Islam and Science Interfaith Dialogue

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Event Name: Islam and Science Interfaith Dialogue
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/18/2019
Transcript Version: 1


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complete heretics at that time his

name's not coming to me is very well

known and he wanted to upend

distribution of the old and say no we

have to go on so Hippocrates was

appearance and some of these theories

are correct and others are wrong but the

one of the sicknesses

of Western civilization was it took

these authorities as absolute truth and

when these authorities were completely

turned upside down it becomes

iconoclastic against all authority and

this is where we're at now I mean we

attacked all authorities but really what

we're tacking most often is the

authority of tradition and what we

celebrate and what we exalt ourselves in

is whatever the dominant thing now we're

in the modern world it's here and now

forget the past and Islam says no we

honor the past we honor the past and

Islam says that the task has great

wisdom to impart to us and what modern

Western tradition Thanos the past is

something let's just discard it let's

get rid of it so I think really it's

very unfortunate that so many imposes

just to make myself perfectly clear here

I don't in any way agrees with what is

known as the fundamentalist Christian

position which is called scientific

creationism I do not believe in that at

all and I think it's actually quite

absurd and I think I would have a very

difficult time in my face if my face

taught me to do so with 6,000 years old

my face was not teaching me that the

Quran said that God created the heavens

and earth in six days and it says 1

minus enamines old and we didn't get

tired in other words God doesn't get

worn out from doing if God is either

all-powerful or he's not I need to get

tired we're in bad shape because maybe

he'll get tired of putting up with all

that the move in the direction of

religious arrogance though let us recall

the very religious people who claims to

be going along the way the religious

truth

and following long long religious

traditions when they sanction slavery

over the century they'd accept all of

our traditions have done that certain

engaged in owning even being and

treating them as something less

consuming this ideas of the dignity of

all human beings took us a while to

demonstrate and so I think our religious

who's also developed are certainly

archaeology results our understanding of

what the text means develops I'm not

sure looking we have complete absolute

control understanding the text from

repeating each other then developed the

Atlantic do not let you not really going

to garden series because of the fact

that God is the creator and garden is

the ugly 14th was the fastener I think

Sebastian's are a fan of your work of

everything what I'm not here about is

two things 1i mentor what is the

conflict regarding the Creator in

fashion and evolution okay ever want

remember two reasons is there anything

specifically in the Quran himself that

precludes the theory of evolution after

that I my point was is that when we say

that we believe in adamant the first

human being and and his companion holla

or ease we believe that they were

created in that form in other words that

they were that God created them in that

form they were created in the form of

man and it is the dignified form it is

not an it is not a form that is is

the denigrate man in fact the Quran says

karramna bani adam' we have honored

Benny Adam and and one of the

interpretations traditional is that

Benny Adam walks upright one of the

interpretations is that Benny Adam was

given an opposable thumb that is

actually a classical interpretation that

the human being can have that God has

given us the ability to use our hands in

ways that animals don't have so we

believe that this form that we are on

use the form of Adam and the prophets

told us that the worst human being was

Adam and Adam had this form he did not

have the form of of an animal he had the

form of a human being which yes there

are aspects that we share with animals

but we are merely an animal we are

called in fact the earth Arabic or the

Muslim theologians called a Cylon not a

speaking animal which which is very

different from rational animal in the

Western sense but a speaking animals

that God has honored us with speech with

the ability to speak and and I think our

difficulty with evolution is that

evolution again at its most fundamental

level is eliminating the Creator and I

think a lot of people missed this point

although there are biologists who are

Christians are biologists who are Jewish

and and might believe that god yes God

is moving in mysterious ways the Pope

just recently announced that natural

selection was one of the ways that God

works in his creation for the

evolutionist who is really really deeply

rooted in evolution this is kind of

absurd because they actually feel that

there is random selection going on in

other words there's trial and error and

this is something really important with

in evolutionary theory you have to

believe in the concept of trial and

error that that God is somehow not

really a he's not a perfect creator you

know messing around he you know in fact

I talked cartoon one of the dinosaurs

and and there was a cloud up there and

the voice coming out of

cloud saying cool and it said God as an

adolescent right and this is the kind of

idea that I think a lot of evolutionists

have that somehow you know we the

appliances as a lot of a lesson of how

to paint blessed is God's the best of

creators the most perfect of groups and

then it says quite clearly in the pond

shut up not in sauna the acting in

Kathleen we have created the human being

in the best catcher now house itself is

the creation we believe that n and it

says in the pond that Adam a dissident

was fashioned by God that God formed

Adam and so this idea that you know

we're moving from a unit failure and

again like Bashar then who i think has

some really dangerous ideas in terms of

classical theology and one of the ideas

is this idea that we're moving towards

perfection is no us fear and and one of

his ideas is that that Christ actually

came at a point where we had reached in

our evolution and his second coming

would be at a point where we are at a

higher stage of evolution which i think

is very very antithetical to a

traditional theological position that

that is that we in fact are moving down

that things are getting worse that

Christ returns when there's a war than

rumors of wars and famines and false

prophets and all the rest that human

beings actually are in a much worse

condition now than they were a thousand

years ago or two thousand from a Muslim

perspect on speaking as a Muslim we

believe that we are getting worse we are

not getting better and evolution is

based on this idea of progress that we

are moving towards a better state note

the the Islamic position very clear we

are moving down and that the end of the

human being is complete degradation but

this is the final space of the last

people on earth and the Prophet Muhammad

said the end of time will not come until

no one is left to say God God and he

said in the end of time will not come

except upon the worst people the worst

human beings and we can see now in in

modern

Erica you know when pornography is is

the number one media in this country

when human beings have reached a level

of human degradation that was beyond the

pale for classical people really i mean

just extraordinary state of affairs all

of the exploitation is going on the

world i would contest that there is more

slavery and bondage now than there ever

has been in the history of human

societies I would contest that the

grossest and greatest abuses of human

beings are taking place in all over the

world you go down to South America you

go to Africa and look and many of these

places are places that the the so-called

religious people of those places

thinking about religious righteousness

our advisors in the government and

things like this so I have know that you

know religious people or

self-righteousness or religious

self-righteousness there is one of the

age-old diseases of the human being you

know waxing self-righteous about his own

religiosity right and certainly a

terrible state to be in so I you know I

think that that is really at the crux of

it is in my tapioca Matthew essentially

intent is that they sir are going to

just keep on getting worse boom we're

heading down and it's going fast and one

of the interesting things right if you

think about it you know it's one of the

modern phenomenon is speak everything's

speeding up we're all experiencing will

speed of the downward motion is not an

outward motion as things move up to

actually slow down right so when human

things are moving up things slow down we

start becoming more tranquil more

content know people are becoming more

anxious they're becoming more wired

right I mean we don't were not content

with 286 we want 386 now we want for it

now we want pentium now we want people

now this computer is to slow you know

this why can't this a fax machine work

faster what's going on I mean this is

and the problem concept and I get it to

a mini chef on speed is from Satan you

know so we would say that the ancients a

very very ancient people Abraham was

deeply deeply spiritually evolved

individual

in a tent according to islamic tradition

and yet we believe that he was probably

one of the most enlightened and

spiritually aware human beings that has

ever existed he was also interesting how

life began according to the plan because

he asked God show me how you bring life

from the dead and God says don't you

believe Abraham and Abraham system in

the pond I believe but in order to give

some stillness to my heart I want to

witness it and God showed him how he

brought something from in a dead

inanimate to life so he was a scientist

from a Muslim perspective Abraham was a

scientist but he was a scientist that

wanted his science to increase his faith

to increase his closeness to God and and

what I see happening in the in the

modern world is the science is

distancing us from God it is a false

prophet and I believe in many ways that

that science now is in fact it is a type

of Antichrist the it is a false god and

people are taking it as a false god and

it promises it promises us salvation and

it will betray us in the end and it

might well be our destruction concerns

that the bowling center I excitement