Similarly, evolution may explain the
fossil record, but it falls far short of explaining the quintessential essence
of human life—the soul. We all have one. We feel its presence, we speak of its
existence and at times pray for its salvation. But only the religious can explain
where it came from. The theory of natural selection
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can explain many of the material
aspects of living things, but it fails to explain the human soul.
Furthermore, anyone who studies the
complexities of life and the universe cannot help but witness the signature of
the Creator. 1 Whether or not
people recognize these signs is another matter—as the old saying goes, denial
isn’t just a river in Egypt. (Get it? Denial, spelled “de Nile” … the river Ni …
oh, never mind.) The point is that if we see a painting, we know there is a
painter. If we see a sculpture, we know there’s a sculptor; a pot, a potter. So
when we view creation, shouldn’t we know there’s a Creator? The concept that
the universe exploded and then developed in balanced perfection through random
events and natural selection is little different from the proposal that, by
dropping bombs into a junkyard, sooner or later one of them will blow
everything together into a perfect Mercedes. If there is one thing we know for
certain, it is that without a controlling influence, all systems degenerate
into chaos. The theories of the Big Bang and evolution propose the exact
opposite, however—that chaos fostered perfection. Would it not be more
reasonable to conclude that the Big Bang and evolution were controlled events?
Controlled, that is, by the Creator?
The Bedouin of Arabia tell the tale
of a nomad finding an exquisite palace at an oasis in the middle of an
otherwise barren desert. When he asks how it was built, the owner tells him it
was formed by the forces of nature. The wind shaped the rocks and blew them to
the edge of this oasis, and then tumbled them together into the shape of the
palace. Then it blew sand and rain into the cracks to cement them together.
Next, it blew strands of sheep’s wool together into rugs and tapestries, stray
wood together into furniture, doors, windowsills and trim, and positioned them
in
1 To this end, and leaving all of the
author’s religious inclinations aside, I heartily recommend reading A Short
History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson.
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the palace at just the right
locations. Lightning strikes melted sand into sheets of glass and blasted them
into the window-frames, and smelted black sand into steel and shaped it into
the fence and gate with perfect alignment and symmetry. The process took
billions of years and only happened at this one place on earth—purely through
coincidence. When we finish rolling our eyes, we get the point. Obviously, the
palace was built by design, not by happenstance. To what (or more to the point,
to Whom), then, should we attribute the origin of items of infinitely greater
complexity, such as our universe and ourselves? Another argument to dismiss the
concept of Creationism focuses upon what people perceive to be the
imperfections of creation. These are the “How can there be a God if
such-and-such happened?” arguments. The issue under discussion could be
anything from a natural disaster to birth defects, from genocide to grandma’s
cancer. That’s not the point. The point is that denying God based upon what we
perceive to be injustices of life presumes that a divine being would not have
designed our lives to be anything other than perfect, and would have
established justice on Earth. Hmm … is there no other option?
We can just as easily propose that
God did not design life on Earth to be paradise, but rather a test, the
punishment or rewards of which are to be had in the next life, which is where
God establishes His ultimate justice. In support of this concept we can well
ask who suffered more injustices in their worldly lives than God’s favorites,
which is to say the prophets? And who do we expect to occupy the highest
stations in paradise, if not those who maintain true faith in the face of
worldly adversity? So suffering in this worldly life does not necessarily
translate into God’s disfavor, and a blissful worldly life does not necessarily
translate into beatitude in the hereafter.
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I would hope that, by this line of reasoning, we can
agree upon the answer to the first “big question.” Who made us? Can we agree
that if we are creation, God is the Creator?
Source: islamhouse.com/
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