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ABSTRACT
Inter-religious discussion on science and religion can help focus on neglected theological and metaphysical aspects. Here, I consider two examples of this: (1) the effect of models of divine action on design arguments, and (2) the effect of theological hermeneutics on the creation-evolution debate. Regarding design arguments, I analyze and respond to Shoaib A. Malik’s four Ashʿari criticisms of the design argument. Regarding theological hermeneutics, and building on Malik’s analysis, I use the debates over the Age of the Earth and the Flood as a test case of the differences between Christian and Muslim ways of interpretation.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Shoaib Malik, Islam and Evolution. Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm (London: Routledge, 2021).
2 In the introduction to Benjamin Wiker, Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP, 2002), 11.
3 E.g. Niall Shanks, God, the Devil and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004), 244.
4 E. V. R. Kojonen, The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism (London: Routledge, 2016); Kojonen, “Natural Theology in Evolution: A Review of Critiques and Changes,” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9 (2017), 83–117.
5 Kojonen, The Compatibility of Evolution and Design (London: Palgrave, 2021).
6 William A. Dembski, No Free Lunch. Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased Without Intelligence (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002).
7 Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box. The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (New York: The Free Press, 1996).
8 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 225.
9 See Kojonen, “The God of the Gaps, Intelligent Design and Natural Theology,” The Journal of Analytic Theology 4 (2016), 291–316.
10 Kojonen, The Intelligent Design Debate, 103.
11 William A. Dembski, “Introduction: Mere Creation,” in Mere Creation: Science, Faith and Intelligent Design, ed. William A. Dembski (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 14.
12 Dembski, No Free Lunch, 24.
13 William A. Dembski, The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP, 2004), 95.
14 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 226.
15 Kojonen, “Natural Theology in Evolution.”
16 Richard Swinburne, The Existence of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); Rodney Holder, Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion: Moving Forward from Natural Theology (London: Routledge, 2022).
17 E.g. Alister McGrath, Re-Imagining Nature: The Promise of a Christian Natural Theology (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016).
18 Robert J. Russell, “Intelligent Design is Not Science and Does Not Qualify to be Taught in Public School Science Classes,” Theology and Science 3:2 (2005), 131–132; Elliott Sober, “Intelligent Design and the Supernatural: The ‘God of the Extraterrestrials’ Reply,” Faith and Philosophy 24:1 (2007), 72–82.
19 Russell, “Intelligent Design is Not Science”; Sober, “Intelligent Design and the Supernatural.”
20 Thus James F. Sennett, “Hume’s Stopper and the Natural Theology Project,” in In Defence of Natural Theology: A Post-Humean Assessment, ed. James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 82–104.
21 Kojonen, The Intelligent Design Debate, 96.
22 Muzaffar Iqbal, Islam and Science (Farnham: Ashgate, 2002), chapter 4.
23 For examples on how to argue this, see e.g. Swinburne, The Existence of God; Ted Poston, “The Intrinsic Probability of Grand Explanatory Theories,” Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers 37:4 (2020), 401–420.
24 E.g. Edward Feser, Five Proofs of the Existence of God (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2017).
25 This approach is taken, for example, by Andrew Loke, The Teleological and Kalam Cosmological Arguments Revisited (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
26 See e.g. Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qur’an and the Bible: Text and Commentary (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018); Kevin van Bladel, “The Alexander Legend in the Qur’an 18:83–102,” in The Qur’an in Its Historical Context, ed. Gabriel Said Reynolds (London: Routledge, 2008).
27 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 228.
28 See e.g. John Rasmussen, “Cosmological Arguments from Contingency,” Philosophy Compass 5:9 (2010), 806–819. doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2010.00321.x.
29 Such as the Big Bang theory as supporting a beginning of time; thus Loke, The Teleological and Kalam Cosmological Arguments Revisited.
30 Swinburne, The Existence of God.
31 See Jacalyn Duffin, Medical Miracles: Doctors, Saints and Healing in the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
32 E.g. Stephen J. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Study (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2022).
33 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 228–229.
34 Ibid., 228–229.
35 Ibid., 232.
36 Edward B. Davis and Elizabeth Chmielewski, “Galileo and the Garden of Eden: Historical Reflections on Creationist Hermeneutics,” in Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: 1700–present, ed. Jitse M. van der Meer and Scott Mandelbrote (Leiden: Brill), 449–476.
37 Denis Lamoureux, The Bible and Ancient Science: Principles of Interpretation (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020); Andrew Loke, “Does the Bible Affirm Scientific Errors? A Reply to Denis Lamoureux,” Science and Christian Belief 30 (2018), 116–133. See further also C. John Collins, Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science and Truth in Genesis 1–11 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018); Gregg Davidson and Keith J. Turner, The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One: A Multi-Layered Approach (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2021).
38 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 324–325; Muntasir Zaman, The Height of Prophet Adam: At the Crossroads of Science and Scripture (London: Beacon Books, 2022).
39 Salman Hameed, “Evolution and Creationism in the Islamic World,” in Science and Religion: New Historical Perspectives, ed. Thomas Dixon, Geoffrey Cantor and Stephen Pumfrey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 133–152, 143.
40 Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, The Qur’an and Science: The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge, trans. Alastair D. Pannell and The Author (Chicago, IL: Kazi Publications); on the influence of the book see Iqbal, Islam and Science, 286.
41 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 155–173; Iqbal, Islam and Science, 289–290.
42 Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur’an and Science, 92.
43 Ümit Sayin and Aykut Kence, “Islamic Scientific Creationism,” Reports of the National Center for Science Education 19:6 (1999). https://ncse.ngo/islamic-scientific-creationism.
44 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 100.
45 Ibid., 101.
46 Amy Unsworth and David Voas, “Attitudes to Evolution among Christians, Muslims and the Non-Religious in Britain: Differential Effects of Religious and Educational Factors,” Public Understanding of Science, 27:1 (2018), 76–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662517735430.
47 On such, see e.g. Collins, Reading Genesis Well; Davidson and Turner, The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One.
48 In addition to Malik’s work, I will be relying on David Solomon Jalajel’s work “Islam and Biological Evolution: Exploring Classical Sources and Methodologies” (Master’s thesis, Western Cape: University of the Western Cape, 2009) for some further Muslim arguments.
49 Jonathan Sarfati, The Genesis Account: A Theological, Historical and Scientific Commentary on Genesis 1-11. 2nd ed. (Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 2015), 58.
50 Bukhari 6429, https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6429.
51 Al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari. Vol. 1: General Introduction and From the Creation to the Flood, trans. Franz Rosenthal (New York: SUNY Press, 1989), 19–21.
52 Sahih Muslim 2789, https://sunnah.com/muslim:2789. Hadith in Sunan Abu Dawud (1046 and 1047) also affirm the detail that Adam was created on a Friday, claiming this to be a direct saying of Mohammed. Sunan Abu Dawud 1046 and 1047, https://sunnah.com/abudawud:1046, https://sunnah.com/abudawud:1047.
53 Tafsir Ibn-Kathir, Sura 7:54, https://www.alim.org/quran/tafsir/ibn-kathir/surah/7/54/.
54 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 91; referring to Jalajel, Islam and Biological Evolution, 38–42.
55 Al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari, 23–24, 57–58.
56 Ibid., 8–9.
57 Ibid., 15.
58 Ibid., 184. The same is stated also by Ibn Kathir, Stories of the Prophets, Noah.
59 Jalajel, Islam and Biological Evolution, 56.
60 The assumption is questioned by e.g. Joshua Swamidass, The Genealogical Adam & Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019).
61 E.g. Sarfati, The Genesis Account, 86–88.
62 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 90.
63 Al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari, 24.
64 Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Sura 41:9. https://www.alim.org/quran/tafsir/ibn-kathir/surah/41/9/.
65 Malik, Islam and Evolution, 90; Jalajel, Islam and Biological Evolution, 39.
66 Augustine, De Genesi Ad Litteram, 4.56; Collins, Reading Genesis Well. On Augustine see further Ernan McMullin, “The Origin of Terrestrial Life: A Christian Perspective,” in Exploring the Origin, Extent, and Future of Life: Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives, ed. Constance M. Bertka (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 80–95.
67 Jalajel, Islam and Biological Evolution, chapter 5.
68 E.g. Hugh Ross, Navigating Genesis: A Scientist’s Journey through Genesis 1-11 (Covina, CA: Reasons to Believe, 2014).
69 Ibid., 177.
70 Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Sura 11:40, https://www.alim.org/quran/tafsir/ibn-kathir/surah/11/40/.
71 Al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari, 362–363.
72 E.g. IslamQA, “Did Everyone on Earth Drown at the Great Flood at the Time of Nooh (pbuh)?” December 29, 2013. https://islamqa.info/en/answers/130293/did-everyone-on-earth-drown-at-the-great-flood-at-the-time-of-nooh-peace-be-upon-him.
73 E.g. Ben Stanhope, (Mis)Interpreting Genesis: How the Creation Museum Misunderstands the Ancient Near Eastern Context of the Bible (Sterling Junction: Scarab Press, 2009), chapter 10; Collins, Reading Genesis Well.
74 The interpretation on the Fall’s massive cosmic effects became popular only after the Reformation. On this see Jon Garvey, God’s Good Earth: The Case for an Unfallen Creation (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019); Stanley P. Rosenberg, “Can Nature Be ‘Red in Tooth and Claw’ in the Thought of Augustine?,” in Finding Ourselves after Darwin: Conversations on the Image of God, Original Sin, and the Problem of Evil, ed. Stanley P. Rosenberg (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), 226–243.
75 It might also be fruitful to compare the reasons for and against a YEC interpretation with cases like geocentrism, which continues to have some supporters among both Christians and Muslims, being even defended as obligatory by a recent Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. See Davis and Chmielewski, Galileo and the Garden of Eden; Daniel Varisco, “Darwin and Dunya: Muslim Responses to Darwinian Evolution,” Journal of International and Global Studies 9:2 (2018), 25, 32.
76 Ronald Numbers, The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).
77 Michael Roberts, “Genesis Chapter 1 and Geological Time from Hugo Grotius and Marin Mersenne to William Conybeare and Thomas Chalmers (1620–1825),” in Myth and Geology, ed. L. Piccardi and W. B. Masse (London: Geological Society, 2007); Rudwick, Earth Deep History: How It Was Discovered and Why It Matters (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 99.
78 James Orr, “Science and the Christian Faith,” in The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth. Volume 4 (Chicago, IL: Testimony Publishing Company, 1915).
79 John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood. The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 1961). See Numbers, The Creationists.
80 Iqbal, Islam and Science, 279–292; Hameed, “Evolution and Creationism in the Islamic World.”
81 IslamQA, “Are There Any Texts That State the Age of the Earth?” July 6, 2016. https://islamqa.info/en/answers/145806/are-there-any-texts-that-state-the-age-of-the-earth.
82 Jalajel, Islam and Biological Evolution, 15–18.
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E. V. R. Kojonen
E. V. R. Kojonen is University Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki.