Of Religion and Science

 by Muhammad Ghazali

               For this blog entry, I am writing a review on Albert Einstein’s article entitled “Religion and Science” appeared in the New York Times Magazine on November 9^th, 1930. In the nutshell, this article talks about his philosophy on the origins of religions, our perceptions about religion and the concept of God, and his definition of a “cosmic religious feeling” which eventually concludes to his proclamation that in this materialistic age, the most religious people are those who take scientific studies very seriously.

               According to Einstein, the cosmic religious feeling is an experience in which a person feels that human desires and aims are meaningless and there exists a magnificent order manifested both in nature and in the world of thought. He feels that being human imprisons him from experiencing the universe as a whole, a feeling that can only be felt by an omnipresent being. Therefore, the idea of God cannot be represented in any man’s image because that would be bias: constrained by only an individual’s view of the world. Einstein claimed that this concept was presented in many early theological teachings such as the Psalms of David and Buddhism, in a number of works by classical philosophers and theologians such as Democritus and Francis of Assisi, and also by few modern day scientists such as Kepler and Newton.

               Last two weeks I got back in Hoboken from a long road trip with my friends across the southern part of America. There were quite a number of times I was awed by the nature we explored and the people we encountered. For example, when we were in the natural caverns at San Antonio, Texas, I was amazed by how beautiful it was few hundred feet underground. The naturally-formed stalactites, stalagmites, walls of smaller limestone straws, the ‘diamond river’ underneath, and many abstract formations of limestone basked in the man-made light inside the cavern. Fast forward while we were in Key West, Florida, we had an interesting conversation with a man who founded the first and only ‘masjid’ (a Muslim’s place of worship) in the island some tens of years ago. The masjid is in fact, his home. He devoted his house to be a place where the few Muslims on the island can gather and worship in congregation. Since there are not many Muslims on the island, especially of younger generation, he was afraid of the sustainability of the masjid in the future and insisted us to come back and bring more young Muslims there.

Unique reflection of light as we went down the stairs deep into the cavern at San Antonio

Having subways at the pier as we watched the sunrise at Key West

              

               And then it hit me, if the theory of evolution is true, in essence, if everything happened by accident from a single source they call the Big Bang, how did the creative aspects of the living beings originate? Given that the evolution theory is true, today, aren’t we supposed to be like those inanimate limestone formations in the cavern? In fact, when we call these natural formations beautiful or amazing, we have already associated creative traits to these inanimate objects. To me, the interaction between men and nature reveals that Creationism is true and there is order in all the things around us, as suggested by Einstein earlier.

               Some time ago I came across with a quite radical opening statement from a sociology book. As I recall from the poor memory of mine, the statement mentioned that the development of an early human society is not scientifically understandable. This is because if mankind is analyzed through the basis of cause and effect, early people would interact with each other by the means that would benefit them. For example, in a prehistoric barter system, an individual may trade his agricultural gain with a source of heat which is possessed by another individual. This is a win-win situation in which what one lacks is recovered from what another has in excess through the act of trading. However, when it comes to the building of a society, it is quite hard to explain scientifically why people sacrificed for the greater good of the unit or why people yearned for the comfort and security being with each other.

               Yet, this illogical concept of humanity exists in our everyday life. Even animals have love for their own kind. Why are there exist sentient beings like us? If animals cannot understand our words, where did they learn to love each other? How did emotions appear from a supermassive explosion occurred a really long time ago? Why is there right and wrong? These questions cannot be answered scientifically since there is no moral jurisdiction from the scientific point of view. To me, science provides ways for us to explain the mechanics of how things work. In order to understand the purpose and wisdom of our existence, we need to ponder upon nature which eventually, in my humble opinion, leads to our realization that there is a Creator out there, undefined by His creations, be it a created image or spoken words.

               Pardon my ignorance from having a significant study on other religions, but so far in my life, these ideas of mine seem to conform to the teachings of the somewhat misunderstood belief of Islam.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm