؟The Big Questions: Who Made Us
 

[FONT=Traditional Arabic][SIZE=5]؟The Big Questions: Who Made Us[/SIZE][/FONT]

[SIZE=2]Written by muslim Thursday,
25 February 2010 23:42
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[CENTER][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]At some point in our lives, everybody asks the big questions:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua][COLOR=#ff0000]“Who made us,” and “Why are we here?” [/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]



[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=3]So who [I]did[/I] make us? Most of us have been brought up more on science than religion, and to believe in the Big Bang and evolution more than God. But which makes more sense? [COLOR=#3366ff]And is there any reason why the theories of science and creationism cannot coexist?[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]


[SIZE=3][IMG]http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/images/The_Big_Questions_%28part_1_of_3%29_001.jpg[/IMG][/SIZE]


[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]The Big Bang may explain the origin of the universe, but it doesn’t explain the origin of the [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]primordial dust cloud. This dust cloud (which, according to the theory, drew together, [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]compacted and then exploded) had to come from somewhere. After all, it contained enough [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]matter to form not just our galaxy, but the billion other galaxies in the known universe. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua][COLOR=#008000]So where did [I]that[/I] come form? [/COLOR][I]Who[/I], or [I]what[/I], created the primordial dust cloud?[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]Similarly, evolution may explain the fossil record, but it falls far short of explaining the [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]quintessential essence of human life—[COLOR=#ff6600][I]the soul.[/I][/COLOR] We all have one. We feel its presence, [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]we speak of its existence and at times pray for its salvation. [COLOR=#993366]But only the religious can explain [/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua][COLOR=#993366]where it came from.[/COLOR] The theory of natural selection can explain many of the material aspects of [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]living things, but it fails to explain the human soul.[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]


[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=3]Furthermore, anyone who studies the complexities of life and the universe cannot help but witness the signature of the Creator.[/SIZE][URL="http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/524/#_ftn12720"][U][SIZE=3][COLOR=#0066cc][1][/COLOR][/SIZE][/U][/URL][/FONT][/COLOR]

[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]Whether or not people recognize these signs is another matter—as[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]the old saying goes, denial isn’t just a river in[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]Egypt. (Get it? Denial, spelled “de Nile” … the river Ni … oh, never mind.) [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]The point is that if we see a painting, we know there is a painter. If we see a sculpture, we know there’s [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]a sculptor; a pot, a potter. So when we view creation, shouldn’t we know there’s a Creator?[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]


[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]The concept that the universe exploded and then developed in balanced perfection through random [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]events and natural selection is little different from the proposal that, by dropping bombs into[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]a junkyard, sooner or later one of them will blow everything together into a perfect Mercedes.[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]


[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]If there is one thing we know for certain, it is that without a controlling influence, all systems degenerate [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]into chaos. The theories of the Big Bang and evolution propose the exact opposite, however—that chaos [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]fostered perfection. Would it not be more reasonable to conclude that the Big Bang and evolution were [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]controlled events? Controlled, that is, by the Creator?[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]


[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]The Bedouin of Arabia tell the tale of a nomad finding an exquisite palace at an oasis in the middle[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]of an otherwise barren desert. When he asks how it was built, the owner tells him it was formed[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]by the forces of nature. The wind shaped the rocks and blew them to the edge of this oasis, and then [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]tumbled them together into the shape of the palace. Then it blew sand and rain into the cracks to [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]cement them together. Next, it blew strands of sheep’s wool together into rugs and tapestries, stray[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]wood together into furniture, doors, windowsills and trim, and positioned them in the palace at just the[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]right ********s. Lightning strikes melted sand into sheets of glass and blasted them into the window-frames, and [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]smelted black sand into steel and shaped it into the fence and gate with perfect alignment and symmetry. The process[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]took billions of years and only happened at this one place on earth—purely through coincidence.[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]


[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]When we finish rolling our eyes, we get the point. Obviously, the palace was built by design, not by[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]happenstance. To what (or more to the point, to Whom), then, should we attribute the origin of[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]items of infinitely greater complexity, such as our universe and ourselves?[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]Another argument to dismiss the concept of Creationism focuses upon what people perceive to be[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]the imperfections of creation. These are the “How can there be a God if such-and-such [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]happened?” arguments. The issue under discussion could be anything from a natural disaster to birth defects, from [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]genocide to grandma’s cancer. That’s not the point. The point is that denying God ****d upon what[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]we perceive to be injustices of life presumes that a divine being would not have designed [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]our lives to be anything other than perfect, and would have established justice on Earth.[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]



[B][COLOR=#ff00ff][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=3]Hmm … is there no other option?[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/B]



[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]We can just as easily propose that God did not design life on Earth to be paradise, but rather a test, the punishment [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]or rewards of which are to be had in the next life, which is where God establishes His ultimate[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]justice. In support of this concept we can well ask who suffered more injustices in their worldly lives than God’s [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]favorites, which is to say the prophets? And who do we expect to occupy the highest stations[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]in paradise, if not those who maintain true faith in the face of worldly adversity? So suffering [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]in this worldly life does not necessarily translate into God’s disfavor, and a blissful worldly[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]life does not necessarily translate into beatitude in the hereafter.[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]


[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]I would hope that, by this line of reasoning, we can agree upon the answer to the first “big question.” Who made [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]us? Can we agree that if we are creation, God is the Creator?[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]


[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua]If we can’t agree on this point, there probably isn’t much point in continuing. However, for those who [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=book antiqua][I]do[/I] agree, let’s move on to “big question” number two—why are we here? What, in other words, is the purpose of life?[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]



[SIZE=3][COLOR=#339966][COLOR=#008000][B]Next:[/B][/COLOR][/COLOR] The Big Questions (part 2 of 3): The Purpose of Life [/SIZE]



[COLOR=#ff0000][SIZE=3][U]Footnotes:[/U] [/SIZE][/COLOR][URL="http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/524/#_ftnref12720"][U][SIZE=3][COLOR=#0066cc][1][/COLOR][/SIZE][/U][/URL][SIZE=3] To this end, and leaving all of the author’s religious inclinations aside, I heartily recommend reading [I]A Short History of Nearly Everything[/I], by Bill Bryson.
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