In this video I want to ask 'Why am I not an atheist?'
There are many reasons why I'm not an atheist but I want to focus on one main reason
that's not often explored in apologetics and discussions about why atheism is
basically a non-starter really for me. Before I do that I just want to quickly run through
the perfectly valid reasons that people give for rejecting atheism. One is the evidence of
physics. One of the most striking discoveries of modern science has been that the laws
and constants of physics unexpectedly conspire in an amazing way to make our universe habitable for
life. There's the evidence of astronomy and similar to the fine-tuning of physics: earth's position
in the universe and its intricately choreographed geological and chemical processes work together
with an amazing efficiency to create a safe space for us to live in. There's the evidence of
biochemistry, those amazing systems that you can see, there's biological mechanisms that you can see at
the biological level transporting proteins within cells, you can see them on YouTube these these days.
These are extraordinary pieces of engineering, I personally cannot believe they are the products
of blind evolution, Darwinian processes of survival of the fittest, they're too intricate and
engineered to be anything other than produced by intelligent design, in my view. There's the evidence
of biological information in their six feet of DNA coiled inside every one of our body's 100 trillion
cells containing a four-letter chemical alphabet that spells out the precise instructions for all
those proteins from which our bodies are made. An extraordinary discovery in recent years: DNA.
There's the evidence of consciousness itself: how can mere chemistry and physics produce
our consciousness. There's no explanation forthcoming, it seems that consciousness is itself an incredible property. Now all these are perfectly valid reasons for rejecting atheism:
physics suggests a Creator who is intelligent, who's involved. Astronomy shows a Creator giving
us incredibly precise and careful purpose and design to the universe.
Biochemistry: biological information demonstrate's the Creator is well.. creative. Consciousness
shows the Creator's rationality and I think gives credibility to the idea
of life after death. These characteristics do not in my view describe the god of deism
who supposedly formed a universe and then abandoned it went off somewhere
else. Nor is it pantheism: the idea that the creator and the universe is somehow co-existent
or one. Polytheism with its multiple gods fall short of that, and this impersonal force of New Age
beliefs again doesn't kind of match up I think to what we see in this science. Now when
I usually quote the apostle Paul I'm usually quite critical of him to be honest, but I want to quote
an extract from his Letter to the Romans which he wrote about two thousand years ago. Now in
Romans chapter one he writes about the creation and our place in it and he says: "For what can be
known about God is plain to humanity because God has shown it to them ever since the creation
of the world His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and
seen through the things He has made. So they are without excuse." I think that's very good.
But the reason as I say I am not an atheist and one of the main reasons is actually none of the
above, though they're all perfectly good reasons, and for that I want to turn to the writing of Ibn Taymiyya.
Now he was a medieval Islamic theologian from Damascus, and he was a Muslim obviously, and
for him one of the central concepts for talking about God as an alternative to the Kalam
theologians who were these are other Muslim theologians who drew heavily on Greek philosophy to prove
the existence of God through reason, through the cosmological argument, or the teleological argument,
and so on. He focused perhaps more than anyone else on this concept of 'Fitra' that's in English
F-I-T-R-A. Now what is this Fitra? Well, the Quran talks about the Fitra in the 30th chapter, verse
30, and I'll just read it to you: "So [Prophet] as a man of pure faith stand firm and true
in your devotion to religion. This is the natural disposition God instilled in humankind - there is no
altering God's creation - and this is the right religion though most people do not realise it.
Turn to Him alone, all of you." Now this concept of fitra is found in this phrasing 'this is the
natural disposition God instilled in mankind' - that is the fitra. And also there is a hadith which also
talks about precisely the same thing. I'll just get that up in a second - so
the hadith says 'Every child is born on the fitra, and then his parents make him a Jew, Christian or
Magian, just as an animal gives birth to an unbranded animal. So do you see any animal
born branded, until you yourselves brand it?" So a child is born in this natural state of fitra
- which i'll define in a second - it is parents that make him a Christian or a Magian et cetera. So what
what is this fitra and why is it so important to the Quran and especially to Ibn Taymiyya? Well
he says the fitra was is a psycho-spiritual human faculty given by God, bestowed on man.
It's this inherent belief in an all-powerful perfect Divine being,
and along with this knowledge it empowers man to go beyond his basic desires
and to aspire to a higher cause, a noble cause, such as worshiping God and loving him alone. The
fitra also gives human beings morality the sense of natural justice that children have. You know, if
they experience injustice they will make it clear that they protest against this injustice and
it naturally inclines human beings or all human beings towards the truth and towards noble virtues.
Now Ibn Taymiyya also said - and he really massively enriched and expanded this whole concept
of the fitra which existed before him in the Quran and Sunnah and was discussed by other theologians,
but he hugely discussed it and expanded the understanding perhaps more than any other
Islamic theologian ever. For him the fitra was a cognitive faculty able to recognise
the truth of any prophetic message and receive the light of God's revelation and it was
like a healthy eye recognizing the bright light of the sun. So a pure fitra would naturally incline
us towards 'wahi' revelation, the message, and accept it recognising it as being from its Creator.
Now what has this got to do with proof of God? Well modern science I suggest confirms this amazingly.
It confirms Ibn Taymiyya's extraordinary insight. So let me just show you where. Now
there's a recent study published by Oxford University press which i'll just get up (here we
go) entitled: 'Humans predisposed to believing in God and the afterlife' - now this is research conducted
by the University of Oxford, i'll link it in the description below. Just to summarise the findings: it
says 'New research finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in God and an afterlife.
Research suggests that people across many different cultures instinctively believe that
some part of their mind, soul or spirit lives on after death. The studies demonstrate that people
are natural 'dualists' finding it easy to conceive of the separation of the mind and the body. Dualism
is a an idea in philosophy that human beings are made basically made of a body and a soul.
Now for the more fuller version of the story i'll just briefly quote some further extracts" A
three-year international research project directed by two academics at the University of Oxford finds
that humans have natural tendencies to believe in God and an afterlife. The Cognition, Religion and
Theology project led by Oxford University drew on research from a range of disciplines including anthropology,
psychology, philosophy and theology they directed an international body of researchers researchers
conducting studies in 20 different countries that represented both traditionally religious
and atheist societies. So he basically went to a representative sample across the world.
Project director professor Roger Trigg from the University of Oxford said: "This project suggests
that religion is not just something for a peculiar few to do on sunday's instead of playing golf.
We have gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common fact of human nature
across different societies - this is the fitra! -
this suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived
as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts such as the existence of supernatural
agents or God or gods and the possibility of an afterlife or pre-life. So i'll link to that
below. This is a stunning modern confirmation of this idea of the fitra we find in the Quran
sunnah and expanded and elaborated to such a great extent by Sheikh-ul-Islam ibn Taymiyyah in his writings
and this makes a great deal of sense. This is a very modern way in a way of of looking at the
issue of God's existence through psychology, through science, empirical evidence, as well as
the indications of the existence of a transcendent Being whom we call God. It is hardwired into our
natures just as we are people who naturally think, we have appetites and desires which are
meant to be fulfilled in healthy ways we also have a natural instinct to worship God alone. This is
a part of our nature. Atheism then is a denial of our human nature actually it cuts across
what it is to be human at the end of the day not only in our anthropology but also in the truth of who we are as creatures of the Creator. And I think it's a very powerful argument today because you
can bring in psychology, anthropology, theology, philosophy, and the scriptures as well, all tending
to complement each other and reinforce the central fact of our humanity which is our desire and
need to worship God a transcendent other. Another piece of evidence which I'm not going to go into
is abundantly attested in the literature that people who have a religion who practice of faith
sincerely are in general report very high levels of personal satisfaction and happiness in their
lives - they're not suicidal they're not having existential crisis of nihilism and atheism. These
people have a fulfilling and rich life and are consequently on average more psychologically
healthy than those that don't this is something that's come out in many recent studies,
and this is another confirmation of the naturalness of faith so I find that for modern man in our current situation I think exploring this whole idea of the fitra
as corroborated by science leading to a fulfilled and happy life now but also pointing beyond
ourselves to the to al-Ākhirah to the hereafter as well, is an excellent way of exploring belief
in God and I find that a very rich and compelling reason why I am not an atheist. Until next time.