The Lame and the Blind

The relationship between religion and science has long been a source of fascination for the scholar and the lay person alike. This month's issue of The Ahmadiyya Gazette, USA features an article by Shermeen Butt of London, UK entitled "The Correlation Between Science and Religion". It raises a number of good points and presents at the very outset the basic reasons why this topic should be reflected upon by all religious-minded individuals. I quote the following passage from the text:

"There is an extremely important factor in our daily lives that compels us to clearly understand the relationship between science and religion. With the advancements of scientific knowledge and the daily use of science and technology, innumerable issues regarding ethics and religious beliefs arise that need to be discussed. As religion plays a pivotal role in maintaining the standards of ethics and morality, scientific advancement and direction become a matter of great interest for those of us who have religious beliefs.

Whether it is genetic engineering, prolonging life through invented mechanical methods, in vitro fertilization, family planning through scientific birth control methods, or determining the genetic nature of homosexuality, aggression or criminality; and indeed there is a matter of cloning -- these and many other issues -- do fall under the domain of religion. Religion deals with human behavior. Science helps us to find not only the underlying causes of specific forms of human behavior, but it also claims the ability to 'change' certain forms of human behavior. Therefore, in the knowledge of the consequences of scientific discoveries and their implementations on human society, it is exceedingly important that we understand their mutual relationship." (p. 28).

There are indeed many ways in which our lives are affected daily by science and technology, and it behooves all of us to understand the ethical and moral obligations we have to use this knowledge and these tools wisely. In Sura Al-Rahman of the Holy Qur'an, Allah enjoins us to consider all of our means to do so with a sense of balance and measure:

"And the heaven He has raised high and set up the measure, that you may not transgress the measure. So weigh all things with justice and fall not short of the measure." (55:8-9).

An additional aspect of the relationship between science and religion is how they offer up mutually reinforcing ways in which the universe can be appreciated as a whole. The inspiration to search for truth often stems from religious belief or at the very least, a spiritual inspiration. Einstein has famously remarked:

"But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

(Ch. 13 of Science, Philosophy and Religion: A Symposium; 1941; emphasis in bold by this author).

Another node of interplay between science and religion centers around the ongoing debates about whether science can disprove the existence of God, or whether it actually reinforces God's existence in one's mind.

This and many other aspects of the science/religion dialogue will no doubt be an ongoing discussion in these postings. For now, however, one can appreciate that -- at a very basic level -- there is a need for us to understand the relationship among scientific discoveries, their translation into popular everyday technologies, and the ethical and moral consequences of using these technologies in a balanced and measured manner. I invite readers to study this month's issue of the Gazette to learn more about these and other interesting topics.

"Nature never desires sex as an ultimate object."

Following up on the posting about in vitro fertilization, Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih IV (rh) has also discussed pleasure seeking activities in relation to sex within his book Islam’s Response to Contemporary Issues. What’s interesting is how the biological basis of hedonic pleasure associated with sex is ultimately linked to social practices that deviate from moral behavior. I quote the following passage from pages 62-63:

“When societies begin to degenerate or become top-heavy and lopsided with over-sophistication, they begin to topple down and return to the same crude animal answer to their urges. This may not be visible in every social and cultural activity, but it is almost always pronounced in human relation and style in the pursuit of pleasure. A brief study of man in his responses to sex will demonstrate the case in point.

Around the basic instinct to reproduce through sexual regeneration, pleasures are associated by nature in the entire animal kingdom. What we find different in human society is a gradual departure from the mere satiation of crude desires to a gradually more refined attitude to the fulfillment of animal urges.

Nature never desires sex as an ultimate object. The ultimate object has always been reproduction and propagation of species. Sex was only secondary to it. When societies become decadent , the role is almost reversed.

The gradual development of the institution of marriage , the rites associated with this institution and the taboos regarding the interplay of male and female sexes, may be considered by a sociologist to be a phenomenon resulting from a natural growth of society and unrelated to religion. But, whether the growth is directed from on high, or a random phenomenon moving forward by itself, there is no denying the fact that gradually the responses to satisfy the fundamental urge become more and more sophisticated and involved.

Growing promiscuousness in male and female relationships is again symptomatic of the same malady. It is not just a permissive liberal attitude towards sexual relationship but there is, indeed much more with it to change the entire atmosphere of this extremely important sphere of human interest and activity. Debate about the legitimacy or illicitness of such relationship is looked down upon as a thing of the past. Of course, there are many staunch religious-minded groups which go on discussing this issue. But during their discussions on the media, one cannot fail to observe that such old-fashioned, rigidly religious-minded people are being reduced to a minority of insignificance.

It is becoming much more fashionable in the West to consider sex as a natural urge which should be responded to without any inhibitions. A traditional coyness associated with talk amongst women is becoming a thing of the past. Nakedness, exposure, display, unabashed discussion and confession are considered only as public expression of truth.”

Islamic perspectives on in vitro fertilization

I was on the AskIslam web site (www.askislam.org) recently, and thought it worthwhile to transcribe the following statement made by Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih IV (rh) regarding in vitro fertilization, located on the site (the audio is linked here). Notice that Hazoor’s answer actually generalizes to broader issues concerns the philosophy and purpose of reproductive procedures in general, and also touches upon the evolution of sexual behavior. (Any errors in transcription are my own, and I take responsibility for them).

Transcript:

8 August 1984

The London Mosque

Does Islam permit in vitro fertilization and other laboratory reproductive procedures?

Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih IV^rh answered:

“You know in principle, if a husband’s sperm is conveyed to his wife’s uterus through any means, there shouldn’t be any objection – legal objection – from an Islamic point of view. It is for the sanctity and purity of [the] human race that such orders are made (number one), and also for fixing the responsibility; because sex is not a direct objective of life. Look at it from [a] natural point of view or from [a] religious point of view, the answer would be one and the same: everything which is productive and useful…acquires some sort of taste and some pleasure. So that is why all the most important things for life have acquired some pleasure. But because the objective was important, pleasure ultimately became the objective for some human beings (erroneously) and they forgot that the pleasure was a development – according to scientists, maybe – of billions of years of evolution in some direction, and according to the religious philosophy, a development which was ordained and pre-designed and pre-directed.

But whatever way you look at it, the pleasure attached to human acts [is] in fact directly related to the importance of those acts. If they serve humanity, somehow [and] in some way, then pleasure is added to it, and vice versa. This is the general rule. So in this case, the second important thing is to bring up the future generation with this responsibility, and that responsibility has to be divided among the people. That is one object of sex. So the Holy Qur’an divides that responsibility according to set rules, and the husband has to bear the responsibility of the upbringing of the entire children. If a mother can participate of [her own] volition, there is no objection, but in principle it is [the] father’s responsibility. So anything, any scientific research, which does not violate these two fundamental objectives of reproduction, Islam does not have any objection against them. Whatever way [by which] the experiments take place, if purity of race and [the] sharing of responsibility – these are the two main objectives – if they are not violated in any way by a scientific experiment, Islam will have no objection against it.”