FAITH AND REASON

Argument of this kind may appear to be simple, but they are invested with deeper meaning. For this reason, they have been engaged in today as much as in the past. Philosophical Argument The second kind of argument was first propounded by Greek philosophers. Based on pure logic, it was so popular in the medieval ages that Jews, Christians and Muslims all incorporated it into their theological system. Commonly known as First Cause, it may be summed up as follows: The world man observes with his senses must have been brought into being by God as the First Cause. Philosophers have argued that the observable order of causation is not self-explanatory. It can only be accounted for by the existence of a First Cause. This First Cause, however, must not be considered simply as the first in a series of successive causes, but rather as the First Cause in the sense of being the cause for the whole series of observable causes. The Prime Mover or First Cause theory although obviously very sound, has constantly been under attack from secular circles, and critics have raised a variety of objections. To begin with, they say that it is only guesswork, and not an undeniable fact. Some critics also object that the actions or free will of subatomic particles are uncaused; so, why not also the world as a whole? Moreover, even if all things in the world are caused, this may not be true of the world itself, because no one knows whether the whole is sufficiently like its parts to warrant such a generalization. This is why some people think that the faith of Islam is not based on rational grounds. They say that Islamic belief can be proved only through inferential argument and not through direct argument. They assert that in Islam there is only secondary rationalism and no primary rationalism. But modern science has demolished this notion, as will be shown in the last part of this chapter. Spiritual Argument Yet another argument is that which is based on spiritual experience. Some people, who engage in spiritual exercises and have spiritual Now, according to modern developments in science, one can safely say that religious tenets can be proved on the same logical plane as the concepts of science.