DARWINIST-MATERIALIST MISCONCEPTIONS

ABOUT THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT

With the announcement of the latest point arrived at in the Human Genome Project, some publishing organs have started to deliver misleading messages and misinform the public, so that the impasse the theory of evolution has reached may not be further revealed.

Earlier, we mentioned the misleading messages evolutionists gave about "genetic similarities" and made it clear that these are subjective interpretations which do not provide any evidence for the theory of evolution. Another subject, which is mostly promoted and highlighted with different slogans and headlines by the Darwinist-Materialist press, is the claim that the discovery of the gene map suggests that the fate decreed by God can be challenged. This is a great misconception and deception put forward by certain circles. The headlines recently appearing in the printed press and statements made in the course of discussions on television programs give the impression of a stealthy indoctrination. It is a great mistake to present the information on the human genome project accompanied by messages like "Man will no longer be defeated by his destiny." For in truth, the mapping of the human genes has no relevance whatsoever to the flow of man's fate. The production of the human gene map will certainly not change the shape of man's destiny, because that too has been pre-destined.

The Flow of Fate Cannot be Changed

Destiny is God's perfect knowledge of all events, past or future, as a single moment. God already knows events that have not yet been experienced. A large number of people do not understand how God can know what will happen in the future, in other words the reality of destiny. However, "events not yet experienced" are only so for us. All those events, the results of which we describe as "unknown," are only "unknown" to us. God, who possesses infinite knowledge, is not bound by time and space. In any case, it was He who created time and space. For this reason, past, future, and present are all the same to God; for Him everything has already taken place and finished. Everything that we are experiencing now, and will experience in the future, is already over and done with in the sight of God. At the appropriate time, all people witness the destiny that God has prepared for them.

In the same way that someone who picks up a film spool can see the beginning, the end and everything in between as a single whole, so God knows everything about the human beings He has created. God, who knows everything as a single instant, reveals His power to us by creating infinity, or infinitely long time, in a single moment, that is, in infinitely short time.

God created all people past and present in the knowledge of every detail of their lives. Everything that a person will experience, that seems good or bad to him, happens within the knowledge of God. The Sura An'am reveals that everything that happens in the world, be it great or small, happens by the will of God:

The keys of the Unseen are in His possession. No one knows them but Him. He knows everything on the land and in the sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it. There is no seed in the darkness of the earth, and nothing moist or dry which is not in a Clear Book. (Qur'an, 6:59)

This is true for everyone and every event. It is neither possible for anyone to alter the destiny that God has prepared for him, nor to bring about any change in the flow of events. For instance, God has created everyone with a certain lifetime and everyone's moment of death is determined as to its location, time and form in the sight of God. For instance, a disease a person will suffer from has been predestined billions of years ago before his birth. Whether or not he will recover from that sickness has been decided in his fate by God. Even the doctors, nurses, hospital, medicines and methods of treatment that will be the vehicles for his recovery have been written in advance in the sight of God. For that reason, the fact that someone recovers does not mean he has cheated his fate, but that his recovery was part of that same fate.

If, in the years to come, someone's lifetime is extended with timely interventions in the genes, this would not mean that this event defeated that person's destiny. It simply means the following: God gave this man a long life and He made the completion of gene mapping a means for his life to be long. The discovery of the gene map, that person's living in that period and that person's life being extended by scientific means are all his destiny. All is determined in the sight of God before this person is born into the world.

Similarly, someone whose fatal sickness is cured through the discoveries made within the scope of this project has again not changed his destiny. That is because it is this person's destiny to recover from this illness by means of this project. Consequently, completion of the human genome project and the fact that man will be able to intervene in the genetic make-up, do not mean confronting the destiny created by God. On the contrary, in this way, mankind follows the developments created for it by God, and explores and benefits from the information created by God. If man lives 120 years thanks to these scientific developments, this is surely a lifetime decreed for him by God, that is why he lives so long.

God reveals in one verse that every person's life is set out in a book in His sight:

God created you from dust and then from a drop of sperm and then made you into pairs. No female becomes pregnant or gives birth except with His knowledge. And no living thing lives long or has its life cut short without that being in a Book. That is easy for God. (Qur'an, 35:11)

A student who fails university entrance exams for years before getting in to the department he wants, a businessman who saves his company from bankruptcy, people who escape a plane hijacking at the last moment, and others doing similar things are all living out their destinies. None of them can change that destiny, nor does anyone else have the power to change their destiny for them.

In brief, utterances like "I cheated my fate," "I changed my destiny" or "I intervened in my destiny" are the consequence of ignorance caused by not knowing the facts about fate. On the other hand, a person's using these expressions is also predestined; how, when and under which conditions he will make these statements are all determined in the sight of God. It is God who knows all.

God informed us that everything is recorded in a clear book in His sight. We live what is written in that book, no more and no less.

Those who disbelieve say, "The Hour will never come." Say: "Yes, by my Lord, it certainly will come!" He is the Knower of the Unseen, whom not even the weight of the smallest particle eludes, either in the heavens or in the earth; nor is there anything smaller or larger than that which is not recorded in a Clear Book. (Qur'an, 34:3)

Nothing occurs, either in the earth or in yourselves, without its being in a Book before We make it happen. That is something easy for God. (Qur'an, 57:22)

Cloning a Human Being or Any Other Living Being is Not Creating

In some publications, it has been alleged that by the advancement of the science of genetics, human beings would be cloned and therefore, human beings would create human beings. This, too, is a very distorted and farfetched piece of logic. Creating means to bring something into being from nothingness, and this act is peculiar to God alone. The formation of the identical copy of a living being by copying genetic information does not mean that this living being has been created. When a man or any other living being is cloned, the cells of a living being are taken and copied. However, never has a single living cell been created from nothingness by man. The research conducted on this subject has been stopped: it was all inconclusive.

Consequently, the discovery of the human genetic make-up by no means implies man's challenge to his destiny, and it never can. Every incident, every act of speech and development are all predetermined in the sight of God according to a certain destiny. So are technological advances, scientific developments and the innovations they will introduce. God is All-Knowing, and All-Encompassing. The fact that everything, big or small, takes places within the knowledge of God is stated in the Qur'an as follows:

You do not engage in any matter or recite any of the Qur'an or do any action without Our witnessing you while you are occupied with it. Not even the smallest speck eludes your Lord, either on earth or in heaven. Nor is there anything smaller than that, or larger, which is not in a Clear Book. (Qur'an, 10:61)