2006 - The Muslim Sunrise

In surveying the religious landscape of America, he writes some 96%of Americans believe in God, and that is no anomaly, looking at theworld at large. Man is a worshipping animal, whether it is bowingbefore a stone or belief in the Unseen.However, as can be argued from what Bloomhimself has presented, what people have troublebelieving is not so much evolution per se, butthe concept of a blind undirected evolution,without a First Cause (God) to initiate and guidethe chain of events from simple to complex.Bloom considers the innate tendency ofhumans to believe in a Deity as a form of‘mental conditioning’ or ‘accidental byproducts’of our mental systems. Humans somehoware supposed to be hypersensitive to signsof agency, that we see purpose and design inanything. Why humans have developed this statethrough evolution is for him to explain, but he isdefinitely on the mark when he says the universaltheme of religion, i.e. belief in a creator-God,is part of human nature and not learned. Heconcludes:“Nobody is born with the idea that humanitystarted in the Garden of Eden, or that martyrswill be rewarded in Heaven; these ideas arelearned. But the universal themes of religion arenot learned. They are part of human nature.”In complete contradistinction to some modernpsychologists who see belief in a God as aweakness or psychological misunderstanding ofreality around them, it was the belief of HadhratAhmad that this very instinct of man to believein a creator was yet another sign that a creatoractually exists. So belief in God is not anaccident!How then is certainty in belief in Godultimately acquired then, if the universe onlypoints to God and does not prove Him? This isa vast topic, but Hadhrat Ahmad addresses thequestion briefly in these quotes:“The first duty of a person therefore, is toacquire certainty with regard to the existence ofGod, and adopt a religion through which thiscertainty can be acquired…How can suchcertainty be acquired? It cannot be acquiredthrough mere stories. It cannot be acquiredthrough mere arguments. The only way ofacquiring certainty is to experience Godrepeatedly through converse with Him or throughwitnessing his extraordinary signs, or by keepingcompany with someone who has that experience(Naseem-e-Dawat page 81-2).”“As the operation of reason is defective,incomplete and doubtful, a philosopher cannotrecognize God purely through reason…Thereare millions of people in the world who regardthemselves as very wise philosophers and whoutterly deny the existence of God. It is obviousthat if they had discovered a strong reason forthe existence of God, they would have not havedenied it. If they had discovered a conclusiveargument in support of the existence of God,they would not have rejected it…Be sure,therefore that belief in the unity of God can beachieved only through a prophet, as our HolyProphet sa convinced the atheists and pagans ofArabia of the existence of God by showing themthousands of heavenly signs. Up till today thetrue and perfect followers of the Holy Prophet sa ,present those signs to the atheists (HaqiqatulWahyi, page 117-8).”Through piety and dedication, a seeker canbe convinced of God’s existence when He revealsHimself in diverse ways: acceptance of prayer,true dreams, visions, and signs presented to theworld by those claiming to be from God. Onlythen can a seeker of truth be satisfied on a personallevel.Paul Bloom's "Is God an Accident?" was printed inthe December issue of the Atlantic Monthly."10 MuslimSunrise