If we evaluate knowledge as ‘an accumulation of information obtained as a result of a person’s effort, merits, and capabilities’, then man will come to this world without knowing anything and will encounter an endless universe where innumerable creatures come together and countless events unfold. Everything in the .universe outside of man’s influence is in its proper place and complete order, harmony and balance reign. We can say that all the spiritual and scientific principles underlying the unshakable order, harmony and indestructible balance of this vast and complex universe, of which the human body comprises a miniature, are the sum of truth or truths.

On the other hand, sciences like physics, chemistry and biology-regardless of whether or not they are accurate-examine the universe and universal relationships with their own peculiar principles. The data from these sciences are taken up by philosophers and thinkers and data from human relations is used by sociologists and psychologists. In contrast, through their basic tenets of faith, monotheistic religions like Islam see the universe and man as an expression of the same truth in all relationships, principles of life and particulars of existence. In this situation Divine books like the Qur’an are an expression of, in fact, comprise, themselves, the truth that provides universal harmony, balance and order or the totality of truth. Throughout history philosophers, sociologists and psychologists who have determined or discovered truths have differed among themselves, which has lead to the emergence of different schools of thought. In contrast, all Prophets and the Divine books they brought have espoused the same thing. Consequently, we can say that all the principles that bring about the universe in all kinds of events and relationships and provide universal harmony, order and balance and Divine Scripture, which contains the sum of those principles, are the ‘truth itself’. Thinking and drawing conclusions according to these in view of all things and events can be called ‘thinking straight’. 

MAIN FACTORS OF THINKING STRAIGHT

Character and Intention

Man is equipped with many capabilities, while being at the same time caught in a web of very mixed emotions and endless needs. He has faculties like intelligence that surround and burden him with sorrows from the past and fear and anxiety for the future, a conscience that reminds him of his human responsibility and the essential purpose of his creation, and a will that continuously brings him to choose between alternatives. Just as man can put his intelligence, conscience and will under the command of truth, he can also surrender them to the power of his desires, needs, interests and ambitions. The characteristics inherited at birth also play an important role in his thought. The sum of these characteristics is called man’s nature or character.

A person under the influence of self-interest, desire, and moral weaknesses, and who has not yet found the right direction, especially one motivated by lower emotions such as jealousy, revenge, hatred and hostility, cannot easily think straight. Thus, one of the most important conditions for thinking straight is spiritual and moral training, of which the most reliable for all times and peoples, is by the guidance of the Qur’an.

The elements making up a person’s character such as desire, inclination, sensibility and need, always influence his intentions. When the intention is not to reach the truth but to realize a personal goal the individual has set for himself, then that individual may not hesitate to distort data or even twist the truth. In order to strive after the truth and think straight, a person must have a sound intention which depends upon a trained and disciplined character.

Sent to this world with a nature that is ready to be trained, in fact, must be trained, man encounters two main resources for filling the transparent and empty mental cup that he is born with. The first is an environment composed of the immediate family circle, the cultural and social milieu (this includes the modern media) and schooling. The second is Divine inspiration. From the moment of birth man naturally falls under the influence of his immediate family and surroundings. In time this influence leads to the development in the individual mind of many notions, modes of thinking, patterns of value and understanding. At school these are changed, reinforced or renewed by what is learned there.

During this process many divinely inspired thoughts come depending on the individual’s effort and mental concentration. These thoughts can come, like many scientific discoveries, in the form of dreams or as inspiration to the heart. Divinely inspired thoughts, even if they are always essentially true, take on colour and form (like water taking the colour and shape of the bowl) according to the person’s mental make-up, spiritual degree, and emotional sensitivity. Thus, the mental framework that has been shaped by the family, the environment, by formal or informal training, and by received modes of perception and patterns of value, can be regarded as the individual’s measures.

At every stage in the process of developing the mental make-up, that is, at the different stages of the life-long educational process, man thinks and evaluates differently. This is normal. We can see changing thoughts and values as the normal consequence of a constantly developing mental make-up. What is abnormal is if a person falls into the trap of thinking that every stage is the final one, then promotes his thoughts at that stage as absolutely true. This is one of the gravest mistakes that people make. The presentation of his thoughts as the absolute truth by one who is constantly in a learning phase, and in whose mind many false thought patterns and measurements have accumulated, is harmful. It can prevent him from learning new ideas, from avoiding repeating his mistakes, from reaching the truth, and from questioning and investigation at a later stage. God forbid, it can even lead him to stray or become a despot ‘for the sake of knowledge’.

In view of this, the path to thinking straight passes through sound criteria and, as a result, a healthy perspective. This can be achieved first by doubt, that is, by doubting every- thing except absolute truths taken from their source. Then, by mental and spiritual purification. The mind must be cleared of mistakes and biases and the heart of sin and lower emotions. Beyond that, signs of enlightenment that will take one to the truth and to thinking straight should be followed. Unless these stages are accomplished, unless sound criteria and consequently a healthy point of view are obtained, it doesn’t matter how much a person knows or works; he can’t reach the truth.

Accurate Knowledge

After a sound character, sincere intention and correct point of view, the most important factor for thinking straight is accurate knowledge. For a person with a healthy intention and perspective, accurate knowledge is the essential sound material with which to think straight, just as, for making bread the right flour in the right amount is essential material. Without this, it’s not possible to think straight. Unless, there is revelation as for the Prophets-but that is no longer possible. Otherwise Divine inspiration can only manifest in a very pure heart. Even with inspiration, the range is very limited; in most aspects of life there is a need for accurate knowledge.

Escaping From the Restrictions of Time and Conditions Or Perceiving Time and Conditions Accurately

Another factor for thinking straight is being able to escape the restrictions brought about by epoch and circumstances. While doing this, current time and conditions must be taken into consideration so that one is not crushed by them.

Another important factor in thinking straight is thinking about subject-matter or seeking truths that are not tied to time and conditions. This will save a person from thinking in fragments and allow for holistic thinking, which is very important.

However important it is to be free from the restrictions of time and conditions in order to reach truths not limited by them, it is also vitally important to take advantage of time and conditions. Just as the number of truths in our lives that are absolute (i.e. true for everyone all the time and under all conditions) is small, the number of relative truths (those that change according to people, time and conditions) is great. Thus, especially in finding truths in this second group, knowing and diagnosing accurately the times, conditions, and people involved, is one of the most important paths to thinking straight. Regarding the subject of Islam, which is a religion that addresses every century, every level, every character and temperament, and every condition, it is vitally important to know well all the different epochs, social levels, characters and temperaments in order not to fall into error. Otherwise, in the name of Islam the door to catastrophe can open and-God forbid-the danger of man falling within the bounds of reference of the following verses can arise:

Say: ‘Shall we tell you of those who lose most in respect of their deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they think that they are doing well (what they are doing.’ (Kahf: 103-104)

Together with Abu Jafar al-Mansur and Ma’mun, Harun al-Rashid was one of the most celebrated rulers of the ‘Abbasids. He ruled over a very vast land stretching from Morocco to China and from Abyssinia to the Caucuses. Although he was not as famous for justice and piety as Mahdi, he was also a just and upright man.

Once he visited the renowned scholars and saints among the people one by one. Dissatisfied with the advice and manners of welcome he received from some of the scholars, he finally knocked at the door of Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad.

Fudayl had lived on plundering. Since he had a powerful gang and himself was very good at fighting, travellers had been much afraid of him. However, he had later repented of what he had been doing and become a much renowned saint of the time.

Fudayl opened his door to the Caliph and without inviting him in, warned him severely. He reminded him of the Day of Judgement and gave him other advice. When one of the men escorting the Caliph attempted to stop Fudayl, the latter reprimanded him, saying: ‘It is you and those like you who seduce the rulers. You do whatever they wish and agree with whatever they order and decree.’ Harun al-Rashid was greatly moved by Fudayl’s warnings and wept for a long time.

Harun al-Rashid was once doing Hajj (pilgrimage) when a man from amongst the crowd called him, saying: ‘O Commander of the Believers! Would you please listen me for a short while? The man was ‘Abdullah a grandson of ‘Umar Bin ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. The Caliph took him aside and the following exchange ensued between them:

– O Commander of the Believers! How many people do you guess there are here doing pilgrimage?

– So many as only God knows their number.

– Now, beware O Commander of the Believers! All of those who are shedding tears are doing so out of the fear that they may be unable to account in the Hereafter, each for his own deeds. However, you will be called to account for both your own self and all of those people.

This led the Caliph to think deeply for a while. Then he requested the pious scholar to continue. The scholar added:

– By God, O Commander of the Believers! If a man neglects to do his own duty and wastes his own property, the Almighty will punish him. But, have you ever thought what will happen to him if he, as a ruler of innumerable people, neglects to do his duties with respect to the peopie and wastes public property?

This time the Caliph could not help but weep heartfelt tears.

According to Kant, man has a natural side and a mental side. His feelings, inclinations, desires, field of consciousness, and emotions make up his natural side. Man, at this point, unites with the natural realm and animals and, like them, he is under the influence of natural laws. But this aspect of man is not what makes him man. What makes man human and a creature possessing will is his mental side, and this elevates him to a position superior to all other creatures.

“A creature gathering all deprivations in his ego”

Man, who consists of the union of natural and mental existences, does not come to this world in possession of the opportunities and positions that he will gain, in contrast to animals. Animals are born with whatever means are necessary for them to live as if “another intelligence had thought of everything they need” like horns, or claws, or teeth and necessary knowledge and instincts. But man is born as “a creature gathering all deprivations in his ego.”

“Nature that doesn’t do anything unnecessary and doesn’t waste any material used for the attainment of goals,” has equipped man with intelligence and a will that is connected to intelligence. It requires man to accomplish by himself everything above the mechanical order of his animal existence without following his instincts. He is expected not to share any happiness except that which he can obtain by means of his intelligence. Because he is equipped with intelligence, and will dependent on intelligence, man cannot be left to the rule of his instincts or be equipped with merely natural knowledge. He must provide everything for himself from food to clothing and from the vehicle he is going to use to his own safety.

According to Kant, having come to this world with his skills and talents undeveloped, man needs training and education from the outset. A long childhood period necessitates that man be trained and taken care of by others. The human race is forced to discover all human capabilities slowly by its own efforts. For this reason, one generation tries to educate another. Education changes an animal into a man; it prevents the animal inclinations distancing man from humanity and the purpose of human existence. It draws the boundaries of his action and activities and protects him from danger and from running around empty-headed. Also education, by disciplining the animal side of man, prevents him from becoming wild.

Nature gave the animal the necessary capabilities and equipment it needs for living from the beginning, but it did not provide him with centres of aptitude for good and evil. For this reason, an animal is without the consciousness of good and bad. Only man possesses centres of aptitude for good and evil; for destiny wanted man to bring forth good himself. It seems as if destiny said to man, “Go forth in the world. I equipped you with all the talents necessary for making good. Your duty is to discover those skills; so your happiness and unhappiness are in your hands.”

At this point again education intervenes. Everything good in the world is a product of good education. For this reason, the centres of good in man should be discovered and allowed to function freely and not made into sources of evil. The aspect of man that makes him human is his intelligence and the discovery of this depends on education.

Man’s humanity

Kant, who separated man as a ‘natural creature’ and an ‘independent intelligent creature,’ also divided existence into the ‘visible world’ and the ‘independent realm of intelligence’ that forms the foundation of the visible world. While we comprehend the visible world with what Kant calls ‘intellect,’ a faculty using the senses, we comprehend the ‘independent realm’ with ‘intelligence.’ When we say ‘intelligence,’ two types appear before us-the ‘pure intelligence’ and the ‘practical intelligence.’ In the field of natural existence pure intelligence which is obedient to determinist laws makes deductions about special situations according to general principles and gets a priori information. The independent world which is not obedient to determinist laws is examined by ‘practical intelligence.’

The success of pure intelligence in the experiential world is greater than that of animals. But at this point there is only one degree of difference between man and animals. What makes the difference between man and animal is man’s practical intelligence. Whatever humans are, they are so due to practical intelligence. Practical intelligence has a center in man and he must discover it. The findings of practical intelligence are not knowledge as we know it. Knowledge is formal and can take man to fanaticism. Whereas the findings of practical intelligence manifest in the form of culture of the heart. We can say that this intelligence determines our ‘conscience’ or ‘action and direction.’

According to Kant, man becomes human through the activities of his practical intelligence. It admonishes and gives purposes to man and, while realizing these purposes, man’s animal side begins to be humanized. These purposes are mostly universal and unchangeable moral principles. It is not necessary for intelligence to get these principles from outside. They are in the mind a priori. For Kant morality is very important. Practical intelligence is at the same time will, itself, and it appoints us duties. These are duties directed toward realizing the purposes mentioned.

In Kant’s view, the existence of God is wholly an intellectual existence. Man can associate with the Divine Existence by means of his intellect. Man becomes humanized and attains freedom by however much he can rise above his natural side which is comprised of desires, ambitions and feelings like love and hatred.

Activities besides the phenomenon of man or natural existence are activities tied to conditions. For this reason, laws in this field are called conditional imperatives. For example, when a doctor gives a patient some medicine, he lays down conditions suitable to the situation. Whereas there can be no conditions in the noumenal field of existence, the field which exists by itself, and operative laws in this field are called categorical imperatives. Although theoretical knowledge or experimentation, observation and experience regarding knowledge of the natural plane of existence are necessary, in the absolute and unchanging noumenal field the intelligence in the form of conscience is in control and there is no experience on this plane.

According to Kant, what makes man human is his being freed from the conditions of the phenomenal plane and his practical intelligence that determines its own actions, and thereby his autonomy and freedom.

THE PROBLEM OF MAN IN SCHELER

The founder of philosophical anthropology, Scheler, was greatly influenced by Kant and, while repeating many of his ideas, he based his philosophy, paradoxically, in opposition to Kant. He describes the discipline he founded as follows: “The duty of philosophical anthropology is to show in the basic make-up of man’s existence the source of man’s success and works like language, conscience, tools, guns, justice, injustice, government, administration, art forms, myths, religion, knowledge, history, and society.”

Scheler views man as a creature who gathers the essence of the whole universe in himself, and similarly to Kant, as a dual creature. One side of this creature is comprised of physical life or an animated aspect, while the other is comprised of Geist. Kant included all the feelings, including love, in the natural aspect of man and didn’t give them much value. Scheler, unlike Kant, accepts love as a very important factor of Geist which is the faculty equivalent to Kant’s intelligence. Man’s physical nature consists of (1) emotion as a compulsory power causing action, (2) instinct, (3) memory tied to associations, (4) intelligence and the ability to choose. Emotion as a compulsory power is formed of or stands for the union of man’s inclinations and feelings. These emotions or compulsions in the form of getting enough food to continue life, breathing and reproductive urges are found in plants as well, and man shares this common characteristic with plants. The instincts forming the second level of man’s physical life should be meaningful for himself, be in harmony, fulfill the function of serving the continuation of the species, carry a character that can develop naturally in time, and not consist of the sum of man’s experiences. Instincts carrying these characteristics can be considered as perfected, and man has these instincts in common with animals.

Memory is the third level of man’s physical life. Memory which consists of repetition of things imitated is called tradition, and the memory of animals is this kind of memory. In addition to this man has an associative memory. Its basis is comprised of conditioned reflex and customs develop with it. Customs are peculiar to humans.

Intelligence is the ability to suddenly influence every new situation, and, together with intelligence, the ability to choose comes forth.

What Scheler called Geist is first of all an attribute of Divine Being Who exists by Himself and the basic aspect of man’s existence that brings out the difference between the composition of the true human and the animals. Geist separates a thing’s essence from its existence. We can say the ‘matter’ of Geist is the subject of real human qualities. There are faculties of idealization and reduction in Geist. Reduction is the ability to penetrate the essential in the shell of existence and distinguish the real existence from appearance. Idealization is the capability to put the essence in the form of an idea and comprehend it.

From one perspective, Geist is comprised of intentions, and is without any strength or power of its own. Geist being His most important attribute, God, according to Scheler, essentially, has no power or force. Geist gets power from relationship with the plane of physical life. Thus, He is dependent on this in order to realize himself. In His relationship with this plane, Geist manifests in activities of determining the direction for man’s inclinations and restraining them. Geist drives power from these activities.

As long as man is tied to his inclinations, he is not free. Such a human will live like an animal tied to his inclinations for sex, food and power. But when he is freed from these influences and takes on a character personifying Geist’s intentions or becomes a focus for the realization of them, then he gains true humanity. Attaining such a personality has certain conditions like understanding all manifestations of life without any difficulty and finding the norm in them, and reaching a definite level of development whereby one can distinguish one’s own and others’ special features like wishes, feelings and thoughts. Also such a personality must have conscious possession of the body and control it.

According to Scheler, everyone has his own world. Each world corresponds to an individual. All the worlds together correspond to God. Just as man’s real existence comprises Geist, in the foundation of existence there is a Geist that comprehends everything, loves everything, and thinks of everything. Man is such a being that in him the Essential Being (i.e. God) begins to know, comprehend and understand Himself and find salvation. In this way man participates in the existence and essence of the Divine Being and realizes His Geist together with his own and his own ideal.

As is the case for Kant, existence means duality for Scheler. One side of this duality is ‘the side showing qualities’, which has been a subject of sciences, that is, the side endowed with definite and known specific attributes, and the other side composed of ‘pure existence’, which is a subject of metaphysics. One cannot possess knowledge of this second plane without participating in it. This is only possible by developing the personality. God is solely an ‘existence’ and, thus, a pure object of metaphysics. Religion is a matter of man’s basic make-up and doesn’t necessarily need to include laws. Monotheistic religions put such matters as fear, slavery, servanthood and father-son relationships between man and God. But actually there is no need for such relationships. Man feels God in his heart. Man becomes humanized and deified at the same moment as God. He is a creature that continually deifies himself and serves the genesis and development of God.

GENERAL EVALUATION

There are some nuances and conceptual differences between the philosophies of Kant and Scheler. Although they also differ from each other in that Kant concentrates on morality based on restraining the physical-emotional side of man while Scheler’s conception of religion is based on love and sensing God in the heart, and carries overtones of pantheism and monism, it is not possible to find deep-rooted conflict between Kant’s and Scheler’s views on man. Both philosophers were concerned with giving a place to God and religion deriving from Christian concepts as opposed to positivism which had developed with the Renaissance. For this reason they put both man and existence in two separate spheres in a way resembling Descartes’ dualism. As demanded by enlightenment philosophy and secular morality, they thought that the values man must conform to should be found in man’s own being and conscience. Under the influence of the Christian belief in the Trinity and unity of father and son which was based on the ideas of reincarnation and spiritual unity with God, they put God on the side as a passive deity in relation to existence. Also they placed man in the center of everything. Kant looks for man’s humanity and happiness, not in the visible-biological-phenomenal side of his nature or in his desires, wishes or other emotions, but in the evolution of his intelligence toward the universal and unchangeable moral laws found in the conscience. In place of Kant’s moral apriority, Scheler sees happiness in giving priority to love and realizing the intentions through love and participation in Divine Existence. How this love can be attained, how man can rise above the desire and passion of love and the ‘physical-vital’ side of his nature, and whether he can overcome them or not, are unknown.

After all this and after a summary of Bediuzzaman’s view, the profound differences between the views will become obvious. On the one hand, in the name of philosophy, there is ‘consciously walking along dead end streets or through the labyrinths where finding the way becomes increasingly difficult,’ and philosophical obscurity, intricacy and subjectivity. On the other hand, there is an objective, realistic, and practicable view and criteria.

BEDIUZZAMAN’S VIEW OF MAN

Bediuzzaman’s view of man, without doubt, is based on Islam. According to Islam and naturally Bediuzzaman, the essential basis of existence, its creator and its maintainer through His own Eternal Existence is God. He exists without needing any other’s existence and is above all limits of time and space like existence in time or occupying space. The universe gained existence through manifesting God’s attributes and Names. As One Who does whatever He wills, God keeps the universe under His power by means of the manifestations of His attributes and Names. Thus, everything in the universe, without exception, owes its existence, life, vitality, continuation of its existence, sustenance and growth, reproduction and all the qualities it possesses to God and all these things are from God.

While being a Hidden Treasure, due to His pure, sacred love for His High Essence suitable for His Divine Essence, He created the universe in order to contemplate Himself. Love is the bond between God and the universe, which shows God in two ways. Firstly, everything in the universe exists as a manifestation of His Names. For example, we can see in all animate things from plants to man, His Names of Ever-Living One (al-Hayy) and Giver of Life (al-Muhyi) and in the continuation of the universe, His Names, the Self-Existing One (al-Qayyum) and the Everlasting One (al-Baqi). In the universe’s orderliness and regularity and the mind-boggling degree of majestic balance, we can read His Name the Just (al- ‘Adl) and in the absolute cleanliness in nature despite the death of hundreds of thousands of animals everyday, His Name the Pure One (al-Quddus). We can see in the functions determined for each creature, His Name the Judge (al-Hakam), etc. Secondly, everything in the universe has a beginning and will reach an end. In other words, everything will die. In Bediuzzaman’s analogy, on the bank of a spring we can see the sun in all the bubbles of water passing before us. If the spring passes through a tunnel, the ‘tiny suns’ will disappear, but from our position the sun can still be seen in the bubbles. This shows that the sun does not belong to the bubbles and is permanent without being dependent at all on the existence of the bubbles. In the same way, creatures, by their living, show the existence of God and His Life, and by their death His Permanence. Also the power of everything in the universe is limited. Everything is poor in its essence. As nothing is in control of itself, it (an apple, for example) must have for its sustenance the co-operation of the sun, air, earth, and water. The apple tree, in order to produce apples, must work together with other elements of the universe in a way that is ‘conscious and based on knowledge.’ It is obvious that these created things do not have consciousness and knowledge. For this reason, creatures’ needs, deficiencies, helplessness and poverty signify such attributes as God’s eternal and infinite Power, Knowledge, Hearing, and Seeing. In short, the main purpose of the creation and life of existence is to be a shining mirror to God.

Thus, continuing until the creation of man, God created the whole universe from the Throne of God to the lower heavens, from the skies to the earth, from the angels to the jinn, and from inanimate creatures to plants and animals. But although these creatures are manifestations of His other Names and attributes, they do not possess the complex and variety of language, speaking, the same level of knowledge or, most importantly, the level of will that man has. Thus, man was created as the fruit of the ‘tree of existence,’ the limit of existence and the final purpose. In Bediuzzaman’s words, God drew an imaginary line in front of His Names and attributes and created man. In other words, all His Names and attributes are reflected on him. Thus, man took his place among creation as the most perfect, shining and encompassing mirror reflecting God. The reflection of all of God’s Names and attributes in man means he has the feelings of magnificence and greatness and also the desire for absolute sovereignty. All of these developed an ego in man before God and produced the egoism that ‘the skies and the mountains drew back from.’ Whereas, magnificence, greatness and absolute sovereignty demand absolute power and absolute wealth and man is destitute of these. His power is only an arm’s length and he is more helpless than many animals. His knowledge is limited, he never possesses absolute wealth and his needs are infinite. Man’s sustenance comes to him without any effort on his part when he is an embryo or when he cries as a baby. When he becomes aware of or has the illusion of his own strength, then man has to struggle for his own sustenance. This shows that man’s duty is to admit his helplessness, poverty, and deficiencies and turn to the Possessor of absolute wealth, absolute power and absolute sovereignty. Man should take power only from God’s Power and wealth from His Wealth, bind himself only to God, worship only Him and be saved from being the slave or servant to any other thing, power or interest.

According to Bediuzzaman, as the fruit of the tree of existence, man contains the essence and a summary of everything in existence. He is a sample, a model of the universe. Just as he carries the physical dimension of existence with his physical aspect, he also carries all plant and animal characteristics. He has been sent as God’s vicegerent to behave on this earth in the way God wants, to cultivate the world and to unite in peace with the rest of the universe. Almost every animal has earned what it needs to know in another realm or is given what it needs at birth. It jumps into the struggle of life almost as soon as it is born, but man is born without knowing anything. He has to learn everything; it takes him years to discover the laws of life and to be able to separate good from evil and differentiate between what is in his best interests and what is not. Also he is not only a physical being or composed only of a number of emotions. He constantly carries within himself a longing for eternity. His spiritual pains and needs compared to his physical ones are many more in number, deeper, more intricate and in greater need of satisfaction. Thus, his duty is to learn and evolve with training and faith. In addition, man carries the potential of a great variety of abilities. In order for these to become active, man needs to pass through the press of time and events. Just as God makes the hawk attack the sparrow in order to develop the sparrow’s strength to defend itself and develop new opportunities, in the same way events and tests we have to face open the way for development of man’s potential capabilities. If they are used in the right way, every desire, obsession and feeling becomes a source of goodness.

The sources of all abilities and faculties sown in man’s nature can be categorized in three groups: powers of appetite, powers of anger, and powers of reasoning or mind. Appetite is the source of satisfaction of the need for eating, drinking, reproduction and all of man’s physical-biological desires and needs. Anger is the source and a means of the need to defend oneself, and reason is the spring or center for every kind of mental activity. Because man is a creature possessing will, God left these forces unrestrained and free in man’s nature for the purposes of testing him. Because of this, they can lead to great oppression and unhappiness for man individually and in social life. For example, the force of anger can cause murder and oppression that will shake the Heavens; the force of appetite can lead to every kind of illegality and immorality; and the power of the mind can lead to every type of demagogy, misleading persuasion and dialectic. For this reason, these forces must be kept in balance. In other words, the force of anger must revolve around courage, appetite around chastity, and the mind around wisdom, and justice must be maintained in social life. These are conditions necessary for man’s happiness. Because not every person or all of mankind can conceive of this point of balance and the special characteristics and factors of broad justice, there is need for a universal intelligence, and this has been given to us as a gift by God in the form of Divine Religion.

Just as man is affected by sorrows of the past, he is also influenced by doubts for the future. As we tried to show above, man’s power and knowledge is limited. But his needs are endless. Life on earth is short, but another eternal world awaits him. The mind, with consciousness of the past and future, can make man the most miserable ‘animal’ with anxiety regarding how to meet his needs. So it is man’s duty to use his mind under the guidance of ‘the universal intelligence’, and to use God’s Power as intercessor for his helplessness, His infinite Knowledge for man’s ignorance and God’s boundless Wealth for his poverty. Man must find power in His Power, knowledge in His Knowledge, and wealth in God’s Wealth. When man can do this, all his given abilities, faculties, forces, desires and needs and even feelings that at first appear absolutely bad like jealousy and passion can open a door to virtue and become a stepping stone. For example, jealousy can turn into an emulation or competing for good, free of malice; ambition can become persistence in what is good and beautiful. Otherwise, just as man can become his own and others’ worst enemy, it should not be forgotten that the Pharaohs, the Nimrods, and other infamous ‘gods’ and imposters in history have come from among mankind.

Definition of Superior Intelligence

Superior intelligence results from the rapid operation on a high level of such brain functions as the senses, feelings, thought, intuition and inspiration. These functions appear in the form of the ability to think quickly and correctly, creativity, academic aptitude, leadership and talent in the visual and applied arts.

According to research findings, a large percentage (of the order of 85%) of superior intelligence is passed on from one generation to another through heredity. At the same time, environmental factors like education are extremely important for effective usage of superior intelligence and turning it into ‘genius’.

Characteristics of Superior Intelligence

We can divide these characteristics into four main groups: (a) reasoning power; (b) emotional attributes; (c) intuition; (d) social skills.

a)Reasoning Power

Possessing a lot of knowledge and not forgetting it.

High level of comprehension. (Comprehending the whole from its part.)

An unusual level of interest and curiosity in different subjects and asking a lot of questions.

Superior usage of language, large vocabulary and high language aptitude.

Fast thinking, rapid advancement and reaching conclusions quickly.

Flexible and different thought.

Broad synthesizing ability.

The ability to see strange, unusual and different relationships.

Ability to produce original ideas and solutions.

Early and rapid development in making generalizations, feeling results, abstract thinking and creating alternatives.

Stubborn, decisive, goal-oriented and sometimes even adventurous behavior.

Working in a disciplined manner, independent and usually rebellious behavior.

Easily bored, searching for things to do, and not staying idle.

Choosing complex and mixed things and enjoying debate.

Expecting interest, liking to be honored and talking a lot.

b) Emotional Attributes

Very sensitive to others. Sensing others’ thoughts.

Strange sense of humor. (This can sometimes offend or make others uncomfortable.)

Feeling different and trying to make others aware of.

Obvious idealism at an early age.

Deep feelings, emotional Perfectionism.(Consequently not liking themselves or others.)

Showing extraordinary success in some subjects.

Great interest in the unknown and mysterious subjects.

High concentration ability, seriousness.

Paying little attention to others’ rules.

Bringing up everywhere issues he deems vital.

c) Senses and Intuitive Powers

Extreme sensibility (regarding colors, sounds, smells, etc.)

An abnormal rate of physical and intellectual advancement.

Refusing to take part in physical activities where they are not successful, and avoiding competitive physical activities.

Displaying a lot of talent in one of the fine arts. (Even with no training.)

Beginning to think about metaphysical events before others of their age group, philosophical attitudes, strange thoughts, etc.

Poetical expression, beautiful and literary statements.

Productive in subjects requiring initiative and struggle.

Inner depth and loneliness resulting from it.

Giving importance to theoretical and esthetic values.

High level of love, eagerness, desire and sincere effort.

Frequently being absorbed in thought, strong imagination.

d) Social attributes

Realizing their wishes and early personality development.

Recommending good and sound solutions to social problems.

Leadership, setting up groups, making teams and directing.

Diagnosing and understanding social problems correctly.

Showing interest in high values like social justice, beauty and truth.

Possessing virtues.

High-level sense of justice.

Self-trust and decisiveness.

Preferring older friends.

All of the characteristics listed above may not be found in each individual student with superior intelligence. It is the accepted view that these students will display a superior performance in one or more of these fields. Those with superior characteristics who are supported with a good environment and strong education can emerge as ‘geniuses’ in society years later.

Characteristics of Teachers

Personal Character

They have strong egos. They are honorable, proud and strong willed; they give value and trust to the selves. They give as much value and importance to others as they do to themselves, and they respect, support and trust others.

They have above average intelligence.

They are flexible and open to new ideas.

They are interested in intellectual, literary and cultural subjects.

They strive for more knowledge and renewal; they are obsessed with success.

They are full of love, eagerness, effort and willingness.

They have strong intuition and are sensitive and understanding.

They seek perfection and are committed to it.

They act consciously and take on responsibility.

Professional Tendencies

They guide rather than using pressure and force.

They prefer to be democratic rather than authoritarian.

They concentrate on the process more than the results.

They favour novelty and experiment rather than rules and tradition.

They act quickly to achieve specific results and can solve problems.

Rather than answering questions, they use the method of securing answers from others.

Teaching Behaviour

They develop and implement programs of their own that are flexible and emphasize the desires of the individual.

They develop a warm, welcoming and tolerant atmosphere.

They implement strategies differing from one individual to another.

They respect people’s images and support positive behavior; they respect their beliefs and values.

They keep the lesson’s intellectual level high.

They respect individualist behavior and personalities.

While being in full control of the subject matter they are handling, they don’t neglect to renew themselves and broaden their horizons.

They believe in, trust in, and co-operate with their students.

Even if would-be teachers of students with superior intelligence do not possess all the characteristics mentioned, with time and training they can acquire them. The development of a sufficient number of them will take time and commitment. Generally a certain period of professional experience, the impression made during this experience and its results can be accepted as criteria in qualifying teachers for exceptionally gifted students. Other steps to be taken in the training of teachers for this field are seminars in university educational psychology departments in order to pass on the latest developments and to make it easier for teachers to get to know their students and so guide them effectively. Also special certificate programs or masters and doctoral programs can be set up. In the USA minimum qualifications for teachers in these schools are a doctoral degree and two years of professional training.

In the West, the theory of evolution continues to be promoted as if it were a proven fact or a secure, testable and tested law-something that no-one in their right minds questions any more. This presentation implies that there is no room, let alone any need, for discussion. The most common media cliché is that the evolutionary chain has been confirmed yet again by yet another discovery of the missing link proving human ancestry from apes. Faced with this kind of promotion and presentation, and the sheer pervasiveness of it, it is no surprise if non-specialists come to accept that the theory must be true, and that it must be accepted by all the specialists, the whole scientific community, with no serious doubters. However, that perception is far from the reality. In the first place, the theory lacks completeness on two major counts and there is no likelihood of these deficiencies ever being made up. In the second, there are major voices of dissent from within the scientific community, alongside alternative theoretical explanations which demonstrate a far superior conformity with observed or experimentally obtained data.

The origin of life

To have any enduring claim to viability the theory of evolution must explain the origin of life in its own terms. It must be able to answer the question, ‘How did life evolve from non-living forms?’ It needs also to explain how the notion of ‘selection for survival’ operates before life exists, to explain how ‘life’ is the best way for non-living forms to exist longer. Just as the theory tells us that, because rhinoceroses with the thickest skin did best in battles with other rhinoceroses, over aeons of time rhinoceroses evolved skins as thick as skins can possibly get while still functioning as skins-so too, it needs to tell us how life is an adaptation. If it is, what is it an adaptation to? Moreover, if life is an adaptation, why is it the same across the whole range of living forms (animal or plant or in-between)? We have innumerable varieties of living forms (adapted, we are told, to different conditions of climate and competition for food resources) but we do not have different varieties of being alive. Is that what we should expect? Should we not expect that the creatures who lived longest (and had offspring the least often) would have out-survived all competition, until eventually they lived so long it was for ever? Or, vice-versa that those who lived the shortest lives (and therefore had more offspring more often) eventually fell back, after aeons of trial and proof, into hardly being alive at all individually, but merely replicating themselves? In fact, of course, the same climate and conditions of competition for food resources support both relatively long- and relatively short-lived forms at every level of complexity and thoroughly intermingled within even the same individual life-form.

Life rests upon an infinitely precarious equilibrium among the proteins, the building blocks of life, found in the simplest to the most complex of living forms. Denying the existence of a conscious Creator, the theory of evolution cannot explain how this equilibrium was established and protected. The theory proposes chance and coincidence as the only scientific way to think about the question. But a scientific way of looking at a problem must have at least some likelihood of being true, if we are to expend energy fruitfully on verifying or falsifying it. In other words, a hypothesis must be reasonable to start with so that we can test and judge it. It must not be irrational: the appeal to chance and random coincidences is nothing if not an abandonment of reason. A protein is made up of the combination of on average 1000-1500 aminoacids in 20 different types in a certain sequence. Even a single error in that sequence renders the protein useless. There is zero probability of this happening by chance, not even if the universe is billions of light-years wide and long. One of the foremost advocates of evolution, the Russian scientist A.I. Oparin confesses this impossibility in his book The Origin of Life (pp.132-133). Even the simplest of these materials (proteins), consisting of thousands of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms, each with a unique design presents highly sophisticated structure. For those who study the structure of the proteins, it is as hopeless for these proteins to have formed by chance as for the Aeneid (the long Latin epic by Virgil) to have been composed by random association of the letters of the Latin alphabet.

Another evolutionist scientist has offered a different analogy with the same conclusion. The probability of a chance formation of only one of the proteins required for life (Cytochrome-C) may be likened to the probability of a monkey writing out the history of humanity by randomly pushing the keys of a typewriter.

What evolution theory defends is exactly this nonsensical assertion. Yet, the examples above are only the probability calculations for the chance formation of a single protein. However, millions of similar impossible coincidences should have been realized consecutively in order for the evolution of life to be effected.

The probability of chance formation of a Cytochrome-C sequence is a low as zero. If life requires that certain sequence, it is likely to be realized only once in the whole life-time and space of the universe. Now it could be proposed that some metaphysical power(s) beyond our definition consciously enabled its formation. But to entertain such a proposition is, apparently, not appropriate for the modern enterprise of science. Therefore we have to fall back on the first hypothesis as the best we have at present.

If, as it appears, the theory of evolution is not justified by the information we have, how does it survive? Has questioning it become, among the specialists, a taboo which they violate at the risk of their reputation and their careers? If so, why? We will return to this question.

The problem of transitional forms

Another of many difficulties with the theory of evolution is that the theory requires there to exist or have existed in the past transitional forms. For example, if the theory claims, as it does, that life originated in the sea and then sea creatures were driven (by some force, let us say, a climatic change like a fall in sea-level) to move on to dry land, the theory must produce evidence (or at least convincing argument) of the transitional forms between the sea-creatures and the land-creatures they evolved into. Our present experience of, for example, fish, is that if they come out of the water, they very quickly die. We have no reason to believe that fish were so radically different aeons ago from what they are now. If anything, the evidence is all the other way: that fish as fish were the same then as now. So how could enough of them have lived long enough in shallow-water or no-water to establish in their gene pool the skill to evolve gills into lungs? Nobody can say that maybe some of these fish happened to acquire a lung at the end of the four-millionth year while they were in the throes of death. It is entirely nonsensical. But this nonsense is exactly what the evolutionists assert. The same problem arises when we look for transitional forms between land-bound reptiles and flying birds.

Some allegedly extinct intermediate transitional forms have turned out to exemplify only the temptations of forgery and distortion in the service of falsehood into which some scientists have allowed themselves to fall. For instance, the fish Coelacanth (Rhipitistian Crossopterigian) presented by evolutionists as a transitional form between marine and land creatures, and supposedly extinct about 70 million years ago, was found alive and well in 1939 near Madagascar, and has been caught about 50 times since in the open seas. Furthermore, the organs that prompted the evolutionists to present the coelacanth as the transitional intermediate form (inner ear alcoves, head typed backbone and swimming bag), do not have these properties at all. The same is true for other fossils presented as transitional intermediate forms. The well-known nature scientist A.H. Clark acknowledges that, since we have no single evidence indicating a transition between fossils and living groups, we must accept that such transitional forms never existed.

A well-known genetic and evolutionist, Richard B. Goldschimdt admits that there is no such a thing as the transitional intermediate form. He explains the differences in species by sudden leaps. Now to say that a species originated all of a sudden is tantamount to saying that it was consciously originated or ‘created’. Although the evolutionists are embarrassed on scientific platforms, they do not have a hard time deceiving the ordinary person in the street, because the theory is so well-packaged. You draw an imaginary schema representing transition from water from land, you invent Latin words for the animal in water, and for its descendant on land, and you draw sketches of both (both wholly imaginary constructs), and the package is completed or, as we should rather say, fabricated. ‘Eusthenopteron transformed into first Rhipitistian Crossoptergian, then lchthyostega in a long evolution process.’ If you put these words in the mouth of a scientist with thick glasses and a white apron, you are half way to convincing most people. For the great many people who see reality through the media packaging of it, this kind of presentation is good enough to be truth: it is easy to believe, it makes no demand on consciousness, or reason, or conscience: we are all here by chance, we are not here by the will of a Creator to Whom we are answerable.

The most common package is, inevitably, the one that relates to

human beings. A central feature is the string of related sketches (all imaginary constructions) of an all-ape, three-quarters-ape, half-ape/half-man figure, gradually ending in a drawing that looks more or less like a European male of average build and features. This is offered as our story, our beginning long ago, our present being now. This string of sketches will be found on virtually every classroom wall, from primary schools to secondary schools and in every popular textbook or encyclopaedia which touches upon the subject, and in the form of stuffed exhibits in every science museum in the West.

In these drawings, half-ape half-human creatures are seen as a family. Having a hairy body, a slightly bent walking posture, and a face in between a man and an ape, these creatures are supposedly drawn from the fossils found by the evolutionist scientists. But the fossils found give information only about the bone structure and skeleton, and examination of the teeth will reveal information about the probable range of diet.

The fossils tell us nothing at all about how hairy the body was that hung upon those bones, nor what kind of nose, ears, lips or hair would once have rested upon the particular skull. But the evolutionists’ sketches picture do, almost always, show the organs like nose, lips and ears, and these are drawn (to fit the theory) and do indeed show something half-man, half-ape. This is not science, it is fiction or, more precisely, it is myth. Another support for this fiction, and another proof that it is fiction, is that the same bundle of bones can give be made to give rise to quite different re-constructions, depending upon the particular theorist’s preference: for example, the three totally unlike re-constructions of the fossil called Australoplthecus Robustus (Zinjanthropus). There is certainly a power behind these presentations of the theory, but it is not the power of reason disciplined by facts and evidence, but the power of myth-making imagination inspired by a particular ideology.

The ideological background to the theory

In order to understand why the evolution theory is promoted and defended so insistently, we need to look to the historical background behind it. Until the modern period, the intellectual life of Europe was basically subject to the authority of the Church. Starting from the 16th century, the order justified and underpinned by the authority of religious beliefs and principles started to conflict with the interests of certain social groups. Acquiring great wealth through commerce but having no political power, these groups began a long struggle to limit the authority of the Church. They did so not only on the political and social fronts but also on the philosophical front: religious beliefs and the authority of religion had to be weakened before the social-political system underpinned by religion could be radically reformed. Almost all the 18th century ‘enlightenment’ intellectuals and 19th century positivists came from these secularising groups and were funded and supported by them. (The French Revolution was the biggest single social transformation realized by their machinations.)

The space opened by the weakening or elimination of religious beliefs was filled by new ideologies generated by the same social groups. The first ideology was liberalism, followed by socialism which developed as a reaction to it. Later came fascism meddled with racism. Despite containing some opposing ideas, these ideologies were all by-products of the new secular system and stood on the same anti-religionist ground. None of them spoke of the man’s responsibility before his Creator or the obligation to organize personal and collective life according to His guidance. Conversely, the principles that necessitated belief in religion were harmful to the new ideologies. One of the most important of these principles is that man was created, as the Church had always held (following the same belief in Judaism), by God in His own image, for the purpose of doing His will and worshipping Him.

It was very noteworthy that communism, the most radical and outspokenly anti-religious of the modern ideologies, showed a particular zeal for the theory of evolution. Karl Marx wrote of Darwin’s Origin of Species in a letter to his comrade Friedrich Engels (dated December 18, 1860) that this book presented the natural-historical basis for their critique of capitalism (Marx and Engels’ Letters, vol.2, p.426).

Darwinism laid the basis for fascism which is one of the by-products of the new secular order. Holding some human races superior to the others, this notion proposed that some races were in advance of others in the evolutionary process. This trend called Social Darwinism inspired many racists from Arthur de Gobineau to Adolf Hitler. Darwin himself prepared the ground for racism by proposing that the white man was more advanced in evolutionary terms.

Besides communism and fascism, the capitalist ideology dominant in the Western world and now in nearly the whole world, needs people to believe in evolution. To undermine people’s commitment to religion and moral principles, to reduce their aspirations and relationships to merely economic ones, it was necessary to convince them that man was not created by God as a morally responsible being. It is very noteworthy that major capitalist dynasties like Rockefeller and Carnegie come first among those who have granted funds and other support to the flourishing of Darwinism in the U.S.A. Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson, in their book The Hidden History of the Human Race, explain how the Carnegie Institution was virtually aiming for the victory of the scientific cosmological vision over the old religious cosmologies. The Rockefeller Foundation supports the same materialist cosmology and serves the mission of ‘modern civilization’, aiming to confine the concepts of God and spirit to the mythology museum. The evolution propaganda promoted in the distinguished media organs of the West, and reputable science journals is a consequence of this ideological requirement.

Conclusion

No ideological program, whatever the illusions of its supporters, and whatever their means of promoting and packaging their untruths, can survive for ever. Precisely because man is God’s creature, made for nobility of being and action, he must and will seek truth, albeit temporarily deviated.

All the information revealed by modern biology shows that the origin of life, especially the molecular structure of living creatures, cannot be explained by coincidence in any way. The transcendent consciousness ruling over the whole universe is the ultimate evidence of God’s existence. As a matter of fact, some eminent names in microbiology have come to the point where they cannot defend evolution any longer. Instead, another theory has begun to get a long overdue hearing among these scientists: the theory of conscious design. The scientists defending it remark that it is very evident that life has been created by a conscious designer.

These words attempt to pierce the veil of habit that develops in our minds from not looking into the reason for things. The perfection of the order operative in the universe is of such a degree that it prevents us from being aware of it. In the same way, we only become aware of the faultless operation of the watches we have worn on our wrists for years when they stop working.

In the world-view developed upon the foundation of Newton’s laws of motion, the universe was likened to a flawlessly operating watch. Events were tied to one another in a cause-effect relationship and our knowing the laws of this relationship allowed us to predict events with great accuracy. It was possible to determine with mathematical exactness a wide range of phenomena, from the times of eclipses of sun and moon to the amount of fuel and the speed needed to put an object into orbit around the earth. The success of these ‘natural laws’ led many people to believe that they completely expressed and ‘ruled’ the whole order of the universe.

Because God creates and sustains all things and events from behind the veil of universal general laws, because certain events (causes) are followed reliably by similar events (effects) each time they (the causes) occur, it begins to be supposed that the causes are responsible for or ‘create’ the effects. This is, of course, a gross error, as no number of causes suffices to create even a little effect; for every event even the tiniest, the whole universe must be presupposed first, including the laws operative within it. Moment by moment, all things and all events are created and sustained by God, Who wills from an infinite range of alternative possibilities a particular actuality.

The clockwork model of the universe derived from Newtonian or classical physics is not a complete account of the phenomena which we observe in the universe. Already in the late 19th century, scientists had been bewildered by the lines that turned up in the light spectra emitted by heated gases: the steady, stable clockwork model predicted did not happen. Also, there were problems explaining the behaviour of light: sometimes it made more sense as a beam of particles, sometimes as a wave.

Today our understanding of the universe is very far from the ‘clockwork’ model. The shift in understanding occurred in the first quarter of the 20th century, beginning in 1900 with the publication of Max Planck’s work on radiation. The problem Planck worked on for six years was that the actually measured radiation from hot bodies did not conform to the values predicted by the classical theory. He put forward the suggestion that bodies radiating energy did so, not evenly and continuously, but unevenly and discontinuously in tiny packets or ‘quanta’. So startling was this suggestion that, despite confirmation by experiment, Planck himself thought of his theory as solving the problem of radiation by a sort of trick.

But then, in 1905, Albert Einstein published an article using the notion of packets of energy of definite sizes to explain how electrons are ejected from metal when light (radiation) falls on it. Whereas classical theory had predicted that the voltage (measure of the energy of the electrons ejected) would be proportional to the intensity of the light (radiation), Einstein showed that it was proportional instead to the frequency of the radiation. The conformity of this explanation with experimentally observed results gained Einstein the Nobel Prize. (Einstein didn’t receive the prize for his famous theory of relativity.) The significance of these findings and theories was not fully appreciated at the time.

A few years later in 1910, Ernest Rutherford did a ground-breaking experiment. He bombarded a thin layer made up of gold atoms with high energy particles and showed that the atom contained an extremely small positively-charged nucleus with negatively-charged electrons moving around it. Following the classical physics model, these electrons should have been small particles orbiting the nucleus in the same way as the planets orbit the sun, steadily losing energy until they fell on to the nucleus-in other words, the atom should have been unstable. Again it was a rejection of the classical model, three years later, by Niels Bohr, that helped solve the problem. Bohr argued that the electrons must move in fixed orbits until deflected by the absorption or emission of a unit of energy.

Atoms emit radiation after various external signals and only at specific wave lengths. As Einstein said, every different color of light is composed of energy packets inversely proportional to its wave-length (frequency). Because the Planck constant (h) is very small, the energy of these packets is also very, very small. For example, a normal light bulb emits 1020 light packets (photons) a second. Each of these photons is created when an activated atom or molecule passes to its normal or ‘basic state.’ Thus light, which allows us to see and which is a basic building block of life, develops as a result of the motions (in wave form) of electrons. The concepts of classical physics could successfully explain many of the events of daily life, but it couldn’t explain events on the subatomic level.

During those years (1910-1925) physics fell into a state of

confusion because of the many measurements that conflicted with general theory and could not be explained by it. This situation was to lead W. Pauli (later to discover the principle fundamental to the understanding of the structure and characteristics of elements) to say he would rather have been a singer or gambler than a physicist. Actually in order to explain the observations being made, the whole way in which physical events had been understood required fundamental revision by wholly new methods. This was achieved by Werner Heisenberg, a 24 year-old physicist described by his teachers as a person who dealt with the essence of a subject rather than getting bogged down in detail, a person with powerful concentration and ambition. Perhaps the success of this young mind can be explained by the critical perspective he developed through reading the works of great men such as Kant and Plato, which was later supported with sound knowledge he got from great physicists. Heisenberg, who relaxed from work by climbing rocks and reading poetry, said: ‘It was around three in the morning when the calculations were completed and the solution to the problem appeared in front of me. First I experienced a great shock. I was so excited that I didn’t even think about sleeping. I left the house and, sitting on a rock, I waited for the sunrise.’

Like the other scientists who established quantum physics, Heisenberg was a philosopher-physicist. The philosophy he accepted and advocated that allowed him to interpret atomic events is as follows: ‘Even though it is successful with classical physics, the language we use to explain physical events in the atom or its surroundings is insufficient. For this reason, after making a specific measurement in a quantum system (for example, an atom), using that knowledge we can get a theory that will tell us what kind of results we can find in the next measurement. But it’s not possible to say anything about what takes place between the two measurements.’

What pushed Heisenberg to make such a statement was that the mathematical tools he used to develop a theory that could explain the observed discontinuity of energy in light and atoms were abstract concepts that had not been used before. In classical physics the numbers we know were used to give value to matter’s position, speed, size, etc. In Heisenberg’s quantum mechanics, these sizes were expressed with infinite dimensional n x n matrices which enabled physicists to calculate the properties attributed to electrons (energy, position, momentum, angular momentum) in an approximate way. Because these abstract mathematical expressions didn’t have an equivalent in everyday spoken language, it wasn’t possible to approach them with a classical understanding. It was observed that in order to measure the position of an electron, the experimenter necessarily altered its velocity. This problem was formally expressed in 1927 in Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principle.

Independently of Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger made another significant breakthrough in mathematical description of electrons. Inspired by the hypothesis put forward two years earlier by De Broglie about the wave properties of matter particles, Schrodinger developed a ‘wave mechanics’ by which the movement of particles could be calculated. (figure: 1) But the fundamental question remained as to what these strange and original ‘waves of matter particles’ or ‘waves accompanying matter particles’ were.

The mathematical formulations devised by Heisenberg and Schrodinger are complementary in the sense that physicists use whichever best resolves the particular calculations they are trying to make. There is no formally distinct space between the scientists and the phenomena they are seeking to understand and manipulate: their means of observation and manipulation (the mathematics) in some sense ‘posit’, put in place, the very phenomena whose place (among other properties) they are trying to determine. Alongside the notion of an infinite array of rows and points, as invented by Heisenberg, to plot the position or motion of a sub-atomic particle, physicists and philosophers of physics have begun to speak of arrays of events or ‘stories’ to try to explain, in something resembling ordinary language, the ideas they are handling. This cannot be described as a world-view in the way that the Newtonian physics confirmed and sustained a world-view, but it is nevertheless a clear and distinct disposition which, instead of excluding God as the Force Who wound up the clockwork and then retired from His creation, admits the in-completeness and uncertainty of human knowledge as a structural element of reality-in other words, the uncertainty is not a function of our present ignorance (to be relieved by future knowledge), but an actual constituent of the way reality is.

Quantum physics, at least figuratively and metaphorically, has became a vehicle for the interpretation of such concepts as matter, beyond-matter, energy, existence and non-existence in a way nearer to Divine sources; and led to many physicists settling accounts with their conscience and turning towards God Who is understood to be simultaneously transcendent and immanent, there and here.

Sound of leaves

Beating in the ear with the force of strong, cold winds

A music of fall

The roses of poetical spring weep everywhere

Colours are plaintive

Nightingales in quiet lands lament

Single melancholy notes

Fountains are lost in thick mists of sorrow

Waters drip tenderly

Swans draw in their slender necks

In the search for spring

Plains groan in tears, hills weep in pangs of separation

Every sound is an elegy

Blue, green, pink and orange colours are in mourning

Each is groaning deeply

Like the last minutes of a life about to terminate

Every wail is a farewall

When looked to carefully, the end of the world is visible

What an alarming scene!

Spring and summer are each an enchanting memory

Lost in romantic fancies

Yet those fancies open to hopes stirring in the conscience

Diverse routes to the realms beyond

Eternity is sensed in each impression of transience,

Until man catches sight of it

Reason and logic are refined to seek out that other world

Reaching the realm of inspiration

Man feels the mysterious silence of death

Problems are resolved finally

Everyone sees the end of the way he treads

Kneels down trembling

Tongue-tied with dread of going into non-existence

Faith opens up a way to new horizons

Sobbing that his inevitable end is at last at hand

Every sends out lights

Thought falls into earth like a seed

To prepare itself for spring

It hastens to where it reaches gardens of Eden

To meet with the beloved

Without feeling pain or anguish

As treasured as a welcome bride,

One overflows with delight to feel eternity

As enrapturing as eternity itself

Fall is the sign that a new birth is on the way

Coming at the break of down

Hope resounds throughout fall without ceasing at all

Spring awaits a few steps away

For centuries scientists had accused religion of being a collection of dogmas and religious people of being dogmatists. However, only with the demonstration of the limitations of classical physics did they realize that they too had become dogmatically attached to their theories. As Bertrand Russell put it: ‘Newton’s law reigned for such a long time and explained so many things that no one believed that it would ever need correcting. But eventually it became apparent that correction was needed. Let there be no doubt about it, one day these corrections will need to be corrected.’ Science advances, if and when it does, by trial and error. In spite of this, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity which replaced the classical physics of Newton’s Law is treated in many circles as if it were absolute truth, and the fact that it will need revision is kept hidden from sight. It is quite probable that eventually it will give way to a new theory.

It seems that going to extremes in the pursuit of a single idea is a constant trait of human beings. Whereas, while there is a share of truth in each of these great ideas, they are not the only means nor the only expressions of truth. If we think of truth as a light at the centre point of a circle or a straight line, we see that the light will be reflected ray by ray to an infinite number of points on the circle’s circumference or along the straight line. Each point is touched by a ray of the truth and therefore each can be said to be true. However, the fact is that only the light of the truth in the centre never changes, since it is absolute in contrast to each point which is only a relative truth. What gives the relative truth its particular dimensions and properties, its relevance, is the nature of the receiving point, its own properties, time and conditions. This is true for the natural sciences, as much as for the social sciences; indeed, it also applies to fields of Islamic learning such as tafsir (commentary on the Qur’an) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).

But we may ask, Is there no permanent, absolute truth? Yes, this truth exists but it does so on the spiritual rather than the visible, external dimension of things. In fact, from one view even in the principles which relate to the spiritual dimension of things there are exceptions. These principles are not absolute, universal laws because, in their relevance to the visible, external dimension, they operate as general principles, that is, they admit exceptions. In respect of this difference between absolute and general laws, even science cannot affirm its laws, for example the law of cause and effect, absolutely. For this reason scientists say, ‘If the universe is in T1 condition at this moment, it cannot be concluded that a little later it will be in the same condition.’

We have already mentioned that the difference between absolute and general principles can be seen in the social sciences and even in the Islamic sciences like tafsir and fiqh. In the Realm of Unity, single and indivisible truth opens the door to countless relative truths in this material and quantitative world. For example, the Qur’an mentions good works as being virtues, as inherently and always of value. This is so, and yet we know that what are virtues under certain conditions and according to certain people may not be considered virtues under different circumstances, at a different time, by others. An administrator’s seriousness of manner may be considered to be dignity at work, but haughtiness at home. A weak person’s self-respect before a strong person is a quality to be praised, but the same quality in a strong person before a weaker one is considered undesirable. In the same way, what is an act of sin for one person can be a meritorious act for another. For this reason it was said, ‘Pious deeds of ordinary righteous people are the sins of those near to God.’ Again, an act that earns a single merit for one person can earn a million merits for another. Again for this reason, as long as there is no conflict with the essential literal meaning of a word and the rules of eloquence are considered and the rules of the Arabic language are not violated, the understanding of every authorized interpreter of every verse in the Qur’an can be listened to with respect.

The most obvious example of the manifestation of the relative truth of general principles in history is in the sphere of justice. In the absolute, justice would see personal rights and public rights as equal. But sometimes there is such a disturbance of the peace that it is not possible to protect either the rights of the individual or of the public, let alone both; sometimes, even fundamental rights to life and Islam’s basic principles are endangered. During such times relative justice, which sacrifices the individual’s rights for the sake of the public good, becomes necessary and application of it becomes absolutely mandatory. In Turkish history the administration by sultans and even the killing of sons and brothers in the Ottoman dynasty were demanded by relative justice, which, by virtue of the necessity of compelling circumstances, gains authority as if absolute justice.

In this earthly world there is such variety and abundance of colours, shapes, properties, times and conditions, that it is not possible to avoid relativism altogether. It is a reality of this world. Having understood that, we do also need truths which are at least close to absolute so that we can guide our lives by them. The absolute truth is that in the universe there is no real effect created by causes, and everything is in Cod’s hand. It is not predictable with certainty what will happen next, and our lives and the life of the world actually consist of this moment. Living this truth consciously together with faith and surrender to God, from the perspective of free-will given to man, we have also to give due recognition to the experience that causes do operate relatively reliably, though not absolutely, in this life. Because of this, the causes wrapping absolute reality like a shawl or veil, a veil of familiarity or habit, make life livable and thereafter, all technology and sciences get constructed on this veil. This is the broad region of human actions and observations where Newton’s classical physics has precedence over Einstein’s relativity physics.

Relativity is an important matter that reminds man of his vulnerability. The highest station a person who is climbing the ladder of Divine knowledge can reach by means of his heart is the station of amazement. As the greatest human being said, ‘We did not know You as we should, O Known One!’ and ‘How could I see Him; what I saw was light.’ Similarly, the scientist solves one problem, but opens the door to many new ones, and his trust in the century-old foundations of science suddenly falls through. The moment he says that he has found the truth, he sees that everything slips from his grasp. The fact of relativity makes him exclaim, ‘The only thing I know is that I don’t know anything,’ and this leads him, like a moth flying around a light, to eternally flap his wings around the light of unchangeable truth.

Relativity shows that absolute truth lies only in Revelation and never begins with man. It can be directly known only by Revelation. Therefore it is clear that man has an absolute need for religion and definite revealed knowledge. It has been seen in innumerable fields of activity that two people cannot agree on even a simple matter; thus, absolute truth can never derive from man and can only come from God. Man’s duty is to organize his living and dying according to the God-given truth at the point of belief. Understanding that human beings can only attain partial truth is also an acknowledging of the space separating multiplicity from oneness. In pointing to and yearning for the oneness beyond multiplicity, this understanding functions as one of the important proofs of oneness.

Relativity is an important measure for managing (learning to live peaceably with) the differences among professions, temperaments, schools and sects that have arisen in philosophy, teaching methods and religions. All dispositions, sects, schools and methods have a portion of the truth and none of them are absolutely wrong or false. The important thing is for them to be able to unite around a common point. When we look to the past and catastrophes from the perspective of fate, and when we look to the future responsibilities and divine orders from the perspective of free-will and opportunity, then it is possible even to reconcile the conflict between the fatalists and the proponents of unconditioned freedom of will.

The essential thing is to live believing that absolute truth when it touches upon this world, when it becomes relevant for us, is relative to us, conditioned by the points, circumstances, conditions receiving it. In the analogy given above, countless relative truths reflect the absolute truth located at the centre point of the circle or the straight line at innumerable other points according to the properties, colour and design of each. As long as people recognize, acknowledge, and defer to their own distance from the absolute truth, and don’t go beyond their human limits, unmanageable conflicts will not arise. But when people lose this sense of proportion about themselves and their capacity to know and propose the truth, when they take what is relative for what is absolute, they fall into errors with catastrophic consequences.

As was pointed out earlier (in previous issues), God is beyond all comparison and whatever we conceive of Him, He is different from it. We can only acquire some knowledge of Him, not of His Divine Essence, but His Attributes and Names, by meditating on His acts and creatures and studying them. However, in order to understand His acts, sometimes we have to resort to comparisons, as is allowed in the Qur’anic verse, God’s is the highest comparison. Thus, in order to get some glimpse of the relation between Divine Knowledge and Destiny and Decree, we may ponder the following comparison:

Suppose there is an extremely skilful man, who is an engineer as well as an architect and a builder. He wants to build a magnificent house. First, he must have conceived of what kind of a house he wants to build. This is the existence of the house in the builder’s mind. Then, the skilful man draws a detailed plan of the house. This is the existence of the house as an actual design or plan. Afterwards, he puts this design into practice and builds the house according to it. This is the material existence of the house. The house is recorded in numerous memories, and even if it is destroyed completely, it continues to live in these memories and in the mind and plan of its builder. This is the final form of the house’s existence and has acquired some sort of perpetuity.

Another, similar comparison.

Before starting to write a book, an author must have the full content or knowledge of the full meaning of the book in his mind. This is the existence of the book as knowledge or as meaning. The existence of something (as in the examples for the book or house) as knowledge or meaning, is its essential existence. Even if this knowledge or meaning is not put into words or into practice, it exists in the mind. Therefore, although it needs ‘matter’ to be visible in the material world and known by others, knowledge or meaning is the essence in existence, upon which material existence depends.

In order to make his knowledge on a subject or the meaning in his mind visible and known by others in the material world, the author must express it in words. So, before putting it in words, he arranges it in chapters, sections and paragraphs, that is, he makes a detailed plan. Then, he writes it out and gives it material existence. Even if the book is completely destroyed and removed from the earth, it continues to live in numerous memories and in the mind of its author.

Likewise, God has full and exact knowledge of the universe as a whole and with all its parts down to the minutest particles. In order to have a glimpse of the infinite extent of His Knowledge, we can ponder the verses whose literal translations are as follows:

It may be that you dislike a thing although it is good for you, and love a thing although it is bad for you. God knows, but you know not. (al-Baqara, 2.216)

Say: ‘Whether you hide what is in your breasts or reveal it, God knows it. He knows all that the heavens and the earth contain; and He has power over all things.’ (Al ‘Imran, 3.29)

With Him are the keys of the Unseen. None but He knows them. And He knows what is in the land and the sea. Not a leaf falls but He knows it; not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, nothing of wet or dry, but (it is) in a Manifest Book. (al-An’am, 6.59)

Say: ‘If the ocean were ink for the words of my Lord, assuredly the ocean would be used up before the words of my Lord were finished, even if We brought another (ocean) like it, for its aid.’ (al-Kahf, 18.109)

Even if He had not created the universe, the universe would still exist in His Knowledge. Since God Himself is beyond all time and space and all time and space is united in His Knowledge in a single point, and since His Knowledge does not depend on time and space, in relation to Him and His eternal, all-encompassing Knowledge, there cannot be things like precedence or posteriority or sequence or division of time. Time and space are only two dimensions of creation.

Everything eternally exists in God’s Knowledge. God knows all things with the exact peculiarities of each, and Divine Power clothes a thing in material existence according to Divine Will. This transference from Knowledge to the realm of material existence takes place within the limits of time and space. Knowledge and Will are two essential Attributes of Divine Being: God knows things; things exist in Knowledge, Will determines them with all their peculiarities according to a certain measure, and Power gives them material existence. The relation which we are trying to explain between Divine Knowledge and Destiny, is best expressed in the verse, the literal translation of which is as follows:

There is not a thing but with us are the stores thereof. We send it not down save in appointed measure. (al-Hijr, 15.21)

Divine Decree and Destiny in relation to registry and duplication

Everything which exists in Divine Knowledge in individualized form according to a certain measure or, if we may say so, as a plan or project, is in a Record which the Qur’an calls ‘the Supreme Preserved Tablet’ (al-Buruj, 85.21) or the Manifest Record (Ya Sin, 36.12). The Qur’an explicitly states that nothing befalls us save that which God has decreed or preordained for us (al-Tawba, 9.51) and there is not a moving creature on the earth, nor a flying creature flying on two wings, but they are communities like mankind, and that God has neglected nothing in the Record (al-An‘am, 6.38). This Record or the Supreme Preserved Tablet is a title for Divine Knowledge in relation to creation. We can also call it the original Register. In the ‘process’ of creation, this Register is duplicated. Its first, most comprehensive copy or duplication which comprises the whole of creation is called in the Qur’an the ‘Tablet of Effacement and Confirmation’ or the ‘Manifest Book’. While the Supreme Preserved Tablet or the Manifest Record relates to the originals of creatures in Divine Knowledge and the principles and laws of creation, the Manifest Book or the Tablet of Effacement and Confirmation is the reality and, metaphorically, a page of the stream of time. Divine Power transfers things from the Supreme Preserved Tablet onto the Tablet of Effacement and Confirmation. In other words, Divine Power arranges things on the page of time or attaches them in turn to the string of time. Nothing changes on the Supreme Preserved Tablet; everything is fixed there, but in the ‘process’ of creation, God effaces what He wills, and confirms and establishes what He wills. (al-Ra‘d, 13.39).

The second kind of duplication is like this:

After birth, everyone is registered in a registry of births. Then, according to the information in this state register of persons, everyone is given an identity document. Similarly, everyone is registered on the Supreme Preserved Tablet with all his personal characteristics, particularities, and future life-history down to the smallest details. This original register of everyone is copied out by angels, and the part of it which relates to the life of the body is encoded in cells as information or laws. However, for this information to be used or for the body to work and come to life, the spirit has to be breathed into the body. The other part of the copy of the original register which relates to man’s life as a conscious, intelligent being is fastened around his neck as an invisible book (al-Isra’, 17.13). During his whole life, man enacts whatever is in that book. However, that does not at all mean that Destiny or the pre-determination of a man’s life history compels him to behave in a certain way. As we are trying to explain, Destiny is some sort of knowledge. It is like this: for example, you send someone to a place to do some job. You have previously procured whatever he will need during that journey and given him necessary instructions to do the job. Since you knew in advance how he would behave in every step of his journey, you have recorded all the details of that future journey in a notebook and placed it in a secret pocket in the jacket of that man. He starts out unaware of the notebook in the pocket and behaves however he wills during the whole of his journey. Together with him, you dispatch two of your most reliable men to follow him wherever he goes, observe all his acts and record on a videotape secretly whatever he does and says and however he acts. On his return, you compare the video-tape recordings with the content of the notebook in his secret pocket and see that there is not the slightest difference between them. Afterwards, you call him to account for whether he did the job in accordance with your instructions and either reward him or punish him or forgive him.

As in the example above, God, Who knows everything in advance and is beyond all time and space, pre-recorded in registers the life-histories of all people to come to the world. Angels copy out the registers and fasten around each person his own record or register, which is what we call destiny or fate. God’s fore-knowledge and recording of whatever a man will do in his whole life never compels the man to do that. He acts of his own free will and does of his free will whatever he does. All his life is recorded by two angels, whom we call Kiramun Katibun (noble scribes). On the Judgement Day, the recordings of his life by these angels will be presented to him and he will be told to read his Book:

Every man’s book of life-history (fate) have We fastened around his neck, and We shall bring forth for him on the Day of Resurrection a book which he will find wide open. (It will be said unto him): ‘Read your book. Your own self suffices as a reckoner against you this day. (17.13-4)

Divine Decree and Destiny in relation to Divine Will

As pointed out above, God registers everything in His Knowledge in a record and gives it its own particular characteristics, appointing for it its life-span and provision. He also (pre-)records when and where one will be born and die and what one will do during one’s whole lifetime. All this takes place by Divine Will.

It is through Divine Will that everything and every event, whether in the realm of Divine Knowledge or in the realm of material existence, including man’s life, is (pre-)determined and given a certain course or direction. Nothing occurs beyond the scope of the Divine Will.

Consider that, for example, there are innumerable alternatives before an embryo in the female womb: whether it will grow as an animate being or come to the world or not, when and where it will be born, how long it will live, when and where it will die, etc. All beings are different from one another in complexion and countenance, down to the fingerprints, in character, in likes and dislikes, and so on, although they are all formed from the same basic elements. Again, for a particle of food which enters a body either in the stage of embryo or full development, there are countless alternatives where it will go and be settled. If, for example, a single particle which must go to the pupil of the right eye and be settled there, were to go to the right ear, this might result in an anomaly. Thus, it is by the all-encompassing Divine Will that everything occurs according to a miraculously calculated plan, and it is again by the Divine Will that there is a miraculous order and harmony in the universe. No leaf falls, nor a single seed germinates under earth, but God wills it to do so.

Man’s free will is also included in the Divine Will. Nevertheless, the relation between the Divine Will and man’s free will is not the same as that between the Divine Will and the lives of other things or beings. God Almighty has endowed man with the power of choice-free will-and, taking into account his future choices in life, (pre-)determined his life down to its smallest details. As explained above, God’s (pre)determination of man’s life and actions is like knowing them in advance. We should, however, add that the theistic conception of God is not correct. That is, God did not leave the universe to itself after He had created it. We are contained by time and space and therefore cannot draw exactly true conclusions about the relation between the Creator and the creation. Also, we are unable to perceive eternity; we have little true information about the material domain of existence. God is beyond all time and space; He is infinite and eternal. He holds the universe in His ‘hand’ and controls and manages it however He wills. However, in order that we might catch some glimpse of His actions and acquire some knowledge of Him and His Attributes, He places on His manifestations the limits of time and space. Other-wise, life would not be, nor could we have any knowledge of Him and the universe. Therefore, all the explanations we have made so far about His Will and Destiny, should be considered in the light of the fact that we can approach the subject only from within the bounds of this life, which is limited by time, space and matter, and also from within the bounds of our very existence.

In sum, the Divine Will dominates over the whole of creation, and nothing is or occurs beyond Its scope. It is by the Divine Will that there is a miraculous order and harmony in the universe, and everything and every event is given a certain direction and certain characteristics of its own. However, the Divine Will does not exclude man from having a free will.

Divine Decree and Destiny in relation to creation

There are two aspects of the relation between Divine Decree and Destiny and creation:

1. As a determining and compelling factor, except for the realm where man’s free will has a part, Destiny is absolutely dominant. Everything occurs, all events take place, according to the measure, determination, judgement and direction of Destiny. God is the absolute owner of sovereignty in the whole universe and He acts and disposes however He wills in His Kingdom. He does whatever He wills and no one can call Him to account for His acts. He is absolutely Just and Wise and also absolutely Merciful and Compassionate. Therefore, whatever He does is good and He never wrongs any of His creatures.

We cannot interfere with the operation of the universe: the sun always sends us heat and light completely independent of us, the earth rotates around itself and the sun; days, months, seasons and years come and go one after the other and we cannot do anything with respect to whatever happens in ‘nature’. There are innumerable instances of wisdom in all such acts of God, and they are all to the use and benefit of man, so what falls on man is to study and reflect on His acts and try to find the instances of wisdom in them:

In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are signs for men of understanding. Those that remember and mention God standing, sitting, and lying down, and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth. ‘Our Lord! You have not created this vain. Glory be to You! Protect us from the punishment of the Fire.’ (Al ‘Imran, 3.190-91)

Man should also reflect on whatever befalls him in his life. God never wills evil for His creatures, so, as the Qur’an explicitly states, whatever of evil befalls a man is from himself (al-Nisa’, 4.79); it is because of his sins. God allows misfortunes to strike man in order to either forgive his sins or promote him to higher ranks. But this does not mean that He always punishes a man with some misfortunes because of every sin of his; He overlooks many of his sins without punishing him.

2. The second aspect of the relation between Divine Destiny and creation concerns the religious injunctions and prohibitions, which relate to human free will.

While Divine Destiny is absolutely dominant and compelling in the part of existence where man’s free will has no part, such as the creation and control of all things and beings or animate and inanimate bodies, and the movement of planets and all ‘natural’ events or phenomena, in the human realm, It takes man’s free will into consideration. However, as God creates all things and events in ‘nature’, He also creates whatever man wills and does. This is so because God has honoured man with free will and prepared for him an eternal abode. Although He desires His servants to always will and do good and insistently invites them to it, He does not refrain from giving external, physical existence to their bad choices and evil acts, however displeased with them He is.

A team lead by Robert Costanza, the director of the Institute of Ecological Economics at the University of Maryland have determined the cost of services we receive in nature. Among the countless processes associated with the miraculous sustenance of life on earth, such as provision of water, air, nutrition from the soil and animals, maintenance of atmospheric composition at the optimal proportions and concentrations of oxygen, nitrogen and carbondioxide gas, the following are indispensable to our existence: 

• The hitherto undiscovered remedies to fatal diseases locked up in the leaves, petals or the bark of unrecognized plant species in the tropical forests.

• The continual succession of day and night whereby, during daylight, mass production of oxygen through plants provides the gas needed for respiration by animals.

• The apparent life-giving effect of rain, where once drought and famine stricken landscapes are transformed to magnificently lush greenery in a few days.

• Above all, the magnitude and rate of energy emanating from the sun cannot be priced since it is next to impossible to attain, if ever, a fraction of it on Earth.

If we stop and ponder for a moment about the services provided through the manifestation of life, we will realize that even our own bodily systems are a service at our disposal. Our bodies function, literally, without our voluntary intervention at any point from conception until our last breath. This is surely a marvel for those who see, but a miracle for those who understand. Certainly this obvious and aweinspiring fact of our state could not be ignored or even priced in monetary terms. A more crucial question we must address, however, is this: in the light of such priceless service for the maintenance of our lives what will be the repercussions for the abuse of such a valuable trust?

As stated by one marine biologist at Oregon State University: ‘This calculation is sufficiently startling that it should make us wake up and pay closer attention.’ (New Scientist, No. 2082, 17 May 1997).

Additionally, we must also ask why such gracious and extraordinary services are put at the disposal and under the dominion of mankind? If we consider ourselves to be the ‘most evolutionarily advanced species’, then the processes which we call ‘nature’ should have absolute power, knowledge and intelligence that is beyond our comprehension in order for them to be able to understand our needs, let alone provide for us. Can we claim that the trees we are able to cut down with such ease, have knowledge comparable to ours that they bear fruits which are not only a pleasure for our sight and taste, but also a dietary need? Or can we claim that the environment which is so vulnerable to human tampering is the direct source of life?

Hence, the so-called ‘natural phenomena’ are incapable of knowing how to support human life with its ultimate biological, social and psychological complexity. Therefore, these inanimate processes must be pre-programmed to exist and are reproducibly sustained with impeccable accuracy. Their existence is certainly out of our control.

The existence of man must therefore be for a very definite and special purpose. Man thrives and develops throughout his life through the means provided to him. These means, on which he is absolutely dependent, are also the means over whose function and disposal he has limited power. How should he then value these riches, and use them in the way they are intended to be used, for the purpose they have been created for?

Endowed with lofty faculties like the mind and the intellect, his essential duty entails his conscious obligation to take on the immense responsibility to recognise and understand the subservient world around him. Through disciplining and training himself he must express due respect and gratitude in direct response to the generous bounty representing his life, given to him by the One other than those processes. His responsibility is immense, but in which lies a huge recompense. He has been created in a way that he may deserve the benefits, but will he make himself deserving of it?