Audio Book, "The Story of Adam and the Creation"

[purplemoon]

On pages 43-44 of his new audio book,
The Story of Adam and the Creation, Yusuf writes:


"Many are the dubious concepts, which furnish the present
world-view of life in the galaxy. The impact of Philosophers
and scientists, who have explored the modern meaning of
man and the cosmos over the centuries, have made a dramatic
impression on our minds and hearts. They have colonised
reality, and turned it into a dangerous 'battleground', which
every new scientific warrior tries to dominate with his latest
ideological thoughts and weaponry. Darwin picked up
and developed the idea of man evolving from apes. Today,
his theory is to be found in almost every science book and
preached in every school and university, as if it were indeed a
sacred scientific fact!

This has lead to a frightening level of materialism in the world
today, where the human spirit has been lost in the unscrupulous
battle for survival of the fittest. Racism is an obvious outcome.
It is clear that old Satan has found new and unique ways to
entrap mankind, and is having a great time playing his devious
game with us. What we need is to restore a bit of moral sense
and spiritual balance to stop us falling further.

The view that life could evolve from mindless nothingness to
this immeasurably beautiful and intricate universe of elements,
billions and billions of stars and planets, molecules and atoms,
mountains, rivers, creatures and animals of all breeds and
types - such a view is something that a truly rational mind
could never imagine."



I was really quite surprised by these paragraphs. Is Yusuf saying
that belief in evolution is incompatible with belief in divinely
guided creation?

[JaneB]

I am not at all surprised. Don't many (most?) people who believe God created the world dismiss the idea of evolution? After all, don't the holy books all say that God created man, not that God created apes who evolved into man?

[Vivian]

How about God created all creatures on Earth. Whther or not any of those creatures evolve into man is what's up for interpretation.
Peace,Vivian

[hyacinth]

Jan 11, 2012 17:41:00 GMT -5 purplemoon said:

Is Yusuf saying
that belief in evolution is incompatible with belief in divinely
guided creation?

Yes, he has said that in other settings, too. However, I was under the impression that Islam (or at least some sects) had, like the Roman Catholic Church, come to terms with modern science, including evolution - that is believing that evolution was divinely inspired. I remember being taught in Catholic school some years ago that the Bible, for example, was not meant to be a science book, but a religious and moral guide.
Yusuf's creationist views are no problem for me - I'll turn to Stephen Jay Gould and Stephen Hawking for my science and to Steven Demetre Georgiou for my music!

[G-One]

That's the way I do it, too Hyacinth...
Evolution is a fact. But who initiated this process and why? And why is mankind the only species that destroys this wonderful creation? That can't be the intention of any "creator" ...
Guess we're just one of many Petri dishes ...

[JaneB]

Jan 11, 2012 19:52:39 GMT -5 hyacinth said:

Yusuf's creationist views are no problem for me - I'll turn to Stephen Jay Gould and Stephen Hawking for my science and to Steven Demetre Georgiou for my music!

I feel the same way, hyacinth. Yusuf can believe whatever he wants; just don't take away my Cat Stevens albums and CDs!

[purplemoon]

Jan 11, 2012 18:24:45 GMT -5 JaneB said:

Don't many (most?) people who believe God created the world dismiss the idea of evolution?

My surprise about what Yusuf wrote does not arise from assumptions
about what many or most people may believe about evolution.
But Jane's question piqued my interest. Looking around, I found
a wikipedia site that attempts to address that question:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution

This site presents survey data about belief in various theories
in evolution -- by religion, by nation, by level /type of education, by
political affiliation. It also presents references for the opinions of
religious organizations and prominent individuals.

According to a 1997 Gallop survey of "scientists:"

55% of scientists believe in "evolution without God"
40% of scientists believe in "God-guided Evolution"
5% of scientists believe in "Young Earth Creationism"

(For the purpose of the survey, "Young Earth Creationism" was
defined as the belief that God created human beings pretty much
in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.)

Part of what I'm wondering is whether Yusuf includes himself in
the "God-guided evolution" camp or the "Young Earth Creationist"
camp.

[purplemoon]

Jan 11, 2012 19:52:39 GMT -5 hyacinth said:

... I'll turn to Stephen Jay Gould and Stephen Hawking for my science and to Steven Demetre Georgiou for my music!

So many Stephens! This reminds me of the infamous "Project Steve" that complied a list of scientists named only Steve, Steven, Stephen, Stephanie, etc., who believe in evolution. Hmmm ... Project Steve II
could be a list of musicians ...

[purplemoon]

Jan 11, 2012 19:52:39 GMT -5 hyacinth said:

I remember being taught in Catholic school some years ago that the Bible, for example, was not meant to be a science book, but a religious and moral guide.

Here is the finding of the International Theological Commission
published by the Vatican in July, 2004, representing the official
position of The Catholic Church:

“Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and
biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of
evolution to account for the development and diversification of life
on earth, while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms
of evolution.”

[Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution]

[purplemoon]

Jan 11, 2012 19:52:39 GMT -5 hyacinth said:

...I was under the impression that Islam (or at least some sects) had, like the Roman Catholic Church, come to terms with modern science, including evolution...

The results of a Pew Research survey presented at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution
seems to suggest that Muslims are divided on the evolution issue.

An article "The Muslim Responses to Evolution" at
www.hssrd.org/journal/summer2002/muslim-response.htm
seems to be an equal-handed survey presenting the views of
prominent Muslim writers on multiple sides of the issue.
The article notes "One view is that evolution is totally contradictory
and incompatible with the Islamic teachings. The proponents of this
view believe literally in the Quran and Hadith."

Muslims who embrace some theory of evolution point to verses
of the Qur'an that seem to support evolution and a poetic, non-literal
interpretation of The Qur'an:

"He has created you stage by stage." [71:13]

"God made you spring forth from the earth like a plant" [71:17]

"A Day with your Lord is like a thousand years by your reckoning." [22:47]

(All of the above quotes are from the Oxford World Classics
translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.)

[purplemoon]

There are a number of things about the paragraphs I quoted
from The Story of Adam and the Creation which surprise me.
To begin with, Yusuf wrote:

"They have colonised reality, and turned it into a dangerous
'battleground', which every new scientific warrior tries to dominate
with his latest ideological thoughts and weaponry."


This sentence is packed with an array of words ---
colonized, dangerous, battleground, warrior, dominate, weaponry
--- that seem to have been chosen to elicit a fearful response
from the book's predominately Muslim audience.

If the word "scientific" were omitted from this sentence and it were
then given to a thousand people, would any guess it had been
written about "Philosophers and scientists?" I doubt it.

Does this sentence present an accurate and fair characterization
of what scientists do? I don't think so.

Previously, Yusuf has spoken of how the "scientific" quality of Islam
appealed to him and cited this as a factor in his decision to convert.
(I don't have a reference for this, but recall having heard him say
it in, I think, a filmed interview. Does anyone know the ref?)

At mountainoflight.com, Yusuf draws connections between
Islam and modern science in multiple articles.

In an article discussing "Divine Design" at mountainoflight.com,
(http://www.mountainoflight.com/sj_secA_part3.html)
Yusuf displays a photograph of Albert Einstein and quotes him
in a manner which suggests that his views in agreement with
those of Einstein. Yusuf writes:


"Regardless of where a person’s conscience asks him or her to look
- if guided - a seeker of truth will inevitably find a mysterious door
leading to God. Even the greatest scientists repeatedly confirmed
their ultimate wish to know the ‘Mind of God’. Their journey towards
unravelling the mysteries of the universe is usually sparked by a
common desire: to know what lies behind the unseen and makes it
work. As the renowned scientist and father of the atomic age is
reported to have said, 'I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are
details.' "

Yusuf identifies "the renowned scientist and father of the atomic age"
he is quoting as Einstein. One could easily conclude from this that
Yusuf agrees with what Einstein meant by "God's thoughts"
--- or that Einstein's views support Yusuf's views.
But for Einstein "God's thoughts" was merely a poetic metaphor
for the logical order underlying the workings of existence.
Einstein stated:


"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological
concept which I cannot take seriously. I feel also not able to imagine
some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near those
of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical
simplicity of the order which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein's_religious_views.]


It's difficult to know what to conclude when Yusuf does both
of the following:

1) writes a scathing paragraph describing scientists as "colonising
reality" and turning it into "a dangerous battleground" and

2) admires scientific thought, the "scientific" nature of Islam,
the contributions of Islam to the development of modern science
and quotes eminent scientists (like Einstein) as though their
spiritual views are similar to his.

[purplemoon]

Another source of "surprise:"

At mountainoflight.com, Yusuf writes:

"some rational minds may choose to reject the implications
of a Divine Design."

In The Story of Adam and the Creation Yusuf writes:

"The view that life could evolve from mindless nothingness ...
is something that a truly rational mind could never imagine."

[purplemoon]

Jan 13, 2012 19:49:19 GMT -5 hyacinth said:

Where ever else I read/heard him talk about it, I was left with the clear impression that he does not believe in evolution.

Can you post any references for what you read/heard?

Sometimes people use the word "evolution" in ways that fail
to distinguish between 1) the evidence (from DNA, fossils, natural
history, breeding experiments, etc.) that species have evolved and
2) theories about the mechanisms by which they have evolved.

[hyacinth]

Jan 13, 2012 23:28:59 GMT -5 purplemoon said:

Can you post any references for what you read/heard?

It's not something that I bookmarked, so I'll see if I can re-stumble across whatever made me think that.