Atheism: Is it a Rational Belief?

Allah SWT says in the Qur’an a;-Hakim

Allahu as-Samad  (Al-Ikhlas:2)

Allah is the Self-sufficient upon which all depends.

 

Francis Bacon said in his essay “Of Atheism.” 

  “I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind. And therefore, God never wrought miracle, to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity... For it is a thousand times more credible, that four mutable elements, and one immutable fifth essence, duly and eternally placed, need no God, than that an army of infinite small portions, or seeds unplaced, should have produced this order and beauty, without a divine marshal.”

Rationales for not believing in any supernatural deity include the lack of empirical evidence, the problem of evil, the argument from inconsistent revelations, and the argument from nonbelief.

The Qur’an answers the first argument by saying: 

41:53. We will show them
Our Signs in the (furthest)
Regions (of the earth), and
In their own souls, until
It becomes manifest to them
That this is the Truth.
Is it not enough that
Thy Lord doth witness
All things?

He also says:

50: 6. Do they not look
At the sky above them?—
How We have made it
And adorned it,
And there are no
Flaws in it?

And in Surah al-Ghashiyah:

   

88:17 Will they not regard the camels, how they are created ?

18 And the heaven, how it is raised ?

19 And the hills, how they are set up ?

20 And the earth, how it is spread ?

So Allah SWT tells us that His signs are in his Creation.  His Creation is empirical evidence of His existence.  As Francis Bacon says, “God never wrought miracle, to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it.”  In other words, Allah does need to provide some amazing, miraculous proofs, His entire Creation and the existence of that Creation is miraculous enough, and is enough of an inductive proof.

Many may think there is no empirical evidence for the existence of Allah.  What are they looking for?  Do they expect some big guy on a throne who cooked up this universe on a stove?  The purveyors of the religion of science state that their view is superior to religion and that religion is mere superstition.  They base this stance on the concept of falsefiability – meaning that any theory must not only be provable, but also disprovable.  There must be a set of conditions that if present, would prove that the theory is not correct.  For example, the theory of gravity would be false is things did not fall down when dropped.

Sciencians – those that “believe” in science – claim that the belief in Allah held by religious people does not allow for falsefiability.  However, it does not detail what would be necessary to prove Allah’s existence either. 

Part of the problem is that religious people have generally used deductive proofs to prove Allah’s existence.  These proofs all have philosophical problems.  They are generally circular because the very definition of God assumes He exists.  So you end up proving Allah exists by assuming He exists. 

However Allah has used an inductive proof to prove His own Presence.  He calls upon us the look at His Ayaat or sign in the universe.  His evidence is everywhere around us. 

Francis Bacon remarks:  “For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”  What he is noting is that if we look at the things around us as individual objects in isolation, we might go no further and not notice the connections between things and between those things and their Creator.  But if we look at the whole picture, how can we miss the evidence of Allah?  We would have to be blind no to do so.

Consider fractal geometry – the amazing and repeated patterns created by non-linear equations and strange attractors in chaos theory.  Why would such patterns exist, if as Bacon notes, there was no mind behind, no source of those patterns.  How can whirling electrons and protons create such patterns?

This is an interesting question.  Sayid Muhammad Baqir al Sadr, in his book Falsafatuna, also notes this.  He holds, just as materialists and atheists, that there is one substance from which all things in this universe are formed, but if that is the case, then how can those things exhibit differences.  How can things made from the same clay exhibit the vast varieties of color, taste, texture, shape, movement, and every other attribute and characteristic we observe – empirically.  Have you ever molded clay?  We used to mold figures with "Playdough" when I was a kid.  If you took blue "Playdough" and molded into a cat or car, they might look a bit different as to shape, but both were blue, and had the same texture, smell, and every other quality.  In noting this problem of the underlying uniformity of the substance of the universe, Sayid al-Sadr has devised a wonderful proof for the actuality of Allah. Allah SWT must be actual because all of these diverse attributes are actual.  Again, Allah is proven by the signs of His presence in His Ayaat, found in our universe.

As for arguments that Allah does not exist due to inconsistencies in revelation or that non-belief is possible; these arguments are hardly to be taken serious upon reflection.  The Qur’an notes that inconsistencies might result in doubt about revelation:

4:82. Do they not consider
The Qur-ān (with care)?
Had it been from other
Than God, they would surely
Have found therein
Much discrepancy.

While discrepancies might call a so-called revelation into question in regards to it being a revelation, does it really call the existence of Allah into question?  Isn’t it more likely that it was not revelation to begin with, or that it was altered in some way, either mistakenly or intentionally?

The argument from unbelief holds that God does not exist because it is possible for people to believe that He does not exist.  I do not believe that unicorns exist, but it does not mean that it is impossible that they do exist.  Moreover, we have free will, so we are free to believe or not believe.  The argument simply fails.

Finally, we come to the philosophical problem of evil.  It is a question every religion must answer.  If Allah is good, why is there evil.  We have dealt with this issue in the past, but to remind ourselves; Allah actually answers this in Surah al-Qahf.  In that Surah, Allah SWT recounts the story of Musa and one of Allah’s servants, often referred to as Khidr.  Khidr scuttles a ship and kills a boy.  Musa is horrified.  From a legal standpoint, from Shariah, these are haram acts.  But later Khidr explains that he scuttled the ship to save the people from being captured by pirates.  The people in the ship survived and could swim to safety.  So an apparent evil is turned by Allah SWT into good.  The same is true of the boy.  His parents would have suffered if he had grown up and sinned.  Instead, they will have a new child, and the boy himself is saved from hell by dying before he ever sinned as an adult.  Musa AS was looking at the Shariah – the law and the rules of society that make life together possible, which Allah has revealed to us through revelation or wahy; Khidr was looking at the big picture – the ultimate result – which is always good because Allah is Good. 

Allah tells us in the Qur’an, that He controls the ultimate result.  His Qada and Qadar means He has the ultimate Dominion and Control and He can turn the evil deeds of rebellious men into vain acts, in the end, and the bad deeds of believers into good.

47:1 Those who disbelieve and turn (men) from the way of Allah, He rendereth their actions vain.

2 And those who believe and do good works and believe in that which is revealed unto Muhammad - and it is the truth from their Lord - He riddeth them of their ill-deeds and improveth their state.

May Allah SWT forgive us all our sins and turn them to good deeds in our account.