Some Comments on Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”
By : Dr Khalid Zaheer
Richard Dawkins is arguably the most celebrated atheist of our times. His book “The God Delusion” has turned out to be a best seller. It is a very forceful presentation of the case of his ideology. I am reading it these days with great interest because my ideology based on the Qur’an encourages me to read everything that claims to be the truth with an open mind. I must say that I am really impressed by the book. I have also to say, however, that, contrary to the wish of the author that the reader gets converted to his faith at the end of the reading, it has done little to take me away from my faith in God. I would like to mention my brief comments on four points the author has raised in the book. I am sure that he has addressed many other significant issues as well which believers in God must seriously think about. But for the time being four of them should suffice for a starter. Two of them are the ones on which I agree with him and on the two others I disagree.
He states in his book that religious personalities and ideologies shouldn’t be immune from criticism in a way that if a negative mention about them is made, the critics are accused of blasphemy. I quite agree with him. Hearing negative things about one’s revered personalities is a painful experience. But if those personalities are presented as truths to be embraced by all, they should be exposed for the scrutiny of those who haven’t accepted them as yet. My understanding, contrary to the popular view, is that there isn’t any punishment of blasphemy in Islam. The Qur’an desires from the believer that he should simply ignore the statements of blasphemy and be patient. In case if criticism on one’s faith deserves to be responded to, the response should be made in a polite and intelligent manner. One should also see with an open mind in the light of the criticism if the reverence attached to one’s faith was justified or not. Faith deserves the support of emotions only after it has passed the test of the intellect.
He raises another relevant point: Most religious people lay too much emphasis on the ultimate conclusion of faith rather than the process that leads to it. He asks: Why should a believer get the credit for believing in God when he has not done anything significant to get to it or has in fact, at times, acted immorally in preserving it by not even considering the other alternatives? And why should a non-believer get discredited for not believing in Him when his disbelief is the result of an honest effort which led him to wrong conclusions? One can scarcely disagree with his criticism of the conventional religious understanding on this issue. My understanding of the Qur’anic stance on this question is that accountability is going to be based on these principles: God is absolutely fair; He is fully aware of everything; and He will make people accountable to the extent of their potential only. The Qur’an says: “Indeed those who believe and do good deeds – We shall not hold any soul accountable for anything beyond its potential – such will be the people of paradise …” (Qur’an; 7: 42)
Dawkins claims that there could be three explanations for the existence of our world: chance happening, intelligent design, and natural selection. He strongly contends that while the first two theories are highly improbable, the only theory which appears highly probable is that of natural selection, which almost rules out the possibility of God as an explanation of how this world came about. What puzzles me is not quite as much the claim of the superiority of one possibility over the other two but the fact that the third possibility is being employed to prove the case for atheism. What if God Himself mentions in His book that the process He adopted for creating this world was that of natural selection? I find no conflict between the theory of natural selection and the faith that God created this world not all of a sudden and haphazardly but gradually through a very long process of evolution which was based on the phenomenon of natural selection. When I read the Qur’an I find the book saying just that. The questions that have been raised to prove the lack of involvement of God in the process are absurd and based on the naïve presentation of creationists’ views on how God created this world. Once one realizes that God is much more intelligent and capable than the imagination of both creationists and atheists put together, it wouldn’t be a problem to accept the proposition of a God-created world that came about gradually through the process of natural selection.
Another important remark of the author in the book is that if God was interested in being recognized, He should have made His existence clear enough for intelligent humans to know Him. How can He blame us for not accepting Him when He himself did not leave enough evidence for belief? Had the author understood God’s scheme for this life he wouldn’t have raised this question. God has left a natural urge in humans to know the truth. He has left it at their discretion to struggle earnestly to know what the correct answers are. If humans do enough, they get it, otherwise they don’t. The principle is true for all issues of morality. Accepting God is also a moral issue more than it is an intellectual one. Had it been simply an intellectual matter, it wouldn’t have been a trial for the idiots. The question of God is a test of morality for both intelligent and the less intelligent. Had God appeared as clearly as the sun does, it wouldn’t have been a trial of morality. At best, it would have been a test for the eyes. Now that He hasn’t made Himself physically or scientifically quite as manifest as some other realities, he has wanted it to be more testing for the morality of the individual to acknowledge Him or not. Many moral (or immoral) obstacles prevent people from looking for God. Sometimes very intelligent people form such strong opinions against Him at some stage in their lives that they wouldn’t like to probe enough to know Him even when evidence begins to promise that He exists in the later stages. Dawkins mentions some tests that were conducted to see if prayers were actually heard for the patients and concludes that the tests showed negative correlation between prayers and the betterment of the patients who were prayed for. The mention of such a test is evidence in itself of the fact that he doesn’t realize that God’s existence cannot be proved or disproved through the ordinary ways of proving realities. Trying to find the existence of God through such tests is as silly an idea as to prove whether a patient was suffering from from typhoid through a test that was meant for diagnosing malaria.
We have been created; someone must have created us; the question “who created the creator” comes to our mind, but there were quite reasonable answers to this question as well. We are being provided with many things on which our existence depends; we must look for the source that is being so unfailingly kind to us; clearly one of the answers could be that it was all happening on its own, like a fluke event; and the fluke happening continues regularly. But we must look for better answers. We do have a sense of morality which is surprisingly shared by the entire humanity. It could also be coincidental. But another answer seems to make more sense: It is there in all of us because we have all emerged from one source, and therefore it is not surprising that that source injected it into all of us. We pray to God for ourselves and we are dead sure that the prayers get responded in ways which couldn’t have been coincidental. It doesn’t happen once or twice; it happens many times to us.
On knowing all the above-stated realities do our atheist brothers look for the correct answers in the right earnestness? If they do and yet find themselves not believing in God, I can assure them that He – the author of the Qur’an – will spare them from being punished. But He will take the decision on their fate only after He has gone through the record of their entire lives, their intentions, their attitudes, and the manner they investigated to get the right answers to the morally significant questions that bugged them. The believers in God will go through a similar scrutiny.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
a great quote...
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion--when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing--when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors--when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you--when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice--you may know that your society is doomed." - Francisco D' Anconia, Atlas Shrugged
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion--when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing--when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors--when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you--when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice--you may know that your society is doomed." - Francisco D' Anconia, Atlas Shrugged
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
a good she'r
kuch too hi meray dard ka mafhoom samajh lay
hansta hua chehra tou zamaanay kaey liyay hae
(Unknown)
hansta hua chehra tou zamaanay kaey liyay hae
(Unknown)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Seeking Miracles - Feeling sacred and righteous is no resolution
Pakistan as a nation must wakeup and deliver to the demands of new era. The cultural and social evolution of the nation will be meaningless until the people of Pakistan keep choosing the corrupt leaders just because of their political affiliations. The corrupt politicians have been consistently making bad choices for the country. It is shameful that according to a published news article, over 8000 people from public offices of Govt. of Pakistan (members of national Assembly, members of provincial assemblies, many executives from the offices of government of Pakistan, executives from Military offices of Pak Armed Forces etc. ) were responsible for financial fraud with the nation. They were supposed to protect the future of this nation instead they robbed and took whatever they could piece by piece. The embarassing thing is that many people from this list have been elected again to the public offices, or are serving in some capacity to public offices again.
Financial fraud is just one side of the story. It looks like the nation has been under the influence of military thugs, and religious thugs for some time now. Their influence is so much that it has affected the cultural fabric of Pakistan. The curriculum in primary, secondary, and even on university level education is politically distorted when it comes to history of indo-pak subcontinent. The military has consistently gained by creating an artificial hype on how Pakistan as a nation should always be prepared to fight with India. Using this approach, the Pak Army Generals and high ranking officials have raked in billions of dollars on individual level from the poor masses of this country. Religious thugs (religious party leaders) on the other hand have always created conspiracy theories on how the rest of the western world is among foes of Pakistan. Even though Pakistan accepts all sorts of financial aid, strategic help, and loan guarantees from many western countries; yet these mullahs will never be on good terms with the donor countries. Just like they would like to keep the women confined in their homes as a commodity, they assume all rights to treat the nation as a commodity as they would to women.
Under the guidance of these mullahs, the education system allows children to join a "madrasa" instead of a school, which is a very criminal act in itself. A child of that age who could go to KG or Grade 1 to get traditional education does not even know about the choices he/she has. He/she is sent to Madrasa of his parents' choice, and there on he/she stays there for major part of the life learning religion. Generally parents dont bother to seek what their kid is learning in madradsa. Of course what the child learn is highly dependent on who is teaching at madrasa. The separation of traditional education and religious education is toxic, especially when there is a lack of established system to evaluate the religious curriculum.
All the best Pakistan !
Financial fraud is just one side of the story. It looks like the nation has been under the influence of military thugs, and religious thugs for some time now. Their influence is so much that it has affected the cultural fabric of Pakistan. The curriculum in primary, secondary, and even on university level education is politically distorted when it comes to history of indo-pak subcontinent. The military has consistently gained by creating an artificial hype on how Pakistan as a nation should always be prepared to fight with India. Using this approach, the Pak Army Generals and high ranking officials have raked in billions of dollars on individual level from the poor masses of this country. Religious thugs (religious party leaders) on the other hand have always created conspiracy theories on how the rest of the western world is among foes of Pakistan. Even though Pakistan accepts all sorts of financial aid, strategic help, and loan guarantees from many western countries; yet these mullahs will never be on good terms with the donor countries. Just like they would like to keep the women confined in their homes as a commodity, they assume all rights to treat the nation as a commodity as they would to women.
Under the guidance of these mullahs, the education system allows children to join a "madrasa" instead of a school, which is a very criminal act in itself. A child of that age who could go to KG or Grade 1 to get traditional education does not even know about the choices he/she has. He/she is sent to Madrasa of his parents' choice, and there on he/she stays there for major part of the life learning religion. Generally parents dont bother to seek what their kid is learning in madradsa. Of course what the child learn is highly dependent on who is teaching at madrasa. The separation of traditional education and religious education is toxic, especially when there is a lack of established system to evaluate the religious curriculum.
All the best Pakistan !
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
abhi abhi aamad hui hae :)...for selfish politicians of my beloved homeland Pakistan
yay taat kay pevand paree kismat
yay uljhee hui khalqat liyay kashkol haathon maen
yey ghar kay giray huay sutoon aasraa dengay mujhay
aey nargis, deedaawer hota koi tou pashemaan hota
dekh kay apna girebaan woh heraan hota
kya dekhtay ho meraa husn-e-zulm yoon chashm paara
Shear ki Chashm-e-Aahoo saey hoti hi hae nazar bastee
Farhan
I need to refine it a little bit i guess
yay taat kay pevand paree kismat
yay uljhee hui khalqat liyay kashkol haathon maen
yey ghar kay giray huay sutoon aasraa dengay mujhay
aey nargis, deedaawer hota koi tou pashemaan hota
dekh kay apna girebaan woh heraan hota
kya dekhtay ho meraa husn-e-zulm yoon chashm paara
Shear ki Chashm-e-Aahoo saey hoti hi hae nazar bastee
Farhan
I need to refine it a little bit i guess
Friday, September 25, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The concept of Immigration - perhaps a new window of balancing is open for us.
In the tough times that the world is going through now a days, everything seems to be bearish. Some of the very fundamentals of economic growth like stock market portfolios, growth in average income, unemployment, declining provision of health services, and too much noise in immigration, all are creating a havoc on planet earth.
I still remember a few month back, there was a crisis on food supply - I recall going to costco, where everything is available in bulk, and I was unable to find bags of basmati rice. On asking, I was told by COSTCO that it is because of food shortage in rice exporting countries in south east asia. I remember oil prices going as high as $ 4.5 a gallon in Utah - whatever the reasons are, the fact is that commodities are getting scarce.
The challenge is that we try to resolve all of these gloabl issues separately, as if they are not interrelated. For instance, we ask ourselves a question why people want to move from their homeland to somewhere else? O well, looks like I will have to go one layer lower than this question. So lets see why would wild animals who are generally very arrogant when it comes to their boundaries migrate? Well some answers could be..
1) Well if there is a wild fire in the jungle.
2) If the river, streat, or a fresh water lake goes dry.
3) Drought, or scarcity of edible resources.
4) Spread of visible disease that animals can sense.
5) A group of hunters establish their base nearby and start killing the animals one by one.
6) Or anyother reason that tells the wild life that their growth is in danger in that area.
Observation:
1) In real life scenario - we let the animals migrate - feel happier, and accept their migration decision to a new region without any issue.
2) It looks like we are in full agreement with animals, and fish that they have the right to migrate wherever in search of better resources.
3) In some cases we call them endangered species, and provide them with the natural resources that went scarce so that they may evolve.
4) We are trying to save the habitat of polar bear in north, panda in china, bald eagle in usa, snow leaopards in pakistan and the list goes on.
Question?
What are we doing for humans - why we dont understand that if animals migrate in search of better prospects without regard to the boundaries of the countries why not humans?
I still remember a few month back, there was a crisis on food supply - I recall going to costco, where everything is available in bulk, and I was unable to find bags of basmati rice. On asking, I was told by COSTCO that it is because of food shortage in rice exporting countries in south east asia. I remember oil prices going as high as $ 4.5 a gallon in Utah - whatever the reasons are, the fact is that commodities are getting scarce.
The challenge is that we try to resolve all of these gloabl issues separately, as if they are not interrelated. For instance, we ask ourselves a question why people want to move from their homeland to somewhere else? O well, looks like I will have to go one layer lower than this question. So lets see why would wild animals who are generally very arrogant when it comes to their boundaries migrate? Well some answers could be..
1) Well if there is a wild fire in the jungle.
2) If the river, streat, or a fresh water lake goes dry.
3) Drought, or scarcity of edible resources.
4) Spread of visible disease that animals can sense.
5) A group of hunters establish their base nearby and start killing the animals one by one.
6) Or anyother reason that tells the wild life that their growth is in danger in that area.
Observation:
1) In real life scenario - we let the animals migrate - feel happier, and accept their migration decision to a new region without any issue.
2) It looks like we are in full agreement with animals, and fish that they have the right to migrate wherever in search of better resources.
3) In some cases we call them endangered species, and provide them with the natural resources that went scarce so that they may evolve.
4) We are trying to save the habitat of polar bear in north, panda in china, bald eagle in usa, snow leaopards in pakistan and the list goes on.
Question?
What are we doing for humans - why we dont understand that if animals migrate in search of better prospects without regard to the boundaries of the countries why not humans?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
utah regional demographics evaluation panel
From February onwards, I will be part of the demographics database evaluation panel that regional council prepares for the transportation planning in the wasatch front region. No doubt the evalutaion panel would serve the purpose for this complex task but there are additional measures that can be taken to avoid any red tapes in this matter.
Some of the key steps should include:
1) Identification of regionwide transportation planning or infrastructure development projects that are under the impact of demographics or that may get impacted by any adjustmens to the demographic database.
2) Once the projects are identified, all the local government agencies, federal agencies, and statewide agencies should be brought on a table for discussion on how the demographics in their project area should be modified and what are their expectations from the projects?
3) On a control total levels for the county bodies, the governor's office of planning and budget should be contacted and control totals be verified. On City level, each city in the region should have an opportunity to adjust the demographics based on their plans.
4) All the input from the above efforts should be incorporated into the demographic dataset, that will make the final data set consistent with all the actors within the region.
Even if we do all of these steps, there will still be room for some hand massaging of the data; in most cases after some miner refinements, the data should be ready to use.
I am hoping this regional transportation plan would be ven better than what we submitted before.
Some of the key steps should include:
1) Identification of regionwide transportation planning or infrastructure development projects that are under the impact of demographics or that may get impacted by any adjustmens to the demographic database.
2) Once the projects are identified, all the local government agencies, federal agencies, and statewide agencies should be brought on a table for discussion on how the demographics in their project area should be modified and what are their expectations from the projects?
3) On a control total levels for the county bodies, the governor's office of planning and budget should be contacted and control totals be verified. On City level, each city in the region should have an opportunity to adjust the demographics based on their plans.
4) All the input from the above efforts should be incorporated into the demographic dataset, that will make the final data set consistent with all the actors within the region.
Even if we do all of these steps, there will still be room for some hand massaging of the data; in most cases after some miner refinements, the data should be ready to use.
I am hoping this regional transportation plan would be ven better than what we submitted before.
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