|
SOME OF THE ‘DOORS’ TO GOD’S
EXISTENCE
The doors to God’s existence
are open to everybody, provided that they sincerely
intend to enter through them. Some of those
doors-the demonstrations for God’s existence-are
as follows.
Contingent
nature of the creation
Whether as a whole or separately,
all things are contingent, that is, it is equally
possible for something to come into existence or
not. Also, it is possible for any thing to come into
existence at any time, in any place and in any form
and with any character.
We see that nothing or no-one in
the world, whether conscious or unconscious, living
or non-living, has any role to determine the way,
and the date and place of its coming into existence,
and its character and features. So, there must be
some power that chooses between the existence and
non-existence of any particular thing and gives it
its distinguishing, individual characteristics. This
power must be infinite, have absolute will and
all-comprehensive knowledge. Necessarily, this power
is God.
Finite nature of
things
Everything in the universe is
changeable. Anything changeable is contained by time
and space; it has a beginning and end. Anything
which has a beginning needs a beginningless one who
brings it into existence. For the one who has a
beginning cannot be the originator of things, since
such a one will, evidently, need another originator.
As an unending regress through the originator of
each originator, is unacceptable, reason demands one
who is infinitely self-existent and self-subsistent,
who undergoes no change, namely God.
Life
Life* is a riddle but
transparent. It is a riddle in that scientists, who
cannot explain it with material causes, are unable
to discover its origin. It is transparent because it
shows or reflects a creative power. Through both its
transparency and its being a riddle, life declares:
‘The one who creates me is God.’
*A. C. Morrison writes:
Life is a sculptor and shapes
all living things; an artist that designs every
leaf of every tree, that colors the flowers, the
apple, the forest, and the plumage of the bird
of paradise. Life is a musician and has taught
each bird to sing its love songs, the insects to
call each other in the music of their
multitudinous sounds.
Life has given to man alone
mastery over combined sound vibrations and has
furnished the material for their production.
Life is an engineer, for it
has designed the legs of the grasshopper and the
flea, the coordinated muscles, levers and
joints, the tireless beating heart, the system
of electric nerves of every animal, and the
complete system of circulation of every living
thing.
Life is a chemist that gives
taste to our fruits and spices and perfume to
the rose. Life synthesizes new substances which
Nature has not yet provided to balance its
processes and to destroy invading life... Life’s
chemistry is sublime, for not only does it set
the rays of the sun to work to change water and
carbonic acid into wood and sugar, but, in doing
so, releases oxygen that animals may have the
breath of life.
Life is a historian, for it
has written its history page by page, through
the ages, leaving its record in the rocks, an
autobiography which only awaits correct
interpretation.
Life protects its creations
by the abundance of food in the egg and prepares
many of its infants for active life after birth,
or by conscious motherhood stores food in
preparation for her young. Life produces
life-giving milk to meet immediate needs,
foreseeing this necessity and preparing for
events to come.
‘Matter has never done more
than its laws decree. The atoms and molecules
obey the dictates of chemical affinity, the
force of gravity, the influences of temperature
and electric impulses. Matter has no initiative,
but life brings into being marvelous new designs
and structures.
What life is no man has yet
fathomed; it has no weight or dimensions...
Nature did not create life; fire-blistered rocks
and a saltless sea did not meet the necessary
requirements. Gravity is a property of matter;
electricity we now believe to be matter itself;
the rays of the sun and stars can be deflected
by gravity and seem to be akin to it. Man is
learning the dimensions of the atom and is
measuring its locked-up power, but life is
illusive, like space. WHY?
Life is fundamental and is
the only means by which matter can attain
understanding. Life is the only source of
consciousness and it alone makes possible
knowledge of the works of God which we, still
half blind, yet know to be good’ (Man Does
Not Stand Alone, New York, 1945, pp.31-6)
Orderliness in
creation
From tiniest particles to huge
spheres and galaxies, everything in the universe and
the universe as a whole display a magnificent
harmony and order. Not only in things themselves but
also between all things there is a harmonious
relation, so much so that as the existence of a
single part necessitates the existence of the whole,
so also the whole requires the existence of all its
parts for its existence. The deformation of a single
cell may lead to the death of a whole body;
similarly a single pomegranate demands for its
existence the collaborative and co-operative
existence of air, water, earth, and the sun and a
well-balanced co-operation between them. This
harmony and cooperation in the universe point to a
creator of order, who knows everything in all its
relations and with all its characteristics, and who
is able to put everything in order. That creator of
order is God.
Artistry in
creation
The whole of the creation
exhibits an overwhelming artistry of dazzling worth.
Yet it is brought into being, as we see it, easily
and in a very short time. Furthermore, creation is
divided into countless families, genera and species
and even more smaller groups, and each of these
exists in great abundance. Despite the variety and
abundance, we see only orderliness and art and ease
in creation. This shows the existence of one with an
absolute power and knowledge, who is God.
Finality in
creation
Nothing in the universe is for
nothing, pointless. As ecology in particular shows,
everything in creation, no matter how apparently
insignificant, has a very significant role in
existence and serves a certain purpose. The chain of
creation up to man, the last link in creation, is
evidently directed to a final purpose. Just as the
purpose for growing a fruit-bearing tree is to
obtain fruits and the life of that tree is directed
toward the fruit, so too the ‘tree of creation’
has yielded as its final and most comprehensive
fruit. So, nothing is in vain in the universe. There
are many purposes for every thing, every activity,
and every event in it. Since this requires a wise
one who pursues certain purposes in creation, and
since nothing in the world-except for man-has the
consciousness to pursue those purposes, the wisdom
and purposiveness in creation necessarily point to
God.
Mercy and
providence
All living and even non-living
beings are in continuous need of many things, even a
small portion of which they are unable to supply by
themselves. For example, the operation and
maintenance of the universe demand the existence of
certain universal laws, such as growth,
reproduction, gravitation and repulsion. However,
these laws, which we call ‘natural laws’, have
no external, visible or material existence; they
exist nominally. Something with a nominal existence
only, which has no knowledge and consciousness, can
evidently not be responsible for a miraculous
creation, which requires absolute power and absolute
knowledge, wisdom, and power of choice and
preference. So, one who has all these attributes has
established these ‘natural laws’ and uses them
as veils before His operations for a certain
purpose.
Also, plants need air, water,
heat and light for their life, none of which they
are able to meet by themselves. As for the needs of
man, they are too many to enumerate. Fortunately,
all his essential needs, from the very beginning of
his earthly existence in his mother’s womb to his
death, are met beyond his own capacity and
intervention. When he enters into the world, he
finds everything prepared to meet all the needs of
his senses and intellectual and spiritual faculties.
This clearly shows that one who is infinitely
merciful and knowledgeable provides for all created
beings in the most extraordinary way and causes all
things to collaborate to that end.
Mutual helping
in the universe
As is mentioned above, all things
in the universe, including those remotest from each
other, run to the help of one another. This mutual
helping in the universe is so comprehensive that,
for example, as almost all things including air,
water, fire, earth, the sun and skies, help man in
the extraordinarily pre-arranged manner, so also the
cells, members and systems of his body co-operate
for the maintenance of his life. Earth, air, water
and heat and bacteria in earth co-operate for the
life of plants. This co-operation and mutual
helping, observed among unconscious beings but
displaying knowledge and conscious purpose, show the
existence of one who arranges them in that
miraculous way.
Cleanliness in
the universe
Until recently, when human beings
began to over-pollute air, water and earth, the
natural world has been continually cleansed and
purified. Even now, it still preserves its original
purity in many regions, mostly where the ways of
modern life have not yet taken hold. Have you ever
considered why nature is so clean, why forests, for
example, are so clean although many animals die
there every day? Have you ever considered if the
flies born in a single season of summer were all to
survive, the face of the earth would be covered with
many layers of fly bodies? Have you ever reflected
on the fact that nothing is wasted in nature? Every
dying is the beginning of a new birth. For example,
a dead body is decomposed and integrated into earth.
Elements die to be revived in plants; plants die in
the stomachs of animals and human beings to be
promoted to the higher rank of life.
This cycle of death and revival
is one of the factors which maintain the cleanliness
and purity of the universe. As well as bacteria and
insects, the winds and rain, and black holes in the
heavens, and oxygen in organic bodies, all serve to
sustain the purity in the universe. This purity
points to one who is all-wholly one, whose
attributes include cleanliness and purity.
Countenances
Thousands of millions of human
beings have lived since man’s first appearance on
the earth. Despite their common origin-a sperm and
ovum, which are formed from the same sort of foods
taken by parents-and although they have all been
composed of the same kind of structures or elements
or organisms, every human being has an individual
countenance distinguishing him or her from the
others. Sciences are unable to explain this
miraculous difference between countenances. It
cannot be explained by attributing it to DNA or
chromosomes, since this difference dates back to the
first differentiation of men in the world. Moreover,
this difference is not only in countenances but all
human beings are different from one another in
character, desires, ambitions, and abilities, etc.
While the members of an animal species are almost
the same, without displaying any difference in
behavior, each member of human race is like a
different species and has a particular world of his
own within the world of humanity. This obviously
shows one with an absolutely free choice and
all-encompassing knowledge, and He is God.
Divine teaching
and directing
For man to direct himself in life
and distinguish between what is good or bad for him
needs a minimum of around fifteen years. However,
many animals can do this very soon after they come
into the world. A duckling, for example, can swim as
soon as it hatches. Ants start to dig nests into the
earth when they get out of their cocoons. It does
not need a long time for bees and spiders to learn
how to make their honeycombs and webs respectively,
which are each marvels of handiwork beyond the
capacity of man. Who teaches young eels born in the
waters of Europe to find their way to their home in
the Pacific? Is the migration of birds not still a
mystery for man?* How can you explain all these
astounding facts other than by attributing them to
the teaching or directing of one who knows
everything and has arranged the universe with all
creatures in it in a way that enables every
creature, big or small, to direct its life?
*Amazing facts from the
lives of animals
The robin that nested at your
door goes south in the fall, but comes back to
his old nest the next spring. In September,
flocks of most of our birds fly south, often
over a thousand miles of open ocean, but they do
not lose their way. The homing pigeon confused
by new sounds on a long journey in a closed box,
circles for a moment and then heads almost
unerringly for home. The bee finds its hive
while the wind waving the grasses and trees blot
out every visible guide to its whereabouts. This
homing sense is slightly developed in man, but
he supplements his meager equipment with
instruments of navigation. The tiny insects must
have microscopic eyes, how perfect we do not
know, and the hawks, the eagle and the condor
must have telescopic vision. Here again man
surpasses them with his mechanical instruments.
If you let old Dobbin alone
he will keep to the road in the blackest night.
The owl can see the nice warm mouse as he runs
in the cooler grass in the blackest night.
The ordinary scallop whose
muscle we eat has several dozen beautiful eyes
very like ours, which sparkle because each eye
has unnumbered little reflectors which are said
to enable it to see things right side up. These
reflectors are not found in the human eye. Were
these reflectors developed because of the
absence of superior brain power in the scallop?
As the number of eyes in animals ranges from two
to thousands, and all are different, Nature
would have had a big job in developing the
science of optics unless [God, the All-Knowing,
the All-Determining and the All-Powerful had
predestined, predetermined, everything].
The honey bee is not
attracted by the gaudy flowers as we see them,
but sees by the ultra-violet light, which may
make them even more beautiful to bees. From the
rays of slower vibrations to the photographic
plate and beyond are realms of beauty, joy and
inspiration. The honey-bee workers make chambers
of different sizes in the comb used for
breeding. Small chambers are constructed for the
workers, larger ones for the drones, and special
chambers for the prospective queens. The queen
bee lays unfertilized eggs in the cells designed
for males, but lays fertilized eggs in the
proper chambers for the male workers and the
possible queens. The workers, who are the
modified females, having long since anticipated
the coming of the new generation, are also
prepared to furnish food for the young bees by
chewing and predigesting honey and pollen. They
discontinue the process of chewing, including
the predigesting, at a certain stage of
development of the males and females, and feed
only honey and pollen. The females so treated
become the workers.
The dog with an inquiring
nose can sense the animal that has passed. No
instrument of human invention has added to our
inferior sense of smell, and we hardly know
where to begin to investigate its extension.
All animals hear sounds, many
of which are outside our range of vibration,
with an acuteness that far surpasses our limited
sense of hearing.
The young salmon spends years
at sea, then comes back to his own river, and,
what is more, he travels up the side of the
river into which flows the tributary in which he
was born. If a salmon going up a river is
transferred to another tributary he will fight
his way down to the main stream and then turn up
against the current to finish his destiny. There
is, however, a much more difficult problem in
the exact reverse to solve in the case of the
eel. These amazing creatures migrate at maturity
from all the ponds and rivers everywhere-those
from Europe across thousands of miles of
ocean-all go to the abysmal deeps south of
Bermuda. There they breed and die. The little
ones, with no apparent means of knowing anything
except that they are in a wilderness of water,
start back and find their way to the shore from
which their parents came and thence to every
river, lake and little pond, so that each body
of water is always populated with eels.
Animals seem to have
telepathy. Who has not watched with admiration
the sandpiper flying and wheeling till every
white breast shows in the sunlight at the same
instant? A female moth placed in your attic by
the open window will send out some subtle
signal. Over an unbelievable area, the male
moths of the same species will watch the message
and respond in spite of your attempts to produce
laboratory odors to disconcert them.
Vegetation makes subtle use
of involuntary agents to carry on its
existence-insects to carry pollen from flower to
flower and the winds and everything that flies
or walks to distribute seed. At last, vegetation
has trapped masterful man. He has improved
nature and she generously rewards him. But he
has multiplied so prodigiously that he is now
chained to the plow. He must sow, reap, and
store; breed and cross-breed; prune and graft.
Should he neglect these chores starvation would
be his lot, civilization would crumble, and
earth return to her pristine state’ (Morrison,
49-57).
Are all these habits or
distinctive ‘instinctive’ acts, which must have
their origin deep at the beginning of life on earth,
the result of chance or of an intelligent provision?
Should we reflect on why certain animals are more
developed than man in having certain faculties?
Among all living creatures that have roamed the
earth none has a record of reasoning power which may
compare with that of man. What we call nature is
utterly blind, senseless, unconscious and ignorant.
Man, who is the only intelligent being on the earth,
can do nothing other than to try to explain all
these miraculous phenomena and he has no control
over his own body even. Does all this not display a
supreme determination, all-encompassing knowledge,
and an absolute power and thereby One Who has these?
The spirit and
the conscience
Despite enormous advances in the
sciences, man is unable to explain life. Life is the
gift of the Ever-Living One, Who ‘breathes’ a
spirit into each embryo. We know little concerning
the nature of the spirit and its relation with the
body but our ignorance of its nature does not mean
it does not exist. The spirit is sent to the world
to be perfected and acquire a state appropriate for
the other life.
The conscience of man is the
center of his inclinations towards wise choices
between right and wrong and everybody can feel this
conscience on some occasions. Also, almost each
human being feels inclination to turn to God
especially or certain occasions. The inclination
toward God and even belief in Him are intrinsic in
man. Even if man denies God consciously, his
unconscious belief in Him shows itself on certain
occasions. The Qur’an mentions this in some of its
verses:
It is He Who enables you to
travel on the land and the sea; and when you
are in the ship, and the ships run with a
favorable wind and they rejoice in it, there
comes upon them a strong wind, and waves come
on them from every side and they think that
they are encompassed. Then they cry unto God,
making their faith pure for Him only,
(saying): ‘If you deliver us from this, we
truly will be thankful!’ (Yunus,
10.22)
Then [Abraham] broke them
[the idols of his people] into pieces, all
except the large one, so that they might turn
to Him. [When they returned and saw the state
of their idols] they said: ‘Who has done
this to our gods. Surely it must be some
evildoer.’ They said: ‘We have heard a
youth talk of them; he is called Abraham.’
They said ‘Then, [at once] bring him before
the eyes of the people, so that they may
testify.’ [When Abraham was there] they
said: ‘Is it you who has done this to our
gods, O Abraham?’ He said: ‘Nay, this is
their chief, has done it, so ask them, if they
can speak.’ At once they turned to
themselves and said: ‘You, you are the
wrongdoers!’ Then they were utterly
confounded, and said: ‘O Abraham! You have
known that these do not speak.’ Abraham
said: ‘Do you then worship, besides God,
those things that cannot profit in anything at
all, nor harm you?’ ‘Fie upon you, and all
that you worship instead of God! Do you not
use your intelligence?’ They said: ‘Burn
him (immediately) and protect your gods, if
you are doing anything.’ (al-Anbiya’,
21. 58-68)
So, the spirit and conscience are
a strong argument for the existence of One God.
Man’s innate
dispositions and history of mankind
Man is innately disposed to good
and beauty and averse to evil and ugliness. He is
also inclined to virtues and moral values.
Therefore, unless corrupted by external factors and
conditions, he seeks the good and moral values which
are universal. The values man naturally seeks are
the same virtues and morality which the Divine
inspired religions have promulgated. As history
witnesses, mankind have never lived without a
religion. Just as no other system has so far been
able to supersede religion in the life of mankind,
so too it has always been the Prophets and religious
people who have been most influential in the life of
mankind and left indelible marks on it. This is
another irrefutable proof for the existence of One
God.
Human intuition
Man feels many intuitions and
emotions which are a sort of messages from
immaterial realms. Among them, the intuition of
eternity arouses in man a desire for eternity, for
the fulfillment of which he strives in diverse ways.
However, this desire can only be realized through
belief in and worship of the Eternal One Who
inspired this intuition and desire in man. It is in
the satisfaction of this desire for eternity that
true human happiness lies.
|
|
