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Gentlemen,
I was following the debate and did not want to meddle, but here is my
2c. :)
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I did not want to wade into this discussion, but a couple of points need
to be clarified:
Darwin is a great scientist and there is nothing in science that
contradicts Islam, for the two are not distinguishable when it comes to
pondering and thinking -- they both encourage it. The human mind works
well with generalizations (otherwise there would be too much information
to absorb) and somehow the debate of Christian fundamentalists with
scientists was projected onto Islam.
On SPECIATION:
============
Let's step back for a moment and take a deep breath.
1. Natural selection and artificial selection (used by breeders) is
observable and proven and it selects and deselects certain attributes of
a species.
2. There is simply not enough time, mathematically, since the origin of
life to allow for N random mutations that are required to theoretically
end up with the species-defining genes that make up the highest forms of
life (humans and cows).
3. Theory of Punctuated Equilibrium by Gould laid the foundations for
the long periods of "stasis" between species.
4. "Speciation" (the process of creation of new species) is as yet
unresolved by scientists and the "isolated population" and "gradualist"
modes of speciation have been largely discredited.
5. Singh and Kulathinal of McMaster University (2000) have proposed a
"sexual evolution" that works within the natural selection process
itself and that gives quantum leaps to "genetic pool isolation" that may
be the first step towards speciation. In layman's terms, a mutation
unrelated to adaptability (natural selection) might result in an
undesirable sexual trait that is imperceptible to scientists or to
non-members of that species (like a pheromone) that stops one group from
mating with the other group in the same geographical population in the
same environment. It should be noted that this is just the beginning of
"speciation"
Now, let us see how far we have come from Darwin himself, who said that
his guess of speciation as a result of natural selection was just an
analogy, and may well be wrong. In another place, he added,
"If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could
not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight
modifications, my theory would absolutely break down."
One of the few flaws, and perhaps the biggest, in the scientific
community is the "bandwagon" effect - similar to the "precedence" theory
of jurisprudence. It took 60+ years to bring eugenics back as a
scientific discipline after Hitler's experiments -- but it came back
with an euphemism -- evolutionary psychology. Similarly, the Darwin
bandwagon is very hard to get off, and scientists cause the flaws
"speciation problems".
Nothing in the Qur'an even remotely suggests that any of God's actions
violate any of his pre-ordained natural laws -- that He created every
living thing from water; that He initiates creation and then repeats it;
that He created life in stages; that He created crawlers, and quadripeds
and bipeds as distinct stages, etc. etc.
On RANDOMNESS
==============
God's "intervention" is usually in the form of some hitherto
undiscovered law of nature -- or some serendipitous interaction and
interplay of those laws. The "imperfection" in mutation is not the same
imperfection as it is in sunspots and earthquakes -- they precisely
follow the laws of physics but the calculations needed to arrive at the
exact spot of each atom and force vector are beyond our concept of
"calculations". Each genetic mutation is the inability of a protein
enzyme to not rotate at a certain precise moment due to the presence of
something else - the exact way and when it will occur is beyond our
calculations, but it is not "random" and "chance". I will try once
again -- the flip of a coin is "random" -- but the initial force and
angular velocity of the thumb when the coin is launched plus the air
current plus the gravitational pull plus the characteristics of the
surface of the hand where it will fall at the time will accurately
predict the outcome at launch time and a machine can be constructed to
replicate that exactly. So, what exactly is random? Where the human
mind just resigns and says "chance", but not to God!
So, is it too much to accept that, when God decided to create humans on
earth, he actually initiated a wonderful speciation mechanism through
mechanisms that we will never be able to decipher -- such a wonderful
speciation that with only 50 genes (< 2%) separating us from
chimpanzees, we are millions of orders of magnitude different in
intellect.
Will we ever know when that speciation occurred? or from which stock? or
how? Probably never, but that does not give anyone license to say that
humans "evolved" from monkeys -- nor does it give anyone the license to
say that God created the heavens and the earth in six 24-hour days and
then probably rested.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED?
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Many early hominid species and lines died out – and one day, God decided
to create a line "conscious" of itself and able to recognize Him as the
power behind Nature. So, he did yet another hominid speciation, with
sexual selection that introduced the concept of "shame" so that when
they grew up they they had to cover themselves and hide from the rest of
their group in a garden. God would speak to Adam and put thoughts in
his head that had no relationship to any external stimuli – and this was
something the Universe had probably never seen before!
Is the above paragraph the truth? Probably NOT! Am I trying to stretch
and twist to justify Islam – absolutely NOT. I am just trying to stress
my faith that whatever science comes up will never conflict with Islam.
To use "natural selection" to explain speciation is bad science. To
then use that to prove that God does not exist in an astounding leap in
logic comparable to the ultra-creationists (six-dayers).
Akber Choudhry
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