This argument...

This argument, as indicated earlier in lesson seven is due to the improper interpretation of the principle of causation. It has been recognised as ‘every existence needs a cause’ but the reality of the matter is that ‘every possible existence or every existent that is dependent or needy requires a cause,’ and this rule is universal, essential, and unexceptional.

However, accepting the origin of matter or energy without a cause, and its mutation as the basis for the origination of the world has several controversies, and will be discussed in future lessons. c. Achievements of sociology Some believe that the belief in the Creator of man and universe does not correspond to the accomplishments of modern sociology. For example, it has been proven in chemistry that a certain amount of matter and energy is always subsisting.

On this basis, it is not possible for any manifestation to come into existence from nothing and no existent can be completely destroyed. Those who believe in God believe that God has brought creation from non-existence into existence. They claim that this same argument has been proven in biology. A living creature has evolved from non-living matter and gradually mutated and reached perfection when it attained the position of man.

Those who believe in God believe that God created human beings separately. We will now aim to answer these controversies: Firstly, the principle of the continual subsistence of energy and matter is a scientific rule and can only be regarded and applied to those concrete perceptible things. On this basis, philosophical issues such as whether matter and energy are eternal and pre- eternal are not resolved.

Secondly, the subsistence of energy and matter does not imply that one is needless of the Creator, but with the ageing of the universe the more need it has for a creator, because every effect requires a cause. Possibility and dependency are the essence of a possible existent (an effect), rather than it being accidental or temporal.

In other words, matter and energy form as a material cause (‘illah māddiyyah) for the appearance of the universe, and as opposed to being an active cause, is itself in need of an active cause. Thirdly, the subsistence of certain matter and energy does not obligate the coming into being of a new creation, its growth and reduction. Entities like spirit, life, sense and will etc, are not from matter and energy until their growth and reduction would contradict with the rule.