SPIRIT OF ISLAM AUGUST 2O13

11 Spirit of Islam Issue 8 August 2013 MODERN ATHEISM: AN ANALYSIS I DEOLOGICALLY, human history can be divided into two major phases—before the development of modern science and since the development of modern science. In the former, religion was the primary arbiter for most of humankind, but after the emergence of modern science this situation has completely changed. Now it is science—without itself being either for or against religion— that has acquired the position of arbiter. Despite the unbiased role of science, due to various reasons, an atheistic ideology has come to dominate all intellectual disciplines. How did this happen? We present here a review of this situation. Man, who has inhabited this planet for thousands of years, sees things such as the rising sun, the falling rain, and the blowing winds etc. on a daily basis. Traditionally, most humans believed that some divinity was instrumental in these happenings. This belief, for them, was certain. They believed it to be the established truth. It was atheist thinkers rather than scientists who, by hijacking the concept of causation, equated it to the denial of God. After the emergence of modern science, however, it was learnt that apparently there existed a material cause behind all happenings. For instance, in the apocryphal story of Isaac Newton (b. 1642) sitting in his garden, an apple fell from a tree. Newton began thinking about why the apple had fallen and after giving the matter deep thought succeeded in deducing the Law of Gravity. It was because of gravity that things fell downwards. Scientific study has made great progress. Finally, scientists discovered that all the events happening in this world invariably have a cause. They thus formulated the principle of causation. This thinking—that all happenings were the result of some cause—continued to grow until it finally dominated all scientific and academic human activities. Prior to this, happenings had been explained with reference to God: now references to God were replaced with the reference to cause.