Question 67: Intelligent design or evolutionary design? It is claimed on the Internet that this universe is a product of bad design and that man was not the most honorable creature but the most miserable creature. What would you say?
Submitted by on Mon, 05/10/2020 - 14:07
Dear Brother / Sister,
Answer: Evaluating man like this originates from their viewpoint of the universe.
Viewing the realm through the eyeglasses of materialist philosophy
A person who looks at the universe with the eyeglasses of philosophy that accepts denial of deity as a principle sees everything in disorder and darkness. He cannot penetrate into the reality of anything. With those glasses, he sees the world as a general place of mourning with the screams of those who left the world without benefitting from it adequately and the cries of those who lament their deaths. He can neither penetrate into the past nor interpret the future. Both the past and the future are non-existent according to him because those who died before him decayed and he thinks that those who will come after him will decay in the future. Thus, he dies as the most unfortunate and aggrieved creature of the world squeezed between two graves.
Viewing the realm through the eyeglasses of belief
Philosophy without religion is a sophistry divorced from reality and an insult to the universe. Bediüzzaman Said Nursi
Anyone who looks at the universe through the glasses of belief sees wise, purposeful and planned creations all around. He knows that his creator put the universe at his disposal because He loved human beings, and that he is subjected to a test in the short world life to win or lose life in the hereafter. The past and the future are not graveyards for him. His horizon extends to both realms. He watches his ancestor, Hz. Adam, in the past and the gardens of Paradise in the future.
He knows that worldly affairs are also regarded as supererogatory worship if he fulfils the commands of Allah; thus, he revives and beautifies both his world and hereafter; he passes away as the happiest and most fortunate man in the world.
Man is the most honorable creature
Materialist evolutionist philosophers claim that man was created as a miserable being, not as an honorable being. Specialization is important in every subject. The expert in an issue and a person who does something know that issue the best. He who does knows; he who knows talks is a general principle. The one who is an authority related to a computer is the one who produces and programs it.
The report of two qualified engineers is valid for a building, not the view of a thousand doctors. The report of two doctors, not the diagnosis of a thousand engineers, is valid for a patient. Why? Because they are specialized in their professions. Atheist philosophers, materialist and atheist biologists do not have the right to speak about the aim and targets of creation and life in the hereafter. Only Allah, who created man, His Messenger, who learned from Him and those who follow the Messenger of Allah can speak about the creation, nature and future of man because they are specialized in the issue.
Man was created in the best way materially and spiritually
God Almighty states the following in the Quran:
By the Fig and the Olive, And the Mount of Sinai, And this City of security,- We have indeed created man in the best of molds, Then do We abase him (to be) the lowest of the low,- Except such as believe and do righteous deeds: For they shall have a reward unfailing.1
Allah Almighty made man the perfect living being among beings in terms of his spiritual and bodily abilities. Man will ascend to the highest spiritual position by using his abilities with his free will in the straight path, that is, in the way that Allah wants, or, he will descend to the lowest level of the living beings by following the opposite direction.
When those who forget Allah and lose the way of the truth describe man as the most miserable character probably describe the man who follows the way to the lowest of the low.
The value of a computer originates from being used by man and answering man’s questions. Otherwise, to evaluate a computer only materially and to regard it as a few kilograms of iron and bakelite means not to understand it.
Man is like that too. To evaluate him only materially, as atheist and positivist thinkers do and to regard him as a being made of meat, bones, blood and tissues means not to be able to appreciate his true duty and value.
Man has been sent to this world as an official and a guest. He has been given a very important ability. Important duties are assigned to him according to his ability.
All the wonderful faculties given to men were not for this insignificant worldly life, but for an everlasting life of great significance. For if we compare man with the animals, we see that man is very rich in regard to faculties and members, a hundred times more so than the animals. But in the pleasures of worldly life and in animal life he falls a hundred times lower. For in each pleasure he receives is the trace of thousands of pains. The pains of the past and fears of the future and the pain at each pleasure’s passing spoil the enjoyment to have from them, and leave a trace in the pleasure. But animals are not like that. They receive pleasure with no pains. They take enjoyment with no sorrow. Neither the sorrows of the past cause them suffering, nor the fears of the future distress them. They live peacefully, and offer thanks to their Creator.2
Man’s value is based on to the extent that he knows Allah with the spiritual faculties given to him such as mind, thought and imagination, that he becomes a mirror to the manifestations of all His names and that he understands their meaning. Man becomes an addressee and friend of Allah by seeing all the blessings, primarily belief, that Allah has given to him, His material and spiritual treats, help and grants to the beings he loves and by answering them with appreciation and worshipping; thus, he reaches the highest level of humanity spiritually.
The fault is not in the creation of man but in the thoughts of atheists
Materialist biologists and positivist philosophers claim that man emerged coincidentally as a result of random natural events. According to them, man is not a perfect being. He is a faulty living being with some useless organs remaining from lowliving things. They mean to say that if man were the work of a creator, he would be perfect, not faulty.
About 100 years ago, materialist biologists listed about 150 organs that were useless and that were inherited from the previous ancestors of man. The appendix, epiphysis, pituitary glands and coccyx were among the most remarkable ones. However, research showed that they were not useless organs; on the contrary, they had some very important functions for the health of man; and they were removed from the list of unnecessary organs.3
However, some materialist biologists who regarded atheism as their profession continue to explain the existence of man with the positivist philosophy based on atheism. They regard some organs whose functions are not known fully as unnecessary. They cannot understand the existence of some illnesses that man suffers and they use this fact as evidence that there exists no creator and that man emerged coincidentally from low living beings. Some of their claims on the Internet regarding the issue are as follows:
1- Children cannot pass gas for a few months when they are born.
2- The shortness of the Eustachian tube between the inner ear and the mouth in children causes inner ear disorders.
3- Urinary tract diseases are observed due to the shortness of the canal that connects the urinary bladder in children compared to adults.
4- The existence of penis foreskin.
5- Lack of vitamin D in human breast milk.
6- Tooth decay in man and the existence of wisdom tooth.
7- Osteoporosis
8- Prostatitis observed in old people.
9- Uterine cancer and breast cancer observed in women.
10- Spine disorders.
11- Inguinal hernia observed in some people.
12- Incessant questions like why the Creator did not provide us with more kinds of fruit and vegetables although there are about 400.000 kinds of plants and why He gave us the tomato, peach, apple and orange in the form of wild fruits.
The summary of those questions is as follows: What is the wisdom behind and reason for the creation of all living beings, primarily man?
Scientific knowledge cannot answer those questions. That is, questions like why man was created, why diseases were created cannot be answered by scientific knowledge, that is, by laboratories, but by heavenly sources.
Atheist thinkers answer those questions by adding some philosophical interpretations, and they present it as if it is scientific knowledge through the gift of gab. What they do is uttering some theories and interpretations about metaphysics based on their own understanding and belief. It is not scientific knowledge
Here, the fault does not lie in the creation of man but in the thoughts of the atheists, materialist philosophers and evolutionists who do not know Allah and the Prophet and who cannot be friends of Allah.
Materialist evolutionists think that all living beings, primarily man, are faulty in terms of creation and they show it as an evidence that they are not works of planned design.
Every living being is like a programmed file
A file of ten thousand characters saved in a computer can have millions of characters. Any character that enters the file outside the program can harm the whole file.
Every living being in the universe is virtually like a computer file. The elements that make up each living being are like the characters of that file and operate based on a plan and program. Each element acts based on Allah’s knowledge, will and power. No element can be outside the program. Any act of any element outside the program will disturb the balance of the whole universe.
Even one element cannot be unattended and purposeless; how can man, who is the most honorable creature, and his organs be unnecessary and purposeless? Each organ of man has at least one purpose. The duty of a scientist must be to determine the structures and functions of those organs, not to keep people busy unnecessarily by saying that some organs whose functions and structures are not known fully are unnecessary and purposeless like some atheist biologists do.
Atheist thinkers regard themselves as officials appointed to arrange the world
According to atheist scientists, if there is a creator, diseases and faults like mentioned above and similar ones must not exist. The view that they put forward as faults in the universe is not something new. It has a long history. According to this view, if there were a designer that plans the beings in the world, then everything would have to be created faultlessly. However, some things do not take place as the evolutionists think. This view, which is defended by some atheist thinkers and positivist philosophers, is sometimes put on the agenda; some people want to use it as a scientific disguise for the view of denying the existence of divinity.4
Atheist thinkers regard themselves as if they are engineers appointed to arrange the structure and shape of the world; they regard systems and arrangements that are not deemed reasonable by their mind and reason as useless and unnecessary. One of them dares to say the following:
-Why are there not four hundred thousand kinds of fruit although there are four hundred thousand kinds of plants?” If there were four hundred thousand kinds of fruit, this time he would ask, “Why are there four hundred thousand kinds of fruit?” As a matter of fact, that atheist thinker puts forward another question and says,
-If there is a creator, why does He give the fruit in the form of wild plants? Why does He not improve them?” He talks as if he would accept the existence of a creator if the fruit were as he wanted. It is necessary to ask that scientist the following questions:
-You receive the title of a scientist by improving them; what job would you do if the Creator had given the fruit as improved fruit? You do not ask anybody about the arrangements you make in your small garden; why should Allah ask you what and how to do in the universe?
The universe is the property of Allah. He does what He wishes in his property. Allah doeth what He willeth.5
What underlies the questions above is the claim that the universe, primarily man, is not perfect but random and faulty.
The important question here is as follows:
—What is the criterion for faultlessnes?
The perfection or faultiness of a being or tool depends on the aim it is designed for. For instance, the aim of producing a refrigerator is certain. The master that produces the refrigerator knows and informs others why it is produced and what it is designed for. If you think that the purpose of a refrigerator is to wash the laundry and view it like that, you will find many defects in the refrigerator.
According to atheist evolutionists, all of the desires and wishes of man, who will decay and disappear when he dies, must be realized in this world. According to them, man must never be ill and he must not have anything missing.
However, taking into consideration the problems of a student while studying, taking exams, and in the process of nutrition and accommodation, the evaluation whether education is useful or useless for a student cannot me made while he is still a student because the aim has not been reached yet and it is not time for the fruit of the education yet. The fruit of the problems experienced during the process of education is the diploma and the benefits brought about by that diploma.
The Creator informs us that He has planned all of the desires and wishes of man based on the life in the hereafter and that the life in this world cannot satisfy his wishes and desires. Therefore, it is wrong to evaluate man based on the life in this world because his talents and abilities in him will develop and their fruit will be received in the hereafter. The hardships, diseases and problems suffered in this world may save the eternal life of a person. Therefore, the development of some abilities necessitates tests like disease, hunger, richness, poverty, and patience. The result of those tests will be seen in the hereafter.
Allah reminds us in a verse that the life in the world is a place of play and amusement:
What is the life of this world but play and amusement? But best is the Home in the Hereafter, for those who are righteous.6
In another verse, He states that the life of the world is deceptive:
The life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception7.
Then, for such as had transgressed all bounds, And had preferred the life of this world, The Abode will be Hell-Fire8.
That is, the real life in the sight of Allah is the life in the hereafter. All of the feelings in man were given to him to gain the life in the hereafter and they were programmed in accordance with it. It is stated that this world is a place of trial and testing and hence there will be diseases and problems here.
And know ye that your possessions and your progeny are but a trial 9.
Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial 10.
He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed11.
Before thee We sent (Messengers) to many nations, and We afflicted the nations with suffering and adversity that they might learn humility12.
And when I am ill, it is He Who cures me 13.
In a hadith, the Prophet states that those afflicted with the severest trials are the prophets, then the saints and those like them. Foremost the Prophet Job (Ayyub) (pbuh) and the other prophets, then the saints, then the righteous, regarded the illnesses they suffered as sincere worship, as gifts of Allah; they offered thanks in patience.14
If those who complain about tooth decay and prostatitis in man do not know Allah, do not fulfill His orders and do not know the Prophet, they have such a spiritual disease that the earth and the sky will tremble at the thought of it. The material diseases like prostatitis and lumbago will not be felt even like a fly bite compared to those spiritual diseases.
What a sane person needs to do is to fear that spiritual disease, which is caused by forgetting Allah and the hereafter, to worry and to seek remedies for it.
1.at-Tin, verses 1-6.
2.Nursi, B.S. Sözler. s. 387-393.
3.Richard, M. Shattering the Myths of Darwinism. Translated by İ. Kapaklıkaya. Son Tartışmalar Işığında Darwinizm’in Mitleri. Gelenek Yayıncılık, Istanbul, 2003.
4.Miller, K. R. Life’s Grand Design. Technology Review, February/March, 1994, p.29-30.
5.Ibrahim, verse 27.
6.al-An’am, verse 32.
7.Aal-i Imran, verse 185.
8.an-Naziat, verses 37-39.
9.al-Anfal, verse 28.
10.al-Anbiya, verse 35.
11.al-Mulk, verse 2.
12.al-An’am, verse 42.
13.ash-Shuara, verse 80.
14.Nursi, B.S. Lem’alar. Sözler Yayınevi, Istanbul, 1976, p. 201.
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