THE SOUL IN SCIENCE
Sheema Khan, Globe and Mail, 6/9/03
Sheema Khan, chair of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Canada),
holds a PhD in chemical physics from Harvard University.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030609/COSHEEM
A/TPScience/
Last November, while the world's attention was focused on Iraq, thieves
stole a rare first edition of Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica from the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.
A few weeks later, police announced its recovery to an uninterested world.
Principia, first published in 1687, is a key work in modern science. In it,
Newton proposed the three laws of motion and the law of universal
gravitation, foundations of physical sciences and engineering.
Less well-known is Principia's final chapter, in which Newton expounded on
his beliefs: "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets
could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and
powerful Being,… eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient…He governs
all things, and knows all things that are, or can be done…We adore Him as
His servants."
While Newton's science propagated through time and space, his harmonization
of faith and scientific inquiry did not. Instead, battles between Newton's
persecuted contemporaries and the Roman Catholic Church left an indelible
mark on Western thought, causing a dichotomy between science and faith that
prevails today.
Reconciling the two has never been an issue in Islamic thought. The Koran
invites contemplation of the natural world, pointing to signs of a wise
Creator. Nothing is left to fuzzy uncertainty, or in the words of Albert
Einstein: "I shall never believe that God plays with dice with the world."
The study of the world is a means to attain faith, as exemplified by the
Prophet Abraham...
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