Denialist Movements

Anti-religious movements such as atheism, materialism, positivism, and deism have existed in different ways since the beginning of humanity. 

According to materialism, the nature of matter –which was lifeless and motionless in the beginning – changed; some remained lifeless while others became living organisms. Furthermore, it went from a chaotic state into a finely tuned system of order. In short, matter changed in time without the interference of a creator.

The following questions come to mind in the face of these claims: Who decides whether matter becomes lifeless or not? Does matter itself makes this decision? How did a harmonious and orderly system between billions of beings come out of simple matter? Did all of this happen by itself?

We know that all creatures in the universe flawlessly fulfill their roles. The universe continues to work like a regulated watch. The tree turns green and produces flowers and fruits when the time comes. The seed in the ground splits when its season comes. Plants grow their ears and produce crops. In short, the natural process does not deviate from the seasons of the calendar even a little. The sun sends its thermal energy to the world.  Water rises to the atmosphere as it evaporates. The clouds provide transport and the winds ensure the clouds go in the right flow. Countless clouds carry the rain over the vast areas of land.

How does the unconscious Sun, soil, water, tree, seed, cloud, wind do such conscious things? How do the mindless molecules that make up these substances do such smart and planned tasks? It is not possible to explain them without taking into account Allah, who created and manages things. The Qur’an states the following on this issue:

“It is He who sends down rain from the sky; from it is drink and from it is foliage in which you pasture [animals]..… And He has subjected for you the night and day and the sun and moon, and the stars are subjected by His command … And it is He who subjected the sea for you to eat from it tender meat and to extract from it ornaments which you wear. And you see the ships plowing through it.” (Nahl 16/10-14)

Positivism is another movement which limits knowledge to realities conceivable with our senses, and only believes in what can be seen. This movement denies the existence of metaphysics, hence denying the belief in God. The Qur’an states that the claimants of these ideas have no proof whatsoever: “And of the people is he who disputes about Allah without knowledge or guidance or an enlightening book” (Hajj 22/8)

The denial of non-physical fields which do not fall within the scope of the scientific method, is everything but scientific.  Such a preposition is like a person with a lamp walking in the dark of the night and claiming that existence is only the environment which his lamp enlightens. It is like rejecting knowledge because he has not read it in a book whereas that knowledge is actually present in another book.

How did positivists make this mistake? We can explain the situation as follows: Thanks to the scientific method, mankind has shown significant scientific and technological progress in the past centuries. This situation caused them to have a groundless arrogance. Ultimately, mankind has sanctified the knowledge it produced and started to deny the divine knowledge. This is a mistake made by humans before. The following verse indicates the situation:

“And when their messenger came to them with clear proofs, they rejoiced in what they had of knowledge, but they were enveloped by what they used to ridicule.” (Muʼmin 40/83)

Atheism, which is among the movements that deny Allah, does not accept any creative influence in the emergence of the world and does not believe in anything other than the information from the senses. The universe, therefore, came into existence circumstantially. Just as atheists, deists claim that a God should be conceivable with the mind and deny notions as Allah, revelation and prophethood.

Their belief in god requires a passive creator who does not interfere with this world. The belief of a god creating the universe but incapable of any interference after creation, logically, requires one to deny the existence of a god. 

These originally Western movements which came about due to conflicts within Christianity should not be associated with Islam. Because Islam is, essentially and due to the historical and cultural developments it underwent, a different religion.

The aforementioned anti-religious movements do not satisfy the human intellect and consciousness, because it does not answer the fundamental question of human existence: “where do I come from, what is the meaning of life?” They do not provide a single answer for these questions. Even asking such questions is meaningless and inappropriate according to these movements. Therefore, these movements lead to the impoverishment of the human understanding of life. Because belief in God and religion forms the fundamental source of understanding the meaning of life. When these two are denied, everything will lose its meaning. Humans, life and existence will become a question and a problem in and of itself.

Belief in God is the source of all human and moral values. Denial of Him is the waste of all the knowledge accumulated by man in the name of goodness and morality. It is the throwing away of all the claims defended by man in the name of virtue. Denying Allah is condemning humanity into its own despair; losing the joy and spirit of life and eventually making life empty and fruitless. Because belief in Allah is the source of countless hopes and unique glad tidings until eternity.