The anesthesia of familiarity: There should be a Creator for this universe
Epigraph:
Allah is He Who raised up the heavens without any pillars that you can see. Then He settled Himself on the Throne. And He pressed the sun and the moon into service: each pursues its course until an appointed term. He regulates it all. He clearly explains the Signs, that you may have a firm belief in the meeting with your Lord. (Al Quran 13:3)
Written and Collected by Zia H Shah MD
Prologue
This popular article in Google-knol was first written in March of 2010.
First something about the big picture, Christian apologists want to make a case for Christianity based on laws of nature and science, by showing that there ought to be a Transcendent Creator of our universe. They make this case, in one breath, and in the very next, deny all of science, by insisting on Eucharist, man-God of Jesus, who is not Transcendent, resurrection and miracles that violate laws of nature.
Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed natural means to do His work. However, both parties in their self-conceit are not listening to how Islam resolves their conflict; Islam as understood by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
When any honest scientist studies nature, he feels, like Albert Einstein, the presence of superior reasoning power, revealed in the incomprehensible universe. However, as the novelty of any new discovery in nature wears off, we begin to take the beauty, complexity, organization and co-ordination that we see every day around us for granted and many among us become vulnerable to think that it may have come into existence purely by chance. However, when we come across the newly discovered organization in nature our prior inferences are challenged. We are flabbergasted and astounded for a brief period of time and truly applause the beauty of the creation of God for a little while, until we are duped by the secular propaganda of neo-Darwinism again and begin to take things for granted. Anesthesia of familiarity takes over! This article examines the splendid interior decorations arranged by the bower birds and a lot more.
"He is Allah, the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner. His are the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise." (Al Quran 59:25)
"The seven heavens and the earth and those that are therein extol His glory; and there is not a thing but glorifies Him with His praise; but you understand not their glorification. Indeed, He is Forbearing, Most Merciful." (Al Quran 17:45)
"Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious." Albert Einstein
"Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me." Immanuel Kant
 Northern lights, details are mentioned below
Article
Claudius Ptolemy, a second century astronomer stated:
"I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch the earth with my feet: I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia, food of the gods."
Polytheism has changed to monotheism, but, in other ways paradigm of humans has not changed.
When we come across the newly discovered organization in nature our prior inferences of agnosticism are challenged. We are flabbergasted and astounded for a brief period of time and truly applause the beauty of the creation of God for a little while, until we are duped by the secular propaganda of neo-Darwinism again and begin to take things for granted. Let me narrate an example, when the anesthesia of familiarity was rudely shaken off, after a new discovery, though for a short while.
Donald Griffin, who first described echolocation or ultrasound or radar vision in bats, tells what happened when he and his friend Robert Galambos first reported to an astonished conference of zoologists in 1940 their new discovery of echolocation in bats. One distinguished scientist was so angrily incredulous that he seized Galambos by the shoulders and shook him while complaining they could not possibly mean such an outrageous suggestion. Radar and sonar were still highly classified developments in military technology, and the notion that bats might do anything even remotely analogous to the latest triumphs of electronic engineering struck most people as not only implausible but emotionally repugnant.
Worth special mention here is a confession of an atheist; in the words of Professor Richard Dawkins, "Whenever humans have a good idea, zoologists have grown accustomed to finding it anticipated in the animal kingdom. Examples pervade this book; including echo-ranging (bats), electro location (the Duckbill's Tale), the dam (the Beaver's Tale), the parabolic reflector (limpets), the infrared heat-seeking sensor (some snakes), the hypodermic syringe (wasps, snakes and scorpions), the harpoon (cnidarians) and jet propulsion (squids)." When humans make these discoveries, Nobel prizes and other high awards are given but how do we honor the nature that presented these technologies before mankind, we label it as chance development or accidents! Likewise, it takes the best human minds to barely fathom the mysteries of Quantum physics. Yet, many among us do not pause to attribute the end result of particle physics, the universe, to a blind accident.
In this article let me discuss a few discoveries about Nature that give us a pause at least for a short while.
Every year millions of migratory birds fly towards their wintering quarters and come back in next year´s spring to breed. Behavioral experiments have shown that the Earth´s magnetic field is the main orientation cue on their journeys.
Birds can travel the world without any of the gizmos that humans depend on, and a new study suggests how: Our feathered friends might "see" Earth's magnetic field.
While other mechanisms are thought to help birds navigate, including magnetically sensitive cells within their beaks, their brain regions responsible for vision are in full gear during magnetic navigation, researchers said.
"If you look into the brain of a bird during magnetic compass orientation, only the visual system is highly active," said study co-author Henrik Mouritsen, a biologist at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, noting that most migratory birds do so at night. "Other regions of the brain are not, so birds could use vision to 'see' Earth's magnetism and orient themselves."
Read further in the Muslim Times.
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