How Atheism Cancels the Mind and Science? 2

Atheism and the Denial of Intellectual Necessities

Therefore, we say to the atheist: If intellectual necessities do not exist, how do you explain the fact that everyone is convinced of them? This indicates that they are a firmly established intellectual component in people, and indeed, you and others act upon them in reality.

The atheistic perspective responds by saying: Since humans came about through Darwinian evolution, and the driving force behind this evolution is natural selection and random mutations that enable organisms to live and survive, what guarantees that these mutations have developed minds capable of reaching the truths of things? In fact, these minds can mislead us, making some things seem like intellectual certainties to us when they are merely illusions in reality. Rather, our minds deceive us to ensure our survival!

Therefore, atheism leads its adherent to go beyond denying intellectual certainties; it leads them to doubt the credibility of the human mind itself. We say to the atheist: Your atheism thus acknowledges that your mind can mislead you and that you may not discover the truth. How then can you trust your mind? In all your atheism, you claim that you rely on the mind, and yet your atheism itself casts doubt on the credibility of the mind. Nevertheless, it is as if you say: I believe my mind because my mind—the one whose credibility is in question—tells me to believe it!

This profound dilemma regarding the credibility of the mind was present even with Darwin himself, who expressed his bewilderment and discomfort with this issue, saying: "I am always haunted by a terrible doubt as to whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, have any value or are worthy of any trust."

It is, therefore, very strange that atheists claim to respect the mind and accuse believers of enslaving the mind, while the reality is that atheism ultimately leads to the demolition of the mind's reliability! The atheist blames us for our belief in the Prophet, peace be upon him—who was known for his truthfulness—not only because we base our faith on his claim about himself being a messenger of God, but also with external evidence of his truthfulness and prophethood. At the same time, the atheist believes his mind, whose credibility and ability to indicate the truth are in question, simply because his mind told him: "Believe me!"

Atheism and the Denial of Absolute Truths

How did atheism get out of this dilemma? The dilemma of relying on a mind that can mislead us from the truths of things. Atheism responds by saying: Who said that things have absolute truths in the first place, so that our minds can mislead us from them? How then? They say: Rather, there is no such thing as the truths of things; rather, they are human interpretations of them, as if the thing has no color, and there is no barrier for each person to see it in their own color, and no one can accuse the other of being wrong because no one can claim that the other has violated (the truth), because everything called (truth) is merely a human intellectual product with no absolute value independent of us.

And to understand the difference between truth being absolute and relative... Absolute: meaning it is not relative, meaning it is as such in itself, meaning we do not need to say after it: it is as such in relation to so-and-so. For example: When we draw a line like this line [the line appears on the screen], someone comes and says: They are two lines. We say to him: You are mistaken because you have violated an absolute truth, which is that it is one line. Whereas when we say: Is this line understandable? [writing in Japanese] The answer: Its being understandable or not is not absolute; it is understandable to the Japanese and not understandable to others.

The sequence that led to the denial of the existence of God ended by considering everything relative, which created the suitable environment for statements such as: No one possesses the truth, there is no absolute truth, and truth is relative... It is relative to them because the claim of the absoluteness of truth, and that things have a truth, necessitates the acceptance of the existence of laws that have been legislated, and intellectual necessities that have been instilled in humans like programming that is accepted, and they do not want to accept all of this.

Nevertheless, some Muslim youth repeat the phrase: The relativity of truth for the sake of openness and rationality, unaware of its basis and consequences. We say to those who repeat this phrase: (No one possesses absolute truth) Is your statement a truth? If he says: Yes, then you have acknowledged the existence of absolute truths. If he says: No, I see it as a truth in relation to me. We say to him: And I do not see it that way, so why do you deny those who disagree with you and hold on to absolute truths, considering that rigidity?

Consequences of Atheism on the Understanding of Revelation and Science

This relativism, brothers, this nihilism, and absurdity have also created the suitable environment for the idea of (the open text), meaning: dealing with the texts of revelation as a text that does not have one truth that the Muslim must strive to understand and act upon, but rather understanding is relative, and no one can be wrong about the other.

Thus, brothers, the consequences of atheism appear when it denies all nine key phrases in the faith statement that says: God created the heavens and the earth with truth, and established for them with His wisdom fixed laws, and instilled in humans a nature that produces for them necessary, self-evident intellectual certainties, from which the human mind sets out to discover the truths of things.

For the atheist: No God, so no creation, no wisdom, no fixed laws, no nature, no intellectual certainties, no reliable human mind, no right nor absolute truths, no reliable scientific results that can be generalized and rules can be derived from them, no language that addresses a common intellect, and everything falls apart. "And do not obey those whom We have given their desires over Our remembrance, and who pursue their passions, and whose affair is excess." [Al-Kahf: 28].

And all of this is the result of adhering to the denial of God the Almighty, and those who stopped at a stage of this descent have only ignored the implications and consequences of their atheism and contradicted their beliefs.

Faith in God is the Basis of Science and Knowledge

From what has preceded, brothers, it becomes clear that no truth can stand without faith in the existence of God the Almighty, who possesses absolute perfection, and who has instilled in humans absolute truths that they cannot reach on their own. From here, we understand the profound statement of the people of knowledge: (Knowledge of God is the foundation of knowledge of all known things).

For whoever does not perceive the existence of God the Almighty, they will not be able to logically establish a coherent epistemological theory, and this is the meaning of the speech of Ibn Al-Qayyim, which is summarized as: Denying the Creator of the universe and rejecting Him in the minds and nature is like denying knowledge and rejecting it; there is no difference between them. Rather, the indication of the Creator to the creation—with enlightened and sound minds and nature—is clearer than the opposite. He means that the inference of the Creator from the creation is clearer than the inference of the creation from the Creator.

Then Ibn Al-Qayyim said: I heard the Sheikh of Islam—Taj Al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah—say: How do you seek evidence for the One who is evidence for everything? And he often used to reflect on this verse: And nothing can be sound in the minds If the day needs evidence

The episode of today also helps us answer the question of the previous episode... We have proven that humans have an innate acknowledgment of the Creator, but does this acknowledgment necessarily mean the existence of the Creator? We have explained—in today's episode—the consequences of denying the innate necessities that humans find within themselves as a necessity, and with this, you also understand why the highest absolute value in Islam is the truth, without which the heavens and the earth cannot stand. With this, you also deeply understand the meaning of His saying, may He be exalted: "Have you not considered those who dispute about the signs of Allah, how they are turned away?" [Ghafir: 69], as if Allah the Almighty is saying: Have you not seen those who stubbornly dispute the cosmic and legal signs of Allah to what end they reach? And in what valleys of confusion and misguidance do they wander?

Conclusion

This was a discussion on the significance of the innate programming of the human mind regarding the existence of Allah the Almighty. In the upcoming episodes, we will discuss other innate indications, God willing. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.