Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
The Fundamental Physical Constants of the Universe: Conclusion
As I have stressed numerous times, ID, as strictly a scientific theory, does not claim that God created the universe and living things since ID has not garnered scientific evidence to rule out the possibility, no matter how speculative, that an advanced alien life from outer space or another quantum, parallel universe was the designer. Indeed, the precise identity of the designer varies as a function of one?s religious, personal, or speculative belief.
However, since I consider myself a Muslim who subscribes to the Quran?s view of creation, I personally believe that the designer was God. Although the inability of naturalistic and chance-based causations in creating certain features of the universe and living things and my belief in God as a Creator jointly motivate me to support the design paradigm, my personal motivation and religious belief are not logical grounds for dismissing the theory that I propose, as long as I exclusively use the scientific method of inquiry in examining the heavens. Nevertheless, I do not hesitate to declare that I do believe in God and that I consider the signs of His intelligence in the universe as proof of His creation, wisdom, omnipotence, and mercy. In fact, I believe that every fabric of natural existence declares the supreme glory of God, the Most High.
Until the formulation of the Big Bang theory en.wikipedia.org) in the 20th century, it had been an unproven and a firmly established axiom in most of the scientific world that space is infinite and that time had no beginning nor has an end. It was, thus, firmly believed that space-time is infinite or eternal. To doubt, challenge, or question this axiom, even on scientifically justifiable grounds, was considered blasphemous (anti-science, pseudo-science, religion, myth, superstition, argument by God or miracle, etc.) in the ?scientific? world and was a sure call for dismissal from academia (Similar episodes are taking place today in the ID/evolution controversy. As the popular saying goes, ?History repeats,? and I add, ?And human beings seldom seem to learn from their past?). The discovery of the Big Bang, however, finally came as a death knell for the materialistic view, which used to hail space-time as absolute and eternal. The Big Bang was truly a big bang in the face of many materialists, who were deeply disturbed by the proposition that their sacred ?matter? was not eternal. Subsequently, the materialists had no other choice than to accept the Big Bang model of creation when additional earth-shattering and compelling evidence came forth starting in the early 1990s. Although the scientific predictions of the Big Bang theory and the theoretical basis for the theory had been around since the middle of the 20th century, the theory was strengthened to a much greater degree when NASA launched two key satellites (COBE in 1989 - en.wikipedia.org WMAP in 2001 - en.wikipedia.org) to make more precise measurements of the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation en.wikipedia.org), which is a left-over remnant or echo of the Big Bang. Key predictions of the theory were, thus, confirmed.
The Quran, a divine scripture from God, most emphatically declared 1400 years ago that the universe had a finite beginning in time ? a phenomenon that was incorporated into the Big Bang theory only recently in the past century. The beginning of the universe was purposeful, not accidental, as we read:
Did the disbelievers not realize that the heavens and the Earth were one piece and that we tore them apart? And that We made from the water everything that lives. Will they not believe?
I think that the Big Bang and the subsequent formation of a life-friendly universe are one of the most significantly momentous events that should not be dismissed as trivial or be taken for granted. An educated Muslim in the modern world should, therefore, deeply reflect on this meaningful and purposeful phenomenon of splendid creation in light of the fine-tuning of the fundamental physical constants and in light of the habitability of the space-time continuum.
I want to conclude my article with a due praise to God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, who has designed from an outrageous explosion and from the precise values of the fundamental physical constants a habitable and life-friendly home for human subsistence. I want to close with a quote, which I re-worded from the original one by Galileo, who was an Italian physicist and astronomer and a well-known proponent of heliocentricism in the 16th century. From what has been discussed, I feel that his statement aptly captures one of the themes that I wished to convey with my writing:
?Mathematics is the language in which God wrote the universe.?
-Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
All praise and glory be to God, the Creator of all things seen and unseen.
CAUTION: These metaphysical ruminations are not to be used to rebuke or critique the scientific validity of intelligent design. Of course, in all fairness I welcome constructive criticism of any scientific theory, including ID, but only on scientific, not religious or philosophical, grounds. In conclusion, I am merely reflecting in honor and appreciation of God because to associate the designer with God is my personal and religious choice based on the Quranic view of creation. Such a philosophical view is distinct from intelligent design theory?s pristine scientific method of inquiry, which is not, a priori, contingent upon belief in the God of monotheistic, Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), upon the gods of polytheistic creeds, or upon subscription to a particular philosophical view.
Nadeem
However, since I consider myself a Muslim who subscribes to the Quran?s view of creation, I personally believe that the designer was God. Although the inability of naturalistic and chance-based causations in creating certain features of the universe and living things and my belief in God as a Creator jointly motivate me to support the design paradigm, my personal motivation and religious belief are not logical grounds for dismissing the theory that I propose, as long as I exclusively use the scientific method of inquiry in examining the heavens. Nevertheless, I do not hesitate to declare that I do believe in God and that I consider the signs of His intelligence in the universe as proof of His creation, wisdom, omnipotence, and mercy. In fact, I believe that every fabric of natural existence declares the supreme glory of God, the Most High.
Until the formulation of the Big Bang theory en.wikipedia.org) in the 20th century, it had been an unproven and a firmly established axiom in most of the scientific world that space is infinite and that time had no beginning nor has an end. It was, thus, firmly believed that space-time is infinite or eternal. To doubt, challenge, or question this axiom, even on scientifically justifiable grounds, was considered blasphemous (anti-science, pseudo-science, religion, myth, superstition, argument by God or miracle, etc.) in the ?scientific? world and was a sure call for dismissal from academia (Similar episodes are taking place today in the ID/evolution controversy. As the popular saying goes, ?History repeats,? and I add, ?And human beings seldom seem to learn from their past?). The discovery of the Big Bang, however, finally came as a death knell for the materialistic view, which used to hail space-time as absolute and eternal. The Big Bang was truly a big bang in the face of many materialists, who were deeply disturbed by the proposition that their sacred ?matter? was not eternal. Subsequently, the materialists had no other choice than to accept the Big Bang model of creation when additional earth-shattering and compelling evidence came forth starting in the early 1990s. Although the scientific predictions of the Big Bang theory and the theoretical basis for the theory had been around since the middle of the 20th century, the theory was strengthened to a much greater degree when NASA launched two key satellites (COBE in 1989 - en.wikipedia.org WMAP in 2001 - en.wikipedia.org) to make more precise measurements of the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation en.wikipedia.org), which is a left-over remnant or echo of the Big Bang. Key predictions of the theory were, thus, confirmed.
The Quran, a divine scripture from God, most emphatically declared 1400 years ago that the universe had a finite beginning in time ? a phenomenon that was incorporated into the Big Bang theory only recently in the past century. The beginning of the universe was purposeful, not accidental, as we read:
Did the disbelievers not realize that the heavens and the Earth were one piece and that we tore them apart? And that We made from the water everything that lives. Will they not believe?
I think that the Big Bang and the subsequent formation of a life-friendly universe are one of the most significantly momentous events that should not be dismissed as trivial or be taken for granted. An educated Muslim in the modern world should, therefore, deeply reflect on this meaningful and purposeful phenomenon of splendid creation in light of the fine-tuning of the fundamental physical constants and in light of the habitability of the space-time continuum.
I want to conclude my article with a due praise to God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, who has designed from an outrageous explosion and from the precise values of the fundamental physical constants a habitable and life-friendly home for human subsistence. I want to close with a quote, which I re-worded from the original one by Galileo, who was an Italian physicist and astronomer and a well-known proponent of heliocentricism in the 16th century. From what has been discussed, I feel that his statement aptly captures one of the themes that I wished to convey with my writing:
?Mathematics is the language in which God wrote the universe.?
-Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
All praise and glory be to God, the Creator of all things seen and unseen.
CAUTION: These metaphysical ruminations are not to be used to rebuke or critique the scientific validity of intelligent design. Of course, in all fairness I welcome constructive criticism of any scientific theory, including ID, but only on scientific, not religious or philosophical, grounds. In conclusion, I am merely reflecting in honor and appreciation of God because to associate the designer with God is my personal and religious choice based on the Quranic view of creation. Such a philosophical view is distinct from intelligent design theory?s pristine scientific method of inquiry, which is not, a priori, contingent upon belief in the God of monotheistic, Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), upon the gods of polytheistic creeds, or upon subscription to a particular philosophical view.
Nadeem