A MIRACLE OF THE QUR'AN: MOTHER'S MILK
A MIRACLE OF THE QUR'AN: MOTHER'S MILK
Fourteen
centuries ago, God sent down the Qur'an to mankind as a book
of guidance.
He called upon people to be guided to the truth by adhering to
this
book. God refers to the Qur'an in one of His verses in this
way: "Mankind!
Admonition has come to you from your Lord and also healing for
what
is in the breasts and guidance and mercy for the believers." (Qur'an,
10: 57). From the day of
its revelation
to the day of judgement, this last divine book will remain the
sole
guide for humanity.
The Qur'an has a clear language easily understandable by
people of
all ages who lived from the day of its revelation. God
refers to this
attribute of the Qur'an in the verse, 'We
have
made the Qur'an easy to remember.' (Qur'an, 54: 52)
The matchless
style of the Qur'an and the superior wisdom in it are
definite evidence
that it is the word of God.
In addition, the Qur'an has many miraculous attributes
proving that
it is a revelation from God. One of these attributes is the
fact that
a number of scientific truths that we have only been able to
uncover
by the technology of the 20th century were stated in the
Qur'an 1,400
years ago.
Of course the Qur'an is not a book of science. However, many
scientific
facts that are expressed in an extremely concise and
profound manner
in its verses have only been discovered with the technology
of the
20th century. These facts could not have been known at the
time of
the Qur'an's revelation, and this is still more proof that
the Qur'an
is the word of God. One of the scientific miracles hinted at
in the
Qur'an is the special creation in the mother's milk.
Mother's milk is an incomparable mixture created by God, not
only
to meet all the baby's nutritional needs, but also to
protect it from
possible infection. The balance of food substances in
mother's milk
is at the ideal level and in the best possible form for the
still-growing
baby's physical systems. At the same time, mother's milk is
very rich
in nutrients that promote brain growth and nervous system
development.
Baby foods produced with today's technology simply cannot
compete
with this miraculous foodstuff.
Every
day reveals a new benefit that mother's milk bestows on
babies. Research
has revealed that babies breastfed on mother's milk are better
protected
from respiratory and digestive infections. That is because the
antibodies
in mother's milk provide a direct defence against infection.
Other anti-infective
properties of mother's milk are that it constitutes an
obstacle to bacteria,
viruses and parasites, while establishing a friendly
environment for
'good' bacteria, known as 'normal flora.' It has furthermore
been established
that elements of mother's milk regulate the immune system and
allow
it to work more effectively against contagious diseases.
Since mother's milk has been specially designed for babies,
it is
the most easily digestible food they can eat. As well as
being rich
in nutrients, it is easily digested by the baby's sensitive
systems.
Since the baby thus expends less energy on digestion, the
energy saved
can go to other bodily activities, growth and organ
development.
There is more fat, protein, and the minerals sodium,
chloride, and
iron in the milk of mothers who have had premature babies.
In fact,
it has been established that premature babies fed on
mother's milk
score better in intelligence tests and that their visual
functions
develop better.
One of the facts that science has discovered about mother's
milk is
that suckling up to two years after birth is very
beneficial. God
gives us this important information, which was discovered by
science
only very recently, with the verse "…
his weaning was in two years," 14 centuries ago.
And We have enjoined upon man goodness towards his parents: his mother bore him by bearing strain upon strain, and his weaning was in two years: (hence, O man,) be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the eventual coming. (Qur'an, 31:14)
All that we have seen so far shows us that this provides clear evidence that the Qur'an is the word of God, who is the Originator of everything and compasses all things in His knowledge.In one verse, God says in the Qur'an "If it had been from other than God, they would have found many inconsistencies in it." (Qur'an, 4:82) Not only are there no inconsistencies in the Qur'an, but every piece of information it contains reveals the miracle of this divine book more and more each day.
What falls to man is to hold fast to this divine book revealed by God, and receive it as his one and only guide. In one of the verses, God calls out to us:
This Qur'an could never have been devised by any besides God. Rather it is confirmation of what came before it and an elucidation of the Book which contains no doubt from the Lord of all the worlds. Do they say, "He has invented it'"? Say: "Then produce a chapter like it and call on anyone you can besides God if you are telling the truth." (Qur'an, 10:37-38)
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EXTRAORDINARY DESIGN IN THE EYE
EXTRAORDINARY DESIGN IN THE EYE
When
you look around you out in open air and in a broad field,
you can
readily see all objects farthest and closest to you in all
their colors,
shape, and size. This view, which you have obtained without
making
any effort, is produced as a result of numerous complex
reactions
and interactions in your body. Now let us look at these
complicated
operations closer.
The human eye has a fully automatic mechanism that works
perfectly.
It is made up of the combination of 40 different basic parts
and all
these parts have critical functions in the process of
seeing. Any
defect or disability in even one of these parts would make
seeing
impossible.
The transparent layer in the front part of the eye is
cornea. Right
behind lies the iris. Giving the eye its color, the iris
adjusts its
size automatically according to the sharpness of light
thanks to the
muscles attached to it. For example, if we are in a dark
place, the
iris widens to take in as much light as possible. When light
increases,
it shrinks to decrease the amount of light coming into the
eye.
The automatic adjustment system in the iris works like this:
The moment
light comes to the eye, a nerve impulse travels to the brain
and gives
message about the existence and brightness of the light. The
brain
immediately sends back a signal and orders how much the
muscles around
the iris will contract.
Another eye mechanism working parallel to this structure is
the lens.
The duty of the lens is to focus the light coming to the eye
onto
the retina layer at the back of the eye. Thanks to the
movement of
the muscles around the lens, light rays coming to the eye
from different
angles and distances can always be focused on the retina.
All the systems we have mentioned are far smaller yet far
more superior
to the mechanical devices designed by the use of the latest
technology
in order to imitate the eye. Even the most advance
artificial imaging
system in the world remains extremely simple and primitive
compared
to the eye.
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The
human
eye has a fully automatic mechanism that works
perfectly. It
is made up of the combination of 40 different basic
parts and
all these parts have critical functions in the process
of seeing.
Any defect or disability in even one of these parts
would make
seeing impossible. |
When we think of the effort and knowledge
that has
been put into developing these artificial imaging systems,
we can
understand with what a superior creation the eye is made.
If we examine a single cell in the eye at the microscopic
level, the
superiority of this creation will be further revealed.
Let us suppose that we look at a crystal bowl full of fruit.
The light
rays coming from this bowl to our eye pass through the
cornea and
iris and are focused on the retina by the lens.
So, what happens in the retina so that the retinal cells can
perceive
light?
When light particles, also called, photons,
strike
the cells in the retina, they produce a cascading effect
like a row
of dominoes carefully arranged one after the other. The
first of these
dominoes in the retinal cells is a molecule called
11-cis-retinal.
When a photon of light interacts with it, this molecule
changes shape.
This forces a change in the shape of another protein,
rhodopsin, to
which it is tightly bound. Now, rhodopsin takes such a form
that it
can stick to another protein, called transducin, which was
already
present in the cell, but with which it could not interact
before due
to its shape's incompatibility. After this union, another
molecule
called GDP also joins in this group.
Now, two proteins-rhodopsin and transducin-and a chemical
molecule
called GDP have bound together.
However the process has just begun. The compound called GDP
now has
the proper form to bind to another protein called
phosphodiesterase,
which always exists in the cell. After this bonding, the
shape of
the molecule that is produced will trigger a mechanism that
will start
a series of chemical reactions in the cell.
This mechanism changes the ion concentration in the cell and
produces
electrical energy. This energy stimulates the nerves lying
right at
the back of the retinal cell. Consequently, the image that
came to
the eye as a photon of light sets on its journey in the form
of an
electrical signal. This signal contains visual information
about the
object outside.
 |
Say: “It is He Who
brought you into being and gave you hearing, sight and
hearts.What
little thanks you show!” (Qur’an, 67:23) |
In order for seeing to take place, the
electrical
signals produced in the retinal cell have to be transmitted
to the
center of vision in the brain. Nerve cells however are not
directly
connected to one another: there is a tiny gap between their
junction
points. How then does the electrical stimulus continue on
its way?
At this point, another set of complex operations takes
place. The
electrical energy is transformed into chemical energy
without any
loss of the information being carried and in this way the
information
is transmitted from one nerve to the next. The chemical
carriers located
at the junction points of nerve cells successfully convey
the information
contained in the stimulus coming from the eye from one nerve
to another.
When transferred to the next nerve, the stimulus is again
converted
into electrical signal and continues its way until it
reaches another
junction point.
Making its way to the center of vision in the brain in this
way, the
signal is compared to the information in the center of
memory and
the image is interpreted.
Finally, we see the bowl full of fruit, which we viewed
before, by
virtue of this perfect system made up of hundreds of small
details.
And all these amazing operations take
place in a
fraction of a second.
Moreover, since the act of seeing takes place continuously,
the system
repeats these steps over and over. For example, the
molecules playing
a part in the chain reaction in the eye are restored to
their original
state every time and the reaction starts all over again.
Of course at the same time many other equally complex
operations are
taking place in other parts of the body. We may
simultaneously hear
the sound of the image we are viewing, and depending on
circumstances
we may sense its odor and taste and feel its touch.
Meanwhile, millions
of other operations and reactions have to continue without
interruption
in our body if we are to go on living.
The primitive science of Darwin's day knew about none of
this. Despite
that however, even Darwin realized the extraordinary design
in the
eye and confessed his despair in a letter he wrote to Asa
Grey on
April 3rd 1860 in which he said:
Iremember well the time when the thought of the eye made me cold all over.1
The biochemical properties of the eye that
have
been discovered by modern science dealt a greater blow to
Darwinism
than Darwin could ever have imagined.
The complete process of seeing that we have summarized in
barest outline
here is even more complex in its details. However even this
summary
is enough to show what a glorious system has been created in
our body.
The reactions taking place in the eye are so complex and so
finely
tuned that it is quite unreasonable to think that these are a
product
of chance occurrences as the theory of evolution claims.
Michael Behe, a recognized professor of biochemistry, makes
this comment
on the chemistry of the eye and the theory of evolution in
his book
Darwin's Black Box:
Now that the black box of vision has been opened, it is longer enough for an evolutionary explanation of that power to consider only the anatomical structures of whole eyes, as Darwin did in the nineteenth century. Each of the anatomical steps and structures that Darwin thought were so simple actually involves staggeringly complicated biochemical processes that cannot be papered over with rhetoric.2
But as we have seen, the theory of
evolution is
unable to account for a single system in a single living
cell, much
less explain life as a whole.
Having utterly demolished the hypothesis that life is
'simple', science
demonstrated to humanity a very important fact.
Life is not the product of unplanned happenings. It is the
result
of a perfect creation.
The perfect creation of a superior Creator, Who brought life
into
being, Who is God, the Lord of all the Worlds.
It is He Who created both humans and all other living
beings. And
man is responsible to our Lord Who created him.
God reminds man of this truth in the Qur'an:
It is He Who has created hearing, sight and hearts for you. What little thanks you show! (Surat al-Muminun: 78)
They said, 'Glory be to You!' We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Baqara: 32)
1 Norman Macbeth,
Darwin Retried: An Appeal to Reason, Harvard Common
Press, 1971,
p. 131.
2 Michael J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box, p. 22
THE MIRACLE OF DESIGN IN THE CELL
THE MIRACLE OF DESIGN IN THE CELL
In
every part of our body there reigns a tiny yet complex life.
An examination
under the microscope into the depths of any human organ brings
us face
to face with an astounding miracle of creation: millions of
tiny living
things that have come together to make up that organ are
engaged in
arduous activity. These tiny beings are cells, the basic units
of life.
Not only man but also all other living things are composed of
these
microscopic living beings.
There are about 100 trillion cells in the human body. Some
of these
cells are so tiny that even 1 million of them together
hardly cover
a space as large as the pointed end of a pin. Despite this,
however,
the cell is by far the most complex structure mankind has
ever encountered,
as is also agreed by the scientific community. Containing
many secrets
hitherto undiscovered, the cell of a living thing also
constitutes
the greatest impasse for the theory of evolution. That is
because
the cell is one of the most striking pieces of evidence that
human
beings and all other living beings are not the products of
coincidences,
but are created by a Creator.
In order for the cell to survive, all the basic components
of the
cell, each performing many vital functions, have to be
intact. If
the cell came into existence by evolution, then millions of
its components
had to simultaneously exist in the same place and they had
to come
together in a particular order and plan. Since this is
utterly implausible,
such a structure has no explanation other than 'creation.'
One of
the leading evolutionists, Alexander Oparin, expressed the
deadlock
the theory of evolution encountered in this way:
Unfortunately, the origin of the cell remains a question which is actually the darkest point of the complete evolution theory.1
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| Cells multiply by dividing. While the human body is initially composed of a single cell, this cell divides and reproduces by folds with a ratio of 2-4-8-16-32... |
The English mathematician and astronomer Sir
Fred Hoyle
made a similar comparison in one of his interviews published
in Nature
magazine dated November 12, 1981. Although an evolutionist
himself,
Hoyle said that the odds that higher life forms might have
emerged in
this way was comparable to the odds of a tornado sweeping
through a
junk-yard assembling a Boeing 747 from the materials in it.
This means
that it is not possible for the cell to come into being by
coincidence
and therefore, it must definitely have been "created".
Despite this however, evolutionists still claim that life came
into
existence by chance under the conditions of the primordial
earth, which
was the most uncontrolled environment possible. This is a
claim entirely
incompatible with scientific data. In addition, even the
simplest probability
calculations verify in mathematical terms that not even one
single protein
out of millions existing in the cell could have come into
being by coincidence,
let alone a single cell of an organism.
To gain some understanding of the awe-inspiring structure of
the cell,
it will be enough to examine just the structure and functions
of the
membrane enveloping these cellular organelles.
The cell membrane is an ambient cover for the cell, yet its
duty is
not limited to it. This membrane both regulates communications
and relations
with neighbouring cells and deftly coordinates and supervises
the entries
and exits to the cell.
The cell membrane is so thin, at just one hundred thousandth
of a millimetre,
that one can detect it only under an electron microscope. The
membrane
resembles a double-sided endless wall. On this wall, there are
doors
making entry to and exit from the cell possible and receptors
allowing
the membrane to recognise the extracellular environment. These
doors
and receptors are made of protein molecules. They are located
on the
cell wall and meticulously check all the entries and exits to
the cell.
What are the accomplishments of this thin structure made up of
unconscious
molecules such as fat and protein? That is, which features of
the membrane
lead us to call it 'conscious' and 'wise'?
The primary duty of the cell membrane is to enclose the
cellular organelles
so as to keep them intact. However, it has a far more complex
function
than this. It supplies the substances vital for the continuity
of the
cell and its functions from the extracellular environment.
Outside the
cell, there are countless chemical substances. The cell
membrane recognises
the substances essential for the cell and only lets them in.
It acts
very economically and never allows in more than what the cell
needs.
Meanwhile, it detects harmful wastes in the cell right away
and, without
losing any time, discharges them from the cell.
Another
function of the cell membrane is to instantly transmit the
messages, which
are received from the brain or any other part of the body via
hormones,
to the center of the cell. To perform these functions, it has to
know
all the activities and developments taking place in the cell,
keep a list
of required or excess substances, keep stocks under control and
act under
the guidance of a superior memory and decision-making skills.
The cell membrane is so selective that without its
authorization, not
even a single substance in the extracellullar environment can
pass through
the cell doors, even by chance. There is not even a single
unnecessary,
purposeless molecule in the cell. Exits from the cell are also
strictly
checked. The duty of the cell membrane is vital and it does
not permit
even minor errors. The entry of a wrong or harmful chemical
substance
into the cell, the supply or discharge of a substance in
excess amounts
or failure to discharge waste products on time, or as
required, mean
the death of the cell.
If the first living cell had come into existence by
coincidence as evolutionists
claim, and if just one of these properties of the membrane had
not been
fully formed, then the cell would certainly have disappeared
in a very
short time.
Which 'coincidence', then, formed such a 'wise' mass of
fat?...
Let's ask another question, which by itself refutes the theory
of evolution
straight away; does the 'wisdom' displayed in the
aforementioned functions
belong to the cell membrane?
Keep in mind that these functions are not carried out by a
human being
or a machine such as a computer or robot under man's control,
but are
merely in a cover enclosing the cell, which is made up of fat
mixed
here and there with various proteins. We also need to consider
that
the cell membrane, which can handle so many complex tasks
flawlessly,
has no brain or center of thinking.
It is obvious that such wise patterns of behaviour and a
conscious decision-making
mechanism could not have been caused by the cell membrane
itself, which
is a layer made up of fat and protein molecules. This also
holds true
for all other cellular organelles. These organelles do not
even have
a nervous system, let alone a brain to think and make
decisions with.
Despite this, however, they accomplish incredibly complex
tasks, make
precise calculations and take vital decisions. That is because
each
one of them obeys the orders of Allah, Who created them
flawlessly and
sustains them. In the 12th verse of Surat at-Talaq, the fact
that everything
acts in compliance with the command of Allah is stated:
It is Allah Who has created seven heavens, and earth as many. His commandment descends through them, so that you may learn that Allah has power over all things and that Allah encompasses all things with His knowledge. (Surat at-Talaq: 12)
1 Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life, (1936)
NewYork: Dover Publications, 1953 (Reprint), p.196.
BIRDS: FLAWLESS FLYING MACHINES
BIRDS: FLAWLESS FLYING MACHINES
Design,
in brief, means a harmonious assembling of various parts in an
orderly
form designed for a common goal. All creatures in nature,
including
us, are of a design. This, in turn, shows the existence of a
Creator,
Who designs all creatures at will, sustains the entire
creation and
holds absolute power and wisdom. This Creator is Allah (swt),
Who is
the Lord of the heavens and the earth:
He is Allah-the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Hashr: 24)
In a hadith, The Prophet Muhammed (saas) also draws attention to the unique creative power of Allah (swt) and how He mentions this in His book, the Qur'an:
When Allah created the Creation, He wrote in His Book-and He wrote (that) about Himself, and it is placed with Him on the Throne. (Al-Bukhari)
Let us consider birds as an example: A
close examination
of birds reveals that they are designed specifically for
flying. The
body has been created with air-sacs and hollow bones in
order to reduce
body mass and overall weight. Wings are formed
aerodynamically, and
the metabolism is in tune with the bird's need for high
levels of
energy. It is obvious that the bird is a product of a
certain design.
Allah (swt) has created birds without flaw just as He has
the rest
of the creation. This fact is manifest in every detail, as
we will
examine below:
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The kingdom of the
heavens
and the earth and everything between them belongs to
Allah.
He creates whatever He wills. Allah has power over all
things...
(Qur’an, 5:17) |
The Skeleton:
The strength
of a bird's skeleton is more than adequate even though the
bones are
hollow. Better "organised" than mammals, the shoulder, hip
and chest bones of birds are fused together. This design
improves
the strength of the bird's structure. Another feature of the
skeleton
of birds is that it is lighter than in all other mammals.
For instance,
the skeleton of the dove weighs only about 4.4% of its total
body
weight.
Respiratory System: The respiratory system of mammals
and birds
operate on completely different principles, primarily
because birds
need oxygen in much greater quantities than do land-dwelling
animals.
In land-dwelling animals, airflow is bidirectional: air
travels through
a network of channels, and stops at the small air sacs.
Oxygen-carbon
dioxide exchange takes place here. Used air follows a
reverse course
in leaving the lung and is discharged through the windpipe.
On contrary,
in birds, air flow is unidirectional. New air comes in one
end, and
the used air goes out the other end. This provides an
uninterrupted
supply of oxygen for birds, which satisfies their need for
high levels
of energy.
The System of Balance: The
bodies of
birds have been created to a special design that removes any
possible
imbalance in flight. The bird's head has been deliberately
created
light in weight so that the animal does not lean forward
during flight:
on average, a bird's head weight is about 1% of its body
weight.
The aerodynamic structure of the feathers is another
property of the
system of balance in birds. The feathers, especially in the
wing and
tail, provide a very effective system of balance for the
bird.
The Power and Energy Problem:
Migrating
birds have to store enough energy to take them through their
trip.
On the other hand, another necessity in flight is being as
light as
possible. In the meantime, the fuel has also to be as
efficient as
possible. In other words, while the weight of fuel has to be
at a
minimum, the energy output from it has to be at a maximum.
But all
of these problems have been solved for birds: The birds do
not fly
haphazardly but in a flock. They follow a certain order and
form a
"V" shape in the air. Every bird takes advantage of the
slipstream set up by the one in front of it. This V
formation also
reduces the air resistance that they encounter and help them
to save
a considerable amount of energy.
Digestion System: Due to their
need for
a lot of energy, birds also have a body that digests the
food they
eat in an optimum fashion. Birds' digestive systems enable
them to
make the best use of the food they eat. The circulatory
system of
birds has also been created in harmony with their high
energy requirements.
While a human's heart beats 78 times a minute, this rate is
460 for
a sparrow and 615 for a humming bird. Similarly, blood
circulation
in birds is very fast. The oxygen that supplies all of these
fast
working systems is provided by special avian lungs.
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Do you not see
that everyone
in the heavens and earth glorifies Allah, as do the
birds with
their outspread wings? Each one knows its prayer and
glorification.
Allah knows what they do. (Qur’an, 24:41) |
All of these facts take us to one result:
it is simply
impossible to explain the origin of birds through a theory of
evolution.
Thousands of different species of birds have been created with
all their
current physical features in "a moment". In other words, Allah
(swt) has created them individually. In the Qur'an, Allah
(swt) invites
humans to ponder this:
Have they not looked at the birds above them, with wings outspread and folded back? Nothing holds them up but the All-Merciful. He sees all things. (Surat al-Mulk: 19)
Everyone who ponders the signs of creation of the universe, as in the example of the bird described above, and considers and investigates what he sees around him, will come to know Allah's superior wisdom, knowledge, and eternal power. Therefore, each person needs to ponder the purpose of creation, first as it concerns him himself, and then as it pertains to everything he sees in the universe. Each subject on which we reflect helps us to further understand and appreciate the omnipotence, wisdom, knowledge, art and other attributes of Allah (swt). In the Qur'an, Allah (swt) says:
And in your creation and all the creatures He has scattered
about
there are signs for people with certainty. (Surat
al-Jathiyah: 4)
Only those who reflect on the purpose of the creation around them, who have a clear faculty of discernment, who apply their minds and use their conscience, can recognize the truth that which these signs imply. They are those who believe. Believers, who are capable of exercising their minds, unencumbered by false motives, come to recognize Allah's artistry and power through His creation, and thus have a full appreciation of His greatness and glory. A person so disposed recognizes the signs of Allah's existence everywhere he looks, perceiving Him for His true might. Believers keep their minds continually occupied with remembrance of Allah, while the majority of humanity spend their lives without a thought to these facts. The following distinction Allah's Messenger, The Prophet Muhammad (saas) drew between those who remember Allah (swt) and those who do not also show the importance of this subject in the life of a believer:
The example of the one who celebrates the Praises of his Lord (Allah) in comparison to the one who does not celebrate the Praises of his Lord, is that of a living creature compared to a dead one. (Al-Bukhari)
ARCHITECTS IN NATURE
ARCHITECTS IN NATURE
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| Beavers are the first among the excellent architects in nature that come to mind. These animals build their lodges in stationary ponds, but these ponds are special in being artificially formed by dams beavers build over the stream. |
Animals in nature attract our attention
with the
structure of their bodies in particular. The cheetah
possesses a perfect
skeleton and muscles systems for it to run. The eagle
possesses the
world's best aerodynamic design. The dolphin has a specially
created
skin and body so it can swim in the water.
These flawless designs in animals' bodies are each proof to
remind
us that every species of living thing was created by God.
But possessing a perfect body is not enough. The animal also
has to
know how to use that body. A bird's wings are only of any
use when
it succeeds in taking flight, soaring and landing with them.
When we look at the living world through these eyes, we see a
most
interesting truth. Each animal behaves in the most
appropriate manner
for the conditions that surround it. Furthermore, this
behaviour occurs
right from the moment of birth.
It takes only half an hour for a new-born antelope to stand
up and
run. Baby turtles, buried under the sand by the mother
turtle, know
they have to break out of their shells and head for the
surface. Furthermore,
they have been taught that as soon as they emerge they have
to reach
the sea. It is almost as if animals come into this world
fully trained.
And the most amazing example of this amazing education animals have is the homes they so expertly build for themselves.
 |
| Being no taller than a few centimeters, termites can erect towers many meters high without using any tools. This admirable nest perfectly protects the inhabitant termite colony with a population of over a million from their enemies and unfavourable external life conditions. |
Spiders, for instance, make their webs
with threads
from their own bodies. Spider thread is five times stronger
than steel
of the same thickness. Even large flies which move fast
through the
air cannot escape the strong and flexible trap of the spider
web.
There are sticky droplets on Black Widow spider webs. It is
impossible
for preys caught in these webs to free themselves. The
spider's web
is sticky, flexible, and amazingly strong. Beyond being a
trap, this
web is actually an extension of the spider's own body. The
spider
feels the vibration of every prey that gets caught in the
web, and
catches it without delay.
The web is produced in the spider's hindquarters. It pulls
the thread
produced by a special organ with its legs. The sticky
droplets on
the surface of the thread are actually small bunches of
thread. These
open out when necessary and the web easily stretches.
There is no doubt that it is the inspiration God gives this
creature
that causes the spider to build this architectural marvel.
There are many other animals in nature that make amazing
homes for
themselves just like the spider. Honeybees which make
perfect hexagonal
hives; beavers, which construct dams suited to fine
engineering calculations;
termites, which, although blind, build complex skyscrapers;
weaver
birds; paper wasps, which make multi-storied apartment
blocks from
paper to name a few… By exhibiting these surprising works of
architecture, these creatures reveal to us the skills which
are actually
given to them by God. Each one of them acts by God's
inspiration,
as is announced in a verse of the Qur'an:
There
is
no creature He [God] does not hold by the forelock. (Surah
Hud: 56)
WHAT NATURE MAKES ONE THINK
WHAT NATURE MAKES ONE THINK
Man
is a being whom Allah furnishes with the faculty of thought.
Yet, most
people do not use this very important faculty as they should.
In fact,
some people almost never think.
In truth, each person possesses a capacity for thought of
which even
he himself is unaware. Once man begins to use this capacity,
facts
he has not been able to realise until that very moment begin
to be
uncovered for him. The deeper he goes in reflection, the
more his
capacity to think improves, and this is possible for
everyone. One
just has to realise that one needs to reflect and then to
strive hard.
In the Qur'an, Allah informs us that in all circumstances
the believers
reflect and derive beneficial conclusions from their
thinking.
In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for people with intelligence: those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire." (Surat Al 'Imran: 190-191)
 |
And He has
made everything
in the heavens and everything on the earth subservient
to you.
It is all from Him. There are certainly Signs in that
for people
who reflect. (Qur’an, 45:13) |
Allah's Messenger (saas) also often reminded believers the importance of pondering and remembering Allah:
Abu Musa reported Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) as saying: "The house in which remembrance of Allah is made and the house in which Allah is not remembered are like the living and the dead." (Muslim)
It is reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: "Shall I not tell you the best of your deeds, and those that give you the highest rank, and those that are the purest with your King, and are better for you than giving gold and silver,?" They said, "Of course." He said, "Remembrance (dhikr) of Allah ta ala.' (Abu Dawud)
However, someone who does not think will
remain
totally distant from truths and lead his life in
self-deception and
error. As a result, he will not grasp the purpose of the
creation
of the world, and the reason for his existence on the earth.
Yet,
Allah has created everything with a purpose. This fact is
stated in
the Qur'an as follows:
We did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them as a game. We did not create them except with truth but most of them do not know it. (Surat ad-Dukhan: 38-39)
Did you suppose that We created you for amusement and that you would not return to Us? (Surat al-Muminun: 115)
 |
And mankind and
beasts and
livestock are likewise of varying colours. Only those
of His
servants with knowledge have fear of Allah. Allah is
Almighty,
Ever-Forgiving. (Qur’an, 35:28) |
Those who are able to see Allah's signs, the miraculous aspects of the beings and events He creates, and who, therefore, can understand, are people who reflect. Such people can derive conclusions from everything, big or small, they see around them. The Prophet Muhammad's words make this very clear:
"Fear Allah, for He is the one Who sets right all that concerns you. Recite the Qur'an and keep remembering Allah, for you will be remembered in the heavens, and it will be light for you on the earth." (Narrated by Ahmad bin hanbal.)
An example to this is nature that surrounds
us. He
who believes in Allah praises our Lord for the beauties he
sees in nature.
He is aware that Allah has created all existing beauty. He
knows that
all these beauties belong to Allah and they are manifestations
of His
attribute of jamal-beauty. He takes great pleasure from all
these beauties
and remembers Allah knowing that "If people sit in an assembly
in which they do not remember Allah or invoke blessings on the
Prophet
(saas), it will be a cause of grief to them on the Day of
Resurrection,"
as Allah's Messenger (saas)says. (Tirmidhi)
While walking in nature, one encounters more beauty. From a
single straw
to the yellow daisy, from birds to ants, everything is full of
details,
which need reflection. As people reflect upon these, they come
to understand
the power and might of Allah.
 |
He Who created
and moulded;
He Who determined and guided; He Who brings forth green
pasture...
(Qur’an, 87: 2-4) |
Butterflies, for example, are very aesthetically pleasing creatures. With the symmetry and design of their lace-like wings-which are extremely precise as if drawn by hand-their harmonious, phosphorescent colours, butterflies are evidence of Allah's unequalled art and superior power of creation.
Similarly, innumerable plant and tree
varieties on
earth are among the beauties Allah creates. Flowers, all in
different
colours and trees of different forms, have been created and
among their
purposes is that they give great pleasure to people.
One who has faith thinks about how flowers such as the rose,
violet,
daisy, hyacinth, carnation, orchid and others have such smooth
surfaces,
and how they come out of their seed completely flat without
any puckers
as if ironed.
Other wonders Allah creates are the fragrances of these
flowers. A rose,
for instance, has a strong and constant ever-changing smell.
Even with
the latest technology, scientists cannot develop an exact
match of the
smell of the rose. Laboratory research to imitate this smell
has not
yielded satisfactory results. Smells produced based on the
scent of
the rose are generally heavy and disturbing. However, the
original scent
of the rose does not disturb.
Someone who has faith knows that each one of these is created
for him
to praise Allah, to present him the art and knowledge of Allah
in the
beauty He creates. For this reason, when someone sees this
beauty while
strolling in the garden, he glorifies Allah, saying, "It
is as Allah wills, there is no strength but in Allah" (Surat
al-Kahf:
39). He remembers that Allah has put all this beauty at
the service
of mankind and that He will give the believers incomparably
excellent
blessings in the hereafter. He takes more pleasure in the
beauties he
sees than everyone else, because as Allah's Messenger (saas)
said, "People
will not sit in an assembly in which they remember Allah
without the
angels surrounding them, mercy covering them, and Allah
mentioning them
among those who are with Him."' (Muslim) And because of all
this,
his love for Allah increases ever more.
RELIGION HELPS SCIENCE TO BE RIGHTLY GUIDED
RELIGION HELPS SCIENCE TO BE RIGHTLY GUIDED
Science
is the investigation of the material world we live in through
observation
and experiment. Accordingly, in conducting such investigation,
science
will lead to various conclusions based on the information
collected
through observation and experimentation. In addition, however,
every
discipline of science also has certain norms that are simply
taken for
granted, or accepted without further verification. In
scientific literature,
this set of norms is called a "paradigm".
This initial outlook charts the "course" of all related
scientific investigation. As is known, the first step in
scientific
investigation is the formulation of a "hypothesis". To begin
with, for their research topic, scientists must form a
hypothesis.
Then, this hypothesis is tested through scientific
experimentation.
If observations and experiments verify the hypothesis, the
"hypothesis"
is called an "established principle or law". If the
hypothesis
is disproved, then new hypotheses are tested, and the
process continues.
The formulation of the hypothesis, which is the first step
of the
process, is often dependent on the scientists' basic
viewpoint. For
instance, scientists, if committed to a certain outlook,
could base
their work on a hypothesis that "matter has a tendency to
self-organize
without the involvement of a conscious agent". Then, they
would
conduct years of research to verify that hypothesis. Yet,
since matter
has no such capability, all these efforts are bound to fail.
Furthermore,
if scientists are overly obstinate about their hypothesis,
the research
may well last for years, and even for generations. The end
result,
though, would be but a huge waste of time and resources.
However, had the point of assumption been the idea that "it
is
impossible for matter to self-organize without conscious
planning",
that scientific research would have followed a more
expeditious and
productive course.
This issue, that is, the issue of establishing a proper
hypothesis,
requires an entirely different source than mere scientific
data. Correct
identification of this source is critical, because, as we
explained
in the above example, an error in the identification of a
source may
cost the science-world years, decades, or even centuries.
The source sought is God's revelation to mankind. God is the
Creator
of the universe, the world and of living things, and
therefore, the
most accurate and indisputable knowledge about these
subjects derives
from Him. In accordance, God has revealed to us important
information
about these matters in the Qur'an. The most fundamental of
these are
as follows:
1) God created the universe from nothing. Nothing came into being as a result of random occurrences, or of its own accord. It follows that there is not a chaos of chance-happenings in nature or the universe, but a perfect order created with an intelligent design.
2) The material universe, and predominantly, the Earth we live in, is specially designed to allow for human life. There is a certain purpose in the movements of stars and planets, in geographical landmarks, and in the properties of water or the atmosphere, that makes human life possible.
3) All forms of life have come into being by God's creation. God created all living things. Moreover, these creatures act through the inspiration of God, as quoted in the Qur'an in the example of the honeybees, with the verse that begins with, "Your Lord inspired the bees…" (Qur'an, 16:68)
These are absolute truths communicated to us by God in the Qur'an. An approach to science based on these facts will inevitably lead to remarkable progress and serve humanity in the most beneficial manner. We find numerous examples of this in history. It was only possible with the placement of science on a proper foothold that Muslim scientists, who were then helping to forge the greatest civilization in the world, contributed to major achievements in the 9th and 10th centuries. In the West, the pioneers in all fields of science, from physics to chemistry, astronomy to biology and palaeontology, were great men of science who believed in God, and who conducted research for the sake of exploring what He created.
 |
Albert Einstein |
Einstein also maintained that scientists must rely on religious sources when developing their objectives:
Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up. But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion… I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith.1
Since the middle of the 19th century,
however, the
scientific community has divorced itself from this divine
source,
and come under the influence of a materialist philosophy.
Materialism, an idea that dates back to ancient Greece,
maintains
the absolute existence of matter and denies God. This
materialistic
outlook gradually made its way into the scientific
community, and,
beginning in the middle of the 19th century, a considerable
portion
of scientific investigation was initiated to support it. To
this purpose,
many theories were formulated, such as the "infinite
universe
model" suggesting that the universe exists since infinite
time,
leaving no room for a Creator, Darwin's evolutionary theory
claiming
that life is the work of chance, or Freud's views holding
that the
human mind consists of the brain alone.
 |
What is in the
heavens and
in the earth belongs to Allah. Allah encompasses all
things.
(Qur’an, 4:126) |
Today, in retrospect, we see that the claims
put forth by materialism were but a waste of time for
science. For
decades, a great number of scientists have expended their
best efforts
to prove each of these claims, but the results always proved
them
wrong. Discoveries confirmed the proclamations of the Qur'an
- that
the universe was created from nothing, that it is tailored
to suit
human life, and that it is impossible for life to have come
into being
and evolved by chance.
Believing in a myth such as evolution, and adhering to it
despite
the findings of science, results in an emotional state of
despair.
The harmony in the universe and the design in living things
becomes
rather a great source of trouble to them. The following
words of Darwin
offer us a glimpse into the sentiments of most
evolutionists:
I remember well the time when the thought of the eye made me cold all over, but I have got over this stage of complaint... and now trifling particulars of structure often make me very uncomfortable. The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!2
The feathers of a peacock, as well as countless other signs of creation in nature, continue to discomfit evolutionists. Turning a blind eye to such apparent miracles, they develop an ambivalence to such truths, accompanied by a mental state of denial. A good case to this point is the prominent evolutionist Richard Dawkins, who calls upon Christians not to assume that they have witnessed a miracle, even if they see the statue of the Virgin Mary waving to them. According to Dawkins;
Perhaps all the atoms of the statue's arm just happened to move in the same direction at once-a low probability event to be sure, but possible.3
On the other hand, our immediate surroundings, and the universe we live in, teem with numerous signs of Creation. Implicit in the fascinating system of a mosquito, the glorious artistry in the wings of a peacock, a complex and perfectly functioning organ like the eye, and millions of other forms of life, are signs of the existence of God, and His supreme knowledge and wisdom, for people who believe. A scientist who maintains that creation is a fact views nature from this perspective, and derives great pleasure in every observation he makes, and every experiment he conducts, gaining inspiration for further studies.
1 Albert Einstein, Science, Philosophy,
And Religion: A Symposium, 1941, ch1.
2 Norman Macbeth, Darwin Retried: An Appeal to Reason,
Harvard
Common Press, 1971, p. 131.
3 Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, London: W. W.
Norton,1986,
p. 159.
TIME AND RELATIVITY
TIME AND RELATIVITY
Time
is a concept that depends totally on our perceptions and the
comparison
we make between our perceptions. For example, at this moment
you are
reading this article. Suppose that, before reading this
article, you
were eating something in the kitchen. You think that there is a
period
between the time when you were eating in the kitchen and this
moment,
and you call it "time". In fact, the moment you were eating
in the kitchen is a piece of information in your memory, and
you compare
this moment with the information in your memory and call it
time. If
you do not make this comparison, the concept of time
disappears and
the only moment that exists for you will be the present
moment.
"Time is nothing but a measure of the changing positions of objects. A pendulum swings, the hands on a clock advance."1
In short, time is composed of a few pieces of information hidden as a memory in the brain; rather, it arises from the comparison of images. If a person did not have a memory, that person would live only in the present moment; his brain would not be able to make these interpretations and, therefore, he would not have any perception of time.
The Views Of Scientists On The Idea That Time Is A Perception
Today it has been scientifically accepted that time is a concept that arises from our making a definite sequential arrangement among movements and changes. We will try to make this clearer by giving examples from those thinkers and scientists who have established this view. The physicist Julian Barbour caused a great stir in the scientific world with his book entitled The End of Time in which he e x a m i n e d the ideas of timelessness and eternity. In an interview with Barbour, he said that any idea we have of time being absolute is false, and that research done in modern physics has confirmed this.
Time is not absolute; it is a variously perceived, subjective concept depending on events. François Jacob, thinker, Nobel laureate and famous professor of genetics, in his book entitled Le Jeu des Possibles (The Possible and the Actual) says this about the possibility that time can move backwards:
Films played backwards make it possible for us to imagine a world in which time flows backwards. A world in which milk separates itself from the coffee and jumps out of the cup to reach the milk-pan; a world in which light rays are emitted from the walls to be collected in a trap (gravity center) instead of gushing out from a light source; a world in which a stone slopes to the palm of a man by the astonishing cooperation of innumerable drops of water which enable the stone to jump out of water. Yet, in such a world in which time has such opposite features, the processes of our brain and the way our memory compiles information, would similarly be functioning backwards. The same is true for the past and future and the world will appear to us exactly as it currently appears.2
Because our brain works by arranging
things in a
sequence, we do not believe that the world works as
described above;
we think that time always moves forward. However, this is a
decision
our brain makes and is therefore totally relative. If the
information
in our brains were arranged like a film being projected
backwards,
time would be for us like a film being projected backwards.
In this
situation, we would start to perceive that the past was the
future
and the future was the past and we would experience life in a
way
totally opposite than we do now.
The fact that time is a perception was proved by the
greatest physicist
of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, in his "General Theory
of Relativity". In his book, The Universe and Dr. Einstein,
Lincoln
Barnett says this:
Along with absolute space, Einstein discarded the concept of absolute time - of a steady, unvarying inexorable universal time flow, streaming from the infinite past to the infinite future. Much of the obscurity that has surrounded the Theory of Relativity stems from man's reluctance to recognize that sense of time, like sense of colour, is a form of perception. Just as space is simply a possible order of material objects, so time is simply a possible order of events. The subjectivity of time is best explained in Einstein's own words. "The experiences of an individual" he says, "appear to us arranged in a series of events; in this series the single events which we remember appear to be ordered according to the criterion of 'earlier' and 'later'. There exists, therefore, for the individual, an I-time, or subjective time. This in itself is not measurable. I can, indeed, associate numbers with the events, in such a way that a greater number is associated with the later event than with an earlier one."3
From these words of Einstein, we can understand that the idea that time moves forward is totally a conditioned response. Einstein scientifically established the following fact in his "General Theory of Relativity": The rate at which time passes changes according to the speed of a body and its distance from the center of gravity. If the speed increases, time decreases, contracts, moves slower and seems that the point of inertia approaches.
The Relativity Of
Time Explains
The Reality Of Fate
As we see from the account of the relativity of time, time
is not
a concrete concept, but one that varies depending on
perceptions.
For example, a space of time conceived by us as millions of
years
long is one moment in God's sight. A period of 50 thousand
years for
us is only a day for Gabriel and the angels. This reality is
very
important for an understanding of the idea of fate. Fate is
the idea
that God creates every single event, past, present, and
future in
"a single moment". This means that every event, from the
creation of the universe until doomsday, has already
occurred and
ended in God's sight. A significant number of people cannot
grasp
the reality of fate. They cannot understand how God can know
events
that have not yet happened, or how past and future events
have already
happened in God's sight. From our point of view, things that
have
not happened are events which have not occurred. This is
because we
live our lives in relation to the time that God has created,
and we
could not know anything without the information in our
memories. Because
we dwell in the testing place of this world, God has not
given us
memories of the things we call "future" events.
Consequently, we cannot know what the future holds. But God
is not
bound to time or space; it is He Who has already created all
these
things from nothing. For this reason, past, present and
future are
all the same to God. From His point of view, everything has
already
occurred; He does not need to wait to see the result of an
action.
The beginning and the end of an event are both experienced
in His
sight in a single moment. Besides, for God there is no such
thing
as remembering the past; past and future are always present
to God;
everything exists in the same moment.
If we think of our life as a filmstrip, we watch it as if we
were
viewing a video cassette with no possibility to speed up the
film.
But God sees the whole film all at once at the same moment;
it is
He Who created it and determined all its details. As we are
able to
see the beginning, middle and end of a ruler all at once, so
God encompasses
in one moment, from beginning to end, the time to which we
are subject.
However, human beings experience these events only when the
time comes
to witness the fate that God has created for them. This is
the way
it is for the fates of everyone in the world.
The lives of everyone who has ever been created and whoever
will be
created, in this world and the next, are present in the
sight of God
in all their details. The fates of all living things are
written together
with the fates of millions of human beings in God's eternal
memory.
They will remain written without being lost or diminished.
The reality
of fate is one of the manifestations of God's eternal
greatness, power
and might. This is why He is called the Preserver
(al-Hafiz).
1 'From Here to Eternity",
Discover, December 2000, p.54
2 François Jacob, Le Jeu des Possibles, p. 111
3 Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein, pp.
52-53
IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT THAT THE WORLD COMES INTO EXISTENCE IN O
IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT
THAT THE
WORLD COMES INTO EXISTENCE IN OUR BRAINS -2-
What a human being would refer to as "my life"
is a collection of all perceptions being put together in a
meaningful
way and watched from a screen in the brain, and one can never
come out
of one's brain.
When you look out of the window, you think that you see an
image with
your eyes, as this is the way that you have been taught to
think. However,
in reality this is not how it works, because you do not see
the world
with your eyes. You see the image created in your brains. This
is not
a prediction, nor a philosophical speculation, but the
scientific truth.
Everything we perceive takes place in our brains, and that we
have no
need for the outside world or material beings to experience
these perceptions.
We Hear All Types Of Sound In Our Brains
 |
| Despite the volume of the sounds you hear, the interior of your brain is actually very quiet. However, you hear noise, such as voices, very clearly in your brain. |
The hearing process also operates in a similar manner to the visual process. In other words, we hear sounds in our brains in the same way that we see the view of the outside world in our brains. The ear captures the sounds around us and delivers them to the middle ear. The middle ear amplifies the sound vibrations and delivers them to the inner ear. The inner ear transforms these sound vibrations into electric signals, on the basis of their frequency and intensity, and then transmits them to the brain. These messages in the brain are then sent to the hearing center where the sounds are interpreted. Therefore, the hearing process takes place in the hearing center in essentially the same way that the seeing process takes place in the seeing center.
Therefore, actual sounds do not exist outside our brains, even though there are physical vibrations we call sound waves. These sound waves are not transformed into sounds outside or inside our ears, but rather inside our brains. As the visual process is not performed by our eyes, neither do our ears perform the hearing process. For example, when you are having a chat with a friend, you observe the sight of your friend in your brain, and hear his or her voice in your brain. As the view in your brain is formed, you will have a deep feeling of three dimensions, and your friend's voice is also heard with a similar feeling of depth. For example, you could see your friend as being a long way from you, or sitting behind you; accordingly you feel his voice as if it is coming from him, from near you or from your back. However, your friend's voice is not far away or behind you. It is in your brain.
 |
| The smell molecules never actually reach the brain. In our sense of smell, it is only electrical signals which reach the brain, as happens with sound and sight. |
The extraordinariness about the real nature of the sound you hear is not limited to this. The brain is actually both lightproof and soundproof. Sound never in fact reaches the brain. Therefore, despite the volume of the sounds you hear, the interior of your brain is actually very quiet. However, you hear noise, such as voices, very clearly in your brain. This is an extraordinary fact. The electrical signals that reach the brain are heard in your brain as sound, for example the sound of a concert in a stadium filled with people.
All Smells Occur In The
Brain
If someone is asked how he senses the smells around him, he
would
probably say "with my nose". However, this answer is not
the right one, even though most people would instantly
conclude that
it was the truth. Gordon Shepherd, a professor of neurology
from Yale
University, explains why this is incorrect:
We think that we smell with our noses, [but] this is a little like saying that we hear with our ear lobes.1
Our sense of smell works in a similar
mechanism to our
other sense organs. In fact, the only function of the nose
is its
ability to act as an intake channel for smell molecules.
Volatile
molecules such as vanilla, or the scent of a rose, come to
receptors
located on hairs in a part of the nose called the epithelium
and interact
with them. The result of the interaction of the smell
molecules with
the epithelium reaches the brain as an electric signal.
These electric
signals are then perceived as a scent by the brain. Thus,
all smells
which we interpret as good or bad are merely perceptions
generated
in the brain after the interaction with volatile molecules
has been
transduced into electric signals. The fragrance of perfume,
of a flower,
of a food which you like, of the sea-in short all smells you
may or
may not like-are perceived in the brain. However, the smell
molecules
never actually reach the brain. In our
sense
of smell, it is only electrical signals which reach the
brain, as
happens with sound and sight.
George Berkeley, a philosopher who has
realized the
importance of this truth, says "At the beginning, it was
believed
that colors, odors, etc., 'really exist,' but subsequently
such views
were renounced, and it was seen that they only exist in
dependence
on our sensations."2
Michael Posner, a psychologist and Marcus Raichle, a neurologist from Washington University comment on the issue of how sight and other senses occur, even in the absence of an external stimulus:
Open your eyes, and a scene fills your view effortlessly; close your eyes and think of that scene, and you can summon an image of it, certainly not as vivid, solid, or complete as a scene you see with your eyes, but still one that captures the scene's essential characteristics. In both cases, an image of the scene is formed in the mind. The image formed from actual visual experiences is called a "percept" to distinguish it from an imagined image. The percept is formed as the result of light hitting the retina and sending signals that are further processed in the brain. But how are we able to create an image when no light is hitting the retina to send such signals?3
 |
| If the taste nerves in your brain were cut off, it would be impossible for the taste of anything you eat to reach your brain, and you would entirely lose your sense of taste. |
There is no need for an external source to form an image in your mind. This same situation holds true for the sense of smell. In the same way as you are aware of a smell which does not really exist in your dreams or imagination, you cannot be sure whether or not those objects, which you smell in real life, exist outside you. Even if you assume that these objects exist outside of you, you can never deal with the original objects.
All Tastes Occur In The
Brain
The sense of taste can be explained in a manner similar to
those of
the other sense organs. Tasting is caused by little buds in
the tongue
and throat. The tongue can detect four different tastes,
bitter, sour,
sweet and salty. Taste buds, after a chain of processes,
transform sensory
information into electrical signals and then transfer them to
the brain.
Subsequently, those signals are perceived by the brain as
tastes. The
taste that you experience when you eat a cake, yogurt, a lemon
or a
fruit is, in reality, a process that interprets electrical
signals in
the brain.
An image of a cake will be linked with the taste of the sugar,
all of
which occurs in the brain and everything sensed is related to
the cake
which you like so much. The taste that you are conscious of
after you
have eaten your cake, with a full appetite, is nothing other
than an
effect generated in your brain caused by electrical signals.
You are
only aware of what your brain interprets from the external
stimuli.
You can never reach the original object; for example you
cannot see,
smell or taste the actual chocolate itself. If the taste
nerves in your
brain were cut off, it would be impossible for the taste of
anything
you eat to reach your brain, and you would entirely lose your
sense
of taste. The fact that the tastes of which you are aware seem
extraordinarily
real should certainly not deceive you. This is the scientific
explanation
of the matter.
 |
| If our fingertips are given a stimulus in a different manner, we can sense entirely different feelings. Today this can be done by mechanical simulators. With the help of a special glove, a person can feel the sensation of stroking a cat, shaking hands with someone, washing his hands, or touching a hard material, even though none of these things may be present. |
The Sense Of Touch Also Occurs In The Brain
The sense of touch is one of the factors which prevents people from being convinced of the aforementioned truth that the senses of sight, hearing and taste occur within the brain. For example, if you told someone that he sees a book within his brain, he would, if he didn't think carefully, reply "I can't be seeing the book in my brain-look, I'm touching it with my hand". Or, if we said "we cannot know whether the original of this book exists as a material object outside or not", again the same superficially minded person might answer "no, look, I'm holding it with my hand and I feel the hardness of it-that isn't a perception but an existence which has material reality".
 |
| When you touch a material object, you sense whether it is hard, soft, wet, sticky or silky in the brain. The effects that come from your fingertips are transmitted to the brain as an electrical signal and these signals are perceived in the brain as the sense of touch. |
However, there is a fact that such people cannot understand, or perhaps just ignore. The sense of touch also occurs in the brain as much as do all the other senses. That is to say, when you touch a material object, you sense whether it is hard, soft, wet, sticky or silky in the brain. The effects that come from your fingertips are transmitted to the brain as an electrical signal and these signals are perceived in the brain as the sense of touch. For instance, if you touch a rough surface, you can never know whether the surface is, in reality, indeed a rough surface, or how a rough surface actually feels. That is because you can never touch the original of a rough surface. The knowledge that you have about touching a surface is your brain's interpretation of certain stimuli. This important truth, which needs careful consideration, is expressed by twentieth century philosopher Bertrand Russell:
As to the sense of touch when we press the table with our fingers, that is an electric disturbance on the electrons and protons of our fingertips, produced, according to modern physics, by the proximity of the electrons and protons in the table. If the same disturbance in our finger-tips arose in any other way, we should have the sensations, in spite of there being no table.4
1 www.hhmi.org/senses/a/a110.htm
2 V.I.Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-criticism,
Progress Publishers,
Moscow, 1970, p.14
3 Michael I. Posner, Marcus E. Raichle, Images of
Mind, Scientific
American Library, New York, 1999, p. 88
4 Bertrand Russell, ABC of Relativity, George Allen
and Unwin,
London, 1964, pp. 161-162
IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT THAT THE WORLD COMES INTO EXISTENCE IN O
IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT
THAT THE
WORLD COMES
INTO EXISTENCE IN OUR BRAINS
-1-
 |
When
you take a look at the room in which you are sitting,
what you
see is not the room outside of you, but a copy of the
room that
exists in your brain. You will never be able to see
the original
room with your sense organs. |
All events and objects that we encounter in real life-buildings, people, cities, cars, places-in fact, everything we see, hold, touch, smell, taste and hear-come into existence as visions and feelings in our brains.
We are taught to think that these images and feelings are caused by a solid world outside of our brains, where material things exist. However, in reality we never see real existing materials and we never touch real materials. In other words, every material entity which we believe exists in our lives, is, in fact, only a vision which is created in our brains.
This is not a philosophical speculation. It is an empirical fact that has been proven by modern science. Today, any scientist who is a specialist in medicine, biology, neurology or any other field related to brain research would say, when asked how and where we see the world, that we see the whole world in the vision center located in our brains.
We acknowledge that all the individual features of the world are experienced through our sense organs. The information that reaches us through those organs is converted into electrical signals, and the individual parts of our brain analyze and process these signals. After this interpreting process takes place inside our brain, we will, for example, see a book, taste a strawberry, smell a flower, feel the texture of a silk fabric or hear leaves shaking in the wind.
We have been taught that we are touching the cloth outside of our body, reading a book that is 30 cm (1 ft) away from us, smelling the trees that are far away from us, or hearing the shaking of the leaves that are far above us. However, this is all in our imagination. All of these things are happening within our brains.
 |
Everything
we perceive is specially recreated for us in our
brains. Therefore,
when we say, "We are aware the world around us," we
are talking about copied images of colors and shapes,
of sounds
and smells. |
At this point we encounter another surprising fact; that there are, in fact, no colors, voices or visions within our brain. All that can be found in our brains are electrical signals. This is not a philosophical speculation. This is simply a scientific description of the functions of our percetions. In her book Mapping The Mind, Rita Carter explains the way we perceive the world as follows:
Each one [of the sense organs] is intricately adapted to deal with its own type of stimulus: molecules, waves or vibrations. But the answer does not lie here, because despite their wonderful variety, each organ does essentially the same job: it translates its particular type of stimulus into electrical pulses. A pulse is a pulse is a pulse. It is not the colour red, or the first notes of Beethoven's Fifth-it is a bit of electrical energy. Indeed, rather than discriminating one type of sensory input from another, the sense organs actually make them more alike.
All sensory stimuli, then enter the brain in more or less undifferentiated form as a stream of electrical pulses created by neurons firing, domino-fashion, along a certain route. This is all that happens. There is no reverse transformer that at some stage turns this electrical activity back into light waves or molecules. What makes one stream into vision and another into smell depends, rather, on which neurons are stimulated.1
In other words, all of our feelings and perceptions about the world (smells, visions, tastes etc.) are comprised of the same material, that is, electrical signals. Moreover, our brain is what makes these signals meaningful for us, and interprets these signals as senses of smell, taste, vision, sound or touch. It is a stunning fact that the brain, which is made of wet meat, can know which electrical signal should be interpreted as smell and which one as vision, and can convert the same material into different senses and feelings.
It's Not Our Eyes That See, It Is Our Brain
|
|
The
CEO of a company might consider the company building,
his car
in the parking lot, his house by the beach, his yacht,
and all
the people who work for him, his lawyers, his family,
and his
friends to be outside of his body. However, all of
these things
are merely visions formed in his skull, in a tiny part
of his
brain. |
Because of the indoctrination that we receive throughout our lives, we imagine that we see the whole world with our eyes. Eventually, we usually conclude that our eyes are the windows that open up to the world. However, science shows us that we do not see through our eyes. The millions of nerve cells inside the eyes are responsible for sending a message to the brain, as if down a cable, in order to make "seeing" happen. If we analyze the information we learned in high school, it becomes easier for us to understand the reality of vision.
The light reflecting off an object passes through the lens of the eye and causes an upside-down image on the retina at the back of the eyeball. After some chemical operations carried out by retinal rods and cones, this vision becomes an electrical impulse. This impulse is then sent through connections in the nervous system to the back of the brain. The brain converts this flow into a meaningful, three-dimensional vision.
For example, when you watch children playing in a park, you are not seeing the children and the park with your eyes, because the image of this view forms not before your eyes, but at the back of your brain.
Even though we have given a simple explanation, in reality the physiology of vision is an extraordinary operation. Without fail, light is converted into electrical signals, and, subsequently, these electrical signals reveal a colorful, shining, three-dimensional world. R. L. Gregory, in his book Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, acknowledges this significant fact, and explains this incredible structure:
We are given tiny distorted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see separate solid objects in surrounding space. From the patterns of simulation on the retinas we perceive the world of objects, and this is nothing short of a miracle.2
 |
When
you watch children playing in a park, you are not
seeing the
children and the park with your eyes, because the
image of this
view forms not before your eyes, but at the back of
your brain. |
All of these facts lead to the same conclusion. Throughout our lives, we always assume that the world exists outside of us. However, the world is within us. Although we believe that the world lies outside us, it is in the smallest part of our brain. For example, the CEO of a company might consider the company building, his car in the parking lot, his house by the beach, his yacht, and all the people who work for him, his lawyers, his family, and his friends to be outside of his body. However, all of these things are merely visions formed in his skull, in a tiny part of his brain.
He is unaware of this fact and, even if he knew, would not bother to think about it. If he stood proudly next to his latest-model luxury car, and the wind blew a piece of dust or a small object into his eye, he might gently scratch his itching, open eye and notice that the "material things" he saw moved upside down or to the sides. He might then realize that material things seen in the environment are not stable.
What this demonstrates is that every person throughout his or her life witnesses everything inside their brain and cannot reach the specific material objects that supposedly cause their experiences. The images we see are copies in our brains of the objects that we assume to exist outside of us. We can never know to what extent these copies resemble the originals, or whether or not the originals even exist.
Although German psychiatry professor Hoimar Von Ditfurth is a materialist, he acknowledges this fact about scientific reality:
No matter how we put the argument, the result doesn't change. What stands before us in full shape and what our eyes view is not the "world". It is only its image, a resemblance, a projection whose association with the original is open to discussion.3
For example, when you take a look at the room in which you are sitting, what you see is not the room outside of you, but a copy of the room that exists in your brain. You will never be able to see the original room with your sense organs.
How Can A Bright And Colorful Image Appear In Your Dark Brain?
 |
Every person throughout his or her life witnesses everything inside their brain and cannot reach the specific material objects that supposedly cause their experiences. |
There is another point that should not be neglected; light cannot pass through the skull. The physical area in which the brain is located is completely dark, and light cannot possibly penetrate it. However, incredible as it may seem, it is possible to observe a bright and colorful world in this total darkness. Colorful natural beauty, bright sights, all the tones of the color green, the colors of fruits, the designs of flowers, the brightness of the sun, people walking on a busy road, fast cars in traffic, clothes in a shopping mall-are all created in the dark brain.
Imagine a barbecue burning in front of you. You can sit and watch the fire for a long time, but throughout this entire time, your brain never deals with the original of light, brightness or heat from the fire. Even when you feel its heat and see its light, the inside of your brain remains dark and maintains a constant temperature. It is a profound mystery that, in the darkness, the electrical signals turn into colorful, bright visions. Anyone who thinks deeply will be amazed by this wondrous occurrence.
Light Is Also Composed In Our Brain
While discussing what science has discovered about vision, we mentioned that the light we receive from the outside gives rise to some movements of the eye cells, and these movements form a pattern from which our visual experience emerges. However, there is another point that we need to make: Light, as we perceive it, does not reside outside of our brain. The light we know and understand is also formed within our brain. What we call light in the outside world, which is supposedly outside our brains, consists of electromagnetic waves and particles of energy called photons. When these electromagnetic waves or photons reach the retina, light, as we experience it, begins to come into existence. This is the way light is described in physical terms:
The term "light" is used for electromagnetic waves and photons. The same term is used in physiology, as the feeling experienced by a person when electromagnetic waves and photons strike the retina of the eye. In both objective and subjective terms, "light" is a form of energy coming into existence in the eye of a person, which a person becomes aware of through the retina by the effects of vision.4
Consequently, light comes into existence as a result of the effects that some electromagnetic waves and particles cause in us. In other words, there is no light outside our bodies which creates the light we see in our brains. There is only energy. And when this energy reaches us we see a colorful, bright, and light-filled world. We can therefore conclude that everything we see merely exists in our brains. This is a scientific truth, proven with scientific evidence.
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1 Rita Carter, Mapping
The Mind, University of California Press, London,
1999, p. 107
2 R. L. Gregory, Eye and Brain:
The Psychology
of Seeing, Oxford University Press Inc., New York,
1990, p.
9
3 Hoimar von Ditfurth, Der Geist
Fiel Nicht
Vom Himmel (The Spirit Did Not Fall From The Sky), p.
256
4 M. Ali Yaz, Sait Aksoy, Fizik 3
(Physics
3), Surat Publishers, Istanbul, 1997, p. 3