point about educated Muslims. It is foolishness for someone to leave themselves to their spiritual struggles without consulting knowledgeable scholars who can clarify their misconceptions and remove their doubts. So I maintain that in the entire history of Islam, in stark contrast from the history of other religions, those who have left the religion have done so either for sociopolitical reasons, or due to their own ignorance. Never has a well-educated devout Muslim lost the path, because once true
eemaan enters the heart it never leaves.
This discussion has started to branch off into many other discussions related to philosophy and science, and even Prophethood - so I would suggest that if you wish to pursue some of those lines of discussion, we can continue this in an alternative thread and leave this thread as an explication of the Islamic law relating to apostasy.
Regards
