THE AGE OF SCIENCE & RELIGION—PART I

M AN finds himself in a world where there is a creation, but the Creator of this creation is apparently not in sight. There is design in this world, but apparently there is no visible designer. Great events take place in this world but the cause behind these remains inscrutable. The entire universe functions like a great industry, but the engineer of this industry is nowhere to be seen. The prophets came to the world to answer these very questions. Prophets have told man that there exists an invisible, intangible being behind this visible, tangible creation; that this invisible being is God, who should be believed in and worshipped. The role of the prophets, was in a sense inferential in nature; they told man that he should use his reason and, by inferring from the visible, come to conviction that there is an invisible God. To lend credibility to this inferential role, the prophets performed miracles. The Quran has this to say: We sent Our messengers with evidence. (57: 25) The prophets performed miracles to convince man that their message is true. For instance, the Prophet Moses came to Egypt between the 15th and 16th centuries BC. At that time, Pharaoh (Ramesses II) ruled Egypt. Pharaoh said to Moses: “Produce a sign if you are telling the truth” (7: 106). On this demand, Moses cast his staff on the ground, and it promptly turned into a live snake that went creeping along the ground. The Prophet of Islam was born in Makkah and appointed Prophet in 610 AD. All the prophets who came before him performed miracles of different kinds to prove the veracity of the truth of their message. But the Prophet of Islam was the last of the prophets—the last link in the chain of prophethood. After him the method of performing supernatural miracles was discontinued (17: 59). God stopped sending the prophets after the Prophet of Islam, and with THE AGE OF SCIENCE & RELIGION—PART I Discover God Through Reason Science replaces the miracles of ancient times as evidence to prove the veracity of religion.