MODERN ATHEISM: AN ANALYSIS

A Causeless Cause

IDEOLOGICALLY, human history can be divided into two major phases—before the development of modern science and since the development of modern science. In the former, religion was the primary arbiter for most of humankind, but after the emergence of modern science this situation has completely changed.

Now it is science—without itself being either for or against religion— that has acquired the position of arbiter. Despite the unbiased role of science, due to various reasons, an atheistic ideology has come to dominate all intellectual disciplines. How did this happen? We present here a review of this situation.

Man, who has inhabited this planet for thousands of years, sees things such as the rising sun, the falling rain, and the blowing winds etc. on a daily basis. Traditionally, most humans believed that some divinity was instrumental in these happenings. This belief, for them, was certain. They believed it to be the established truth.

After the emergence of modern science, however, it was learnt that apparently there existed a material cause behind all happenings. For instance, in the apocryphal story of Isaac Newton (b. 1642) sitting in his garden, an apple fell from a tree. Newton began thinking about why the apple had fallen and after giving the matter deep thought succeeded in deducing the Law of Gravity. It was because of gravity that things fell downwards.

Scientific study has made great progress. Finally, scientists discovered that all the events happening in this world invariably have a cause. They thus formulated the principle of causation. This thinking—that all happenings were the result of some cause—continued to grow until it finally dominated all scientific and academic human activities. Prior to this, happenings had been explained with reference to God: now references to God were replaced with the reference to cause.

This scientific discovery initially had a purely physical meaning, and although natural phenomena were now explained with reference to cause instead of God, this did not amount to a denial of God. It was atheist thinkers rather than scientists who, by hijacking this concept of causation, equated this to the denial of God. From this point onwards, modern atheism began to hold sway.

By laying much emphasis on this scientific discovery, modern atheists sought to convince people that there was no longer any need to make any reference to God for an explanation of events. For if events were due to natural causes, they were not due to supernatural causes.

We will explain later how there is an irrefutable gap in the logic of this argument. This gap notwithstanding, this theory gained extraordinary popularity among modern scholars. Consciously or unconsciously, they began to regard the concept of cause and effect as a substitute for God. This way of thinking dominated all scientific disciplines. Here are a few examples to illustrate this point.

Materialism

Materialism is a philosophy as well as a culture. Looked at practically, materialism is the notion that there is now no need to wait for the next world where God will bless us with paradise, a world where all desires can be fulfilled, because the ‘cause’ by which paradise can be built right here on this earth has finally been understood. And this ‘cause’ is modern technology.

That is why ‘paradise’ on earth began to be ‘constructed’ by means of modern technology and modern industry. A whole civilization was brought into being in the name of materialism. Today’s man, totally oblivious of God, rushed towards the acquisition of paradise in the concrete forms of modern civilization.

Houses were built and cities developed with the help of modern technology and a modern life style could be seen everywhere. This material paradise in the wake of modern civilization has yet to be completed. But the latest research has proved that it is impossible to build paradise on earth and, moreover, further studies in physical sciences have shown that the law of entropy applies to our world. That means that in submission to this law, the world is irrevocably moving towards its end: a day will come when it will be extinct.

In the twenty-first century further research has been carried out which demonstrates that this period of the world’s demise has come very close. Now it is believed that within fifty years all those resources will be destroyed with the help of which the supposed material paradise was being constructed. In other words, soon those ‘causes’ will no longer be there, on the basis of which the plans for a material paradise were conceived.

Darwinism or Evolution

For thousands of years man believed that all living species, including man, were created by God—that it was the Lord of the world who brought into existence all the living species by directly creating them. But Charles Darwin (d. 1802) supposedly managed to find a ‘cause’ here as well. According to him, this cause—‘natural selection’—was responsible for bringing into existence all living species. That is, in the biological process, for various physical causes, many living species continued to evolve one from another. That is to say, all living species, including man, were brought into existence by a material cause rather than a non-material God.

This ‘cause’ discovered by Darwin has never been scientifically proven. It was only a supposition. Furthermore, even biologists have given it the status of a working hypothesis rather than an established fact. Charles Darwin himself had doubts about this theory in the last stage of his life. That is why he died in a state of frustration.

In spite of this flaw, Darwin’s theory found general acceptance in modern academic circles. Even today this unsubstantiated theory is taught in universities all over the world.

Marxism

Another such example is provided by Marxism. Karl Marx (d. 1883) tried to apply this principle to the field of social economy. He independently constructed the theory that the cause of the revolutionary changes in human society was an automatic process of material action and reaction.

Karl Marx called this ‘historical determinism’ or ‘dialectical materialism’. He pointed out that, as a result of ineluctable factors inherent in society, two classes are produced. For historical reasons, there is a clash between the two classes which leads to the obliteration of one class, and thus one class is replaced by another. In this way, owing to these internal causes, human society continues to make progress.

This ‘cause’ discovered by Karl Marx and his colleagues proved to be a mere supposition. Marx’s predictions were disproved and attempts to translate them into reality in the long run proved abortive. It is common knowledge that a revolution was brought about by the use of force in the Soviet Union in 1917, under the banner of his communist ideology. But after attempts to put this ideology into practice on a large scale, it had to be finally discarded.

For further details, see the book Marxism, Rejected by History [Urdu Edition] by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan.

Modern Consumerism

Modern consumerism is another example of this nature. Man has a limitless desire to accumulate goods of all kinds which will bring him comfort and luxury. Industrial progress appeared to make this feasible. It was as if modern industry was the cause which could result in all kinds of instant gratification.

People all over the world then rushed to shopping centres to buy goods only to find that this ‘cause’ again proved to be a supposition. They did not take into consideration the fact that the production of these goods was never going to bring them paradise, as the preparation of consumer goods came at the cost of making the present world uninhabitable for man. For instance, cars and aeroplanes made travelling very easy, but their functioning resulted—to an unmanageable extent—in the carbon emissions known as greenhouse gases. Scientists the world over have failed to find a solution to this problem. Air-conditioning and the refrigeration of perishable goods have also contributed to tearing a large hole in the life-giving ozone layer of the upper atmosphere.

This has proved to be an insoluble challenge to all life forms, human and otherwise. This shows that industries have to be pollution free so that consumer goods may be produced in a non-injurious way. But it has proved well-nigh impossible for man to rid industry of its pollutant factors.

Buddhism

Buddhism, which has gained great popularity among the educated classes of the present day, is another such example. The secret of this popularity is the same as that described above under the heading of causation, i.e. Buddhism applied the principle of cause and effect to the phenomenon of life and death. People of the mindset formed under the influence of modern science felt justified in upholding this principle.

All the resources on which a material paradise were conceived will soon be destroyed.

In present times we find that some are born in poverty, others in affluence; some live in difficult circumstances, some have a life of comfort. Buddhism supposedly discovered a cause for this—that everyone was inevitably suffering the consequences of his actions in his previous birth. Because this explanation was apparently based on the principle of ‘cause and effect’ it appealed greatly to the modern mind. It was as if the non-material God had been replaced with a material cause.

But, according to scientific research, this explanation given by Buddhism was entirely without foundation. Research conducted in the field of psychology has proved that the human memory is an inseparable part of the human personality. This means that when a person is ‘re-born’, thus entering upon a life which he merits exactly in terms of the deeds of his previous lifetime, he must surely retain memories of his previous life. For, according to this theory of reincarnation, re-birth means that it is his previous personality which has reappeared in the form of a new body. But, as we all know, no one remembers what happened during his previous life. If we are to believe the ideology of Buddhism, all men and women living today, irrespective of the religion or community to which they belong, are purely reincarnations of their previous selves. Yet not one of them remembers his or her previous life.

Individual Hindus, both men and women, have been known—quite unaccountably—to recapitulate the happenings of their previous lifetimes. But this kind of ‘miracle’, with its aura of mystery, cannot serve as an argument.

For, academically, such narrations could be held as sound arguments only if all Hindus and non-Hindus—rather than just a few obscure individuals—remembered the events of their previous lives. It is also believed that when Gautama Buddha went into a samadhi, he travelled into his previous lives and saw all his births. But this claim is wholly baseless. It has not been proved on the basis of historical records, that Gautama Buddha ever said anything about this. It is later interpreters who have made this inference.

The truth is that the principle of causation was based originally on supposition. It was not an academic argument. But from day one people, in their haste, were willing to give credence to a ‘concept’ which was a mere supposition rather than a reality. And indeed, its popularity was due less to its academic weight than to its sentimental value.

In this argument put forward by modern atheists, there was clearly a great logical flaw. It did not take into account the fact that according to science the ‘cause’ of any event was not the final word. Even after that the question remained to be answered: How did the cause come into existence? The truth is that the ‘cause’ does not explain anything. The ‘cause’ itself is in need of an explanation.

For further details, see the book God Arises, by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan.