Table Of Content

Islamic Theology and the Philosophy of Science The Metaphysics of Islamic Monotheism -A.D. First Draft You are reading only a draft. Please find the latest version at: islamtheologyscience.wordpress.com Contact: [email protected] The Evolution of Civilization by E.H. Blashfield (made in 1896). This mural decorates the dome of the main reading room of the Thomas Jefferson Building at the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It recognizes key societies and their contributions to the development of civilization. The purpose of this is to relate Islamic theology's relationship with philosophy, specifically the philosophy of science and specifically the orthodox theology, throughout its history and the relationship as it stands today. While some of this takes on an academic tone, most of it is informal and conversational. It is intended primarily for a Muslim audience and assumes a rudimentary understanding of basic philosophical ideas, some of which will be covered hastily in the introductory sections. It is written, however, for a non-Muslim audience to be able to follow along. It’s also targeted for the layman with regards to knowledge of science (especially physics). Much of it was assembled from discussions across various online forums and media. I threw it together, polished it up, and added in citations (often not in proper form) wherever I could. Some parts I obviously gloss over and the explanations suffer for that. I recommend reading the various articles and links I cite for more information. For those who are unfamiliar with Islamic history in general and its relation to science, then I recommend watching this BBC documentary series before reading this: Science and Islam - Episode 1 of 3 - The Language of Science Science and Islam - Episode 2 of 3 - The Empire of Reason Science and Islam - Episode 3 of 3 - The Power of Doubt An Important Note: On the definition of panentheism: This word has many varying definitions and uses. When used in this work it is used in the sense of: In panentheism, God is viewed as the eternal animating force behind the universe. … While pantheism asserts that 'All is God', panentheism goes further to claim that God is greater than the universe. [Wikipedia] And any theology which espouses as much. In this sense occasionalism (to be explained later) can be seen as a version of panentheism. It is specifically contrasted with pantheism. This, occasionalism and theologies which function similarly, is only what is meant by panentheism when the word is used here. It is not meant that God is “in” the universe or vice-versa, or any other such definition of panentheism. Table of Contents Theology in Philosophical Terms What is theology? Philosophy Metaphysics Ontology Epistemology What is required for science? The Political / Social / Economic conditions and factors required for science Empiricism Skepticism Peer Review History of Islamic philosophy What Muslims gained from the Qur’an Empiricism Skepticism Scientific Skepticism Verification Falsification Observational Deductive Falsification The Unity and Hierarchy of the Sciences What Muslims Picked Up From the Greeks Hellenistic Philosophy and Neoplatonism Al-Farabi (872-950) Beyond the Greeks: Contributions of Muslims The Scientific Method Ibn al-Haytham (965-1040) Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973-1048) Peer Review Secularism Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126-1198) Perennialism Averroism Tabula Rasa Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) Ibn Tufayl (Abubacer) (1105-1185) Philosophus Autodidactus Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288) Theologus Autodidactus Occasionalism Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) Problem of Induction Problem of Causation Occasionalism in Western Thought Descartes (1596-1650) Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) George Berkeley (1685-1753) David Hume (1711-1776) The Case for Occasionalism How Islamic Civilization Fell in the Sciences War: The Collapse of Old Islamic Civilization Second Coming of Islam: A Shift in Focus Paradigm Shift The Case for Islamic Occasionalism The Arguments for God The Ontological Argument The Cosmological Argument The Occasionalist Argument Preponderance without a Preferrer The Infinite Regress Objections on Causal Grounds Causality vs. Determinism Part 2 starts around pages 165-170 Orthodox Theology and the Implications of Islamic Monotheism The Creed of Islam Ontology Essence and Existence The People of Reality The Sophists Epistemology The Sound Senses (al-hawass al-salima) True Narratives (al-khabar al-sadiq) A Visualization Method Landscape of Knowledge Taqlid (Blind Imitation) The Theological Narrative The Evidentiary Miracles of the Prophet (saw) Reason (‘aql) Metaphysics Atomism Causality Time Miracles The Miracle of the Holy Qur’an Some Additional Features of the Qur’an’s Arabic Some Common Questions and Objections Scientific Miracles of the Holy Qur’an Laws Physical Laws Evolution A Final Note on Nature Moral or Behavioral Laws Where Do Morals Come From? The Common Morality Islamic Morality Miracles and their Implications for Determinism Where Metaphysics Meets Physics Quantum Physics Wave-Particle Duality Al-Farisi (1267-1318) Quantum Mechanics, the Wavefunction, and Mathematical Formulation Quantization (“atoms”) of Matter, Space, Time The Jawhar of Matter Ibrahim an-Nazzam (775-845) The Planck Scale The Uncertainty Principle Intuition and Natural Causation Probability Determinacy Prediction Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics The Instrumentalist Position The Copenhagen Interpretation The Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) The de Broglie-Bohm Interpretation (Pilot Wave Theory) Quantum Field Theory Gravity String Theory Cosmology Big Bang The Universe: Infinite or Finite? Inflation and the Problem of “Fine Tuning” A Universe From Nothing The No-Boundary Proposal and Quantum Cosmology Multiverse and the Anthropic Principle: The Linchpin of Atheist Metaphysics Cosmology in the Qur’an Energy Gottfriend Leibniz (1646-1716) Entropy Entropy in Information Theory Maxwell’s Demon Causality (in Physics) Time (in Physics) Timeless Physics Power Does Science Describe Reality? The Metaphysics of Imam Maturidi The Metaphysical View of Creation in Light of Modern Physics Part 3 starts around page 470 Orthodox Theology Versus the Other Sects Today Islam’s Impact on Ideas The Falling Out Beween Islamic Civilization and Science The Further Evolution of Philosophy Distinguishing Islamic, Christian, and later Western Civilization Individualism Western Metaphysics The Trend Towards Atheism Western Idealism Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) The Evolution of Empiricism and Naturalism [UNFINISHED BEYOND THIS POINT] The Further Evolution of Islamic Theology: Understanding God 1. The Essential Attribute: Existence as subject - Being itself 2. The Other Attributes Is Modality the answer? Abstract Extensionality Islam’s Compatibility With Other Social Orders Contemporary Philosophy Karl Popper Thomas Kuhn Saul Kripke Theology in Philosophical Terms What is theology? What's referred to here is not the traditional definition of theology as its used in the Judeo-Christian context. In Islam, the religion is considered divided into three parts: ● Iman: 'Aqeedah / Creed / Doctrine / Beliefs / Theology (as I use it here) ● Islam: Fiqh / Law (Shariah) ● Ihsan: Tasawwuf / Sufism (Spirituality) Theology traditionally refers to specific beliefs or doctrine about the nature of God and God’s relation to the world. Thus ‘aqeedah encompasses more than just traditional theology. For the most part this discussion does remain restricted to theological issues (and not, for example, issues regarding belief in a Day of Judgment, all the other prophets and revelations, angels, etc). Which brings me to the purpose of this. How can we relate to a religion on a rational basis? How do you relate to faith via reason? Simply put, the theological component of any religion can be translated into philosophical terms and then be used to compare or relate it to other traditions or philosophies. Theology can also double as a type of philosophy. Philosophy There are at least three branches of classical philosophy which generally constitute a worldview. It is into these terms that theology can be translated. Metaphysics As per the definition at Wikipedia: Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the 1http://www.sunnipath.com/library/Articles/AR00000168.aspx fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: "What is there?" "What is it like?" A person who studies metaphysics would be called either a metaphysicist or a metaphysician. The metaphysician attempts to clarify the fundamental notions by which people understand the world, including existence, the definition of object, property, space, time, causality, and possibility. A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to each other. Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. The term science itself meant "knowledge" of originating from epistemology. The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment unlike the rest of philosophy. By the end of the 18th century, it had begun to be called "science" to distinguish it from philosophy. Thereafter, metaphysics denoted philosophical enquiry of a non-empirical character into the nature of existence. The word's etymology itself needs to be taken into account. The word "metaphysics" derives from the Greek words μετά (metá) ("beyond" or "after") and φυσικά (physiká) ("physics"). It was first used as the title for several of Aristotle's works, because they were usually anthologized after the works on physics in complete editions. The prefix meta- ("beyond") indicates that these works come "after" the chapters on physics. However, Aristotle himself did not call the subject of these books "Metaphysics": he referred to it as "first philosophy." The editor of Aristotle's works, Andronicus of Rhodes, is thought to have placed the books on first philosophy right after another work, Physics, and called them τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικὰ βιβλία (ta meta ta physika biblia) or "the books that come after the [books on] physics". This was misread by Latin scholiasts, who thought it meant "the science of what is beyond the physical". However, once the name was given, the commentators sought to find intrinsic reasons for its appropriateness. For instance, it was understood to mean "the science of the world beyond nature (phusis in Greek)," that is, the science of the immaterial. Again, it was understood to refer to the chronological or pedagogical order among our philosophical studies, so that the "metaphysical sciences would mean, those that we study after having mastered the sciences that deal with the physical world" (St. Thomas Aquinas, "In Lib, Boeth. de Trin.", V, 1). There is a widespread use of the term in current popular literature, which replicates this error, i.e. that metaphysical means spiritual non-physical: thus, "metaphysical healing" means healing by means of remedies that are not physical. I find the best way to relate the idea of metaphysics to actual science, such as physics, is by distinguishing the prefix 'meta-' from 'proto-'. The aforementioned "natural philosophy" could have been said to be a "protophysics". Proto is a prefix that means "first". As Aristotle called metaphysics the "first philosophy", the specific branch of it known as natural philosophy can be said to have been the "first science", in other words a proto-science. Still, the colloquial understanding of metaphysics as "beyond physics" is useful as distinguished from the type of philosophy which would be proto- science or proto-physics; "the first physics" or a precursor to physics, directly leading to the evolution of physics as the science we know it today. Metaphysics itself is not "protophysics". The latter would constitute one branch or part of the former, but there is an obvious etymological, historical, philosophical, and evolutionary relationship or connection between the ideas of metaphysics and physics. For that matter, science itself comes from the word for "knowledge". It's been divorced from that general idea into something more specific and all its own in recent times (including how I’ve used the term thus far), but this isn't necessarily the case as its been understood in Arabic (where 'ilm means knowledge and science alike). More on that later. Ontology Which brings us to the main branch of metaphysics, ontology. Going to Wikipedia again for the definition: Ontology (from the Greek ὄν, genitive ὄντος: "of that which is", and -λογία, - logia: science, study, theory) is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences.