I did not take religion as a serious matter until about 15 years ago when some of my friends, in their bid to convert me to Christianity made certain claims about salvation. So I decided to examine these claims independently. Some of my findings are already documented in my articles published in the Nigeria village square.

The current effort is aimed at responding to certain issues, which arose from my previous articles.

In my  previous  articles, some  of  my  respondents  referred  to  religion  as  an  emotional issue and  as  such cannot  be  subjected to  tests  of  rationality or  reason.

In  fact,  Free Publius  wrote “Religion is a matter of faith; no amount of logic can change minds”

I also intend to respond to the issues raised in an article titled Faith, reason, God and other imponderable published in the July 30 2006 edition of Sunday Punch.

Before I proceed, let me state clearly that this is not an effort directed towards placing one religion above another. Rather it is an attempt aimed at considering all the relevant sources of information available on the subject to enable us answer the question: Is it rational to believe in God.

Therefore references to the Quran, even though may not be approved by some, are intended to provide literary evidence to support my arguments. In which case the reader is free to treat the Quran either as a  divine revelation or as a book (al –Kitab). After all, the Quran stated very clearly that “la iqra fiidin” –there is no compulsion in religion.

Therefore what we are looking at is not about any particular religion or sect; it is about God and rational thinking.

It is  also my  intention  to  simply  present  the  information  available  to me  on  this  subject  and  to  leave  the  reader  to  make up  his/her  mind on  what  is  true and  what  is  false

Sunday Punch 30. 07. 2006

In an article titled Faith, reason, God and other imponderable, the writer reviewed the books written by three scientists namely Francis S. Collins, Owen Gingerich and Joan Roughgarden.

• “In the language of God”, Collins the geneticist who led the American governments effort to decipher the human genome describes hiss own journey from atheism to committed Christianity, a faith he embraced as a young physician.
• In God’s universe, Gingerich an emeritus professor of astronomy at Harvard tells how he is personally persuaded that a super intelligent Creator exists beyond and within the Cosmos.
• And in “Evolution and Christian faith”, Roughgarden, the child of Episcopal missionaries and now an evolutionary biologist at Stanford tells of her struggles to fit the individual into the evolutionary picture – an effort complicated in her case by the fact that she is transgender, and therefore has views at odds with some conventional Darwinian thinking about sexual identity.

Richard Dawkins, who in his book “The God Delusion” likened religious faith to “a disease” and sets as his goal convincing his readers that atheism is a brave aspiration, provided another interesting perspective.

Then the challenge which was presented as follows: Of course just as the professors of faith cannot prove (except to themselves) that God exists, the advocates for atheism acknowledge that they cannot prove (not yet anyway) that God does not exist.

My comment

The glaring omission in the arguments of the atheists is that they did not consider information from other sources such as the Quran.   A cursory glance at the Quran would have provided answers to some of the issues that they were wondering about.

 The Jehovah’s Witnesses Perspective – Awake

In the September, 2006 edition of Awake, this issue was examined.

In one of the articles titled What Does Nature Teach the writer asked:

“ if the copy requires an  intelligent designer,  what  about  the  original?”

In another article titled Did God Use Evolution to Create Life the author relied extensively on the biblical account of creation as recorded in Genesis Chapter 2.

⁷And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

⁸And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden;

The teaching of macroevolution was also examined in the light of its three main assumptions.  Then the question was posed – can mutations produce new species?  The answer to that question can be found on page 15 where it was stated that:

“ As previously noted the evidence from research strongly indicates that mutations cannot produce entirely new kinds of plants or animals”

Indeed the time has come for everyone who believes in Darwin’s theory to produce one ape or monkey that has transformed into or produce a human being in the last 2000years!

The Quranic Perspective

The amazing discovery in the Quran is that it challenges man’s intellect (the organ used for rational thinking).

The Quran gives very vivid account of the creation and purpose of man in Chapter 23 v 12-14, which reads thus:

WE have created man (Adam) from the essence of clay,

Then converted it into a drop (Nutfah) -- dripped in a safe place (womb of woman),

Indeed the Quran is replete with words, which challenge the thinking faculty of man.  One of such instances is chapter 2:164, which reads:

164. Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah Sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they Trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth;- (Here) indeed are Signs for a people that are wise

In several other places one encounters phrases such as 

Afala  takilun  -  will ye  not then  understand    (2:44, 6:32)

Mo  la  talamun  -   what ye  do  not  know  (2:80)

Ya Ulul  albab   -  o  ye  men  of  understanding  (2:179)

La yalamun  -  but most of them understand  not   (6:37)

La alaun  yafqaun -  that  they  may  understand  (6:65)

God Described and  Evidence  Provided

One of the most educative and illuminating verses of the Quran can be found in Suratul Hadid (57:3) which reads  “ He is the First, and the Last, The Evident, and the Hidden and He has knowledge over all things”

God is hidden because no human eye has seen God before (1 John 4:12, if  “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us”) yet His presence is in us and around us, so the Quran describes God as Evident.  He is evident because He specifically called the attention of human beings to his creatures, works etc.  He not only called the attention of man to these things but He also challenged man to deny His authorship – fabi ayi Alai robikunmo tukazi bani (which of the favors of your Lord do you deny?). 

This challenge was thrown at man for over 1400years now and no man has come out to provide evidence to disprove the claims of God with respect to creation.

 The challenge is indeed to man to disprove these claims by providing proofs and not to dismiss the claims by hiding under false pretences or delusions.

 Finally  let  us consider  Suratul Rahaman (55:1-16).

 (Allah) Most Gracious!

It is He Who has taught the Qur'an
He has created man
He has taught him speech (and intelligence).
The sun and the moon follow courses (exactly) computed;
And the herbs and the trees - both (alike) prostrate in adoration.
And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the Balance (of Justice),
In order that ye may not transgress (due) balance.
So establish weight with justice and fall not short in the balance.
It is He Who has spread out the earth for (His) creatures:
Therein is fruit and date-palms, producing spathes (enclosing dates);
Also corn, with (its) leaves and stalk for fodder, and sweet-smelling plants.
Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny?

HE made human from dry rotten mud like broken pieces of earthlike

And (HE) created Jinns from flame of fire.

CONCLUSION

According to history, men all over the world have always recognized the presence of God or a superforce. However, interpretation and responses to such phenomenon differed from time to time and from place to place.

 Men have always believed in the multiplicity of gods represented by the various idols, which they worshipped.

 In Saudi Arabia alone, indeed within the Kabba idols numbering over a thousand were worshipped prior to the cleaning of the place by prophet Abraham and his son Ismail. Idol  worshipping  continued after the demise of Prophet Ibrahim  until  the  advent  of  Islam in Makkah.  It was therefore inconceivable for men at that time to accept the message of one God, especially one that is unseen and unrepresented by any idol.

Myths have been built over gods over time such that the Yoruba have such gods as iyemoja, ogun, obatala etc. God is also known by various names such as Eledumare, Orunmila, Chukwu, Obangiji etc. so one can safely conclude at this point that the concept of God is as old as creation itself.

 God created man and endowed him with certain qualities. Man is made up of the physical, the intellect and the spiritual. He is also imbued with willpower.

  With these gifts man is expected to fulfill the sole responsibility imposed on him by God - that is worship of the one true God.  In discharging this responsibility man is expected to apply the faculties given freely to him.  To dismiss religious claims without providing evidence to support alternatives is escapist.

For instance the Quran described the process of procreation about 1427years ago.  Is there any scientific evidence today to disprove that claim?  Even cloning was nothing but a process of making copies from the original.  Where did the original come from?

Finally, according to  Wikipedia:   In philosophy rationality and reason are the key methods we use to treat the data we gather through empiricism, which stands for the experiences, the observations which our senses are used to collect.

A logical argument is sometimes described as rational if it is logically valid.

Are  the  facts  and  data  provided by  religion  to  explain the reality of  God  rational or reasonable?

Over  to  you. 

Thanks for having read this article

Taslim Anibaba (FCA).   27th August 2006

Comments are welcome and can be forwarded to tanibaba@yahoo.com or tanibaba@nigeriavillagesquare.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 Myths have been built over gods over time such that the Yoruba have such gods as iyemoja, og...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 28.08.2006 07:56

Naija for life  Villager

# 2 No........ Posted by Naija for life| 28.08.2006 09:22

DeepThought  Villager

# 3 Naija, .I think the more prudent answer is "Maybe". The problem is that most people's idea of God, at least on this board is restricted to the Christian and Islamic way of thinking. These are not the only definitions or ideas of God out there. Belief could be quite rational, depending on the kind of God one believes in. For example, some branches of budhisim actually insist on reason in their idea of the omnipotent and inteprete their scripture in line with developments in science and technology. But I don't like their God. The problem is their God eventually comes out dull lacking much of the punch and a lot of the ingredents most of us want in a God, i.e instant miracles, power to grant sensational solutions, e.t.c. Of course this is not very rational, so the problem may not be with God, assuming S/He/IT, exists. It is probably our own problem, if at all it is a problem. The thing is most people don't really want a rational God. I think if one is pulled towards worshiping a god, for whatever reason, one really, really wants a sensational God. Once you can explain or rationalize God , humans generally don't think it worthwhile to worship such a God and don't even think its God any more. Posted by DeepThought| 28.08.2006 09:43

Fjord  Villager

# 4 Taslim: your piece started well, especially by stating you'd take up the challenge to establish the rationaliy of belief in God. But, really, which part of the article addresses this? . Posted by Fjord| 28.08.2006 09:47

ithinkbetter  Villager

# 5 Taslim: old boy, abeg go solve your earthly problems before you begin to talk and write about something you would never understand with your limited knowledge and poor state of mind and spirit...! ok Posted by ithinkbetter| 28.08.2006 10:28

Palamedes  Villager

# 6 I commend you for crediting the Sunday Punch with the book review but reading the excerpt from the Sunday Punch dated 30 July, 2006, the Sunday Punch must have got it from The New York Times book review Faith, Reason, God and Other Imponderables by Cornelia Dean, published on 25 July, 2006. Anyway, back to your point: Evolution is about the tree of life and survival of the fittest. Evolution is NOT about creation, and has never pretended to explain creation. There is a lot of misinformation going on in the USA on the subject of Evolution and God. The churches are setting up an unnecessary confrontation with science. You can believe in god and still believe in evolution, because there is no contradiction on the subject of creation. Evolution asserts that all living species share a common ancestry in the distant past; and that evolution is driven by survival of the fittest. Nothing in it says anything about creation. You have to be "brave" to challenge religion in the USA these days. Hence, you have scientists writing books and trying to unite science and religion. These scientists have sold their souls under pressure from the lunatic-bible-bashing-religious-right in the USA. Indeed the time has come for everyone who believes in Darwin’s theory to produce one ape or monkey that has transformed into or produce a human being in the last 2000years! Don't be silly, you assume that nature grows like humans; on the contrary, nature is extremely conservative. What is a million years to humans may simply be seconds to nature. So do not expect a different type of humans or apes that can speak in the next one-million years. Genetics shows that we share fifty percent of our genes with even bananas. Either all-living species share a common ancestry or we do not share common ancestry but are made from the same matter. And if the latter were true, is it not another way of saying that we share common source, which simply confirms the evolution theory. Using the Quran and the bible as your sole evidence is like defending yourself in court with your own evidence that no one else can testify to. You are simply arguing with yourself. It is invalid evidence, and until you draw your evidence from other sources, your argument is a non-starter. Posted by Palamedes| 28.08.2006 10:45

Counsellor

# 7 I think you answered your own question, basically that God is what you believe, as you do or the Muslims do . As long as we have that right, and believe that others do, there will be less problem. Conversion and sects of even the same religion is full of mischief and wars. I read an article on this site about those who pride themselves on Arrogance of Religion. Posted by Counsellor| 28.08.2006 11:15

Odinaka  Villager

# 8 @ NFL, it's rationale to believe in God. The only problem one has to overcome is accepting faith in a higher being without resort to logic. @palamedes, wao!. It seems you have added another interesting dimension to evolution. I think that the evolution theory clearly purports to deny the existence of creation when it talks about the fortuitous concourse of atoms Posted by Odinaka| 28.08.2006 16:32

falcon  Villager

# 9 Dear Mr Anibaba, I feel defrauded. I went through your whole article hoping to read you establish the rationality of belief in God. Posted by falcon| 28.08.2006 17:17

tanibaba  Villager

# 10 @ithinkbetter You wrote: Taslim: old boy, abeg go solve your earthly problems before you begin to talk and write about something you would never understand with your limited knowledge and poor state of mind and spirit...! ok On the contrary, I have benefitted immensely from religion and I will share three of such with you. 1) I am convinced beyond all doubts that God exists and so I worship Him as an obedient servant. I pray that my efforts are acceptable to him. 2) The realization that God exists and my following of religious teachings have combined to make me seek after the finest qualities in life that most men are not aware of. Indeed the taste of the pudding is in the eating. I have come to know inner peace, deeper understanding of life and events, including the development of my senses. I have also realized that everything in life including my FCA, cars, house etc are nothing but vanities. You get to a stage in life when spiritual challenges take over material pursuits. 3) The consciousness also made me to realize that every action of mine shall be judged and that it is true that the day of reckoning will come (zalikal yaomul aqu). This imposes restrictions on my flesh (please watch the word restriction) and my behaviour both in private and in public. I am by the grace of God a better person and this has nothing to do with my worldly achievements. Infact, nothing provides better satisfaction today than reading and knowing more about God. There is also the intellectual part of religionl - very deep knowledge = that shapes and improves your intellectual capability if you stay close to this subject. For instance the Quran is an intellectual masterpiece. There are verses in the Quran that challenge the intellect, that make you think. In suratul Yasin for instance there are 3 verses which read thus: 38. And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. 39. And the Moon,- We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. 40. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law). The Quran teaches geography, medicine, embryology, archeology etc. My brother, this subject has greatly enriched my life more than accountancy, business administration or banking. thank you taslim Posted by tanibaba| 28.08.2006 17:33

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