Richard Dawkins is Forced to Admit
The British ethnologist, evolutionary biologist and staunch atheist, Richard Dawkins wrote:
“…the Cambrian strata of rocks, vintage about 600 million years, are the oldest in which we find most of the major invertebrate groups. And we find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is as though they were just planted there, without any evolutionary history. Needless to say, this appearance of sudden planting has delighted creationists.” (Richard Dawkins, ‘The Blind Watchmaker’, 1987, P. 229)
As-salâm ‘alaykum wa rahmatullâh wa barakâtuhu
Regarding evolution in general, does it somehow contradict our ‘Aqîdah to accept it as a plausible way of explaining the diversity that exists among different creatures as long as we believe that if such a process exists, it exists according to the will of Allâh. I realize that it is unacceptable to believe that Aadam was initially created by such a process (and I have read what Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymîn has said regarding those who say that) but could we not regard Aadam as an exception to the general rule? Is it not akin to believing in fluid dynamics while also believing that Mûsâ split the ocean as a miracle (read: an exception to the general rule); or believing in thermodynamics, but also believing that Ibrâhîm was unharmed by fire by a miracle (read: an exception to the general rule). Therefore, is evolution not purely a question of scientific inquiry for us, as opposed to having any ‘Aqîdah implications (and I am not talking about teleology here)? If so, whether evolution is true or not (and while it may have strong support for it, it is just a theory that may be disproved) should it not be inconsequential to our Eemân or ‘Aqîdah?
Um. Way to take a phrase completely out of context.
Walaikum salaam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh
Br. Abu Musa
Firstly, I am not an expert on evolution, nor do I claim to know a great deal about it. Nevertheless, I can agree with “some” of what you have posted, but then it really depends on what is meant by “evolution” to the one who is using the term and speaking on it. In most cases those who propagate the “theory of evolution” not only deny creation, but also deny the Creator.
Not sure if you have read it, but the late Shaykh, Dr. Saleh as-Saleh has a nice, albeit brief article on the issue at hand in which he talks about man being honoured:
http://www.understand-islam.net/Books/DARWIN.pdf
Thank you for the response brother.
Regarding evolution, it is not concerned with the origin of life but rather only deals with the modification and diversification of already living organisms. In other words, evolution is not concerned with explaining why life exists on Earth in the first place.
As far as the question of creation, evolution works on matter that already exists and by laws that are assumed, not explained. It seems to me perfectly in line with creation if I believed that if such a process exists, then while on the surface it may explain the diversity existing among animals, ultimately the process itself is by the will of Allaah just as everything else is. The words that you are reading right now are the product of my fingers moving, which are themselves a product of my brain commanding, which ultimately is a result of Allaah creation and Will. Please correct me if I’m wrong here.
While there are atheists who use evolution to justify their atheism, the belief in God and the belief in evolution are mutually exclusive. In fact, heavyweights in the development of the theory of evolution by natural selection believed in God, such as Dobzhansky who wrote the article “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” while still considering himself a staunch christian. Darwin himself did not base his agnosticism on his theory and there are many biologists who see no contradiction between the two. In fact, in my experience, the people who tend to use evolution as THE reason for their atheism are ignorant of what exactly the theory proposes and the limits of science in general.
I just feel that when Muslims attack the theory of evolution it is like defending the genital mutilation practiced in East Africa. I don’t see why we have to bother as, as far as I know, there isn’t anything refuting the theory of evolution (descent with modification) in Islaamic texts, just as there isn’t anything condoning genital mutilation. This is especially the case when the people attacking the theory of evolution tend not to have baseerah into the theory and therefore make basic mistakes discernible to those well-acquainted with the precepts of the theory (such as the belief that evolution says that mankind evolved from monkeys, something that was never proposed by evolutionary biologists). It turns people off when they see religious people arguing based on ignorance and cements those who may have been open to accepting religion in their atheism/agnosticism. Evolution is a clear problem for christians, not Muslims. The clear meaning of Genesis directly contradicts what evolution states so it’s clear why christians would be concerned with refuting evolution but why Muslims? Having said that though, if there was anything in Islaam that contradicted the general theory of evolution then I, as a third year biology student, would have no problem in disbelieving in evolution. Does such a text exist? If not, then it’s probably best to leave it up to the ‘ulamaa’ of evolution (read: evolutionary biologists) to either support or contradict the theory of evolution.
In shaa Allaah if you want to continue this discussion, I’d prefer to do it by e-mail.
wAllaah A’lam
I feel that the definition of “evolution” is relatively subjective, since what one means by such a term can vary drastically from person to person. I do not mean to say that there is not a clear definition of what the word “evolution” means, I merely mean what the “word” means to different people, their usage of it and their intention behind their usage of it.
From what little I have read on the subject at hand then I was led to believe that evolution has and does touch on the subject of “the origins of life,” so would it be fair to claim that the study of evolution is limited to and only concerned with the modification and diversification of organisms. That’s not to say that due to this point every aspect of evolution is by default untenable.
That said, I agree that such an issue, or the vast majority of it is unlikely to be detrimental to our creed as Muslims.
Jazak’Allaahu khair!
As-salaam ‘alaykum bro,
I just wanted to point out that the following website explains a lot of the things I mentioned above which may have been unclear, although I don’t necessarily agree with everything. It’s written by a brother who used to be an atheist:
http://seemyparadigm.webs.com/evolution.htm
Walaikum salaam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh
Ok, I will try to find some time to go through it inshaa’Allaah! Jazak’Allaahu khairan!