Science and Religion

They say Islam is the “Deen e Fitrat” i.e. the Religion of Nature. The question is which nature? It is not the nature of humans that is referred to here, it is the Nature of the Universe, and the Nature of the Universe is governed by laws or principles. The study of these principles is the domain of science. Hence Islam and science go hand in hand. To understand Islam at a deeper level beyond the rituals of religion one must study science. In fact its not only Islam, but every major religion in the world is an attempt to explain the correlation between humans and the Laws of Nature. As humans we have an innate curiosity to make sense of our own creation and our place in this Universe. The earliest man gazed at the night stars and discovered constellations, modern humans spend an immense amount of time and money on peering deeper into the outer realms of the Universe to find out how exactly were we created and what will happen to us eventually. Ancient religions explained the laws of nature through metaphors which humans at that point of time could understand. As time progressed the latter religions especially Islam which is the last of the great monotheistic religions, the allegories became more evolved, the messages more direct since humans were reaching a point where such complex information could be understood and even validated. For example the description of the arrival of Doomsday changes dramatically from the Bible to the Quran. Where one mentions the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse Quran describes the events more directly and the description seems to match what scientists now say will happen in the event of a meteoric impact.

Let's now take the example of the most basic and fundamental concept of all religions i.e. Good and Evil. According to the Big Bang theory, Astronomers and Physicists tell us that within the first few fractions of a second, particles entered the Higgs Field and acquired mass. The first atoms of matter appeared, and with them appeared anti matter. Good and Evil both appeared at the start of the Universe. When matter and anti matter collide they annihilate each other, but not all particles collide hence the world we see to day. There is an asymmetry between matter and anti matter.

Which means that Good and Evil is not a human concept it is a principle of nature, and hence it is also part and parcel of human nature. The asymmetry of good and evil exists in humans just as it does in the Universe. Good will prevail at least until the time that the laws of the Universe change and when and if they do the Universe itself will be annihilated.