05 – God and Science

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Atheists frequently claim that the only reason why people have historically believed in God was that they feared natural phenomena, and that by giving scientific explanations for those phenomena, scientists have rendered that belief obsolete. In this episode, Shaykh Hamza explains that this is a straw-man argument that misrepresents the facts (a) that belief in God has historically been based on evidence and (b) that belief in God coexists (rather than conflicts) with science. It concludes by explaining that contradictions between religion and science prove that those religions are man-made, not that God does not exist, and that because Islam is not a man-made religion, modern science corroborates its truth rather than conflicting with it.

“Why Islam is True” is a series of 40 short presentations that analyze the claim, “Islam is true,” by dividing it into a series of sub-claims and then evaluating their truth by examining the evidence for them, as well as the evidence against them. As they do this, the presentations explain the relationship between Islam and science; the fallaciousness of the arguments of contemporary atheists; the relationship between Islam and other faith-traditions; the role of prophecy in human history; the nature of life, death, and the human soul; and the purpose of human existence.

While the presentations are all grounded in the traditional Islamic sciences—particularly the sciences of Islamic theology (‘ilm al-tawhid), Islamic logic (mantiq), Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), and legal theory (usul al-fiqh)—their goal is to answer the questions that any open-minded and thinking graduate of a contemporary high-school or university—Muslim or not—would ask about Islam.

The conclusion of this series of presentations is that God does, in fact, exist; that the Prophet Muhammad (God bless him and give him peace) was, in fact, His messenger; that He did, in fact, teach us the purpose of our existence on earth; and that we will, in fact, be resurrected after our deaths to stand before and be judged by God.

Shaykh Hamza Karamali is one of the teachers at SeekersGuidance Global. Visit (http://www.SeekersGuidance.org/courses) to register for one of his courses. All courses are free.

You could also watch this series on YouTube with a slide presentation on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4mTEQpP9b5FBA1EtS22ev2Zm_KWEMfpE .

Checkout all of the SeekersGuidance podcasts by visiting http://SeekersGuidance.org/podcasts/