Creationists say that God created the universe and all forms of life in 6 days.
Evolutionists say that the universe emerged 13.8 billion years ago from an extremely condensed single point that exploded, expanded and stretched until galaxies, stars and planets appeared and that life began from one cell that formed on our planet, then evolved and branched during long times measured in billions of years until around 8.7 million different species appeared and flourished.
The difference between the creationist narrative (story) and the evolutionist’s hypothesis may seem great, but in fact, this is not true. Because we Muslims, God Almighty has gifted us with a book, that He has preserved for us, which guides us towards the truth.
Since we find that the verses which describe the creation in the Quran, although they are close in general to what is written in the Old Testament. Except they differed in the details, such difference made them lean more towards the phased creation and not the miraculous immediate creation, and in this study, we will present the evidence which supports this statement.
The basic fact which is shared and accepted by all scientific and religious circles, is that our universe has begun with a highly accurate, balanced and precisely tuned properties that allowed for its success and for the possibility of an intelligent life to arise and exist in it.
The question comes in how the creation was, was it instantaneous or evolutionary, and if it was evolutionary, was this evolution directed and progressed according to a plan, design and goal, or was it randomly driven by blind natural forces, that is to say, without a specific design or goal.
The difference between design and randomness in creating the universe lies in the starting point, which is why and how the natural forces, constants and other factors came to exist at the amounts and values that they did actually come out with, and that, were it is not for the extreme accuracy and balance in choosing these quantities and forces, this universe would not have succeeded.
In Quran it is stated that the beginning was according to a precise measures and balance, Allah said:
{إنَّا كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقْنَاهُ بِقَدَرٍ (49)} سورة القمر
{We have created everything according to a measure} Chapter 54:49
{………… وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ فَقَدَّرَهُ تَقْدِيرًا (2)} سورة الفرقان
And: {………He has created all things with precisely accurate measure} Chapter 25:2
Directed evolutionary creation is where the universe is initiated from the starting point, deposited in it all what is required to form, develop and evolve it according to a specific design and goal, so the creation of the universe shall proceed according to the plan until the stars and planets appear, then life starts from a single cell, to evolve and branch till we reach what we see around us today, all according to a pre-programmed plan without any interference after the beginning point. Alternatively, there is the second concept, where the creation takes the same evolutionary path, except that at certain stages, the Creator interferes, such as to affect the development of the human species to be able to think, speak and be conscious of itself.
If we look at the creation of life, we find that the creation as described in Geneses in the Old Testament, is a miraculous immediate creation, which conflict with our contemporary scientific evidence that indicates that progressive stages in the creation of the universe and in the creation of life actually took place.
I also find that the Qur’an made the beginning of the creation rational and comprehensible, that is, it is possible for people to know how it started,
In Verse 29:20: {Say, Travel in the land and observe how the creation began…}
قوله تعالى { قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانظُرُوا كَيْفَ بَدَأَ الْخَلْقَ …… (20)} سورة العنكبوت،
This verse instructing us to travel in the land, observe, study and research and you will find how the creation began. So if we travel in Earth we shall find out how creation began. This will discount the miraculous creation that is not subject to the natural forces and laws, and there is no way it could be researched, traced or uncovered today, billions or even thousands of years after.
So the Quran direct us towards a creation which could be comprehensible if we traveled in Earth, if we observed, searched and studied, then we shall find out how creation began. This immediately discount the miraculous creation, because if creation was a result of a miraculous act, our travel and search will be futile and in vain. The fact that we are instructed to research, dismisses the one time miraculous creation. This directs us in this study to consider the concept of evolutionary creation in which humans can search for fossils and can understand its mechanisms, whether such evolution was directed by intelligent force or random.
We know from the Big Bang theory that the universe has a beginning, and that it expanded and developed after the beginning for 13.8 billion years, until it reached what we observe today.
We also know that this universe originated and progressed according to a very precise and balanced initial conditions.
Scientists found a delicate balance in the forces that governs it and the laws that guide it, in the amounts of natural constants, in the primary distribution of matter and energy, in the value of the speed of light, and the ratio of masses of protons and electrons. If this universe came out of random chances, the possibility of a successful occurrence of our universe and its evolution until it reached where we are today, is a probability of 1 divided by-ten followed by 122 zeros,. Meaning that the probability of this universe to occur by blind chances is an infinitely small probability that is difficult to even imagine or comprehend, and because of the fact that our universe have succeeded to evolve and to continue to exist, and yielded intelligent life like ours, against all these enormous near infinite odds, makes the existence of a plan and design inevitable, and if so, such plan implies and leads to the existence of an intelligent designer and thus, points to the existence of The Creator God.
To avoid saying that a goal, plan and design existed, many Scientists resorted to the hypothesis of multiple universes, which says that if there were a vast number of universes, that each started with different laws, constants and properties, and they really meant a large near infinite number, because according to their probabilities calculations, they said if the number of the different universes originated was 1 with 123 zeros in front of it, each with different laws, constants and measures, then it will be possible that one of them had originated with laws and constants same as those in our universe, which lead to its success, while all the other universes failed and went for waste, and because we live in a successful universe, we can say with confidence that this has really happened, and we realize how extremely lucky we are.
Although the hypothesis of multiple universes cannot be scientifically proven or denied, which makes it Not Science, but many scientists resort to it in order to solve the dilemma of how our universe succeeded to exist and evolved by random blind chances against all the odds and near infinite number of probabilities that it will fail.
The question here is: Will the advances of science in the future find a better explanation than the one which requires near infinite numbers of failing universes, namely the multiple universes, or multiverses. We cannot say for sure, but most likely no, because this dilemma was not caused by the lack of scientific knowledge, so that some may invoke the argument of ‘God of the Gaps’, which says that every time we have a gap in our scientific knowledge, we bring God to explain that which we couldn’t explain. But this dilemma resulted not from a gap in our scientific knowledge, but rather from the advances and the completeness of our scientific knowledge, since by such advances, scientist knew the extent of such extreme balance, special precision, and near infinite accuracy upon which the success of this universe depended, not only in the initial conditions of its beginning, but also in every stage, corner and step of the thousands if not millions progressive evolutionary steps it took during its 13.70 billion years of its life.
What we said about the universe, also applies to life. Life has existed and has evolved to a degree of diversity and complexity to the extent that, the probability that it will reach, what it reached according to the mechanisms of random evolution in the time that the universe had, is almost impossible.
As the biological science advanced, scientists found it is very difficult to reconcile the theory of evolution with all its different mechanisms, in explaining the arrival of life to what it is at, of diversity of creatures and the complexity of their organs and parts.
They find many problems which could not be explained, such as the problem of irreducible complexity, and molecular machines. Which need to develop different parts separately, each to do a particular job, which in total accumulatively will form parts of a unit or machine that does a specific job and serves a particular function.
There is also the dilemma of information, and the impossibility of time, which shows the insufficiency of available time to account for the evolution process required for these cells and machines to reach such observed extreme complexity, the dilemma of the appearance of the first cell, and the dilemma of fossils, the Cambrian explosion, all in addition to the existence of the accurate balance of a suitable environment and conditions in Earth that provides the appropriate environment and atmosphere for this life to evolve and survive.
This lead to some Scientist to say, as said about the occurrence of the universe, that the probability that a blind random chances had created life and information with the complexity that we see today, is almost impossible, while others said the probability is zero, i.e. none. Even Professor Fred Hoyle said that life originally came from aliens with an advanced civilization whose seed was planted on the planet Earth in some ancient time.
All of this, is for the scientists to avoid saying that there was a plan, design and goal, just like they faced when they found out how the universe came to be. The hypothesis of the innumerable universes could not help them here. Although we know that in this universe, there are thousands of billions of stars that have planets. But the problem here is not only in the numbers, but also the limited time available, which is not enough for life to develop and evolve to what it had reached today, even if we considered the age of the entire universe and not just the age of Earth. The problem also in the near impossibility of the irreducible complexity and molecular machines to evolve according to a blind evolutionary mechanisms, and in spite of all these, the Evolutionist insist that the blind evolution process, and a lucky random chances are what made this life with all its diversity and complexity.
With these difficulties that modern science faces, we still keep all interpretations alive and possible. We do not know what future sciences may discover, and whether quantum biology and quantum mechanics may have a role in directing evolution, or any other factors or sciences that we do not know about today. What we consider in this study is today, is what we know today, which is that it is almost impossible for the universe on one part and for life on the other, to succeed by random evolutionary process.
From the above, we respond to atheists who are misled into thinking that science answers all questions and can explains the universe and life without the need of a Creator. These are the words of those who do not know. As for the Scientist who researched deep in science, these scientists know that whenever they uncover new layers of facts, they face new questions and problems that science cannot explain, and the argument of the God of the Gaps no longer help them, because their problems do not stem from gaps or lack of knowledge, but rather from its advance, completeness, and the absence of gaps in it.
I may ask myself, as long as I find in the scientific theories about creation, all these problems and dilemmas, why do I accept the theory of evolution even the directed version of it? While many contemporary Muslim scholars strongly reject it, if not most of them. The reason is, that what I find in the Qur’an direct me towards a comprehensible rational creation, that is, mankind can research and find out how it began, and this cannot be said about an instantaneous miraculous creation.
To be followed in next episode …………………….