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Scientists Confirm the Signs of God
What we have covered so far shows us that the attributes of the universe
discovered by science point to the existence of God. Science leads us
to the conclusion that the universe has a Creator and this Creator is
perfect in might, wisdom and knowledge. It is religion that shows us the
way to knowing God. It is therefore possible to say that science is a
method we use to better see and investigate the realities addressed by
religion. Nevertheless, today, some of the scientists who step forth in
the name of science take an entirely different stand. In their view, scientific
discoveries do not imply the creation of God. They have, on the contrary,
projected an atheistic understanding of science by saying that it is not
possible to reach God through scientific data: they claim that science
and religion are two clashing notions.
As a matter of fact, this atheistic understanding of science is quite
recent. Until a few centuries ago, science and religion were never thought
to clash with each other, and science was accepted as a method of proving
the existence of God. The so-called atheistic understanding of science
flourished only after the materialist and positivist philosophies swept
through the world of science in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Particularly after Charles Darwin postulated the theory of evolution
in 1859, circles holding a materialistic world view started to ideologically
defend this theory, which they looked upon as an alternative to religion.
The theory of evolution argued that the universe was not created by a
creator but came into being by chance. As a result, it was asserted that
religion was in conflict with science. The British researchers Michael
Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln wrote on this issue:
For Isaac Newton, a century and a half before Darwin,
science was not separate from religion but, on the contrary, an aspect
of religion, and ultimately subservient to it
But the science of Darwin's
time became precisely that, divorcing itself from the context in which
it had previously existed and established itself as a rival absolute,
an alternative repository of meaning. As a result, religion and science
were no longer working in concert, but rather stood opposed to each other,
and humanity was increasingly forced to choose between them.25
As we stated before, the so-called split between science and religion
was totally ideological. Some scientists, who earnestly believed in materialism,
conditioned themselves to prove that the universe had no creator and they
devised various theories in this context. The theory of evolution was
the most famous and the most important of them. In the field of astronomy
as well certain theories were developed such as the "steady-state theory"
or the "chaos theory". However, all of these theories that denied creation
were demolished by science itself, as we have clearly shown in the previous
chapters.
Today, scientists who still keep to these theories and insist on denying
all things religious, are dogmatic and bigoted people, who have conditioned
themselves not to believe in God. The famous English zoologist and evolutionist
D.M.S. Watson confesses to this dogmatism as he explains why he and his
colleagues accept the theory of evolution:
If so, it will present a parallel to the theory of
evolution itself, a theory universally accepted, not because it can be
proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only
alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.26
What Watson means by "special creation" is God's creation. As acknowledged,
this scientist finds this "unacceptable". But why? Is it because science
says so? Actually it does not. On the contrary, science proves the truth
of creation. The only reason why Watson looks upon this fact as unacceptable
is because he has conditioned himself to deny the existence of God. All
other evolutionists take the same stand.
Evolutionists rely not on science but on materialist philosophy and they
distort science to make it agree with this philosophy. A geneticist and
an outspoken evolutionist from Harvard University, Richard Lewontin, confesses
to this truth:
It is not that the methods and institutions of science
somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world,
but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to
material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts
that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no
matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is
absolute, so we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.27
On the other hand, today, just as in history, there are, as opposed to
this dogmatic materialist group, scientists who confirm God's existence,
and regard science as a way of knowing Him. Some trends developing in
the USA such as "Creationism" or "Intelligent Design" prove by scientific
evidence that all living things were created by God.
This shows us that science and religion are not conflicting sources of
information, but that, on the contrary, science is a method that verifies
the absolute truths provided by religion. The clash between religion and
science can only hold true for certain religions that incorporate some
superstitious elements as well as divine sources. However, this is certainly
out of the question for Islam, which relies only on the pure revelation
of God. Moreover, Islam particularly advocates scientific enquiry, and
announces that probing the universe is a method to explore the creation
of God. The following verse of the Qur'an addresses this issue;
Do they not look at the sky above them? How We
have built it and adorned it, and there are no rifts therein? And the
earth - We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm,
and caused it to bring forth plants of beauteous kinds (in pairs). And
We send down from the sky blessed water whereby We give growth unto gardens
and the grain of crops. And tall palm-trees, with shoots of fruit-stalks,
piled one over another. (The Qur'an, 50:6-7, 9-10)
As the above verses imply, the Qur'an always urges people to think, to
reason and to explore everything in the world in which they live. This
is because science supports religion, saves the individual from ignorance,
and causes him to think more consciously; it opens wide one's world of
thought and helps one grasp the signs of God self-evident in the universe.
Prominent German physicist Max Planck said:
Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific
work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple
of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality
which the scientist cannot dispense with.28
All the issues we have treated so far simply put it that the existence
of the universe and all living things cannot be explained by coincidences.
Many scientists who have left their mark on the world of science have
confirmed, and still confirm this great reality. The more people learn
about the universe, the higher does their admiration for its flawless
order become. Every newly-discovered detail supports creation in an unquestionable
way.
The great majority of modern physicists accept the fact of creation as
we set foot in the 21st century. David Darling, astronomer and author,
says:
There were no landmarks here. No galaxies, no stars.
Only a heartbeat ago the universe itself began in the most titanic of
explosions, an explosion in which all the matter and energy there would
ever be spontaneously appeared and was borne swiftly out upon the stretching
fabric of space. One second old was the universe, and it was filled exclusively
with the steaming, fertile brew of creation.29
Besides, it is already known that almost all the founders of diverse
scientific branches believed in God and His divine books. The greatest
physicists in history, Newton, Faraday, Kelvin and Maxwell are a few examples
of such scientists.
German physicist Max Planck |
Sir Isaac Newton |
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In the time of Isaac Newton, the great physicist, scientists believed
that the movements of the heavenly bodies and planets could be explained
by different laws. Nevertheless, Newton believed that the creator of earth
and space was the same, and therefore they had to be explained by the
same laws. He wrote:
This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and
comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent
and powerful Being. 30
As is evident, thousands of scientists who have been doing research in
the fields of physics, mathematics, and astronomy since the Middle Ages
all agree on the idea that the universe is created by a single Creator
and always focus on the same point. The founder of physical astronomy,
Johannes Kepler, stated his strong belief in God in one of his books in
which he wrote:
Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God
in regard to the book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful, not of
the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God.31
The great physicist, William Thompson (Lord Kelvin),
who founded thermodynamics, was a Christian who believed in God. He had
strongly opposed Darwin's theory of evolution and totally rejected it.
He explained shortly before his death that "With regard to the origin
of life, science
positively affirms creative power."32
One of the professors of physics at Oxford University, Robert Matthews,
states the same fact in his book published in 1992 where he explains that
DNA molecules were created by God:
The whole process normally takes place in perfect harmony,
producing a foetus, then a living baby, a child and finally an adult.
Like so much in biology, the whole process is seemingly miraculous. How
can such stunning complexity be produced from such simple beginnings?
How, in short, does a single cell far smaller than the dot of this letter
"i" produce a sentient being? Many of the processes involved remain mysterious,
and constitute one of the most fascinating of all the Outstanding Mysteries.33
Some other scientists who admit that the universe is created by a Creator
and who are known by their cited attributes are:
Robert Boyle (the father of modern chemistry)
Iona William Petty (known for his studies
on statistics and modern economy)
Michael Faraday (one of the greatest physicists
of all times)
Gregory Mendel (the father of genetics;
he invalidated Darwinism with his discoveries in the science of genetics)
Louis Pasteur (the greatest name in bacteriology;
he declared war on Darwinism)
John Dalton (the father of atomic theory)
Blaise Pascal (one of the most important
mathematicians)
John Ray (the most important name in British
natural history)
Nicolaus Steno (a famous stratiographer
who investigated earth layers)
Carolus Linnaeus (the father of biological
classification)
Georges Cuvier (the founder of comparative
anatomy)
Matthew Maury (the founder of oceanography)
Thomas Anderson (one the pioneers in the
field of organic chemistry)
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