The purpose of our creation is obvious: to reach our utmost goals of belief, knowledge, and spirituality; to reflect on the universe, humanity, and God, and thus prove our value as human beings. Fulfilling this ideal is possible only through systematic thinking and systematic behavior. Thought will provoke action, and thereby start a œprosperous cycle. This cycle will produce more complex cycles, generating between the heart’s spirituality and the brain’s knowledge, and thereby develop ever-more complex ideas and produce larger projects.

Carrying out such a process calls for strong belief, consciousness, and understanding. People with these characteristics can realize and analyze the unreflective lifestyles of others. Such people think, do what they believe to be right, and then reflect upon their behavior, thereby continually deepening their thoughts and acquiring new ideas. They believe that only those who reflect deeply are productive, and that the pain and suffering they endure makes their belief stronger and more acceptable.

They live a life of reflection by observing creation every day, sometimes reading it like a book or embroidering their minds with the wisdom they acquire. Believing that the universe was created to be œread and understood, the purpose of our creation must be nothing but that.

On its own, existence is the very bounty that leads us to a prosperous path of bounties. Given this, we should appreciate its value. Since we were created, as was a whole universe of bounties, we must use these gifts and benefit from them.

To reach this goal, we must use our willpower, a voice heard by the All-Powerful One, and develop our abilities and skills to their furthest extent, thus proving ourselves to be willful beings. Our duty is to reflect upon our place in life, our responsibilities, and our relationship with this vast universe. We should use our inner thoughts to explore creation’s hidden side. As we do so, we will begin to feel a deeper sense of our selves, see things differently, witness that events are not what they seem, and realize that events are trying to communicate something to us.

I believe that this should be life’s real purpose. We are the most important living creation in this universe. In fact, we are more like its soul and essence from which the rest of the universe develops. Given this, we should reflect upon and observe it so that we may realize and fulfill the purpose of our creation. Our duty is to hunt for insights and divine joys in our hearts and souls, for only this way of life can move us beyond the frustrating endeavors of a totally materialistic and painful life.

What makes this painful life worth living is the joy we feel while moving along the path and receiving the gifts we are given. Those who walk this path are constantly delighted with various insights. They run enthusiastically toward their final goal like a river flowing to the sea.

We do not believe that happiness comes from temporary outer sources. True happiness comes from within, deepens along with our relationship with God, and turns into an eternal life in heaven … yes, this is how joyful we are. Our inner world is a realm of Divine insights, and our consciousness is a follower of these insights. As we beckon and wait all our lives for the slightest glimpse, our souls sing in utter pleasure: œOur hearts are your throne, O King! Welcome to our hearts! (M. Lutfi).

Our generation needs guides to teach us how to achieve such belief, thought processes, and happiness. Their guidance will allow our youth to enjoy being young and living upright lives. They will experience existence and non-existence as the same thing once they feel immortality in their souls; realize that they can do more than they thought in only a couple of seconds; see the afterlife reflected in everything and thereby witness endless life; discover that life is worth living; witness that all creation rises and sets in their souls; and journey through the dimensions of their souls, just like travelling through galaxies, observing infinity within the dimensions they reach during this mortal life.

Photosynthesis

To fully gain an insight into these interactions’ complexity, we must conduct an in-depth study and observation of the processes taking place. Initially, the sun’s released energy must be made useful to our body’s cells, for direct sunlight on its own is not useful. Energy from the sun, along with water from the soil and carbon dioxide released from all living organisms, synthesizes oxygen and sugars (including glucose) within the leaves of green plants. This seemingly simple but very complex process is called photosynthesis. Without the oxygen and glucose required to generate usable energy (in the form of ATP* molecules), no human or plant cells could survive, although some exceptions are known.(2) Hence, all photosynthetic organisms on Earth an indispensable sources of oxygen for all life-forms.

The two main sources of oxygen are rain forests and oceans, where green algae and photosynthetic bacteria live.(3) In fact, algae lying 120 meters beneath the Antarctic ice is fully equipped to serve life. These algae have been found in sponges with a system of fiber optics that allows them to gather the minute amount of light reaches the Antarctic Ocean’s murky depths and direct it to photosynthetic algae.(4) Given this, we must say that photosynthetic life-forms are in complete submission to and serve other life-forms, among them humanity.

Plant and tree leaves are optimally designed, both physically and biochemically, to generate vital oxygen and sugars. A leaf’s large surface area is required for the optimal interception of solar energy, while the thin cross-section is essential for the fast transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide in and out of the leaf.

Specific photosynthetic cells are arranged in between the leaf’s two protective epidermal layers. Carbon dioxide and oxygen molecules, under specific guidance, leave the leaf through specific pores flanked by cellular gates or guard cells situated underneath each leaf, as the leaf’s upper layer is covered with a protective waxy layer. This waxy layer is essential, for without it the leaf would dry up. For example, on hot days 100 gallons of water are lost from cottonwood trees.(5)

All evaporated water is collected as clouds (water vapor near the condensation point), from which pure, condensed water falls as rain. Likewise, all animals’ breath contains water vapor (released during the breakdown of glucose for energy release), which is also created as clouds and recruited as a moving source of potential water for all needy plants and living organisms.

Water’s continual recycling between the land and oceans to the clouds prevents wastage and provides a continually renewed source of fresh water to synthesize oxygen during photosynthesis. It also serves as a medium in which all biochemical reactions must take place in living cells.

Moreover, a leaf has no knowledge or power to generate oxygen and sugars, which are vital for all living cells, for it has never seen or experienced any direct contact. For carbon synthesis to occur, oxygen atoms must be torn from water and carbon dioxide molecules. This requires knowledge and power, since neither solar energy nor a leaf possess these. Also sugars, an indispensable food source for all life-forms, cannot be synthesized by coincidence in a weak and powerless leaf.

This complementary relationship indicates that all these simultaneous interconnections could only take place according to a program dictated through an all-pervading knowledge, willpower, and mercy. Likewise, only One with such attributes could subject, direct, and allowing these processes to continue.

Breathing

Moving at extremely high speeds (around 346m per second),(6) oxygen molecules released from such photosynthetic life-forms as plant and tree leaves, and bacteria and algae in the oceans, must reach the lungs of all living organisms. They also must be dissolved in water so that fish and other marine organisms can breathe. In fact, all of these processes must take place continuously so that each organism can live until its appointed time. This means that the oxygen molecules must be guided through the atmosphere and into each living organism so that each molecule’s optimal and perfect function may be carried out. Thus, although moving at extremely high speeds, each molecule’s function remains in the best and optimal manner.

Each lung is a highly delicate organ composed of millions of microscopic tunnels ending in tiny sacs (alveoli) encapsulated with a dense capillary (thin artery) network.(7) Oxygen molecules in the atmosphere are inhaled and brought to the sacs, which send oxygen (from within the sac) into the bloodstream, and carbon dioxide is diffused from the bloodstream into the sacs. Although the air we breathe contains a large proportion of nitrogen, it is mainly oxygen that is pulled through the sac’s wall, across the thin arterioles’ microscopic walls, and into the bloodstream’s red blood cells. Each oxygen molecule is then complexed and surrounded by a huge molecule of hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells). Although these processes take place very quickly, every step occurs with exceptional precision and accuracy.

To reach the trillions of functionally different cells, the red blood cells must be pumped there with a great force. Therefore, all oxygenated red blood cells coming from the lungs are directed immediately to the heart. This masterpiece works continuously from birth until death, pumping fresh blood from the lungs to the tissues, and simultaneously pumps oxygen-deprived blood from the tissues to the lungs.(8)

Red blood cells flow through the arteries with great force. When they reach the thinnest arteries (capillaries) at tissues that are only one-cell thick, they almost align in a single queue within the capillaries and move carefully until the oxygen they carry is diffused to the surrounding needy tissue cells. At the same time, the waste gas of carbon dioxide is diffused quickly from the tissue cells into the blood plasma. The red blood cells then are directed into the veins, loaded with waste gas, and sent back to the heart (this requires great energy, as the blood returns to the heart at a very low pressure). From here, the oxygen-deprived red blood cells are pumped back to the lungs to be oxygenated. In the lungs, carbon dioxide is directed out to the sacs and exhaled into the atmosphere.

As creation contains no waste and every existence is useful, this waste gas is recaptured during photosynthesis to create vital oxygen, thereby displaying an unprecedented example of complementarity. Thus solar energy is harnessed to generate oxygen and provides a means of generating energy beneficial to cells (chemical energy). The oxygen created in this process is taken through multiple steps and stages until it is made available to the cells.

Conclusion

Here, we see a clear manifestation of perfect bounty and grace, for the cells needs are brought to them from afar and with extreme care after going through multiple ordered steps that easily could be disturbed. One insight we acquire is that each step takes place rapidly yet accurately, and so must require an infinite power and knowledge to occur.

We, Earth’s most intelligent creatures must admit our relative inability and impotence to understand fully or even to control any of these perfect processes. Rather than behave according to our vested interests and suppose Earth to be under our control, we should seek to understand our responsibility to know that all of these processes are somehow connected with us and subjected for our benefit in so many ways that conscious gratitude and faithfulness are required.

Footnotes

1. http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/sol.html.
2. Richard Monastersky, Deep Dwellers: Microbes Thrive far below Ground, Science News 151 (29 Mar. 1997):192-93.
3. http://gened.emc.maricopa.edu/bio/bio181/BIOBK/.
4. http://www.sciam.com/0297issuehttp://0297scicit3.html.
5. http://gened.emc.maricopa.edu/bio/bio181/BIOBK/.
6. http://fermi.bgsu.edu/~stoner/p201/idealg/tsld009.html.
7. http://biology/01.ux.com/MiraCosta/HumanResp.html.
8. http://www.atlcard.com/pump.html.

1) Dialogue is only possible when we respect each other’s individuality. Thus, knowledge of others in their cultural setting is essential. By recognizing and accepting social, cultural, and religious diversity, an exchange of mutual values and union in collaboration, humanity ultimately will be led to unity.

2) Everything is actively involved in a continuous growth process toward a better world in an ever-higher intellectual and spiritual environment. This awareness that all people belong to the same family, through their common origin and destination, should lead to a higher universal responsibility to practice this awareness in our lives.

3) The inspiring role of the leaders of world religions, traditions, and other convictions is of prime importance in our effort to create a better world order in peace and justice. In their cultural and philosophical traditions, their churches, organizations and institutes are the organizations par excellence to proclaim and sustain universally accepted moral principles.

4) The tenets of world religions and other faith traditions have their roots in their native culture, have developed on the basis of their culture’s philosophical and moral concepts, and have approached and proclaimed the faith in transient expressions and culturally appropriate ceremonies. As pilgrims always on their way to new discoveries and subject to change, no faith community should claim exclusive representation of the Truth or superiority.

5) The world religions should move from their approach of converting to an approach of testifying. The essential elements of one’s own faith should be presented in a language understandable by the local faithful, so that dialogue between the world religions and faith traditions will lead to a better mutual knowledge and understanding, and to an exchange of mutual values. This will enrich one’s faith and that of others.

6) In the passionate search for the truth and a more comprehensive approach to spirituality, meditation should be re-evaluated and practiced to engender a deeper awareness of the Divine presence. Meditation crosses all religious boundaries and is universally shared and accepted. Silent meditation should be part of all interreligious encounters.

7) People involved in interreligious and intercultural dialogue must remain aware of and concerned about our world’s escalating ecological, social, economic, and financial problems.

Accepting these seven guidelines could become a major stepping stone to a union, in collaboration between the world religions and other faith traditions, that transcends doctrinal differences. Such a dialogue in collaboration with the political world would be the most effective contribution toward more efficient solutions to the world problems. At the same time, it would be an important stepping stone to a new world order of more peace and justice for all.

Elucidation Summary

Par. 1: Real dialogue is possible only in the presence of mutual knowledge and acceptance of cultural and religious values. Racism can be described as intolerance and non-acceptance of other cultures, with ignorance as its main cause. All opponents of racism argue for tolerance. However, tolerance implies discrimination, because one tolerates something that one wishes were not there. Given this, it should be replaced by acceptance of others in respect of the values inherent in their cultures, religions, and customs. Accepting others must mean more than tolerance”it should mean accepting them as members of the community without necessarily any loss of their unique identity.

Such mutual acceptance should integrate both sides’ values into a culturally richer community. Where there is respect, there will be willingness and even readiness to integrate some of those values to enrich one’s own cultural and religious values. Such respect for others requires a certain knowledge of the others’ history, historical and cultural development, ways of life, and other factors. Thanks to developments in communication technology, such knowledge is now readily available.

Par. 2: The recent trend of re-evaluating religion, spirituality, meditation, silence, and so-called soft human virtues can be considered in full agreement with the optimistic life-view of the Jesuit Father Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), as expressed in his main books on humanity’s slow but sure spiritualization progress, and with the Dalai Lama’s 1992 document The Global Community and the Need for Universal Responsibility.

The growth in common knowledge and an ever-higher intellectual heritage passing from one generation to the next has brought millions of people into contact with different cultures and religions. Our world is becoming multicultural, while the formerly mostly unilaterally decided national borders are losing their importance, as in the European Union (EU). Regional identity and languages are becoming more important in bringing people together.

One of the latest revolutionary trends is the political world’s overture to faith communities as partners and advisers in analyzing current problems. Jacques Delors, former president of the EU Commission in Brussels, has created inside the Commission a Forward Studies Unit to study the EU’s ethic dimensions. For the last 5 years, it has been organizing a yearly interreligious/interpolitical symposium in various European cities. Each time, some 120 people participated. The EU can be considered a forerunner in this field. Let’s hope that it will be followed by other governments.

Par. 3: In the individualistic West, there is a growing tendency to place the individual in the foreground as the decision maker in moral matters based on his or her individual conscience. This explains the attractiveness of the New Age movement and of innumerable new religious sects competing for followers in poverty-stricken South American and African countries. Many faithful Catholics and other Christians have lost faith in their churches as institutions, mainly because the highest authorities are slow to adapt to current needs and trends. Guidance from above remains an essential and irreplaceable element in people’s moral behavior. Nothing can replace the world religions as institutions.

The world religions, as institutions joining with the recent enunciations of free-thinking humanists that they also are a religious community, should unite globally in a union of collaboration to increase the effectiveness of their moral and ethical guidance in personal and worldly matters. Such a dream would receive the enthusiastic support of young people searching for a new ethical basis for their lives.

The ethical basis for such a union is available in the global ethic declaration of the Catholic theologian Hans Kung and his colleague Karl-Josef Kuschel of Germany. This global ethic, after vigorous discussion, was received enthusiastically, approved tentatively, and declared publicly at the Parliament of World’s Religions meeting in Chicago in 1993, which was attended by 7,000 religious and spiritual personalities from all world religions and traditions. Its main ideas are summarized in following three catch phrases:

– No human life without a world ethic for nations.

– No peace among nations without peace among religions.

– No peace among religions without dialogue among religions.

A second important ethical document is the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities, announced on September 1, 1997, by Tokyo’s InterAction Council and supported by the elderly statesmen of 28 countries. It can be considered an emanation of the Japanese and Eastern way of life, reflecting their cultural values and giving priority to responsibilities and duties above rights. It also is a most opportune addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Grassroots parish and social workers, peace promoters, and NGOs should be involved in this union.

Par. 4: It is a very opportune trend that Biblical exegesis, as practiced in Christian communities for the past 50 years, is now a part of most Christian communities. This is not yet the case in Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu communities.

It is now considered self-evident that Divine Revelation’s formulation is influenced greatly by the culture in which it originated, and that this form of presentation is not revelation itself. Although these presentations and interpretations undergo a continuous change appropriate to the believers’ ever-changing knowledge and ever-higher conscience level, the essentials never change. The revolution in Biblical exegesis from literalism to a culturally appropriate describing and relating interpretation, especially in Christian theology, is the most valuable evolution and development of the last 50 years toward interfaith dialogue and real inculturation. The liturgical changes in Catholic eucharistic ceremonies, such as replacing Latin with the local language, have been so many steps in this evolution of adaptation.

Accepting this position causes one to accept others as equals and limits, to a reasonable degree, any remaining feelings of superiority. These renewals also have been at the origin of the increasing number of interfaith dialogue meetings in the past 40 years, which saw one of its first happenings in Chicago’s international interfaith meeting, organized by the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893.

All of this has resulted in a growing understanding of other religions and cultures, and a growing mutual respect and acceptance of the values of others. This even has resulted in an integration effort of others’ cultural and religious values in one’s own faith-life as a rethinking and a deepening of personal faith. Advances in communication, as well as global migrations and the resulting inculturation process, have made a global interfaith dialogue possible.

Par. 5: Many of us accept the existence of a spiritual power or spiritual being, whether a person with a sublimation of human characteristics (compassion and love) or as a difficult-to-define karma or buddhahood, to which the spiritual existence of everything belongs as its origin and final destination.

Most religious scholars now admit that each world religion has its origin in a particular culture, of which the eternal truth’s wording and each religion’s religious ceremonies are a part. Culture changes over time, due to increased general knowledge, science, and lifestyles. Life, as it was experienced at the time of the founders of the world religions and other faith traditions, bears almost no resemblance to modern life and conceptions. Thanks to philology, archeology, and anthropology, we can better understand and interpret sacred texts and how they originated and developed in their contemporary contexts and surroundings.

Therefore, no faith community should claim to have the whole truth or be the world’s savior. Christians and Muslims, as well as other people of religion, should admit that claims of exclusivity have led to abuse.

Many fear that accepting other cultures or religions within their borders means losing their own values. In fact, each such encounter enriches one’s culture and values. A unification and further homogeneity of the world population, based on accepting and acknowledging the cultural values of others, enriches our own culture as well as the world’s culture.

This can be applied to religious perception. In the absence of claims to absolute truth, there is no need to convert others. As each world religion has its own unique values, passing them on to deepen the faith of others is an important element in drawing closer together. This realization also could end the rivalry between faith communities and allow people to choose the faith tradition they will follow. Such an acceptance and experiencing of these values and truths also will increase knowledge and perception of the Divine Mystery, the final and eternal truth.

Interfaith dialogue seeks to reach a better mutual understanding and to engage in common activities. Its main attitude is reconciliation in order to create a better and more peaceful world, to share the world’s resources more equally, and to help the underprivileged. Doctrinal, communal, or religious union should not be the real aim; rather, we should work for union in collaboration to do something together, to rise above discussions on doctrinal and ceremonial similarities and differences. Such union in collaboration is possible only in diversity and in conserving as much as possible our own identity in an increasingly homogeneous world. These are converging, not contradictory, developments. This is true for nations and countries where borders are becoming less important or even disappearing, and also for religions. It seems evident that such a union can be realized only by collaborating with each other in a common global range of activities.

Par. 6: The West’s growing contact with Hindu and Buddhist spirituality and meditation probably has contributed greatly to the recent interest in all kinds of spiritual practices, from yoga to Zen meditation and New Age meetings. Where the West has been used to more active prayers and active intellectual meditation as religious practices, the East has surprised us with other, more passive ways of approaching the inexpressible Divine Mystery. In their dictionary, there is no God as understood in the monotheistic religions. The Divine lives and is present in everything, especially in each person’s self. Buddhist and Hindu meditation and contemplation do away with the self to discover the real Self by becoming free of thought and desire, by becoming empty of the self so that the Self can reign. This way still might be reserved for a few, but the numbers of such people continues to grow markedly. Daily meditation can be practiced by anyone, for it is a matter of living in conscious awareness of others as members of the same family and of all the things around us. Just being aware helps us to concentrate on essentials, to eliminate stress, and especially to become aware of our brothers and sisters of the one Earth-family under the same Heaven.

Par. 7: The world religions and other faith traditions, given actual conditions, clearly are not ready to come to a unity of fusion. The unity that interfaith dialogue should seek is possible only in collaboration.

If the organizations active in interreligious/intercultural dialogue and in dialogue for peace really believe what they say they believe, then the most direct and efficient way to realize a one-voice world forum for all faith communities, the object of the United Religions Initiative, would be for the main interfaith and peace organizations (e.g., the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the World Conference of Religions for Peace, the World Congress of Faiths, the International Association for Religion and Peace, and many others in Southeast Asia) to transcend their self-interests and join forces with the United Religions Initiative in a kind of federal combination. Then they could work to create this kind of global organization, whose most appropriate name would be the United Religions Organization, as a worthy collaborating partner to the United Nations. This would be the expression, reverberating throughout the world, of a real human spirit of mutual love and compassion, and also of the Japanese and Eastern spirit of harmony in forgetting the self for the common welfare.

We introduce a new dimension to psycho-pathology’s one-dimensional and nonreligious approach to spiritual disorders. Along with chemotherapy, religious strength or spirituality, a lack of which is the real cause of depression, will serve as a radical solution. In short, we propose the cooperation of psychiatry and religion.

The Two Fundamental Causes of Suicide

Preparatory Causes: The most important preparatory cause is religious debility, for religion (especially Islam) protects one from depression and thus from suicide.(1) One who cannot comprehend creation’s purpose and does not fear or love God is prone to depression and so experiences trouble and discomfort. But one whose heart is content with remembering God and who always feels His presence, as He is closer than his or her carotid artery, cannot become depressed.(2) True believers cannot follow a path that might imply rebellion against God; rather, they thank God and rely on Him during abundance and poverty.(3)

Humanity was created for a reason. This worldly life is ephemeral and a test to differentiate the good from the evil. Believers endure and continue to struggle. Besides, humanity is created with these feelings.(4) Those who read and understand the Qur’an properly will overcome their depression.(5)

The carnal self (nafs) urges evil, unless God has mercy on that person.(6) Thus a self that is not controlled by religious training stimulates evil (including suicide) and rebellion against God. Suicide is the result of the self working with Satan to urge the subconscious toward evil. Those who fear God and train their self can avoid this trap.(7) Perhaps Freud meant carnal (nafs-related) desires and feelings when he stated that the subconscious is full of evil desires (pan-sexuality). Perhaps what he called the œid was actually a perception of the carnal self. Perhaps his distance from any religion, especially Islam, caused him to characterize it incorrectly.(8)

Stimulating Causes: Weak faith, the primary cause, leads to depression and desperation. Islam prevents this and thus deters suicide.(9) Poverty and forlornness are the most important stimulating (secondary) causes. Even the Prophet sought refuge in God from poverty.(10) Materialists who cannot reach their financial or materialistic goals are likely to become depressed and commit suicide.

Although suicide has many causes, I consider economic causes paramount. Moreover fractiousness, the primary cause of divorce, is economic helplessness. But although suicide is inconsistent with human dignity and thus rebellion against God, its rates continue to increase.

People commit suicide for various reasons. Table 1 and Figure 1 show that suicide rates are highest in communist or former communist societies. This is due to the lack of spiritual and religious training and a long-standing policy of inculcating atheism and anti-religious sentiment.

For underdeveloped and developing countries, the reason is not primarily poverty. But for prosperous countries, which offer many opportunities to their people, the reason is the perceived spiritual and moral hollowness in the eyes of those searching for spiritual satisfaction. Thus they are more inclined to commit suicide. The highly prosperous countries of North America, Australia, Norway, and Sweden have the highest suicide rates; Muslim countries have the lowest rates, thanks to Islam. In Muslim countries, the primary reason is economic in nature.

Conclusion and Solution Suggestions

More psychiatric clinics or antidepressant drugs are not solutions. Drug therapy might provide a temporary symptomatic relief, but not a radical cure. Given this, religious and moral education should come first when developing a cure. This can be realized with religious education in the triad of family, house of worship, and school.

Believers will not know fear or sadness or be unfortunate.(11) Seekers of salvation elsewhere than in God’s mercy, however, eventually become depressed due to fear or melancholy, the primary causes of suicide and depression in general.

Depressed people should be urged to transcend aimless rehabilitation activities and engage in those with a spiritual or religious meaning. Prayer is the most important activity, for it protects people from evil.(12) As depression and suicide are spiritual sicknesses, prayer could cure them. People experiencing spiritual and psychological distress often display a lack of willpower and concentration. Prayer is the perfect medicine for such ailments.

In addition, the deep and humble reverence forming the goal of each prayer represents the summit of meditation and reflection. Qur’an 23:1 says that such prayers saves people. Those who pray also gain spiritually and economically: Thousands of stressed-out people flow into meditation centers, but prayer will discharge them with no cost and will gain God’s consent.

In conclusion, religion is as a shield that prevents evil, including suicide. Given this, psychiatry and religion must cooperate. In either diagnosis or therapy, success lies in such a cooperation.

Footnotes

1. Islam literally means peace, bliss, security, and soundness, and is the religion with which God is content. See Qur’an 3:19, 20, 83, 85, 102; 4:115; 5:3.
2. Qur’an 2:165, 5:100, 13:28, 39:22, 43:36, 50:16, 57:4, 103:1-4; Ramooz al-Ahadith, 2:369 and 1:46.
3. Qur’an 4:29-31; Tacreed Translation, 12:1940, 1989; 9:1413.
4. Qur’an 3:14; 4:77; 6:32; 9:38; 10:4; 16:41; 18:46; 21:36; 23:115; 29:2-4, 45; 42:36; 45:21; 67:2; 68:5-6; 75:36; 76:2; 90:4; 91:7-10.
5. Qur’an 2:155, 177; 3:134; 13:24; 16:126; 28:54, 42:43; 51:56; 68:35.
6. Qur’an 12:53
7. Qur’an 2:168, 4:29-30, 6:151, 12:53, 39:53, 43:36, 79:40, 91:7-10; Ramooz al-Ahadith 2:369.
8. The Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines œid as œone of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is completely unconscious and is the source of psychic energy derived from instinctual needs and drives
9. Qur’an 12:87, 39:53; Ramooz al-Ahadith, 1:46.
10. Fath al-Kabir, 1:1285-89.
11. Qur’an 2:38, 274; 6:48; 7:35; 20:123; 46:13.
12. Qur’an 29:45.

Not a day goes by without the media mentioning a fundamentalist attack on modern society. Questions race through your mind: Who are these people? How and why did they come into existence? What are they trying to accomplish? Karen Armstrong, author of The New York Times bestseller A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, has written her latest book in an attempt to answer such questions from a position of empathy, instead of the more common one of crude judgment.

Armstrong diligently analyzes the evolving perception of religion from the 1500s to the 1990s by exploring fundamentalist movements in Judaism (Jewish fundamentalism in Israel), Christianity (American Protestant fundamentalism), and Islam (Muslim fundamentalism in Egypt and Iran).

Opposing the general perception that fundamentalism is inherently conservative and wedded to the past, Armstrong argues that it is essentially modern and highly innovative. She observes that people of the past developed two ways of thinking: mythos and logos. Mythos was concerned with what was thought to be timeless and constant in our existence: meaning. In the context of this book, it is defined as: Mythos (Greek): A mode of knowledge rooted in silence and intuitive insigh which gives meaning to life but which cannot be explained in rational terms. Logos, on the other hand, was the rational, pragmatic, and scientific thought that enabled us to function well in the world. Regarded as complementary ways of arriving at the truth, each had its own special area of competence.

But by the eighteenth century, Europe’s startling success in science and technology caused it to begin considering logos the only means to truth and mythos as false. Armstrong argues that fundamentalism, which interprets the truths of mythos as though they were logoi, is a response to modernity’s resulting attack on religion, a response rooted in the fear that modernity will destroy religion. She cautions, however, that such a reactionary fundamentalism reduces religion to an ideology that admits only one interpretation, thereby negating religion’s inherently life-valuing, positive attitude.

Armstrong builds her argument carefully. Starting from the life and world order of the premodern era, she traces how modernity came about and how people and societies reacted to it. It took the West nearly 300 years to become modern. Once it became established there, it was ruthlessly directed outward to the world at large. Faced with the West’s global hegemony, the peoples of the Middle East had to become modern in a much shorter span of time.

The author points out that modernism wears one face in the West and another one in the Middle East. In the West modernization was characterized by independence and innovation; in Egypt and Iran, however, it was accompanied by dependence and imitation.

Quick fixes for modernization did not work very well. She writes: Frequently, modern society is divided into ˜two nations’: secularists and religious living in the same country cannot speak one another’s language or see things from the same point of view. What seems sacred and positive in one camp appears demonic and deranged in the other. Secularists and religious both feel profoundly threatened by one another Although this separation was deeper in the Middle East, similar divisions have occurred in Jewish and Protestant communities.

Armstrong looks for a solution to this escalating spiral of hostility and recrimination. She writes that fundamentalists must remember religion’s more compassionate and life-valuing aspects, whereas secularists must embrace modern culture’s benevolent, tolerant, and respectful characteristics. Her wealth of comparative religious knowledge has interesting insights to offer both fundamentalists and secularists in this search for a better understanding of the other side.

Surely We created humanity of the best pattern. Then We reduced humanity to the lowest of the low, except for those who believe and do good deeds. (95:4-5)

In the following five points, we will explain five out of the thousands of virtues of belief.

First point

Through the light of belief, we reach the highest degree of perfection and become worthy of Paradise. On the other hand, the darkness of unbelief reduces us to the lowest level so that we become worthy of Hell. Belief connects us to our Majestic Maker, and our value derives from using our belief to demonstrate the Divine art and manifest the Divine Names. Unbelief breaks this relation, thereby veiling the Divine art and reducing our value to that of a mere and almost valueless physical entity, for we are no more than a perishable thing, a transient animal. We will explain this truth through a parable.

The value of the iron (or any other material) from which a work of art is made differs from the value of the art expressed in it. Sometimes they may have the same value, or else the art’s worth may be far more valuable than its material or vice versa. An antique may fetch as much as a million dollars, while its material is not even worth a few cents. If taken to the antiques market, it may be sold for its true value because of its art and the brilliant artist’s name. If taken to a blacksmith, it would be sold only for the value of its iron.

Similarly, each of us is a unique, priceless work of God Almighty’s art. We are His Power’s most delicate and graceful miracles, beings created to manifest His Names and inscriptions as miniature specimens of the universe. If we are illuminated with belief, these meaningful inscriptions become visible. Believers manifest them through their connection with their Maker, for the Divine art contained in each individual is revealed through such affirmations as: I am the work of the Majestic Maker, the creature and object of His Mercy and Munificence. As a result, and because we gain value in proportion to how well we reflect this art, we move from insignificance (in material terms) to beings ranked above all creatures. We communicate with God, are His guests on Earth, and are qualified for Paradise.(1)

But if unbelief is ingrained in us, all of the Divine Names’ meaningful manifestations are veiled by darkness and therefore non-expressive. If the artist is unknown, how can the aspects expressing the art’s worth be identified? Thus, most meaningful instances of that sublime art and elevated inscriptions are concealed. In material terms, unbelievers attribute them to trivial causes, nature, and chance, thereby reducing them to plain glass instead of sparkling diamonds. They are no more significant than any other material entity, self-condemned to a transient and suffocating life. They are no better than a most impotent, needy, and afflicted animal that eventually turns to dust. Unbelief thus spoils our nature by changing our diamond into coal.

Second point

Just as belief illuminates us and reveals the messages inscribed in our being by the Eternally-Besought-of-All, so does it illuminate the universe and remove darkness from the past and the future. We will explain this truth through what I experienced regarding the meaning of: God is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings them out of the layers of darkness into the light (2:257).

I saw myself standing on an awe-inspiring bridge set over a deep valley between two mountains. The world was completely covered by a thick darkness. Looking to my right, I imagined I saw a huge tomb. Looking to my left, I felt as if I were seeing violent storms and calamities being prepared amid tremendous waves of darkness. Looking down, I imagined I was seeing a very deep precipice.

In that dreadful darkness, my torch’s dim light revealed a horrifying scene. All along the length of the bridge were such horrible dragons, lions, and monsters that I wished I had no torch. Whichever way I directed it, I got the same fright. This torch brings me only trouble, I exclaimed, angrily casting it to the ground and breaking it. All of a sudden, the darkness was replaced by light, as if I had switched on a huge light by breaking my torch. I saw everything in its true nature.

I discovered that the bridge was a highway on a smooth plain. The huge tomb was a green, beautiful garden in which assemblies of worship, prayer, glorification, and discourse were being led by illustrious persons. The turbulent, stormy, frightening precipices now appeared as a banqueting hall, a shaded promenade, a very beautiful resting place behind lovely mountains. The horrible monsters and dragons were, in fact, camels, sheep, and goats. Praise and thanks be to God for the light of belief, I said, and then awoke reciting: God is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings them out of the layers of darkness into the light.

The two mountains are the beginning and end of this life, and the life between death and Resurrection. The bridge is the lifespan, between the two phases of the past (on the right) and the future (on the left). The torch is our conceited ego that, relying on its own achievements, ignores Divine Revelation. The monsters are the world’s events and extraordinary creatures.

Those who have fallen into the darkness of misguidance and heedlessness because of their confidence in their egos resemble me in the former state”in the dim light of a torch. With their inadequate and misguided knowledge, they see the past as a huge tomb in the darkness of extinction, and the future as a stormy scene of terror controlled by coincidence or chance.

The torch shows them events and creatures. In reality, these are subjugated to the All-Wise and All-Merciful, fulfill specific functions, and serve good purposes in submission to His Decree. However, they see such things as harmful monsters. These are the people referred to in: As to those who do not believe, their protecting friends are false deities. They bring them out of light into layers of darkness (2:257).

But if people are favored with Divine guidance so that belief enters their hearts and their Pharaoh-like egos are broken, enabling them to listen to the Book of God, they will resemble me in my later state. Suddenly the universe will fill with Divine Light, demonstrating the meaning of: God is the light of the heavens and the Earth (24:35).

Through the eye of their hearts, such people see that the past is not a huge tomb; rather, each past century is the realm of authority of a Prophet or a saint, where the purified souls, having completed the duties of their lives (worship) with: God is the Greatest, flew to higher abodes on the side of the future.

Looking to the left and through the light of belief, they discern, behind the mountain-like revolutions of the intermediate world and the next life, a feasting place set up by the All-Compassionate One at palaces of bliss in gardens of Paradise. They understand that such events as storms, earthquakes, and epidemics serve a specific function, just as the spring rain and winds, despite their apparent violence, serve many agreeable purposes. They even see death as the beginning of eternal life, and the grave as the gateway to eternal happiness.

Adapted from Bediuzzaman’s Twenty-third Word, First Chapter.

Footnote

1. For example, prayer is a form of communication with God, who speaks to us through Prophets, inspiration, or Scriptures.

What Is Symmetry?

Physicists usually define symmetry as the invariance under transformation. Simply put: Remaining unchanged after a change. The basic example is time“translation invariance, which states that the homogeneity of time symmetry leads to the invariance principle that nature’s laws always remain the same Thus, they are independent of when we measure them.

Let’s assume that we measure and record a pendulum’s movement today. If we do this tomorrow or even next week under the same conditions, we always will obtain the same result. Without symmetry’s principles, for instance the time“translation invariance, a computer built today most probably would not work tomorrow. We could not even build a computer, a calculator, or a watch, for nature’s laws would be in a state of random change at every moment. Nor could we guarantee that gravity would not turn into a repulsive force in the next moment.

Another basic example is the space“translation invariance. Space has the symmetries of homogeneity (being the same at every location) and isotropy (being the same in every direction). As a result, laws are independent of where we measure them, for whether we are in America or China, we use the same formulae: F= m.a, S= k.log W, E= m.c …

Why Does the Universe Behave the Same at Every Instant and at Every Point in Space“Time?

Materialists reply: Because laws under space“ time translations are invariable. This will bring another why, answered by: Because of homogeneity and isotropy. Such a pattern will continue, for each question is no more than an effect ready to be explained by a cause, and each answer (cause) will appear to be another cause’s effect.

Followers of Aristotle, Plato, Ibn-i Sina (Avicenna), al-Farabi (Al-Pharabius), or the Illuminist philosophers will urge you to keep asking why. The point at which you stop asking will be your destination, where you reach the initiator: God. All answers to your previous questions, when taken together, turn out to be attempts to attribute intermediaries or partners to God. If you ask those who believe in God’s Oneness and give causes no share in His Dominion, you will hear: The same laws, being seen at every point and at every instant, can be explained only if there is one God governing every point at every instant with His universal Will, absolute Power, and all-encompassing Knowledge. Thus all causes, bound to each other so that they can be understood, are bound directly to God, Who is not bound by space“time.

Why Is the Universe Accessible to Us through Laws?

While new symmetries were being revealed, skeptical scientists were wondering whether symmetry in nature’s laws on a macroscopic scale is valid on a microscopic scale.

Every symmetry is associated with a conservation law, the most important one being energy conservation. This implies a symmetry in time-translation. The validity of energy conservation has been proven on the microscopic level. One of the latest verifications is that in a perfect vacuum, particle and antiparticle pairs are created and annihilated constantly. In other words, microsized Big Bangs occur all the time out of the vacuum. This does not violate energy conservation or the laws of quantum mechanics. If they were somehow violated, and if we did not see the same concepts as the result of symmetries, the similar formalism, and the same techniques from micro- to macroscales, we could not comprehend the universe.

Consider Einstein’s amazement at this: The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. Even the most atheistic scientist accepts that the universe is not absurd. But why is universe comprehensible and accessible to us?

Atheists and materialists believe that we come into being from nothing, by nothing, and for nothing, and so consider such questions meaningless. However, people who unify everything in God’s name can assert: God cannot be comprehended fully by humans, and so wills to be comprehended and known through His art and the system and order apparent in the form of laws. We are here to comprehend, and the universe lies open. In the words of Paul Davies, author of The Mind of God, we are meant to be here.

What Is the Consequence of the Matter“Antimatter Asymmetry?

Existing theory says that every particle has a corresponding antiparticle. Physicists believe that particle“antiparticle pairs behave symmetrically, like mirror reflections of each other (mirror-reflection symmetry). In 1964 at Doe’s Brookhaven Laboratory, when a slight but definite asymmetry between a subatomic particle and its antiparticle was noted, physicists saw the breaking of symmetry in nature. It was time to ask why.

It is now thought that this asymmetry may be responsible for matter’s dominance in the universe. Our universe appears to be made entirely of matter. If there were substantial amounts of antimatter on Earth, we would be annihilated as we react with our antiparticles, for particle“antiparticle pairs annihilate each other when reacting and leave behind electromagnetic radiation.

Any explanation offered for this asymmetry must account for the asymmetry in the universe’s earlier periods, beginning with the Big Bang. Astrophysicists think that certain massive particles, formed soon after the Big Bang, decayed in such a way that slightly more particles than antiparticles were created. Even though this asymmetry’s exact origin is unknown, we do know that if symmetry were not broken, we would not be alive. Amazingly, the laws of physics allow life to exist.

Does Time Flow from the Past to the Future?

Time-asymmetry is perhaps the most fascinating. Even though all successful physics equations are symmetric with respect to time, we perceive time as flowing from the past to the future: Newton sees the apple fall down, people grow old, we throw the stone and the window is broken. Newton used a time arrow to distinguish between time’s forward and backward directions. Einstein preferred a time river that meanders as it passes massive objects. But this sounded unscientific: past, present, and future are only illusions.(1)

Roger Penrose, a prominent mathematician and quantum theorist, suggests that our perception of time as flowing irreversibly from the past to the future should have something to do with quantum mechanics and consciousness. This is quite similar to Einstein”but more scientific. Along with many others, Penrose and Hawking have discussed the issue at great length. Hawking says that the observed difference between past and future must come from the universe’s boundary conditions. Since the Big Bang was the beginning of creation of matter and energy, and space and time, the reason should lie there. They disagree on the underlying reason for time-asymmetry, but agree that the quantum theory of gravity is needed to describe the complete nature of space-time.

What Is Supersymmetry?

Einstein spent his last days trying to synthesize quantum theory and gravity to find a quantum theory of gravity. Despite great advances, such a theory remains elusive. This has guided them to the so-called theory of everything, which combines the four fundamental forces: nuclear, electromagnetic, weak, and gravitational. Theories describing the unification of the nuclear, electromagnetic, and weak forces are called grand unified theories (GUTs). The unification of these forces require the unification of symmetries, known as supersymmetry.

However, a large problem arises when trying to add gravity. This is because gravity is located in the field of general relativity, the theory of galaxies, quasars, and black holes, while the other three fundamental forces are described by quantum theory, the theory of the very small, which accepts subatomic particles as point-like particles. Nevertheless, this theory of everything should combine general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Right now, the most elegant idea for such a theory is supersymmetric string theory, in which point-like particles in quantum mechanics are replaced with string-like entities. Different vibratory resonances on these strings correspond to different particles in the same way as different frequencies correspond to different notes on a violin string. These strings, however, are not connected to the ends of a cosmic violin, but float in space“time. When they float, they warp space“time as predicted by general relativity. Thus strings unify the quantum theory of particles and general relativity.

Once the theory of everything is completed with its supersymmetry, we might be able to explain many mysteries, among them the existence of atoms, molecules, and dark matter,2 and the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. If we succeed, one more step will have been taken toward time travel. Even DNA, whose double-helix structure is interpreted under X-ray crystallography, which is a fruit of crystal lattice symmetries, may reach a full description with sypersymmetric string theory.

In the near future, if supersymmetric string theory is completed both experimentally and theoretically, we will be able to express bravely that all forces in nature are different aspects of the same thing. Scientists and believers in God’s Oneness will adopt this theory, for such a comprehensive unification takes us to God’s Unity.

Conclusion

Symmetry, which is displayed in art, music, inorganic and organic nature, always has been fascinating to the human mind. Space“time, upon which all laws are displayed, also is constructed on the basis of symmetry. This construction brings an amazing result: the universe behaves the same at every instant and at every pont. Through symmetry, we witness unity, harmony, and perfection. Ironically, the breaking of symmetry (asymetery) is not the braking of prefection, for the universe’s perfection is completed with asymmetry, the outcome of which is human life. Today, we human beings are looking for a supersymmetic string theory that will reveal the underlying unity beneath the diverse creation.

Footnotes

1. Escape from the Quantum Whirlpool, New Scientist (April 1997). Included in Robert B. Leighton (contributor), et al., The Feymann Lectures in Physics, Symmetry in Physical Laws (Addison- Wesley: 1964).
2. Astronomers calculate the mass and velocity of galaxies or distant stars by detecting their spectrums and redshifts. However, they discovered that the high velocities of galaxy clusters cannot be explained fully by their calculated masses. As a result, they posit the existence of dark matter surrounding galaxies. As this dark matter does not radiate, it is not detected in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is expected that one of the supersymmetric particles (the neutralino) might make up the missing dark matter in the universe.

References

• Glashow, Sheldon L. The Charm of Physics. Springer Verlag: 1991.
• Gribbin, John R. The Search for Superstrings, Symmetry, and the Theory of Everything. Little Brown & Company: 1998.
• Hawking, Stephen W., and Roger Penrose. The Nature of Space and Time. Princeton University Press: 1996.
• Icke, Vincent. The Force of Symmetry. Cambridge University Press: 1995.
• Krauss, Lawrence M. Fear of Physics. Basic Books: 1993
• Leighton, Robert B. (contributor), et al. The Feymann Lectures in Physics, Symmetry in Physical Laws. Addison-Wesley: 1964.
• Penrose, Roger. The Emperor’s New Mind. Oxford University Press: 1989.
•  

Autism is four to five times more prevalent in boys than girls and knows no racial, ethnic, or social boundaries.(1) Family income, life-style, and educational levels play no role in determining whether the child will be autistic or not. Kanner observed that many of the children with autism seen in clinic came from well-educated, intelligent parents from the middle and upper social classes.(2) Surveys conducted in different countries concluded that between 2 and 4 children in every 10,000 develop autism, usually in the ratio of 3 or 4 boys to each girl. The Autism Society of America’s (ASA) equivalent estimate is 300,000 to 400,000 individuals in America.(3)

Diagnosing Autism

Autism impacts the brain’s normal development in areas of social interaction and communication skills. Autistic children and adults typically have difficulties in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interaction, and leisure or play activities. The disorder makes it hard for them to communicate with others and relate to the outside world. Sometimes, aggressive and/or self-injurious behavior also may be present. Autistic people may exhibit repeated body movements (hand flapping, rocking), unusual responses to people or attachments to objects, and resistance to changes in routines. Individuals also may experience sensitivities in sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.(4)

Current research links autism to biological or neurological differences in the brain. Such medical conditions as phenylketonuria (PKU), tuberous sclerosis, and fragile X syndrome have been identified in some autistic children.(5) But not everyone with these conditions becomes autistic. As there are no medical tests for diagnosing autism, an accurate diagnosis requires observing the individual’s communication, behavior, and developmental levels. However, because many behaviors associated with autism are shared by such other disorders as mental handicaps and Asperger’s syndrome, various medical tests must be tried to rule out or identify other possible causes of the exhibited symptoms.

Since the disorder’s characteristics are so varied, ideally a child should be evaluated by a multidisciplinary team consisting of, among others, a neurologist, a psychologist, a developmental pediatrician, a speech/language therapist, a learning consultant, or another professional knowledgeable about autism. Diagnosis is difficult for practitioners with limited training or exposure to autism, and misdiagnoses do occur. Difficulties in recognizing and acknowledging this condition often lead to a lack of services to meet an autistic individual’s complex needs.

A brief observation in one setting cannot present a true picture of an individual’s abilities and behaviors. Parental (and other caregivers’) input and developmental history are important components of an accurate diagnosis. At first, some autistic people may appear mentally retarded, have a behavior disorder or a hearing problem, or even odd and eccentric behavior. To complicate matters further, these conditions can occur together with autism. However, autism must be distinguished from other conditions, since an accurate diagnosis and early identification can provide the basis for devising an appropriate and effective educational and treatment program.

Indications of Autism

Children within the pervasive developmental disorder spectrum often appear relatively normal in their development until the age of 24-30 months, when parents may notice delays in language, play, or social interaction. By themselves, any such delay would not result in a diagnosis of a pervasive developmental disorder. Autism is a combination of several developmental challenges. The following areas are among those that may be affected by autism (6):

Communication: Develops language skills slowly or not at all, uses words without attaching the usual meanings, communicates with gestures instead of words, and has a short attention span.

Social Interaction: Spends time alone, shows little interest in making friends, and is less responsive to such social cues as eye contact or smiles.

Sensory Impairment: May be sensitive to sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

Play: Shows a lack of spontaneous or imaginative play, does not imitate others’ actions, and does not initiate pretend games.

Behavior: May be overactive or very passive; throw tantrums for no apparent reason; show an obsessive interest in one item, idea, activity, or person; exhibit an apparent lack of common sense; may show aggression to others or self; and often has difficulty with changes in routine.

Some autistic individuals may have other disorders that affect the brain’s functioning (e.g., epilepsy, mental retardation, Down’s syndrome) or genetic disorders (e.g., fragile X, Landau-Kleffner, William’s, or Tourette’s syndromes). Many of those diagnosed with autism will test in the range of mental retardation. Approximately 25-30 percent may develop a seizure pattern at some point.(7)

As every autistic person is an individual having a unique personality and combination of characteristics, those affected show great differences. For example, some mildly affected individuals may exhibit only slight delays in language and greater challenges with social interactions. They might find it hard to initiate or maintain a conversation. Communication is often described as talking at others.

Autistic people process and respond to information uniquely. Educators and other service providers must consider each autistic person’s pattern of learning strengths and difficulties, when assessing learning and behavior, to ensure effective intervention. Individuals with autism can learn when information about how they receive and express information is addressed and implemented in their programs.

Their abilities may fluctuate daily due to difficulties in concentration, processing, or anxiety. Those who show evidence of learning one day may give no such indication the next day. Changes in external stimuli and anxiety also can affect learning. They may have average or above-average verbal, memory, or spatial skills but find it difficult to be imaginative or join in activities. Individuals with more severe challenges may require intensive support to manage the basic tasks and needs of daily life.(8)

Contrary to popular understanding, many autistic children and adults may make eye contact, show affection, smile and laugh, and exhibit other emotions, although in varying degrees.(9) Like other children, they respond to their environment in both positive and negative ways. Autism may affect their range of responses and make it harder to control how their bodies and minds react. Sometimes visual, motor, and/or processing problems make it difficult to maintain eye contact. Some autistic individuals use peripheral vision rather than looking directly at others.(10) Sometimes another person’s touch or closeness results in withdrawal even from family members. Anxiety, fear, and confusion may result from being unable to make sense of the world in a routine way.

Therapies

Therapies are available, among them applied behavior analysis, auditory integration training, dietary intervention, discrete trial teaching, medication, music therapy, occupational therapy, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), physical therapy, sensory integration, speech/language therapy, Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH), and vision therapy. There are various approaches to psychological therapies, and each one follows a different path. Behavioral therapy would stress shaping such adaptive behaviors as toilet training and decreasing mal-adaptive behavior, analyzing behavior through its causes and consequences to identify factors that would reward or encourage appropriate behavior, and discouraging disruptive behavior. Rewards are usually based on the patient’s values.

Behavioral therapy seems to be the most effective, for it replaces inappropriate behavior with appropriate behavior and helps the person fit into society. Psychotherapy probably would not be very helpful, for it is based on the principle that parents must become better parents if the child is to develop emotionally. As parents cannot cause their child’s autism, this premise is invalid.(11)

Functioning in Society

Autistic adults can benefit from vocational training by acquiring job-related skills, and from social and recreational programs. They can live in settings ranging from an independent home or apartment to group homes, supervised apartment settings, with other family members, or in a more structured residential care. More autistic adult support groups are emerging around the country. Many self-advocates form networks to share information, support each other, and speak for themselves in the public arena. They frequently attend and/or speaking at conferences and workshops on autism. Others provide valuable insight into this disability’s challenges by publishing articles and books and appearing in television specials about themselves and their disabilities.(12)

TEACCH, a program established by Eric Schopler in North Carolina and widely used in America, includes language- and behavior-focused intervention programs, as well as school and other agency consultation.(13) This treatment also works with parents by encouraging parent training and counseling or facilitating parent support groups.

With appropriate treatment, some behaviors associated with autism may change or diminish over time. Communication and social deficits continue in some form throughout life, but other difficulties may fade or change with age, education, or level of stress. The person often begins to use skills in natural situations and to participate in a broader range of interests and activities. Many autistic individuals enjoy their lives and make meaningful contributions to their community. People with autism can learn to compensate for and cope with their disability quite well.

Studies show that autistic people respond well to highly structured, specialized education programs tailored to their needs.(14) A well-designed intervention may include some elements of communication therapy, social skills development, sensory integration therapy, and applied behavior analysis delivered by trained professionals in a consistent, comprehensive, and coordinated way. The more severe challenges of some autistic children may be best addressed by a structured education and behavior program featuring a one-on-one teacher-to-student ratio or a small group environment. However, many other autistic children may succeed in a fully inclusive general education environment if they receive appropriate support.

Some autistic adults live and work independently, drive a car, earn a college degree, or get married. Others may be fairly independent and only need some support for daily pressures, while some depend on a great deal of support from family and professionals.

In addition to appropriate educational supports, autistic students should receive training in functional living skills at the earliest possible age. Learning to cross a street safely, buying something, or asking for help are critical skills that may be hard even for those of average intelligence. Tasks that enhance the person’s independence and give more opportunity for personal choice and freedom are important.

To be effective, an approach should be flexible, rely on positive reinforcement, be re-evaluated regularly, and provide a smooth transition from home to school to community environments. A good program also incorporates parent and caregiver training and support systems, along with general skills for all settings. Rarely can a family, teacher, or other caregiver provide effective help unless offered consultation or in-service training by an experienced specialist who is knowledgeable about autism.

Research into this puzzling condition continues. According to the Associated Press, (Nov. 28, 2000): Scientists have long theorized that about (15) different genes play a role … and now they’ve finally found one of those genes… The NIH [National Institutes of Health] called the finding a significant step in understanding what predisposes people to developing autism.15

Footnotes

1. http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/aut.html.
2. Simon Baron-Cohen and Patrick Bolton, Autism: The Facts (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
3. Ibid.
4. Michael Rutter and Eric Schopler, Autism, A Reappraisal of Concepts and Treatment (New York: Plenum Press, 1976).
5. Baron-Cohen and Bolton, Autism.
6. Rutter and Schopler, Autism.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Baron-Cohen and Bolton, Autism.
12. Rutter and Schopler, Autism.
13. Eric Schopler, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology, editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, and author of numerous books and articles on autism. TEACCH is the nation’s first and only comprehensive statewide program for the treatment and education of autistic and communication-handicapped children. (www.autism-society.org/package/edkids-erics.html) He developed TEACCH in the early 1970s. Also see Rutter and Schopler, Autism.
14. Ibid.
15. www.foxnews.com/scitech/112800/autism.sml.

As religion cannot be the source of happiness and misery at the same time, we examine these two perspectives. Among the examples typically cited to support the misery argument are Islam’s expansion (seventh to sixteenth centuries), the Crusades, and Europe’s ‘religious’ wars. While seemingly plausible at first glance, further analysis reveals that this argument overlooks key historical information and misrepresents others. In the following article, we examine this argument from a theological and historical perspective.

The Holy Scriptures

First we look at the religious sources: the holy Scriptures. The Qur’an condones war only in self-defense and preventing injustice and aggression, and equates killing one person unjustly with killing humanity (5:32). Examining early Islam’s so-called ‘religious wars’ reveals that each one was fought in self-defense or to prevent injustice. The total number of people killed in any battle of Prophet Muhammad never exceeded several hundred.(1)

The phrase holy war, the common translation for jihad, is a misnomer. Jihad essentially means struggling in God’s cause, of which war is only one form and allowed only under clearly defined circumstances. The New Testament tells victims to embrace aggressors with love or restore justice in the most appropriate manner (Matthew 5; Luke 17:1-5), while the Old Testament says: ‘Thou shalt not kill’ (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17) and ‘He that kills any man shall surely be put to death (Leviticus 21:17).

Any aggression not conducted for self-defense or preventing injustice is not based on true religion. A good treatment of this in the context of Islam can be found in Prophet Muhammad as Commander.(2)

The Twentieth Century

The claim that religion is responsible for much of the bloodshed and death from a historical and statistical perspective is incorrect. The majority of deaths throughout history occurred during the twentieth century, and the majority of those happened during wars stemming from nonreligious motives.(3) World War II tops this list: 15 million soldiers and 25.5 million civilians. World War I is a close second: 9 million soldiers and 9.7 million civilians. Other examples include the Russian civil and the Russo-Polish wars (1917-21: 2 million soldiers, 7 million civilians), the Korean War (1950-53: 2 million soldiers and .9 million civilians), the Franco-Vietnam and US-Vietnam wars (1945-73: 1.3 million soldiers and 1.4 million civilians), the Sino-Japanese War (1937-41: 1 million soldiers and 1.2 million civilians), and the Soviet-Afghanistan War (1979-89: 500,000 soldiers and 1 million civilians).(4) These wars, which are responsible for the great majority of human loss through history, cannot be attributed to religious zeal.

The Soviet Union

While the motives of certain wars and other acts of aggression can be debated, certain self-proclaimed atheist, fascist, or otherwise nonreligious regimes, such as pre-World War II Germany and the Soviet Union, committed unprecedented crimes against their neighbors and citizens. According to Laqueur: ‘One of the cardinal features of the totalitarian dictatorships of the twentieth century was internal terror, the huge number of ‘enemies”and potential enemies’interned and executed. A striking example of this phenomenon is the era of Lenin and Stalin in Soviet Union. The atrocities committed during the time of Stalin are well documented.'(5)

According to the most conservative figures, allegedly based on secret KGB archives, between 510,307 and 1,727,970 Soviets were in labor camps between 1934 and 1950. A further 457,000 to 1,145,000 people were sentenced to labor colonies during roughly the same period. According to numbers released by Major General Anatoli Krayushkin, head of the Ministry of State Security’s archives, 3,853,000 arrests and 827,995 death sentences were made between 1917 and 1990. According to official KGB sources, 681,692 persons were killed between 1937 and 1938. In addition, 1,053,829 persons died in the Gulag between 1934 and 1953. To these numbers, one should add such figures as the Polish officers killed in 1940 in Katyn and other camps (15,000 to 20,000), and the Kazakhs who disappeared during the 1930s (1.5 to 2 million).

These are conservative estimates, given their source. Some researchers put the total number of deaths under the Soviets at between 10 and 20 million. According to Alec Nove, there were some 11 million ‘excess’ deaths between 1927 and 1937. Steven Wheatcroft, another Soviet-era researcher, says between 4 and 5 million people died.(6)

While Stalin remains notorious for internal terror, Lenin has been viewed differently’as a visionary whose ideals were betrayed by his followers. Is this correct? Recently declassified Soviet documents tell a different story. The following is a letter from Lenin to his comrades in which, appallingly, he mentions a specific number of people to be hanged: ‘Comrades! The uprising of the five kulak districts should be mercilessly suppressed… Hang (hang without fail, so the people see) no fewer than one hundred known kulaks.'(7)

In 1922, Moscow sought to confiscate all valuables of the Russian Orthodox Church and its monasteries to secure badly needed assets and to break the Church’s power over the peasants. Lenin hoped that the terrible famine sweeping Soviet Russia and Ukraine in 1921-22 would turn the peasantry against the Church. In the industrial city of Shuia, soldiers fired and killed several civilians (devout Christians) trying to protect their church. This event prompted the Politburo to delay further confiscation. When Lenin learned of this, he urged Politburo members to continue the campaign ‘mercilessly,’ as the time was ripe for such an action:

It is precisely now and only now, when in the starving regions people are eating human flesh, and hundreds if not thousands of corpses are littering the roads, that we can (and therefore must) carry out the confiscation of church valuables with the most savage and merciless energy… to secure for ourselves a fund of several hundred million gold rubles.

One wise writer on matters of statecraft (8) rightly said that if it is necessary to resort to certain brutalities for the sake of realizing a certain political goal, they must be carried out in the most energetic fashion and in the briefest possible time because the masses will not tolerate prolonged application brutality…. the struggle against us will be made more difficult if right at this moment, precisely in connection with the famine, we suppress the reactionary clergy with maximal speed and ruthlessness.

Therefore I come to the categorical conclusion that precisely at this moment we must give battle to the Black Hundred clergy in the most decisive and merciless manner and crush its resistance with such brutality that it will not forget it for decades to come.(9)

In another letter, Lenin openly instructs his comrades to terrorize the state’s enemies:

To Comrade Krestinsky:

I propose to form a commission immediately (initially this can be done secretly) to work out emergency measures (in the spirit of Larin: Larin is right). Let us say you+Larin+Vladimirsky (or Dzerzhinsky)+Rykov? Or Miliutin.

It is necessary secretly’and urgently’to prepare the terror. And on Tuesday we will decide whether it will be through SNK (the Council of People Commissars) or otherwise.(10)

These letters demonstrate that Stalin’s internal ‘cleansing’ campaigns of the 1930s and 1940s only continued Lenin’s policy and practice, and were not, as some claim, a betrayal of his high ideals.

While love and respect for fellow human beings is an essential principal of all major religions, in practice this has not always been the case. Aggression in the name of religion has long been exploited to show that religion brings tyranny and misery. Certain individuals, organizations, states, and regimes have used religion to justify the suffering they have caused, but this does not prove that religion by itself is to blame. As a matter of fact, nationalism, ideological extremism, or simple greed for power and material gain have caused incomparably larger suffering, as shown by documented statistics of wars and internal terror.

Conclusion

We looked briefly at the former Soviet Union, an atheist regime that committed some of the worst crimes against its own people in the name of communist ideology.

The twentieth century saw unprecedented advances in science and technology and, unfortunately, unprecedented human misery and suffering. Most crimes against humanity, as documented by statistics and recently revealed secret archives, were committed by totalitarian regimes during the twentieth century. Thus it is to claim that religion is responsible for most of history’s bloodshed and death. This responsibility lies with modern racist, atheist, or simply greedy regimes and not with religion, which was revealed to guide people to true happiness in this world and in the next through their own will.

Footnotes

1. Ali Unal, ‘Killing for Religion?’ The Fountain, no. 2 (Apr.’June 1996), 14.
2. M. Fethullah Gulen, Prophet Muhammad as a Comman der (Truestar: 1998).
3. Richard F. Mollica, ‘Invisible Wounds,’ Scientific American (June 2000).
4. Ibid.
5. Walter Laqueur, The Dream That Failed: Reflections on the Soviet Union (Oxford University Press: 1994).
6. Ibid.
7. Letter to V. V. Kuraev, Ye. B. Bosh and A. E. Minkin, August 1918. Located in Richard Pipes, The Unknown Lenin (Yale University Press: 1996).
8. Editor Note: Lenin is referring to Machiavelli (1469-1527), an Italian political philosopher and statesman synonymous with placing politics above everthing else.
9. Ibid., Letter to the Politburo, March 1922.
10. Ibid., Memorandum to N. N. Krestinsky, Sept. 1918. 

How Does God Hear and See?

This question raises certain difficulties. If treated improperly, it can lead to denying that God hears or sees, as in St. Anselm’s meditations on God’s Attributes.1 In his Proslogion, he introduces his famous ontological argument for God’s existence and asks: If only corporeal things perceive, because the senses exist in a body and are directed towards bodies, then how can you perceive? For you are not a body but the highest spirit, which is better than any body.(2)

He replies: But if to perceive is just to know, or is aimed at knowledge”for whoever perceives knows according to the appropriate sense, as, for example, we know colors through sight and flavors through taste”then it is not inappropriate to say that whatever in some way knows also in some way perceives. Therefore, Lord, although you are not a body, you are indeed supremely percipient in the sense that you supremely know all things, not in the sense in which an animal knows things through its bodily senses.(3)

The crucial points here are that perceiving is possible through bodily senses and that for God to perceive means to know. He seems to explain how God perceives without bodily senses by claiming that the essential outcome of perceiving is knowing. Therefore, if something were known with all details of its properties and qualities, all consequences resulting from perceiving it already would be obtained. If this were true, St. Anselm’s solution would make perfect sense. However, I argue that this is far from being true.

Perceiving and Knowing

To understand his flawed reasoning, recall the definitions of perceiving and knowing. Since we perceive only through our senses, and whatever we realize through our senses’ operation is perception, we define perceiving as a sensory-based experience. Constructing a precise definition of knowing is somewhat harder, for the word is used for too many purposes and in too many contexts. However, as a working definition of knowing something, we can say that it is having a representation of the object of knowledge in our minds.

The difference between perceiving and knowing something, if we take their meanings in the most general sense, becomes clear if we consider these processes’ temporal properties. We perceive something only when exposed to the sensory data caused by the perceived object. But if we know something, we can access this knowledge at will, provided that we do not forget it. In broad terms, perceiving is dynamic while knowing is static.

St. Anselm is right in the sense that we can know what we perceive, as expressed in: I know how banana tastes or in: I know how it feels But we can know these feelings only because we experienced them before. This is why we cannot explain color to a blind person or sound to a deaf person. Besides, knowing how it feels to see a red rose is not the same as seeing it. Let alone their dynamic versus static character, knowledge of an experience is a faint impression of the experience held in our memories.

Perceiving and Knowing in Relation to God

Our considerations about perceiving and knowing are based on circumstances relevant to human subjects. Due to the immense difference between the Supreme Being and us, we must remember that we can never know how our concepts apply to God. We only can assume that the essence of these concepts are shared by us”God knows and we know, but our knowing is a shadow of a shadow of a shadow of His knowing. So we can talk about God only through metaphors and analogies. Nevertheless, we can talk about God in a meaningful way, for we are taught about the Divine Attributes through Divine Revelation and are told that God created us in His image. Thus, being human lets us at least speculate about His nature.

In the light of the above, my main point concerning the relation between God’s perceiving and God’s knowing is that they are both existent and different Attributes, for the essence of perceiving differs from the essence of knowing. The former is a temporal experience; the latter is a nontemporal Attribute. Hence it follows that perceiving cannot be substituted for by knowing.

Realizing this, we see that St. Anselm’s solution to how God perceives without bodily senses is fallacious. To say that God perceives since He knows everything confuses the meanings of perceiving and knowing, and thus is a veiled denial of God’s seeing and hearing. Since St. Anselm’s explanation for the existence of God’s Attributes of All-Seeing and All-Hearing is invalid, or at least unsatisfactory, we must ask how God perceives without a body.

The Sense Organs

The above-mentioned question presupposes that perceiving is possible only through a body’s sense organs. This seems natural, as it is verified by daily experience. We do not witness people seeing without eyes or hearing without ears. Even though it appears obvious, the connection between perception and the sense organs is tricky. While we can say that the sense organs are somehow necessary for perception, we cannot say that they are sufficient.

To clarify this subtle point: A knife is sufficient for cutting bread, and a calculator is sufficient for multiplying 174 by 303. In other words, apart from discussing the absolute necessity in causal relations and given our universe’s physical laws, it is sufficient to have a knife or a calculator to perform those tasks. However, it is quite doubtful and even impossible for the sense organs to provide such a conscious experience as hearing a sound or seeing a color.

This may sound strange if we do not consider several stages and aspects of perception. Observations and experiments show that perception is a process initiated by the sense organs with incoming sensory data, such as a light pattern (an electromagnetic wave) or a human voice (a kind of pressure wave), and followed by evaluating such sensory data at the appropriate specialized areas in the brain. All stimuli arriving at the sense organs are transformed into nerve impulses”various patterns of electrical activity propagated through nerve cells (neurons).

Even though we do not know exactly how this sensory data is evaluated, all perceptions eventually are correlated with nothing but patterns of firing neurons in the brain. Thus, the brain represents and stores all data (e.g., color, shape, taste, softness), regardless of form, in terms of its neurons’ positions and firing rates. This is verified by stimulating various regions of the brain appropriately and watching the subject experience the corresponding sensations or feelings.

Brains and Computers

Analogous to a brain, a computer can represent and store data on its chips in terms of various electrical potentials. For example, an image can be loaded and stored by transforming its pixels’ brightness and color data into numbers so that a computer can distinguish colors and recognize patterns. Since different numbers represent different colors or color tones, a computer sees them as different objects and can discern them easily.

But unless a computer is programmed to signal when it sees green, it cannot perceive that green. It is not our recognizing, discriminating, representing, or responding to a color that makes us conscious percipients, but rather our experiencing a color. A brain or computer can have the necessary parts or circuits to represent, evaluate, and respond to a color or any other sensory stimulus. However, experiencing something, such as greenness, is a totally different and extraordinary phenomenon of perception.

Conscious Experience

How is it that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djin, when Aladdin rubbed his lamp.(4)

To realize fully the essential unaccountability of conscious experience in terms of physio-chemical processes or the organization of brains and sensory organs, this kind of thought experiment might be very useful: Might your experience of red be the same as my experience of green? Sure, you might label grass as ˜green’ and the tomatoes as ˜red’, just as I do, but perhaps you actually see the grass as having the color that I would describe, if I were in your shoes, as red.(59

Considering such unique and intractable aspects of conscious experience, the most reasonable conclusion would be to treat the sentience and feelings in our perceptions as belonging to a distinct domain beyond the realm of this physical universe. Sense experience cannot be reduced to physical activities or replaced by each other. In this sense, they are simple and fundamental, such as the dimensions of space“time or the fundamental forces in physics. They are not produced, but just happen to be correlated with stimulating bodily senses and the nervous system’s resulting activity. This is just as bizarre as correlating a supernova’s explosion with my pushing the button of my pen. The only difference is that we have been accustomed to the former since we were children.

Given this, how can we explain why we have conscious experience? Science gives us no hint. One may deny sentient experience, as some philosophers of the mind do, but this is not satisfactory. The only clue comes from Divine Revelation, which teaches us of an Ultimate Creator Who is Compassionate and Merciful. Reminding us of his bounties, God says in the Qur’an: Say: He has created you and made for you faculties of hearing, seeing, feeling and understanding: little thanks it is ye give (67:23).

Once the true character of perception as a special gift of God is understood, our eyes and ears and other bodily organs cannot be considered the real sources of our bodily senses; rather, we will understand that they are just like windows of the human soul that God breathes into each person: (Remember) when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am creating a mortal out of potter’s clay of black mud altered, so, when I have made him and have breathed into him of My Spirit, fall down and prostrate unto him (15:28-29).

Only in the light of this profound truth can we have an idea of why we have so many remarkable qualities and capabilities. Being human, we are like mirrors on which the manifestations of God’s Attributes are focused. Of course, we have only the faintest copy of His Attributes, such as All-Seeing, All-Hearing, and All-Knowing. As all our knowledge is like a drop in the ocean with respect to His knowledge, our seeing and hearing are insignificant with respect to His seeing and hearing.

Since such elements of perception as seeing and hearing are not products of bodily senses but rather faculties of the human soul breathed into us by God from His Spirit, the perfect modes of seeing and hearing naturally belong to God as the Attributes of All-Seeing and All-Hearing.

Conclusion

As a final point, we stressed that seeing and hearing are temporal experiences. This raises the following question: How can an eternal God have temporal experiences? However, since investigating God’s actions in relation to time is a huge issue, we will consider it as a possible subject of future research. Here, I remark that God’s greatest Attribute is that of All-Living.

Footnotes

1. St. Anselm (1033?-1109) was an Italian prelate, Archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor of the Church, and a founder of Christian scholasticism.
2. St. Anselm, Monologion and Proslogion, trans. Thomas Williams (Indianapolis: 1996), 102.
3. Ibid.
4. Thomas Huxley, in Nicholas K. Humphrey, A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).
5. Stephen Pinker, How the Mind Works (New York: Norton, 1999), 146.