By Zia H Shah MD Source / Courtesy: Alislam-eGazette After centuries of research, technology has created solar panels. The plant kingdom has been converting solar energy into chemical energy in a much more aesthetic manner. The plants are not only solar panels but are also self generating solar panel factories and much more! They are […]
Source / Courtesy: Muslim Sunrise, Fall 2011 Zia H Shah MD and Sardar Anees Ahmad Determinism A deist believes God created the universe, but rejects the notion of a Personal God – a God who answers prayers or intervenes in human affairs. Many deists are strict determinist, believing that causality governs the entire universe. Albert […]
So said Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community “The God of Islam is the same God Who is visible in the reflection of the laws of nature and is discernible in the book of nature. Islam has not presented a new God but has presented the same God Who is presented […]
George Santayana is well known for the saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we have to follow his advice there are three names we cannot forget, Andrew Dickson White, Joseph Priestly and John William Draper. All three of them wonderfully exposed the vulnerabilities of Christianity in general and […]
George Santayana is well known for the saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we have to follow his advice there are three names we cannot forget, Andrew Dickson White, Joseph Priestly and John William Draper. All three of them wonderfully exposed the vulnerabilities of Christianity in general and Catholic Church […]
George Santayana is well known for the saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we have to follow his advice there are three names we cannot forget, Andrew Dickson White, Joseph Priestly and John William Draper. All three of them wonderfully exposed the vulnerabilities of Christianity in general and Catholic Church […]
Source / Courtesy: This popular collection of articles was first made in Google-knol. It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral […]
This popular Google-knol was first written in March of 2010 Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed natural means to do His work. However, both parties in their […]
Abstract First published in 1802, Natural Theology was written by William Paley in defense of the teleological argument. His opening statement sets this stage by supposing that if he found a watch upon the ground, then examined its parts, he would necessarily conclude that it was designed for a purpose. His watchmaker analogy is still […]
Mark Twain said, “It took a brave man before the Civil War to confess he had read the Age of Reason … I read it first when I was a cub pilot, read it with fear and hesitation, but marveling at its fearlessness and wonderful power.” In 18th century Thomas Paine was a believer and […]
This popular Google knol was first written soon after the publication of Hawking’s book, the Grand Design. First a few words about the big picture. Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of […]
Deism (pronounced /ˈdiːɪzəm/, us dict: dē′·ĭzm) is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without the need for either faith or organized religion. President Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin were popular proponents of […]
This article starts with a chapter of a book ‘Deliverance from the Cross’ by Sir Zafrulla Khan. It also includes the article on this topic from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and much more. If the Catholic Church believes that it is not the real thing then why hang on to it so fiercely, let the […]
This article was originally published in Fall volume of 2009 of the Muslim Sunrise the oldest Muslim publication in North America.
This volume has several articles on co-relation of religion and science. The Holy Quran says: Ask them, ‘Have you considered, if this Quran is from Allah but you disbelieve in it — who is more astray than one who has drifted away from the Truth?’ Soon We will show them Our Signs in the universe […]
This is an article describing the Transcendent, yet Personal God of the Abrahamic Faiths in the present day scientific paradigm, the One God of Islam, Unitarian Christianity and Judaism. If my articles are boring to you, it may be that you need to read more of them, as was suggested by John Cage, “If something […]
Revelation has had a very large role to play in human history. The evidence not only comes from religion but also science. This article was originally published in June, 2007 volume of Ahmadiyya Gazette USA. Let me first introduce the subject of revelation in language and examples that are more familiar to my Western readers. […]
This popular Google-knol was first written by me in December of 2009. Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed natural means to do His work. However, both parties […]
In Matt. 17 Jesus, on whom be peace, gives recipe for casting out the demons: When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I […]
This article was originally published in Fall volume of 2009 of the Muslim Sunrise the oldest Muslim publication in North America. Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed […]
Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed natural means to do His work. However, both parties in their self-conceit are not listening to how Islam resolves their conflict; […]
A great number of those who grew up under Christianity are living under a broken cross and taking on agnostic or atheistic point of view. Unfortunately, given the Islamophobia in the West, they never pause to think, if they have the wrong version of religion, poorly collected scripture and faulty presentation of Monotheism, leading to a shabby […]
Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed natural means to do His work. However, both parties in their self-conceit are not listening to how Islam resolves their conflict; […]
Since my visits to Hawaii islands and Bermuda, starting in 2004, I have become a staunch believer in evolution, by which I mean common descent of all living beings on the planet earth.
The two main proofs for the theory of evolution are molecular biology and biogeography. We do not have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate biogeography, if we look through the smoke screens and bragging rights, the arguments are fairly straight forward. Bigeography basically means studying which animals and plants are native to which areas, especially islands. Sir Charles Darwin wrote in his famous book, On the Origin of Species, about biogeography and Bermuda:
“Though terrestrial mammals do not occur on oceanic islands, aërial mammals do occur on almost every island. New Zealand possesses two bats found nowhere else in the world: Norfolk Island, the Viti Archipelago, the Bonin Islands, the Caroline and Marianne Archipelagoes, and Mauritius, all possess their peculiar bats. Why, it may be asked, has the supposed creative force produced bats and no other mammals on remote islands? On my view this question can easily be answered; for no terrestrial mammal can be transported across a wide space of sea, but bats can fly across. Bats have been seen wandering by day far over the Atlantic Ocean; and two North American species either regularly or occasionally visit Bermuda, at the distance of 600 miles from the mainland. I hear from Mr. Tomes, who has specially studied this family, that many of the same species have enormous ranges, and are found on continents and on far distant islands. Hence we have only to suppose that such wandering species have been modified through natural selection in their new homes in relation to their new position, and we can understand the presence of endemic bats on islands, with the absence of all terrestrial mammals.”
These observations alone by Darwin prove the common descent. However, the theory of evolution should be understood as three different issues. Firstly, the common heritage of all animals and plants, secondly, the mechanisms for evolution and thirdly whether evolution is completely blind or guided in some sense. The truth of some facts in evolution does not imply the truth of every thing under the umbrella of evolution. One needs to have a nuance position about evolution to be perfectly enlightened. The implications that common lineage has for the Creator or lack there of, is metaphysics and not science, as the God of Islam and Judaism and God the Father of Trinitarian Christianity is Transcendent and beyond time space and matter and cannot be studied directly in a scientific paradigm!
Incidentally, evolution also exposes the vulnerabilities of Christianity. For other details about theory of evolution and Christianity, see my other knols and articles on molecular biology and Original Sin. Please see the comment section for links.
Source / Courtesy: CNN and Muslim Sunrise Scientists studying universe’s expansion win Nobel Prize in Physics CNN) — Two scientists from the United States and one from Australia have won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday. Half of the award went to Saul Perlmutter from Lawrence Berkeley National […]
Is the West ready for Islam? 