Science Vs. Religion: Part I - General Idea About Science and Faith

The debate of Science Vs. Religion is an eternal one. Ever since Galileo Galilei suggested heliocentrism (the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around a relatively stationary Sun at the center of the Solar System) in the 15^th century a fierce battle was set between scientist and people of faith. And since then a lot have changed and science has grown and evolved to a point where an overwhelming part of it is proven and researches are still going on to help prove the rest. But still people who have faith in God find it difficult to reconcile or accept certain part of this science. In this series of post I will try to present my own understanding of how Science and Religion can and do work together. In this first post I will present my general idea and set the foundation for the rest of the series of posts.

Recently I came across a series of videos by Bill Nye the science Guy, Lawrence M. Krauss the theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Richard Dawkins the evolutionary biologist and Stephen Hawkins the theoretical physicist and cosmologist. They all were pointing out how believe in God who created everything is just nonsense unproven faith. Bill Nye said creationism isnot appropriate for children while Lawrence M. Krauss said teaching creationismis child abuse. Both stressed that while science can prove by test and observation how we got here creationism is based on blind faith. Could they be right? Did we get here by chance? Well to present my views I will first define creationism and evolution.

Creationism is the belief that the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation, such as in a literal reading of Genesis.

Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.

True while evolution can be proven through scientific methods, creationism cannot. And the idea of everything appearing one day from nowhere is rather disturbing for me. (Even though as a Muslim I know that God is capable of doing that). But also this process of evolution occur is a well-organized and calibrated manner that gives me no doubt that all is under the control of a Higher Power.

Richard Dawkins said that the faith in religion is based on no evidence at all, which is not consistent in all religions. In Islam we are taught not to believe blindly but to seek to know more about our Allah. This can be done by reading the Quran (The revealed book), the Hadiths (Prophetic traditions) or simply by observing and trying to understand the nature (Science). In various places in the Quran Allah points out things in nature and ask Muslims to observe them and reflect on their design and Designer.

Stephen Hawkins on his part said if there was one thing hewould want to know about the universe is why the universe exist, why there is something rather than nothing. He said that he did not believe in a “Human like God” and that ”..science will win because it works.” The problem here is that he thinks that God is “like” us the humans, limited by the time space continuum. In the Quran chapter 112 we learn the definition of God

Say, "He is Allah , [who is] One,

Allah , the Eternal Refuge.

He neither begets nor is born,

Nor is there to Him any equivalent."

He created everything and he need not be in it.

In conclusion I do not believe that everything just appeared suddenly, but that God, through the law of nature which he created fashioned the universe and all that which is in it and even beyond the universe, the parts that we do not know exist yet.