What is science? Science is the systemized knowledge of nature and the physical world.
Human beings have always been reflecting and contemplating about the truths of the universe. At first this thinking process started along traditional lines, it then continued in the form of philosophy and finally began to be studied in an organized way according to the accepted principles of science.
The subject of the science is study of the physical world. The universe that has been discovered by scientific research after about four hundred years gives evidence, by way of inference, of its Creator. However, no scientist in the past has openly acknowledged the existence of God. All that can be said about scientists of the like of Albert Einstein is that their case was one of agnosticism and not one of clear atheism.
In the realm of the physical science, we have had three major paradigm shifts in the last four centuries. First, we had the Newtonian hypothesis that matter was the basic building block of the universe. In the early twentieth century, this gave way to the Einsteinian paradigm of energy being the basic building block. And the latest is the David Bohm era when more and more scientists are accepting consciousness to be the basic building block. These shifts have had inevitable consequences for the New Age philosophy, which has moved away from the philosophy of crass materialism to that of spirituality.
The age of modern science dawned about hundred years ago in western Europe. Gradually, it came to be accepted that science was the most authentic description of reality. If science proves something, it is true and if an idea does not stand true on scientific principles then it must be false. In its initial years, science became the study of only the material world. Since religious truths cannot be proved on the basis of standard scientific arguments, religion came to be understood as unscientific. But the river of knowledge continued to move ahead until a time came when science came to be the study not only of the material world, but also the immaterial world.
History has shown that the evolution of science helped in determining certain arguments and principles of reasoning which were universally accepted as true. There was further development in this direction and finally scientific findings indicated that the universe was the working of a superior intelligent being. A scientist has thus remarked: “The stuff of the world is mind-stuff.”
In 1927 a Belgium scientist Georges Lemaitre proposed the theory of the Big Bang for the origin of the universe. This theory has now become an established scientific fact. In 1965 scientists discovered what is known as cosmic microwave background radiation. This was the remnant or the leftover radiation from the moment of the Big Bang, which has been scattered all over the universe. An American scientist Joel Primack said after observing the cosmic microwave background radiations: “The ripples are no less than the handwriting of God.”
George Fitzgerald Smoot III (b. 1945) is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist. He won the Noble Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer. In1992, when George Smoot announced the discovery of ripples in the heat radiation still arriving from the Big Bang, he said it was “like seeing the face of God.” (God For the 21st Century, Templeton Press, May 2000)
The famous scientist Stephen Hawking once said: “There is a ‘grand design’ to the universe, but it has nothing to do with God. Science is coming close to ‘The Theory of Everything’ and when it does, we will know the grand design.’ (www.owlcation.com) At another place, Stephen Hawking says that “one can’t prove that God doesn’t exist, but science makes God unnecessary.” (Wikipedia)
The principles of quantum mechanics show that the physics of matter at the microscopic level is based on probability and uncertainty. Using this line of reasoning, when we say ‘Probably, there is a God’, it would be a valid statement. This is because even though there are certain particles of nature which cannot be seen and whose behaviour cannot be determined with accuracy, scientists study their probabilistic behaviour and consider their estimates equally valid.
Scientifically, we can only say that probably God exists, but as far as human intuition is concerned the existence of God is as certain as the existence of man himself. When it has been established that the universe is very meaningful, exhibits intelligent design and perfect order, all this then points to the existence of a superior mind behind the existence of the cosmos. The universe has innumerable objects, but everything is in its final form. The mathematical precision of the universe is so extraordinary that a scientist has said it appears that the universe has been made by a pure mathematical mind.
There is a lot of scientific literature on this subject now. In the past this field was known as natural theology, that is, a type of theology that provides arguments for the existence of God based on reason and ordinary experience of nature. An example is our solar system in which the planet earth is located. The solar system is in turn part of the Milky Way galaxy. However, our solar system is not right at the centre of the galaxy, rather it is located on one of the edges of its spiral arm. Being in the outskirts of the galaxy, we can live safely from the hectic activities at the centre, which is a very dangerous place. Due to this location of our solar system in the Milky Way, we were able to survive to build an entire civilization on earth.
Moreover, in the solar system, the earth’s location with respect to the sun is at a place which is neither too hot nor too cold. This is the most appropriate habitable zone, because it allows for liquid water on the surface of our rocky planet. Water is a property essential for the beginning of life, as it is important to have some sort of solvent which allows molecules to come into contact to form long chains necessary for life.
The above two examples illustrate the wise planning at work in the universe. This reality had been indicated in the Quran. However, modern research into the universe has helped in bringing forth the hidden meaning behind those verses of the Quran which point to the Creator’s intelligent planning for our world. Thus, modern scientific findings provide further insight and detail about Quranic references on nature. These discovers and the knowledge obtained through them help us reach and understanding that the universe has been created by a higher being, who is called ‘God’ in religion.
