By Dr. Ali Sina
Muslims
believe that there is a personal God who created this
world and made the man in his own image. Why? because He
wants them to know him and to worship him. That is the
purpose of creation as far as a Muslim is concerned! Is there any truth to this?
Humans separated from the chimps about four to six million
years ago. But it is about one hundred thousand years that
we became homo sapience (thinking people). Since then we
started to use tools and adapt our environment to suite
our needs. Until 10,000 years ago the evolution of our
consciousness was probably very limited. During the last
10,000 years we gained a sense of self. We became aware
that we are different. If you compare the evolution of
humans to the growth of a single person, this period
represents the stage when a child learns to speak and
become curious of his environment. That is the time when
he asks questions. He wants to know why and how. Then it
comes the age of adolescence. That is the time when he is
proud, he seeks power. He wants to assert his
independence. He becomes rebellious and bullies others.
Only at the age of maturity he acknowledges that he is
part of the society and must act responsibly.
We humans are just growing out of our adolescence and
entering the age of adulthood. Relatively speaking we have
started to use our brain very recently. There are many
questions we still don’t know. We mostly know what are
NOT the answers and have not found what ARE. For example
we know for certainty that the Earth is not flat but still
there are many mysteries about our planet that we don’t
know. We are absolutely sure that the universe did not
start 6000 years ago. We know certainly that all these
animals including humans were not created one day as the
stories of Bible and Quran narrate. We know that
everything has evolved. But we don’t know the mechanism
of this evolution quite well. It is only during these last
200/300 years that we have started to ask proper questions
and find the right answers. During this short period of
time, we have learned a lot, but there is more to be
learned.
There are many theories about how we were created. These
are scientific theories. They are based on paleontology,
genealogy, archaeology, and many other related sciences.
As we discover new things our theories about our evolution
also evolve. But we will never go back to the primitive
idea of creation, just as no matter how many new things we
discover about the Earth, we shall never find out that it
is flat. OUR IGNORANCE OF THE THINGS THAT WE DON’T KNOW
DOES NOT UNDERMINE OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THINGS THAT WE KNOW.
The next question we ask ourselves is why were we created.
Religions have their own answers. But the real answer is
that we don’t know! One thing we know is that the
purpose of our creation is not to know any deity or
worship any god as Muhammad used to say and his followers
do believe. The reason is simply because it does not make
sense for a perfect God to create such vast universe in
order to put in a tiniest of its planets a semi
intelligent creature just to know him and worship him.
This universe is about 15 billion years old. Humans have
come to the scene very recently but Adam who was the first
man and prophet according to Quran is only 6000 years old.
What was god doing for these billions of years when there
was no one to know him and worship him?
One
may question why God NEEDS to be known and worshiped any
way? Any need is a sign of a defect. This characteristic
is more befitting of a maniac dictator that craves for
recognition and adulation of his subjects, who orders his
executioners to punish anyone who dares not to bow in
front of him. It is not befitting of an almighty God.
If God was so desperate to be known and worshiped, why he
did not make himself more manifest? Does it make sense for
a supper wise god to cover himself behind the clouds of
secrecy, them send an illiterate man to call humanity
towards him, failing to arm him with proper miracles for
the benefit of those to whom he directly spoke and any
rational arguments for the benefit of those who have to
read his writings hundreds of years later?
Muhammad, as is demonstrated in many verses from Quran,
always refused to perform miracles. In fact one would
expect that a person who knows everything and has seen the
next world, as he claimed, would at least be able to read
and understand what is written in his own language. Yet
Muhammad remained illiterate all his life and he bragged
about it claiming it as the proof that his knowledge is of
divine origin and not learned from the books written by
men. This is a clear indication that he performed no
miracle at all. He rose as an illiterate man, ignorant of
the world around him and died illiterate just as ignorant
as before he made his claim. There is no proof for us to
believe that he was a messenger of God on the basis of
what is left of him in writing. The only book that he
left, and boasted to be a “miracle” is full of errors.
Quran is a book, which is scientifically, historically,
logically, and grammatically wrong. It is amazing that
despite all the evidence, Muslims still rehash the
nonsense of Quran’s miraculous nature.
The question is, if the only propose of creation is to
know God, why God’s message is not logical? Why it goes
against human reason? Why should he give us a brain and
expect us to forgo its use when it comes to such important
thing as knowing him and our very reson de etre?
So, if the purpose of creation is not to know God and
worship Him, then what is it?
I am afraid as I said before; it is easier to know what
the truth is not than what it is. We don’t know why the
universe has come to be, and we may never know. Yet
because we are humans, we like to find out; and when we
cannot find out, we like to speculate. Primitive people
thought that since everything has a maker, this universe
must be the handiwork of a deity too. That is as
speculation and cannot be proven logically. What I will
tell you here is my speculation. It may not be right, or
at best it may be partially right. You may have a better
understanding. But since neither you nor me can prove what
we say, you may also be as wrong as I am.
I
believe that this universe is the natural manifestation of
a higher reality. That reality is the Single Principle
underlying the creation. Love is one of the aspects of
that Principle. There may not be a purpose to the creation
at all. It is there. Things in universe don’t happen for
a purpose. What is the purpose of rain falling on the
ocean? What is the purpose of billions of pollens carried
by the wind that do not fall to fertilize the female
flower? What is the purpose of the planets that are
uninhabited, i.e. do not support life? What is the purpose
of the moon? Why some planets have more moons and some
none? As you see things happen apparently without a
reason. If God was the designer and the creator of this
universe, then he is a sloppy creator. If a chimp sits
behind a typewriter pushing the keys his rate of success
in writing words that make sense are better than God’s
rate of success in creating life. Billions of sperms go to
waste for one of them to fertilize an egg. Thousands of
small turtles die or are eaten by predators for one of
them make it into adulthood. Scientists believe that less
than one in a million of the plants in our galaxy and
other galaxies may be able to support life. Look at our
own solar system; out of the nine plants only one is
habitable. This is a poor performance by an almighty god.
If the ultimate purpose of creation was to have a
two-legged creature to prostrate in front of him and
satiate his self-aggrandizing ego, why he failed to
populate other planets?
There
are many indications that point to the fact that the
evolution is not teleological. There is no one sitting up
there deciding on everything. But everything happen
governed by a principle. There is order in the universe.
This Order, this Cosmic Law, is undeniable. We see the
order, but we cannot understand the nature of it. It is a
Principle underlying the creation. Love is a manifestation
of that Principle. May be all that there is, is the
natural expression of love. May be that is how the
universe has come to be. But who knows?
I believe this world, i.e. the physical world that you and
I see and live in it, is the womb for our soul. Just as
the foetus grows in the womb of it’s mother acquiring a
physical body that may not be even useful to him while
still in the womb, but it would be disastrous if he is
born without a well developed organ or limb, so is our
soul acquiring a spiritual body that will serve us when we
depart form this world and are born in the next. Love may
be the purpose of life. We have to grow in love. Express
our love to all members of human family, to all animals
and plants and to all living beings. May be this is the
meaning and the purpose of life. To help someone in
distress, to alleviate someone’s burden, to sooth
someone’s pain and to put a smile in someone’s face. I
cannot see any purpose loftier in life, than loving my
fellow human beings. Can you?
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