Allah's Univocal Sign (3/3)
Abdullah S. Al-Shehri
But why should evolution lead to the exclusion of design when it is equally (and in fact more) convincing to attribute the evolution of life and the cosmos to the Will of a Higher Intelligence. Well put by H. D. Barrows:
"Is it not more reasonable to believe that the differentiation of species and the evolution of higher forms from lower during all the many stages thereof, was directed, determined and effected by Intelligence, utilizing, always, natural means and forces, to bring about natural, but ever purposeful results, than to believe that those results could have been produced by accident, or by the blind bias of unconscious matter; or, by the eccentric action of irresponsible and unintelligent force; or, finally, by the inconceivably improbable method of "a fortuitous concourse of atoms?" [1].
At this point, I think it is important to stop for a while and show where Islam and evolution are perfectly compatible. As mentioned earlier, Islam and evolution, in its broadest sense, are demonstrably compatible. Now we need to explain how Islam is compatible with many of the fundamental notions proposed by evolution in the Darwinian sense. According to the Qur’an (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:68), Allah does two things: He creates what He wills and He selects from His creation. The word connoting 'selection' is the Arabic verb 'Yakhtaar', which means to choose or select. It is worth noting that the two verbs denoting Allah's act of creating and selecting are used in the present tense: Yahkluq (creates) and Yakhtaar (selects/chooses), hence underscoring two manifestations of Allah's ceaseless involvement in the affairs of the universe. Thus, Islam does not reject the concept of selection which is utterly central to evolutionary theory. It only rejects the claim that selection is solely nature's invention, therefore the assumption that God is irrelevant. Selection, however, is not really 'random', although many biology books are notoriously known for using this adjective without reservation.
When biologists say 'random' they mean that for some 'unknown or unapparent' reason the genetic information guiding natural selection is continuously changing. They know that change is happening and has a job to do but they cannot explain the sudden shifts in genetic information and how they predispose selection to behave in a certain way.
Let's talk a little about the notion of genetic information, the amazing instructions that guide selection through space and time [2]. Again, this bit does not go without mention in the Qur’an. In chapter 20 verse 50, it is stated that in addition to Allah giving everything its creation (i.e. its form and nature), He has also given everything 'Huda' (i.e. guidance, direction) [3]. In its essence, natural selection is a perfect example of informational guidance and, according to the Qur’an, such information is encoded and embedded for nature's convenience. Interestingly, the very word 'guidance' – the literal *****alent of 'Huda' in Arabic - has been reiterated by Darwin in his Descent of Man more than 34 times [4] [5].
Gregory Bateson, the renowned anthropologist and social scientist, and known for his pioneering work on cybernetic systems, viewed "all the systems of the living natural world as being minds or mental processes"[6]. Although such minds, claims Bateson, may not be conscious, "they function as the 'informational drivers' of the living systems that exist at every scale from the tiny components of biological 'cells' to the great ecosystems and the vast processes of evolution" [7]. The basic ideas in this interpretation of life very much border on this vital concept of Hidaayah (guidance) mentioned in the Qur’an (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:50) [8]. This concept depicts all matter, living and nonliving, as being equipped with a 'guiding' consciousness of some kind that navigates them through various historical trajectories.
What Islam rejects about evolution, however, is the assumption that contingent life is self-creating or self-guiding, for how could an intrinsically contingent system owe its very existence to nothing external at all? This is a palpable absurdity. That would, as John Blackie has eloquently pointed out, resemble the assertion that reason has evolved out of unreason, or "order out of confusion, light out of darkness, fire out of frost, or the positive in any shape out of mere blind negations"[9]. To recapitulate, Islam categorically rejects three evolutionary propositions:
• The proposition that Allah and evolution are mutually exclusive; that we must choose between Darwinism and creation [10]. Carl Zimmer nicely puts it that "God and evolution are not mutually exclusive. Evolution is a scientific phenomenon, one that scientists can study because it is observable and predictable. But digging up fossils does not disprove the existence of God or a higher purpose for the universe. That is beyond science's power"[11].
• The proposition that future things, beings, or states are necessarily better or more prefect than past ones whether on the basis of linear or non-linear evolutionary progress[12].
• The proposition that humans are the descendants of prehumen or barely humanoid species, a proposition which stands on dubitable evidence, sheer speculation and fails miserably to account for the so-called missing link(s). (Of course anyone familiar with the subject will recall Haeckel's fraudulent drawings)[13].
[1] Barrows, H.D. (1904) Cosmos or Chaos? Theism, or Atheism? p. 14.
[2] Maynard, J. & Szathmáry, E. (1999) The Origins of Life, Oxford University Press, p. 2.
[3] Look up Yusuf Ali's translation of the Qur’an, one of the most authoritative ones.
[4] For example see pp. 57, 66, 98, 104, and 122 in: Darwin, Charles (2004) The Descent of Man, Penguin Classics. The notion of 'guidance' has vital implications for design, primarily that there's no such thing as pure chance or chaos in nature. "There is no juxtaposition of law and chance", says Neil Ormerod "…chance is itself subject to a certain type lawfulness, a statistical lawfulness whose outcomes, in the long run, can be predicted with some certainty" (Ormerod, Neil (2005) Chance and Necessity, Providence and God, Irish Theological Quarterly; 70; p. 272). George Williams, in his essential critique Adaptation and Natural Selection, has also realized that "even the most chaotically disorganized system may have a precise statistical organization". (Williams, G. (1996) Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought, Princeton University Press, p. 256-257). In fact, Erwin Schrödinger sees in "the unfolding of events in the life cycle of an organism...an admirable regularity and orderliness, unrivalled by anything we meet with in inanimate matter" (Schrödinger, E. (1992) What is Life? Cambridge University Press, p. 76).
[5] In all sincerity, I must say that had it not been for many of Darwin's insights, much of our ignorance concerning the science of life would have persisted till this very moment.
[6] Noel, C. (2008) Understanding Gregory Bateson: Mind, Beauty, and the Sacred Earth, State University of New York Press, p. 5.
[7] Ibid.
[8] The 14th century Attufi, in his three-volume Isharaat, interprets the verse as: "(Allah) gave everything its 'Khalq', meaning form and structure, and then 'Huda', meaning guidance, either though minds as in the case of humans or through instinct ]Darwin has dedicated an entire section on instinct and gave the example of bees[ as in the case of bees building their hives and spiders weaving their webs or any other organism (whose guidance is through instinct)" (See Attufi, Najmu-ddin (2002) Al-Isharaat Al-Ilahiyyah, Vol. 3, p. 8). The great exegete and linguist, Ibn-Atiyyah (circa 1088- 1151), looked at the general meaning of 'Huda' and laconically suggested, "…guided everything to what suits its nature" (See Ibn-Attyiah (2007) Al-Muhararul-Wajeez, Qatar, Vol. 8, p. 99).
[9] Blackie, John S. (1878) The Natural History of Atheism, New York, p. 236.
[10] Haught, J. F. (2006) Darwin, Design, and Divine Providence. In Debating Design From Darwin to DNA, (edit.) William A. Dembski and Michael Ruse, Cambridge University Press, p. 229. Kenneth R. Miller and Francis Collins, two prominent scientists, have shown that evolution, given its true size, and God are not incompatible. The crux of their arguments is that although evolutionary laws are apparently selfdriven, still there is nothing intrinsically illogical about believing in a God who equips such laws with (quasi)autonomous power. This view coincides with the Qur’an, where it is stated that Allah has given everything its own creation and then gave it guidance (Qur’an: 20:49), and part of that guidance is to give the laws some degree of autonomy.
[11] Zimmer, Carl (2001) Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea from Darwin to DNA, Arrow Books, p. 414.
[12] I have mentioned earlier that many evolutionists have changed their minds regarding this point. According to John Stewart, "The great majority of the leading evolutionary theorists who attended a major international conference on evolutionary progress in 1988 opposed the view that evolution is progressive and that humans are at the leading edge of evolution on this planet". (Stewart, John (2000) Evolution's Arrow: The Direction of Evolution and the Future of Humanity. The Chapman Press, p. 160: notes and references).
[13] This is a long story but I'll cut it short. Haeckel sketched drawings of several different embryos (human and non-human embryos) showing incredible similarity in their early “tailbud” stage. "Within months of the publication of Haeckel‟s work in 1868", relates Jonathan Sarfati "L. Rtimeyer, professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Basel, showed it to be fraudulent. William His Sr., professor of anatomy at the University of Leipzig, and a famous comparative embryologist, corroborated Rtimeyer’s criticisms. These scientists showed that Haeckel fraudulently modified his drawings of embryos to make them look more alike" (See Sarfati, J. (2002)