The Age of Atheism
Our present times, in a broad sense, is the age of atheism. Atheism is the ideology of denial of the existence of God.
In present times, the West became the intellectual, or ideological leader of the world and, as we know, during the Middle Ages, a serious conflict had arisen between the Church and western scholars. The details of this conflict have been set forth in a book titled The History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (1874) by J. W. Draper.
The age of modern, atheistic thinking dawned in Europe in the nineteenth century. This age was not the result of some scholarly research but was rather the result of reaction. In those times the criterion of the success of academic and scientific research was that it should be totally explainable in secular terms, which would eliminate the instrumentality of God. As a result of this way of thinking, atheism, a non-religious philosophy, which negated the existence of God, was produced.
Man, by his nature, is an explanation-seeking animal. In the ancient age, this explanation was based on supposition. In the present atheistic age, this explanation has come to be offered in the name of academic or scientific research. In this new age, many thinkers have been born in the western world who have attempted to explain life and the universe by eliminating God.
As a result of following this line of thought, a new age has come into being. Significantly, it was in this age that the printing press came into existence. Earlier books had been written by hand in very limited numbers, but from the advent of the printing press onwards, they spread everywhere once they were printed in large quantities. In this way, modern atheism was produced, transmitted and disseminated in the form of books, became a dominating intellectual world force. The thinkers of the modern atheistic age introduced a non-religious way of thinking. Many intellectual scholars contributed to this. However, symbolically, there were four scholars who gave human history a new direction–that of atheism. They were, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx:
- Isaac Newton led the way from divine interpretation to mechanical interpretation.
- Charles Darwin favoured natural selection over special creation.
- Sigmund Freud advocated following desires rather than placing constraints on desires.
- Karl Marx wrote of the need for society to be rights-conscious rather than duty-conscious.
The British scientist Isaac Newton (d. 1727) was basically a scientist. His subject was to explain motion in the physical world. He discovered that the system of motion was governed by mechanical laws. For instance, he formulated the laws of the motion of the planets in the solar system. The discovery made by Newton had nothing to do with religious belief, but atheistic thinkers used this discovery in favour of atheism. They said, “If events are due to natural causes, they are not due to supernatural causes.”
This argument was without doubt an illogical one, for, what was indicated by Newton’s explanation was only the apparent cause. The question still arose as to what was the cause of the causes. In this matter, the argument of the atheists was based on a fallacy: it was not at all a scientific argument. But this explanation of the atheist thinkers was in consonance with the spirit of the times. As such, this explanation gained popular support.
The evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin (d. 1882) was fundamentally based on the principle of natural selection. Darwin and his ilk, through their books, tried to give the impression that evolution was a scientific theory. But by scientific definition, the concept of evolution was not at all scientific. It was purely speculative in nature. But thanks to the general thinking of the times, the theory of biological evolution gained widespread popularity. It came to be felt that now there was no need to accept the Creator’s instrumentality in order to explain biological phenomenon, that is, without any reference to the Creator, all biological phenomena could be accounted for.
But this was only a fallacy. Other discoveries of science proved that this theory of evolution was entirely baseless. Modern discoveries of science indicate that intelligent design inheres in a perfect form in nature. This discovery put an end to, or demolished the theory of evolution academically and scientifically, for intelligent design proves the existence of an intelligent designer: it can never be the result of any haphazard, unconscious kind of natural selection.
Sigmund Freud (d. 1939) put forward the theory that the intellectual progress of man is possible only when he has the total freedom to fulfill his desires without hindrance. The result of this theory of Freud’s was that all the dos and don’ts imposed by religion were done away with. Man was free to do just as he pleased.
But later research proved that this theory given by Freud was unnatural. Therefore, far from being helpful, it came in the way of man’s intellectual progress. The modern study of psychology tells us that man’s intellectual progress takes place when he has to face challenges rather than through acting on the permissiveness of society or through having total freedom. The ethical constraints imposed by religion act as a spur to creative thinking. In this way man by saving himself from frittering away his energy, never ceases to make intellectual progress.
The ideology presented by Karl Marx (d. 1883) advocated the replacement of the individual control of economic resources by social control. According to Marx, this was the only way to safeguard human rights. But practical experience showed that the dictates of this philosophy must lead to all economic resources being placed under the direct control of the state. The aim of this ideology was apparently to bring about a classless society, but in actuality, it resulted in the emergence of two kinds of classes diametrically opposed to each other.
This ideology had two grave repercussions—one, the elimination of competition which acts as a natural incentive for all kinds of progress. The second, the negative consequence of socialistic ideology was to make people, in general, rights-conscious, whereas the secret of success for any society is for its members to be duty-conscious. On reaching this point, the class conflict took a form which was never going to come to an end. Because, in life, whereas duties can be determined, rights cannot be guaranteed.
In ancient times, worship of nature became a deterrent to establishing the relationship between God and man on the right lines. What man had to do was to totally associate his thinking, his feelings of love and fear with God. This is the essence of belief in God, and this is what produces every kind of noble and high quality in man. But the culture of associating partners with God caused man to deviate from fostering true, sublime love for God Almighty. As a result, man was stultified in his spiritual development.
Man, by nature, needs an ideal to focus upon. The source of this natural human urge is just one and that is his Creator. Establishing the relationship of a servant with his Creator is like establishing the connection of an electric bulb with the powerhouse. The harm of giving the status of God to ‘other than God’ was that it gave man a false focus for this inner urge. As such, man failed to satisfy this natural urge and, as a result, the development of his own personality, which was destined for him by birth, took a wrong and stunted course.
In the age of modern atheism, man, in another respect, again became deprived of the blessing of a profound relationship with God Almighty. The Quran tells us that man has been given little knowledge (17:85). Freedom is very good for man, but man is so constituted that total freedom is something which he utilizes imperfectly. A more realistic attitude would be for man to know his limitation and be willing to accept guidance about how to use his freedom. Modern atheism held freedom to be the summum bonum and this caused man to stray from the path of his true nature. This is why, despite all kinds of apparent progress, man remained deprived of that most important thing, peace of mind.
