Chapter 1
THE FALL OF ATHEISM AND THE RISE OF FAITH
Before looking at Islam's world-wide growth,
we must examine another critical development: the collapse of atheism
and the rise of faith. Almost everyone who has studied human history,
particularly its philosophical and social aspects, will agree that the
nineteenth century was an important period, for it was during those years
that the first steps were taken toward the future spiritual collapse.
Its most important characteristic was the growth of atheism (i.e., rejecting
God's Existence) as opposed to theistic beliefs and religion, which had
been generally dominant in the world until then.
Although atheism has existed from ancient times, the rise of this idea
actually began in eighteenth-century Europe, with the spread and political
effect of the philosophy of some anti-religious thinkers. Materialists
such as Denis Diderot (1713-84) and Baron d'Holbach (1723-89) proposed
that the universe was a conglomeration of matter that had existed forever
and that only matter existed. In the nineteenth century, atheism spread
even further afield. Such thinkers as Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72), Karl
Marx (1818-83), Friedrich Engels (1820-95), Friedrich Nietzsche (1884-1900),
Emile Durkheim (1859-1917), and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) applied atheist
thinking to different fields of science and philosophy.
The greatest support for atheism came from Charles Darwin (1809-82),
who rejected the idea of creation and proposed the theory of evolution,
which gave a supposedly scientific answer to the question that had baffled
atheists for centuries: How did human beings and living things come to
be?
This theory convinced a great many people that there was a mechanism
in nature that animated lifeless matter and produced millions of different
living species from it.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, atheists formulated a worldview
that "explained" everything: The universe had not been created, for it
had no beginning and had existed forever. They claimed that it had no
purpose, that its order and balance were the result of chance, and that
Darwin's theory of evolution explained how human beings and other living
things came into being. They believed that Marx and Durkheim had explained
history and sociology, and that Freud had explained psychology on the
basis of atheist assumptions. However, twentieth-century scientific, political,
and social developments disproved these views, for ongoing discoveries
in astronomy, biology, psychology, and social sciences nullified the bases
of atheist suppositions.
  
Karl Marx (1818-83), Emile Durkheim (1858-1917),
and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) applied atheist thought to different
fields of science and philosophy and caused this view to be disseminated. |
In his book God: The Evidence, The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason
in a Postsecular World, American scholar Patrick Glynn of the George
Washington University writes:
Scientific, social, and political developments
in the twentieth century caused atheism to collapse. Patrick Glynn
deals with this process in his book God: The Evidence. |
The past two decades of research have overturned nearly all the important
assumptions and predictions of an earlier generation of modern secular
and atheist thinkers relating to the issue of God. Modern thinkers assumed
that science would reveal the universe to be ever more random and mechanical;
instead it has discovered unexpected new layers of intricate order that
bespeak an almost unimaginably vast master design. Modern psychologists
predicted that religion would be exposed as a neurosis and outgrown; instead,
religious commitment has been shown empirically to be a vital component
of basic mental health…
Few people seem to realize this, but by now it should
be clear: Over the course of a century in the great debate between science
and faith, the tables have completely turned. In the wake of Darwin, atheists
and agnostics like [Thomas Henry] Huxley [1825-95] and [Bertrand] Russell
[1872-1970] could point to what appeared to be a solid body of testable
theory purportedly showing life to be accidental and the universe radically
contingent. Many scientists and intellectuals continue to cleave to this
worldview. But they are increasingly pressed to almost absurd lengths
to defend it. Today the concrete data point strongly in the direction
of the God hypothesis.2
Science, which has been presented as the pillar of atheist/materialist
philosophy, turns out to be just the opposite. As another writer puts
it: "The strict materialism that excludes all purpose, choice, and spirituality
from the world simply cannot account for the data pouring in from labs
and observatories."3
In short, atheism suffered a sudden collapse in the last quarter of the
twentieth century at the hands of the very scientific and sociological
concepts from which its adherents had hoped to receive the most support.
In this chapter, we will look at its collapse in the areas of cosmology,
biology, psychology, medicine, and sociology; later sections will discuss
how this has prepared the foundation for Islam's rise.
Cosmology: The Collapse of the Concept of An Eternal
Universe
and the Discovery of Creation
The first blow to atheism from twentieth-century science was in the field
of cosmology. The idea that the universe had existed forever was discounted,
for scientists discovered that it had a beginning. In other words, they
proved scientifically that the universe had been created from nothing.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804; above) proposed
that the universe was eternal, a claim that is strongly defended
by materialists. |
This idea of an eternal universe came to the Western world, along with
materialist philosophy, from classical Greek civilization. It stated that
only matter exists, and that the universe comes from eternity and goes
to eternity. In the Middle Ages, when the Catholic church dominated Western
thought, materialism was forgotten. However, in the modern period Western
scientists and philosophers became consumed with curiosity about these
classical Greek origins and revived an interest in materialism.
The first person to propose a materialist understanding of the universe
was the renowned German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), even though
he was not a materialist in the philosophical sense of the word. Kant
proposed that the universe was eternal and that every possibility could
be realized only within this eternity. With the coming of the nineteenth
century, it became widely accepted that the universe had no beginning
and that there had been no moment of creation. Adopted passionately by
such dialectical materialists as Marx and Engels, this idea found its
way into the twentieth century.
This idea has always been compatible with atheism, for
accepting that the universe had a beginning would mean that God had created
it. Thus the only way to counter this idea was to claim that the universe
was eternal, even though science did not support such a claim. Georges
Politzer (1903-42), a dogged proponent of this claim, became widely known
as a supporter of materialism and Marxism in the first half of the twentieth
century through his book Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie
(The Fundamental Principles of Philosophy). Assuming the "eternal universe"
model to be valid, he opposed the idea of creation:
The universe was not a created object. If it were, then it would have
to be created instantaneously by God and brought into existence from nothing.
To admit creation, one has to admit, in the first place, the existence
of a moment when the universe did not exist, and that something came out
of nothingness. This is something to which science cannot accede.4
In the picture above we see Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels (1820-95) at an 1847 meeting in London defending
their atheist views. |
By supporting the idea of an eternal universe, Politzer thought that
science was on his side. However, very soon thereafter, the fact that
he had alluded to by saying "if it is so, we must accept the existence
of a creator," that is, that the universe had a beginning, was proven.
This proof came as a result of the "Big Bang" theory, perhaps the most
important concept of twentieth-century astronomy.
The Big Bang theory was formulated after a series of discoveries. In
1929, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) noticed that the
galaxies were continually moving away from each other and that the universe
was expanding. If the flow of time in an expanding universe were reversed,
the whole universe must have come from a single point. While assessing
the validity of Hubble's discovery, astronomers were faced with the fact
that this single point was a "metaphysical" state of reality in which
there was an infinite gravitational attraction with no mass. Matter and
time came into being through the explosion of this mass-less point. In
other words, the universe was created from nothing.
On the one hand, some die-hard materialist astronomers
have tried to resist the Big Bang theory and maintain the idea of an eternal
universe. Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), a renowned materialist physicist,
summed up their view quite well when he said: "Philosophically, the notion
of an abrupt beginning to the present order of Nature is repugnant to
me."5 Despite this repugnance, however, the Big Bang
theory continues to be corroborated by concrete scientific discoveries.
In their observations made in the 1960s, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
detected radioactive remains of the explosion (cosmic background radiation).
These observations were verified in the 1990s by the COBE (Cosmic Background
Explorer) satellite.
The materialists' claim that the "universe
is eternal" was disproved by Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) discovery
that the universe began from one point as the result of a great
explosion. |
Confronted with all of these facts, atheists have been squeezed into
a corner. Anthony Flew, an atheist professor of philosophy at the University
of Reading and author of Atheistic Humanism, makes this interesting confession:
Notoriously, confession is good for the soul. I will
therefore begin by confessing that the Stratonician atheist has to be
embarrassed by the contemporary cosmological consensus. For it seems that
the cosmologists are providing a scientific proof of what St. Thomas contended
could not be proved philosophically; namely, that the universe had a beginning.
So long as the universe can be comfortably thought of as being not only
without end but also without beginning, it remains easy to urge that its
brute existence, and whatever are found to be its most fundamental features,
should be accepted as the explanatory ultimates. Although I believe that
it remains still correct, it certainly is neither easy nor comfortable
to maintain this position in the face of the Big Bang story.6
An example of the atheists' reaction to the Big Bang
theory is seen in a 1989 article by John Maddox, editor of Nature,
one of the best-known materialist-scientific journals. In his article,
entitled "Down with the Big Bang," Maddox wrote that the Big Bang is "philosophically
unacceptable," because "creationists and those of similar persuasions
… have ample justification in the doctrine of the Big Bang." He also predicted
that it "is unlikely to survive the decade ahead."7
However, despite Maddox' hopes, the Big Bang theory continues to gain
credence, and new discoveries continue to prove that the universe was
created.
Some materialists have a relatively logical view of this issue. For example,
the English materialist physicist H. P. Lipton "unwillingly" accepts the
scientific fact of creation. He writes:
I think … that we must … admit that the only acceptable
explanation is creation. I know that this is anathema to physicists, as
indeed it is to me, but we must not reject a theory that we do not like
if the experimental evidence supports it.8
Thus, modern astronomy proves and states that time and matter were brought
into being by an eternally powerful Creator, Who is independent of both
of them. The eternal power that created the universe in which we live
is God, the possessor of infinite might, knowledge, and wisdom.
Physics and Astronomy: The Collapse of the Idea of A
Random Universe
and the Discovery of the Anthropic Principle
A second atheist dogma rendered invalid by twentieth-century discoveries
in astronomy is the idea of a random universe. The view that all matter
in the universe, the heavenly bodies, and the laws that determine the
relationships among them is no more than the purposeless result of chance
has been undermined dramatically.
For the first time since the 1970s, scientists have begun to recognize
that the universe's physical balance is adjusted delicately in favor of
human life. Advances in research have enabled scientists to discover that
the universe's physical, chemical, and biological laws, as well as such
basic forces as gravity and electro-magnetism and even the very structures
of atoms and elements, are all ordered exactly as they have to be for
human life. Western scientists have called this extraordinary design the
"anthropic principle": Every aspect of the universe is designed with a
view to human life.
We may summarize its basic characteristics as follows:
- The speed of the universe's first expansion (the force of the Big
Bang explosion) was exactly the velocity that it had to be. According
to scientists' calculations, if the expansion rate had differed from
its actual value by more than one part in a billion billion, the universe
either would have recollapsed before reaching its present size or splattered
in every direction in a manner that it could never be reunited. In other
words, even at the first moment of its existence there was a fine calculation
of the accuracy of a billion billionth.
- The universe's four physical forces (i.e., gravitational force, weak
nuclear force, strong nuclear force, and electromagnetic force) are
all at the necessary levels for an ordered universe to emerge and for
life to exist. Even the tiniest variations in these forces (e.g., one
in 1039 or one in 1028; that is-crudely calculated-one in a billion
billion billion billion), the universe either would be composed only
of radiation or of hydrogen.
- Many other delicate adjustments make Earth ideal for human life:
the size of the Sun, its distance from Earth, water's unique physical
and chemical properties, the wavelength of the sun's rays, the way that
Earth's atmosphere contains the gases necessary for respiration, and
Earth's magnetic field being ideally suited to human life. (For more
information on this topic, see Harun Yahya's The
Creation of the Universe, Al-Attique Publishers: 2001)
In his book, The Symbiotic Universe, George
Greenstein gives examples of the flawless design in the universe. |
This delicate balance is among the most striking discoveries
of modern astrophysics. Paul Davies, the well-known astronomer, writes
in the last paragraph of his The Cosmic Blueprint: "The impression
of Design is overwhelming."9
In an article in the journal Nature, the astrophysicist
W. Press writes that "there is a grand design in the Universe
that favors the development of intelligent life."10
Interestingly, the majority of the scientists who have made these discoveries
were materialists who came to this conclusion unwillingly. They did not
undertake their scientific investigations hoping to find a proof for God's
Existence. But most, if not all, of them, despite their unwillingness,
arrived at this conclusion as the only explanation for the universe's
extraordinary design.
In his The Symbiotic Universe, the American astronomer George
Greenstein acknowledges this fact:
How could this possibly have come to pass [that the
laws of physics conform themselves to life]? … As we survey all the evidence,
the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency-or, rather
Agency-must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending
to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme
Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos
for our benefit?11
By beginning his question with "Is it possible," Greenstein, an atheist,
tries to ignore the plain fact confronting him. But many scientists who
have approached the question without prejudice acknowledge that the universe
has been created especially for human life.
God is He who raised up the heavens without
any support - you can see that - and then established Himself firmly
on the Throne. He made the sun and moon subservient, each running
for a specified term. He directs the whole affair. He makes the
Signs clear so that hopefully you will be certain about the meeting
with your Lord.(Qur'an, 13:2) |
The renowned molecular biologist Michael Denton
and his book Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose
in the Universe. |
Materialism is now being viewed as an erroneous belief
outside the realm of science. The American geneticist Robert Griffiths
acknowledges this when he says: "If we need an atheist for a debate, I
go to the philosophy department. The physics department isn't much use."12
In Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the
Universe, which examines how physical, chemical, and biological laws
are amazingly calculated in an ''ideal'' way with a view to human life's
requirements, well-known molecular biologist Michael Denton writes:
The new picture that has emerged in twentieth-century
astronomy presents a dramatic challenge to the presumption which has been
prevalent within scientific circles during most of the past four centuries:
that life is a peripheral and purely contingent phenomenon in the cosmic
scheme.13
In short, the idea of a random universe, perhaps atheism's
most basic pillar, has been proved invalid. Scientists now openly speak
of materialism's collapse.14 God reveals the falsity
of this idea in the Qur'an: "We did not create heaven
and Earth and everything between them to no purpose. That is the opinion
of those who disbelieve…" (Qur'an, 38: 27), and science confirmed
that truth in the 1970s.
Quantum Physics and the Discovery of Divine Wisdom
One area of science that shatters the materialist myth and gives positive
evidence for theism is quantum physics.
Quantum physics deals with matter's tiniest particles, also called the
"sub-atomic realm." In school, everyone learns that matter is composed
of atoms. Atoms are made up of a nucleus and several electrons spinning
around it. One strange fact is that all of these particles take up only
some 0.0001 percent of the atoms. In other words, an atom is something
that is 99.9999 percent "empty."
Even more interestingly, further examination shows that the nuclei and
electrons are made up of much smaller particles called "quarks," which
are not even particles in the physical sense; rather, they are simply
energy. This discovery broke the classical distinction between matter
and energy. It now appears that only energy exists in the material universe,
and that matter is just "frozen energy."
There is a still more intriguing fact: Quarks, those packets of energy,
act in such a way that they may be described as "conscious." Physicist
Freeman Dyson, when accepting the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion
(2000), stated that:
Atoms are weird stuff, behaving like active agents
rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between
alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics.
It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is
to some extent inherent in every atom.15
In other words, there is information behind matter, information that
precedes the material realm. Gerald Schroeder, an MIT-trained scientist
who has worked in both physics and biology and authored The Science
of God, makes a number of important comments on this subject. In
his more recent book, The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals
the Ultimate Truth, Schroeder explains that quantum physics-along
with other branches of science-is the tool for discovering a universal
wisdom lying behind the material world. As he puts it:
It took humanity millennia before an Einstein discovered
that, as bizarre as it may seem, the basis of matter is energy, that matter
is actually condensed energy. It may take a while longer for us to discover
that there is some non-thing even more fundamental than energy that forms
the basis of energy, which in turn forms the basis of matter.16
John Archibald Wheeler, professor of physics at Princeton
University and recipient of the Einstein Award (2003), explained the same
fact when he said that the "bit" (the binary digit) of information gives
rise to the "it," the substance of matter.17 According
to Schroeder, this has a "profound meaning":
The matter/energy relationships, the quantum wave functions,
have profound meaning. Science may be approaching the realization that
the entire universe is an expression of information, wisdom, an idea,
just as atoms are tangible expressions of something as ethereal as energy.18
This wisdom is such an omniscient thing that it covers the whole universe:
A single consciousness, a universal wisdom, pervades
the universe. The discoveries of science, those that search the quantum
nature of subatomic matter, have moved us to the brink of a startling
realization: all existence is the expression of this wisdom. In the laboratories
we experience it as information that first physically articulated as energy
and then condensed into the form of matter. Every particle, every being,
from atom to human, appears to represent a level of information, of wisdom.19
This means that the material universe is not a purposeless
and chaotic heap of atoms, as the atheist/materialist dogma assumes, but
instead is a manifestation of a wisdom that existed before the universe
and that has absolute sovereignty over everything that exists. In Schroeder's
words, it is "as if a metaphysical substrate was impressed upon the physical."20
This discovery shatters the whole materialist myth and reveals that the
visible material universe is just a shadow of a transcendent Absolute
Being. Thus, as Schroeder explains, quantum physics has become the point
at which science and theology meet:
The age-old theological view of the universe is that
all existence is the manifestation of a transcendent wisdom, with a universal
consciousness being its manifestation. If I substitute the word information
for wisdom, theology begins to sound like quantum physics. We may be witnessing
the scientific confluence of the physical with the spiritual.21
Quantum is really the point at which science and theology meet. The fact
that the whole universe is pervaded by a wisdom was revealed in the Qur'an
14 centuries ago. One verse reads:
Your god is God alone, there is no god but Him.
He encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Qur'an, 20:98)
The Natural Sciences: The Collapse of Darwinism
and the Victory of "Intelligent Design"
As stated earlier, one of the main supports for atheism's rise to its
zenith in the nineteenth century was Darwin's theory of evolution. By
asserting that the origin of human beings and all other living things
lay in unconscious natural mechanisms, Darwinism gave atheists the scientific
guise they had been seeking for centuries. That time's most passionate
atheists adopted his theory, and such atheist thinkers as Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels made its elucidation the basis of their philosophy. The
relationship between Darwinism and atheism born at that point in time
has continued until our own time.
But, at the same time, this core belief of atheism is the very one that
has received the greatest blow from twentieth-century science. Discoveries
in paleontology, biochemistry, anatomy, genetics, and other scientific
fields have shattered the theory of evolution (See Harun Yahya's Darwinism
Refuted). We have dealt with this fact in far more detail elsewhere.
However, in short, we can say the following:
- Paleontology: Darwin's theory rests on the assumptions
that all species come from a single common ancestor and that they diverged
from one another over a long period of time by means of small gradual
changes. Supposedly, the required proofs will be discovered in the fossil
record or the petrified remains of living things. But fossil research
conducted during the twentieth century presents a totally different
picture, for no fossil of a single undoubted intermediate species, one
that would substantiate this theory of gradual evolution among species,
has been found. Moreover, every taxon [an animal or plant group having
natural relations] appears suddenly in the fossil record, and no trace
has ever been found of any previous ancestors. The phenomenon known
as the Cambrian Explosion, which scientists classify as a period of
time that occurred 540 to 490 million years ago, is especially interesting.
In that early geological period, nearly all of the animal kingdom's
phyla (major groups with significantly different body structures) appeared
suddenly. The sudden emergence of many different categories of living
things with totally different body structures and extremely complex
organs and systems (e.g., mollusks, arthropods, echinoderms, and, as
recently discovered, even vertebrates) rendered the theory of evolution
invalid and proved creation, for as evolutionists also agree, a taxon's
sudden emergence implies purposeful design, and this means creation.
All of the fossil research conducted during
the twentieth century proves that there is no gradual evolution
between species. The fact that many different groups of living
things appeared suddenly in the Cambrian Explosion is convincing
proof that they were created. |
-
Advances made in twentieth-century biology
reveal the unscientific nature of the theory of evolution. The
discovery of the structure of DNA alone gave one of the greatest
blows to this theory. |
Biological Observations: Darwin elaborated
on his theory by relying upon examples of how animal breeders produced
different dog or horse varieties. He extrapolated the limited changes
he observed to the whole natural world, and proposed that every living
thing could have come from a common ancestor. But Darwin made this claim
in the nineteenth century, when the level of scientific sophistication
was low. In the twentieth century, things changed greatly. Decades of
observation and experimentation on various animal species have shown
that variation in living things has never gone beyond a certain genetic
boundary. Darwin's assertions, like: "I can see no difficulty in a race
of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic
in their habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was
produced as monstrous as a whale"22 actually demonstrates
his great ignorance. On the other hand, observations and experiments
show that mutations defined by Neo-Darwinism as an evolutionary mechanism
add no new genetic information to living creatures.
- The Origin of Life:
Darwin spoke about a common ancestor, but never mentioned how this person
came to be. His only conjecture was that the first cell could have formed
as a result of random chemical reactions "in some small warm little
pond."23 But those evolutionary biochemists who sought
to close this hole in Darwinism were frustrated by the fact that all
of their observations and experiments showed that no living cell could
arise within inanimate matter by means of random chemical reactions.
Even the English atheist astronomer Fred Hoyle expressed that such a
scenario "is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through
a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein."24
- Intelligent Design: Scientists who study cells and
their molecules, along with the cells' remarkable organization within
the body, and the bodily organs' delicate order and plan are faced with
proof that evolutionists strongly wish to reject: The world of living
things is permeated by designs too complex to be found in any technological
equipment. Intricate examples of design, including our eyes that are
far superior to any camera, the wings of birds that have inspired flight
technology, the complexly integrated system of the cells of living things,
and the remarkable information stored in DNA have vitiated the theory
of evolution, which regards living things as the product of blind chance.
By the end of the twentieth century, all of these facts had squeezed
Darwinism into a corner. Today, in the United States and other Western
countries, the theory of intelligent design is gaining ever-increasing
acceptance among scientists. Those who defend it say that Darwinism has
been a great error in the history of science, and that it came to be so
by imposing materialist philosophy on the scientific paradigm. Scientific
discoveries show that there is a design in living things, which proves
creation. In short, science proves once more that God created all living
things.
Psychology: The Collapse of Freudianism
and the Acceptance of Faith
The representative of nineteenth-century atheism in psychology was the
Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He proposed a psychological
theory that rejected the soul's existence and tried to explain humanity's
whole spiritual world in terms of sexual and similar hedonistic motivations.
But Freud's greatest assault was against religion. In his The Future
of an Illusion, originally published in 1927, Freud proposed that
religious faith was a kind of mental illness (neurosis) that would disappear
completely as humanity progressed. Due to the primitive scientific conditions
of the time, his theory was proposed without either the requisite research
and investigation or any scholarly literature or possibility of comparison.
Therefore, its claims were extremely deficient.
Sigmund Freud, an avowed atheist, regarded
religious faith as a kind of mental illness. This unscientific claim
was disproved by the developing science of psychology itself. |
After Freud, psychology developed on an atheist foundation.
Moreover, the founders of other schools of psychology were passionate
atheists. Two of these were B. F. Skinner (1904-90), founder of the behaviorist
school, and Albert Ellis (1913- ), founder of rational-emotive therapy.
The world of psychology gradually became the forum for atheism. A 1972
poll among the members of the American Psychological Association revealed
that only 1.1 percent of psychologists in the country had any religious
beliefs.25
But most psychologists who fell into this great deception were undone
by their own psychological investigations. The basic suppositions of Freudianism
were shown to have almost no scientific support. Moreover, religion was
shown not to be a mental illness, as Freud and some other psychological
theorists declared, but rather a basic element of mental health. Patrick
Glynn summarizes these important developments:
Yet the last quarter of the twentieth century has not
been kind to the psychoanalytic vision. Most significant has been the
exposure of Freud's views of religion as entirely fallacious. Ironically
enough, scientific research in psychology over the past twenty-five years
has demonstrated that, far from being a neurosis or source of neuroses
as Freud and his disciples claimed, religious belief is one of the most
consistent correlates of overall mental health and happiness. Study after
study has shown a powerful relationship between religious belief and practice,
on the one hand, and healthy behaviors with regard to such problems as
suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, depression, even, perhaps surprisingly,
levels of sexual satisfaction in marriage, on the other. In short, the
empirical data run exactly contrary to the supposedly "scientific" consensus
of the psychotherapeutic profession.26
Finally, as Glynn says, "modern psychology
at the close of the twentieth century seems to be reacquainting itself
with religion,"27 and "a purely secular view of human
mental life has been shown to fail not just at the theoretical, but also
at the practical, level."28
In other words, psychology also has routed atheism.
Medicine: The Discovery of How "Hearts Find Peace"
Another branch of science affected by the collapse of atheist suppositions
was medicine.
According to results compiled by David B. Larson and
his team at the National Institute for Healthcare Research, a comparison
among Americans in relation to their observance of religious duties yielded
very interesting results. The risk of arteriosclerotic heart disease for
men who attended church frequently was just 60 percent of that for men
who were infrequent church attendees; among women, suicide was twice as
high among infrequent as among frequent church attenders; smokers who
ranked religion as very important in their lives were over seven times
less likely to have normal diastolic pressure readings than were those
who did not.29
Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard Faculty
of Medicine |
Secular psychologists generally explain such phenomena
as having a psychological cause. In this sense, faith raises a person's
morale and contributes to his or her well-being. There may be some truth
in this explanation, but if we look more closely, we see something much
more dramatic: Belief in God is far stronger than any other influence
on one's morale. In comprehensive research on the relationship between
religious belief and physical health, Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard
Medical School came up with some interesting results. Although he has
no religious faith, Benson concluded that faith in God and worship had
a far more positive effect on human health than could be observed in anything
else. Benson concludes that he has "found that faith quiets the mind like
no other form of belief."30
Why is there such a special relation among faith, the
human spirit, and the body? Benson, a secular researcher, stated that
the human mind and body are "wired for God."31
This fact, which the medical world is slowly beginning to notice, is
a secret revealed in the Qur'an: "Only in the remembrance
of God can the heart find peace." (Qur'an, 13:28) The reason why
those who believe in God, pray to Him and trust in Him are physically
and mentally healthier than others is that they behave in harmony with
their nature. Philosophical systems opposed to human nature always bring
pain, sorrow, anxiety, and depression in their wake.
The basic source of religious people's peace is that they act in order
to gain God's approval. In other words, this peace is the natural result
of listening to the voice of one's conscience. People who live the morality
of religion simply "to be more at peace" or "to be healthier" cannot live
according to the morality of religion; those who act with this intention
cannot find peace in its true sense. God well knows what people store
in their hearts and what they reveal. Peace of mind comes only by being
sincere and attempting to gain God's approval. God commands:
So set your face firmly toward the [true] religion,
as a pure natural believer, God's natural pattern on which He made mankind.
There is no changing God's creation. That is the true religion-but most
people do not know it. (Qur'an, 30:30)
In light of these discoveries, modern medicine is starting
to become aware of this truth. As Patrick Glynn says, "contemporary medicine
is clearly moving in the direction of acknowledging dimensions of healing
beyond the purely material."32
Society: The Fall of Communism, Fascism,
and the Hippie Dream
The collapse of atheism did not occur only in astrophysics, biology,
psychology, and medicine; it also happened in politics and social morality.
The collapse of communism may be considered one of the most important
examples of this. Communism may be considered the most important political
result of nineteenth-century atheism. The founders of this ideology, Marx,
Engels, Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), or Mao Zedong
(1893-1976), all adopted atheism as a basic principle. A primary goal
of all communist regimes was to produce atheistic societies and destroy
religious belief. Stalin's Soviet Union, Mao's Communist China, Kampuchea
(Cambodia), Albania, and some Eastern bloc countries applied immense pressure
on Muslims and other religious people, sometimes to the point of committing
mass murder.
Yet, amazingly, at the end of the 1980s, this bloody atheist system collapsed.
When we examine the reasons for this dramatic fall, we see that what collapsed
was actually atheism. Patrick Glynn writes:
Mihail Gorbachev (1931- ), former president
of the Soviet Union. |
To be sure, secular historians would say that the greatest
mistake of Communism was to attempt to defy the laws of economics. But
other laws, too, came into play … Moreover, as historians penetrate the
circumstances of the Communist collapse, it is becoming clearer that the
Soviet elite was itself in the throes of an atheistic "crisis of faith."
Having lived under an atheistic ideology-one that consisted of lies and
that was based on a "Big Lie"- the Soviet system suffered a radical demoralization,
in every sense of that term. People, including the ruling elite, lost
all sense of morality and all sense of hope.33
An interesting indication of the Soviet system's great "crisis of faith"
was President Mikhail Gorbachev's (1931- ) attempted reforms. Ever since
he became general secretary of the communist party (1985-91) and assumed
the Soviet presidency in 1990, Gorbachev was interested in moral problems
as well as economic reforms. For example, one of the first things he did
was to initiate a campaign against alcoholism. In order to raise Soviet
society's morale, for a long time he used Marxist-Leninist terminology.
But seeing that this was of no use, he even began to mention God in some
of his speeches, although he was an atheist. Naturally, these insincere
words of faith were of no use, and the crisis of faith in Soviet society
continued to worsen. Finally, the gigantic Soviet empire collapsed in
1991.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is regarded
as the father of fascism |
The twentieth century documented not only the fall of communism, but
also that of fascism, another fruit of nineteenth-century anti-religious
philosophy. Fascism is the outcome of a philosophy that may be called
a mixture of atheism and paganism, and is intensely hostile to theist
religions. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who may be called the father
of fascism, extolled the morality of barbarous idolatrous societies, attacked
Christianity and other monotheistic religions, and even called himself
the "Anti-Christ." His disciple, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), was an
avid Nazi supporter, and the ideas of these two atheist thinkers gave
impetus to the terrifying savagery of Nazi Germany. The Second World War,
which caused the death of 55 million people, is another example of the
calamity that such atheist ideologies as fascism and communism have brought
upon humanity.
At this point, we must recall Social Darwinism, another
atheist ideology that helped cause both world wars. In his Europe
Since 1870, Harvard history professor James Joll states that behind
each of the two world wars lay the philosophical views of Social Darwinist
European leaders who believed in the myth that war was a biological necessity
and that nations developed through conflict.34
James Joll, Europe Since 1870. |
Another social consequence of atheism appeared in Western democracies.
In the present day, there is a tendency to regard the West as the "Christian
world." However, since the nineteenth century, a quickly growing atheist
culture has held sway with Christian culture, and today there is a conflict
between them in what we call Western civilization. And this atheist element
was the true cause of Western imperialism, moral degeneration, despotism,
and other negative manifestations.
In his God: The Evidence, American writer Patrick Glynn draws
attention to this matter and, in order to compare the God-fearing and
atheist elements in the West, takes the examples of the American and the
French revolutions. The American revolution was realized by people who
believed in God. The American Declaration of Independence states that
all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."
Since the French revolution was the work of atheists, the French Declaration
of Human Rights was different, with no reference to God and full of atheist
and neo-pagan notions.
The actual results of the two revolutions were quite
different: In the American model, a relatively more peaceful, tolerant
environment was created, one that respected religion and religious belief;
in France, the fierce hostility to religion drowned the country in blood
and unleashed a savagery that had no equal in French history up until
that time. As Glynn says, "there is an interesting historical correlation
between atheism, on the one hand, and moral and political catastrophe,
on the other hand."35
Glynn notes that attempts to turn America into an atheist
country also have harmed society. The fact that the sexual revolution,
for example, that spread during the 1960s and 1970s caused immense social
damage in terms of traditional moral values is accepted even by secular
historians.36
The hippie movement was a demonstration of this social damage. Hippies
believed that they could find spiritual emancipation through secular humanist
philosophy, eastern philosophies, and by such things as unlimited drugs
and sex. These young people who poured into the streets with romantic
songs-like John Lennon's Imagine, released in 1971 and in which he spoke
of a world "with no countries, and no religion too"-were actually undergoing
a mass deception.
Above: The original copy of the American Declaration
of Independence and the meeting at which it was decided to proclaim
it. |
In fact, a world without religion actually brought them to an unhappy
end. The hippy leaders of the 1960s either killed themselves or died from
drug-induced comas in the early 1970s. Many other young hippies shared
a similar fate.
Members of the same generation who turned to violence found themselves
on the receiving end of violence. The 1968 generation, which turned its
back on God and religion and imagined they could find salvation in such
concepts as revolution or selfish Epicureanism, ruined both themselves
and their own societies.
 
On of the most striking examples of the destruction
wreaked on social life by atheist ideology is the spiritual collapse
suffered by the so-called "generation of '68." |
The Movement Toward Religious Morality
The facts given above clearly show that atheism is undergoing an inevitable
collapse. In other words, humanity is-and will be-turning toward God,
and not only in the scientific and political communities. From prominent
statesmen to movie stars and pop artists, those who influence opinion
in the West are far more religious than they used to be. Many people have
seen the truth and come to believe in God after having lived for years
as atheists. (Patrick Glynn, from whose book we have quoted, is one of
these ex-atheists.)
Interestingly, the developments contributing to this
result also began in the second half of the 1970s. The anthropic principle
first appeared in the 1970s, and scientific criticism of Darwinism started
to be loudly voiced at the same time. The turning point against Freud's
atheist dogma was M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled. For
this reason, Glynn, in the 1997 edition of his book, writes that "over
the past twenty years, a significant body of evidence has emerged, shattering
the foundations of the long-dominant modern secular worldview."37
Surely, the fact that the atheist worldview has been shaken means that
another worldview is rising, which is belief in God. Since the end of
the 1970s (or, from the beginning of the fourteenth century according
to the Muslim calendar), the world has seen a rise in religious values.
Like other social processes, because this develops over a long period
of time instead of all at once, a majority of people may not notice it.
However, those who evaluate the development a little more carefully see
that the world is at a major turning point in the realm of ideas.
Secular historians try to explain this process according to their own
principles. However, given that they are in deep error with regard to
God's Existence, they also are greatly mistaken about the course of history.
In fact, as the following verse reveals, history moves as God has determined:
"You will not find any changing in the pattern
of God. You will not find any alteration in the pattern of God." (Qur'an,
35: 43) It follows, then, that history has a purpose and unfolds
as God has commanded. And God's command is to perfect His light:
They desire to extinguish God's Light with their
mouths. But God refuses to do other than perfect His Light, even though
the unbelievers detest it. (Qur'an, 9: 32)
In other words, God has sent His light to humanity through the religion
that He has revealed: Islam. Those who do not believe want to extinguish
this light by their "mouths"- intimations, propaganda, and philosophies,
but God will finally perfect His light and give dominion to religious
values.
Conclusion
We are living at an important time. Atheism, which people have tried
for hundreds of years to portray as the "way of reason and science," is
proving to be mere irrationality and ignorance. Materialist philosophy,
which sought to use science for its own ends, has been defeated by science.
A world rescuing itself from atheism will turn to God and religion. But,
to what religion will it turn? With God's permission, that religion will
be Islam. As we will see in subsequent chapters, this process began long
ago.
Who could do greater wrong than someone who
invents a lie against God when he has been called to Islam? God
does not guide wrongdoing people. They desire to extinguish Allah's
Light with their mouths but Allah will perfect His Light, though
the unbelievers hate it. (Qur'an 61: 7-8) |
Clearly, Muslims have important duties in this period. They must be aware
of this major change in the world's way of thinking, interpret it, make
good use of the chances and opportunities provided by globalization, and
effectively represent the truth along this road. They must know that the
basic conflict of ideas is between atheism and faith. It is not a struggle
between East and West, for both of these contain believers and atheists.
For this reason, faithful Christians and faithful Jews are allies of Muslims.
The main divergence is not between Muslims and the People of the Book
(Jews and Christians), but between Muslims and the People of the Book
on the one hand, and atheists and pagans on the other. Of course we must
not show hostility to such people; rather, we must view them as people
who need to be rescued from their error.
The time is fast approaching when many people who are living in ignorance
with no knowledge of religious morality will be graced by faith in the
impending post-atheist world.
 
And (you will obtain) another (favor) that
you love - support from God and imminent victory. Give good news
to the believers! (Qur'an 61:13)
God, will certainly help those who help Him - God is All-Strong,
Almighty, (Qur'an, 22:40) |
|
