HISTORY’S INTELLECTUAL FALLACIES
Among the speculative sciences, philosophy is one of the most ancient. Many ‘big’ minds have been engaged in philosophical reflection. However, despite a long history, philosophers could not give man anything positive. Instead, they only increased man’s intellectual conundrums. A Persian poet has very rightly said:
“While the philosopher could not uncover the secret of truth, it became a mystery that others could disclose.”
In one term, what philosophy gave to man can be termed an ‘intellectual fallacy’—speculations that are not based on facts. The history of philosophical thought is filled with such examples.
The common blunder of all philosophers is that there was an ideal model in each of their minds that could never be actualized. This is because the models in the minds of these philosophers were incompatible with God’s Creation Plan regarding this world. The Creator has created the present world for the test, not for reward. For this test, man has been given freedom. Man is free to use his liberty correctly or misuse it. Due to the misuse of freedom, the ideal cannot be established here. That is to say, this freedom for a test prevents an ideal system from ever being established in this world. A perfect system can only be established when all people, without exception, use their freedom correctly. However, since people often misuse their freedom, establishing an ideal system on Earth is impossible. Therefore, a perfect system can never be realized in this world.
But all philosophers in history were unaware of this reality. Because of this, they kept dreaming of an ideal system in line with the model they nurtured in their minds.
However, according to the laws of nature, this dream can never be realized. Here are some examples explaining this.
The Foundation of the Argument
In the 19th century, when the scientific method of observation became widespread worldwide, a new idea emerged among philosophers: that reality is observable and verifiable according to scientific methods. Under this thinking, various schools of thought were established. For example, the ‘Positivism’ of the French philosopher Auguste Comte from the 19th century and the ‘Logical Positivism’ of the German philosopher Rudolf Carnap from the 20th century.
For nearly a hundred years, these thinkers and philosophers tried to convince the minds of the world that what cannot be observed is not real. According to these theories, belief in God and religion was proven to be baseless scientifically. This philosophy is referred to as ‘scientific atheism.’
While ‘scientific atheism’ was being discussed in scientific circles, science itself proved this theory to be baseless. This change in science occurred when scientists discovered a truth known as quantum mechanics. One consequence of quantum theory was that atomic particles began to be understood as waves. Notable scientists who contributed to this discovery include Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Pascual Jordan, and Paul Dirac.
This scientific discovery scientifically refuted classical Newtonian mechanics. The river of knowledge now stretched from the macro world to the micro world, meaning that in addition to visible things, invisible things also became a valid subject of knowledge.
This intellectual revolution took place in the first half of the 20th century. One of the important changes that resulted from these theoretical changes was that the principle of reason changed. Before this intellectual revolution, it was understood that a valid argument is a direct argument, that is, an argument based on observation and experience. But now, an inferential argument has also become equally valid. When subatomic particles, despite being unobservable, were accepted as a scientific fact solely based on the inferential argument, because their effect—heat—was observable, it necessarily meant that an argument for the existence of God based on the inferential argument is equally valid scientific argument.
Theologians used to present an argument for the existence of God, which is called the ‘argument from design;’ that is, when there is a design in the universe all around us, there must be a Designer—the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. This inferential argument was initially considered secondary rationalism. But now, after the modern scientific revolution, this argument has also been included in the list of primary rationalism, just like other famous scientific arguments.
Theory of Darwinism
Among the intellectual fallacies that the history of philosophy is littered with is ‘Darwinism.’ The theory of Darwinism and its worldview have received immense popularity. Many books have been written on this theory, and it has probably been included in the curricula of almost all of the world’s universities. However, if you analyze this theory scientifically, it is nothing but a beautiful fallacy.
Darwinism is also known as the ‘Theory of natural selection,’ based on random mutations or organic evolution. In brief, it claims that life started on Earth long ago as a simple organism. Then, through reproduction, due to the influence of various conditions, mutations continued to happen in this primitive life form. These mutations went on a continuous evolutionary journey in which the initial species turned into many different species. In Darwin’s words, this supposed law was ‘natural selection.’ What Darwin meant was that a process of natural selection takes place in which favourable traits are transmitted through generations, resulting in the selection of the fittest and the formation of new species. According to Darwin, this material law was supposedly directing this long process of biological evolution.
One fundamental flaw of this theory is that it cites two species that show some bodily similarities and then claims that through a long process of biological evolution, one species changed into another—for example, a goat very gradually turned into a giraffe.
This theory does show us a goat and a giraffe, but it does not prove any intermediate steps like fossils, etc., that can prove the supposed journey of the transformation of a goat into a giraffe. Advocates of the theory of evolution refer to those so-called intermediate steps between species as ‘missing links.’ But these so-called ‘missing links’ are only speculative links. They have no real existence at all.
One reason for the popularity of Darwin’s theory might be that it might have appeared to secular scholars as a workable theory. But no theory can be proved in this way through mere speculation. To make a theory a proven one, there must be known realities that verify it, but no such facts are available to support Darwinism.
For example, according to Darwinism, for biological evolution to occur, a very long period is required. However, according to scientific discoveries, compared to this supposed required period, the age of the Earth is minimal. Given this, if, for the sake of argument, the drama of the evolution of life did indeed happen in line with the Darwinian hypothesis, it could not have occurred on planet Earth.
After scientific discoveries highlighted the relatively limited age of the Earth, which seriously questioned the Darwinian hypothesis, advocates of evolution began saying that life might have started somewhere else, on some other planet, and that it then might have travelled from there and arrived on Earth. They gave this fanciful theory the name of ‘Panspermia.’ Some people even tried to locate such planets through telescopes and space travel. But despite these efforts, no such hypothetical planets have been discovered till now. From this analysis, the theory of evolution or Darwinism stands rejected.
Theory of Humanism
A similar intellectual fallacy is called ‘Humanism,’ a human-based explanation of the universe. Humanism seeks to explain life based on man, with no room for God. The gist of this philosophy can be expressed as “The transfer of seat from God to man.” In recent decades, many books have been written in support of ‘Humanism.’ One among them is a book by British philosopher Julian Huxley, published in 1941, titled Man Stands Alone. This book is based entirely on mere claims and speculations. It argues that man now does not need divine revelation and that reason is sufficient for man’s guidance. However, it provides no objective evidence for this thesis. Abraham Cressy Morrison (d. 1951), who served as President of the New York Academy of Sciences, published a reply to this book, titled Man Does Not Stand Alone, which proved Huxley’s claim to be completely baseless.
Conclusion
The study of history tells us that there are two eras in the history of mankind regarding ideas—the pre-scientific era and the post-scientific era. In the pre-scientific age, people did not know the reality of things, so opinions about things were based on mere speculation. Therefore, the pre-scientific age is called the age of superstition. The objection mentioned above is, in fact, a memento of this old age. This objection was born under the conditioning of superstitious ideas.
In the ancient superstitious age, many such ideas that were unfounded in reality were prevalent. After the arrival of the scientific age, these ideas were disproven. For example, the ancient geocentric theory about the solar system has been disproven, and, in its place, the heliocentric theory has been accepted. Similarly, ancient alchemy ended after the advent of modern chemistry. Similarly, ancient astrology ended after the advent of modern astronomy. The objection about ‘Humanism’ is also of the same nature, and now it should undoubtedly end.
Galileo was a 17th-century Italian scientist. He disagreed with the ancient Ptolemaic theory, stating that the Earth was not the centre of the solar system but rather a planet that continuously orbits the Sun. This theory was contrary to the beliefs of the Christian Church, which dominated Europe at the time. Consequently, Galileo was summoned to the Christian Court (Inquisition), and after a hearing, he was severely punished. Later, his sentence was reduced to house arrest. Galileo remained under house arrest for eight years until he became blind and died in 1642.
The geocentric theory has now been proven wrong due to scientific research. Therefore, almost 400 years after this event, the Christian Church reconsidered its belief. It realized Galileo’s theory was correct, and the Christian Church’s belief was wrong. After this, the Christian Church apologized to the scientific community and announced its mistake.
In the light of new observations and experiments, all man-made theories formulated within the last few hundred years are being re-scrutinized, and many, in the process, are being discarded. Conversely, religion presents a truth that is becoming more and more manifested with every advance in scientific research. It is supported and testified to by innumerable significant discoveries.
