CHAPTER 4

THE SIGNS LEADING TO FAITH REFUTE
ATHEISM AND MATERIALISM

Compared to previous times, ours is the one in which rebellion against God and denial of religion have reached the highest levels and spread far afield. Even the existence of God and the fact of creation are denied.
Up until the nineteenth century, both in the West and in the East, atheism was supported only by marginalized individuals and groups. But since that time, a systematic and planned campaign has been waged to impose atheism on as many people as possible. This campaign is led by those circles who support a materialist ideology and worldview. Their atheistic beliefs and teachings have managed to infiltrate the most remote corners of society, thanks to the widespread use of developing science, media, and other means of communication.
The most effective answer to this materialist and ideological assault is explaining the signs leading to faith to people. But first let's take a brief look at the materialists' claims and the theory of evolution.

The Corruption of the Age: Materialist Thought and the Theory of Evolution

In our day, the greatest and widest intellectual movement denying God's existence and the fact of creation is materialism. Its "scientific" foundation is Darwin's theory of evolution. Although bereft of any scientific and logical evidence, and despite being totally irrational and unscientific, this theory's adherents continue to spread its assertions all over the world through propaganda, forgery, and deception. This major intellectual movement, which destroys peoples' belief in God and makes them atheists, is known as Darwinism.
The well-known atheist and evolutionist professor Richard Dawkins sums this up in the following words: "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist."25
Today, there is probably no person in the West or in the East, including all Muslim countries, who has not heard of this theory. In fact, its truth is so taken for granted that it appears in school textbooks, is inculcated in our children, and misguides them into believing that human beings came into being by chance and evolved from apes. Society is brainwashed, from primary school to university, with evolutionist falsehoods.
One hadith of our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace); "One kind of corruption will surface, from which no party will be able to protect itself, and spread immediately in all directions..."26 may be pointing to this situation. Indeed, this theory's nonsensical claims have now spread worldwide due to advances in communication technology (e.g., the press, broadcasting, the Internet, and satellite communications). No other intellectual system has ever waged war on God's existence, creation, and religion on such a vast scale.
For all of these reasons, humanity's greatest enemy is Darwinism and its related ideologies. When analyzed in some detail, Darwinism shows itself to be the major source behind all of the irreligious and immoral trends prevailing in society today. On the level of ideas, Darwinism lies at the root of the pressure being inflicted on Muslims today, their lack of belief, and the avalanche of immorality and social degeneration seen throughout the world.

The Root of Misguided Value Judgments: Darwinism

Have you thought about what you cultivate? Is it you who make it germinate, or are We the Germinator? (Qur'an, 56:63-64)

The theory of evolution maintains that "living things evolve as the result of chance and thanks to the struggle for survival." Thus, "nobody is responsible to anybody else, you owe your life to coincidences, you need to fight to survive and, if necessary, trample others underfoot, for this world is a place of conflict and self-interest." These misguided beliefs have given rise to such concepts as "natural selection," "the fight for survival," and "the survival of the fittest" in both the biological and social arenas.
In order to see just how effective this propaganda is, look at contemporary society's value judgments. Most people live for this world and spend their time trying to carve out a good career for themselves, acquire property and money, enjoy themselves, and "emerge victorious from the struggle for survival." Young people, in particular, consider having a luxurious house and car and enjoying unrestricted spending to be among their greatest ideals. Such people never question why they exist or think about God. They live as if they were not created beings who have certain responsibilities toward their Creator. Although some of them may be unaware of the Darwinism's various theories and claims, they look at life through that very logic, thanks to certain circles.
This worldview encourages people to be selfish, pursue only their own interests, and be ruthless and cruel. In fact, it destroys such virtues as affection, compassion, self-sacrifice, and humility and then presents this destruction as a requirement of "the laws of nature." Clearly, such a misguided view will wreak terrible damage on the world.

Those who fall under the influence of this atheistic ideology think that Darwinism is a scientific fact, believe in it blindly, and regard religion as "a traditional popular belief." Indeed, when they are asked: "What has your Lord sent down?" the unbelievers: "Myths and legends of previous peoples" (Qur'an, 16:24).

However, Islam is a clear and evident truth that has nothing to do with tradition, for it is the path by which people turn, or return to, their Creator: God. But those who are misled by Darwinism or have fallen under the influence of this "religion" have become so biased and deluded that they cannot comprehend this truth. Only the signs leading to faith, which expose this superstitious religion for what it is, eliminate it, and thereby raise the curtain of heedlessness from society's eyes, provide the intellectual means that can overthrow Darwinism and materialist philosophy.

The Most Effective Means: Signs Leading to Faith

Learning about, explaining, and telling people about the signs leading to faith-the proofs of God's existence-are the most effective tools for disproving the theory of evolution, which ascribes the existence of humanity and all living beings to chance. Only they show, by totally undermining the evolutionists' chance-based theories, the presence of a conscious design and reveal God's matchless and superior creation.
For example, the eye is one of these signs, one that has represented an insurmountable obstacle to evolutionists ever since Darwin said: "I remember well the time when the thought of the eye made me cold all over."27 One can better understand why evolutionists are so keen to avoid discussing the eye after examining its structure. The eye possesses a very complex structure made up of a large number of organelles and components. Its functions are amazingly detailed and complex. The eye emerges as a result of the different organelles and components that comprise it and that work in harmony. Despite this, evolutionists maintain that all existing organs came into being by themselves over time. The eye's requirement that all of its different organelles be present fully formed and working perfectly means that no such chance-based process could have taken place.

Almighty God gives us a clearer image through the eye, a living tissue, than through glass.

An eye that cannot secrete tears will soon dry up and go blind. Furthermore, a tear's antiseptic properties protect the eye against germs. Evolutionists are unwilling to consider how the eye, which would dry up in a matter of hours in the absence of tears, managed to wait for millions of years until the tear glands emerged. In order for the eye to fulfill its function, it needs a body that has all of its systems and organs in place, as well as such tissues and organelles as the cornea, iris, pupil, lens, retina, choroid, eye muscles, and eyelid. In addition, in the absence of the superb network of nerves that connects the eye and the brain, and without the exceedingly complex visual center in the brain, we would be unable to see. Moreover, all of these parts have such special and complex structures that they could never have come into being by chance. Consider the following facts: If any organelle, such as the lens, were absent, or if the positions of the lens and the pupil were changed, the eye would be unable to fulfill its function of sight. In short, the eye's structure is the work of very special planning. There is only one valid and logical explanation of how these organelles and strata, not one of which could have come about unaided and by chance, adhere to such a specific plan, work in such harmony, and exist in the same place: God, Lord of infinite intelligence and might, creates all of these organelles.
Given that the eye cannot generate itself or come about by chance, how could an entire living organism do so? The invented and nonsensical ideas upon which Darwinian theory rests are evident.
Clearly, Darwinism is the intellectual basis of superstitions, denial, and amoral conceptions. For that reason, disseminating the signs leading to faith as widely as possible will eliminate Darwinism's superstitious intellectual system. To cite the Qur'an:

Rather, We hurl the truth against falsehood and it cuts right through its brain and it vanishes clean away! Woe without end for you for what you portray! (Qur'an, 21:18)

The Qur'an informs us that the signs leading to faith defeat and eliminate all superstitious ideas. Darwinism's falsehoods and superstitious ideas will also disappear with the revelation of the absolute truth, the signs leading to faith, and their dissemination among people. Indeed, this process has long since begun among scientists.

The West Is Rediscovering the Signs

Do they not see the birds suspended in mid-air up in the sky? Nothing holds them there except God. There are certainly Signs in that for people who believe. (Qur'an, 16:79)

Most of the scientists who oppose the theory of evolution and believe it to be mistaken are American. Such scientists adhere to the concept of "intelligent design," broadly defined as the belief life did not emerge by chance, but was "designed" by an entity possessing reason and consciousness. Over the last 20 years, in particular, they have published hundreds of books and papers and held a similar number of scientific panels and conferences. In addition, they produce a journal, Origins and Design, that contains a great deal of information, presented in an academic and scientific manner, that invalidate Darwinian claims. One of the most prominent people in this movement is Michael Behe, a professor of biochemistry, whose book Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution has been translated into many languages.
The Intelligent Design movement begins with the facts that we refer to as "signs leading to faith": the evident "design" in the systems of living and non-living things that cannot be accounted for by coincidence and that are the work of the Creator. The movement's leading scientists maintain that the universe's flawless and delicate balances, the complex organs and systems found in living things, or the molecular world's complex structures prove the existence of a Creator. Moreover, the materialists and Darwinists cannot refute their proofs. This movement has led many people in the scientific world and society at large to realize that the theory of evolution is a deception.
The concept of intelligent design is actually the western world's rediscovery of the signs leading to faith, which formed one of the fundamental concepts of western science right up until the time of Darwin (1809-82). Many great scientists, such as Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), and Carolus Linnaeus (1707-78), studied the universe or living things with the intention of "seeing the proofs of God." William Paley's (1743-1805) book Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature, includes a great many signs of faith described from the perspective of design. In the introduction, he mentioned a watch, saying that nobody could imagine that nature could have created this by chance, thereby inferring that every watch proved the existence of a watchmaker. Following that, he examined the organs of living things, saying that each of these had a far more complex design than a watch and that this proved God's existence.
Darwin targeted this concept and attempted to eliminate it by claiming that living things were not "signs leading to faith" but the result of chance and that nature had created them. His claims elicited a great response, because at that time people did not know how complex living things truly are. Moreover, sufficient experiments on and observations of nature had not been carried out, and people did not realize that the effects described by Darwin as "the evolutionary mechanisms of nature" had no developmental power at all.

And He created livestock. There is warmth for you in them and various uses, and some you eat. (Qur'an, 16:5)

Since Darwin's time, western science has discovered these facts one by one. Interestingly, instead of proving Darwinism, they actually revealed what a grave deception that theory is. (One of the strongest present-day proponents of the theory of evolution, Richard Dawkins, attempted a last-ditch defense of this claim in his book The Blind Watchmaker, but failed.) Science proved that Paley's opinion was correct and that living things were indeed "signs leading to faith." Behe stresses this in his book: Who has answered his [Paley's] argument? How was the watch produced without an intelligent designer? ... Paley has actually never been refuted. Neither Darwin nor Dawkins, neither science nor philosophy, has explained how an irreducibly complex system such as a watch might be produced without a designer.28
The rediscovery will have a deep influence upon both the scientific world and the world in general. By this means, the materialist philosophy of Darwinism will be overthrown, and people will comprehend God's existence and begin to live by His teachings. The disasters and tragedies inflicted on the world by unbelief will disappear, as will the fascist, communist, or capitalist ideologies encouraged by Darwinism, and the proper moral values of religion will prevail.
The key to this transformation consists of learning about, understanding, and explaining the signs of faith to all people. These signs will, if God wills, eliminate the unbeliever's falsehoods and the modern age's deceptions, in the same way that Prophet Moses' (May God bless him) staff swallowed up the Egyptian magicians' illusory serpents.