Human evolution between science and faith Hossam Badrawi

Human evolution between science and faith
Hossam Badrawi
I attended a dialogue on the theory of evolution and the fixed religious concept throughout history, and the confusion between the heavenly books and the rational interpretation of their sentences and vocabulary.
I draw attention to the importance of understanding that the interpretation of what God has revealed changes over time with the development of the collective maturity of the human mind.
I imagine that self-realization through the mind is the ability of man and the greatest thing that distinguishes him from the rest of his creation. Mind and thinking are the miracle of creation in us, and I believe that religion, and in particular Islam, urges us to practice reason, thinking, research and science.
When “Darwin” launched his hypothesis of the evolution of creatures over billions of years through natural selection, his research was simply about three basic principles: reproduction, mutations, and natural selection (survival of the fittest). limited by their time due to the content of their religious books, as well as the Muslims who followed the same approach.
The same wall of denial that the earth is not the center of the universe, or that we are a planet that revolves around the sun.
Interpretations are human, not sacred, and humanity must mature and consider the accumulation of knowledge in its understanding, and not stop at the infancy stage of the collective mind of humans, which is the interpretation of our ancestors for the content of divine books, and perhaps for their symbolism.
The religious, philosophical, scientific question: Was the beginning of creation, which religions symbolize in the name of science, “Adam” created, as we see it now, a complete creation?! I mean, the Creator held a piece of clay, then kneaded it in his hand and blew on it, and then Adam found it!!.. This is what the hard-liners say. According to the interpretation of the ancients.. “Adam was created in his own way.” They affirm that the theory of evolution contradicts the heavenly books with one word. There is no room for discussion and it is not possible to believe that man is the product of evolution from creatures that were of an inferior rank.
I tried to find out where this certainty of religious scholars came from.. By referring to reason, I found that their argument contradicts what was stated in the Qur’an, which confirms that man was not created without development.. I am amazed at the clarity that commentators have avoided throughout history.. The Qur’an tells a different story Completely about the creation of man, a story in which creation takes place in stages, phases, and a long divine time. The Qur’an says that man did not come out of the mud directly, but rather he came out of a lineage that came from the mud:
“And We have certainly created man from a drop of clay.” (Al-Mu’minun-12)
In the beginning, man was nothing.
“Did there ever come upon man when he was not a thing mentioned?” (Al-Insan-1)
And that his creation came in phases:
“Why do you not seek reverence for God? And He created you in phases.” (Noah-13, 14)
This means that there are stages that began with creation, then imaging, then leveling, then blowing, and “then” in divine time means millions of years:
“And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of what you count.” (Al-Hajj-47).
Look at these temporal stages of creation as mentioned in the Qur’an:
And the creation of man began from clay. Then he made his offspring a descendant of a humiliating water. Then He fashioned it and breathed into it from His Spirit, and made for you hearing, sight, and hearts. Little do you give thanks. (Al-Sajdah- 7,8,9).
Man, then, is the end of a series of phases, and not an absolute beginning in the manner of direct creation.
I said to myself: Then why this categorical rejection by some men of religions? Is this different from what modern science says in theories of evolution?
actually no.
* As for the story of Adam himself, let us also think and reformulate our understanding, and let the reader bear my understanding.
According to religious belief and its narrations, when God created Adam to inhabit the earth as his successor, he said to the angels, “Prostrate to my creation.” They asked: Why would he create someone who would spoil it and shed blood, as if they had seen the scene before. (Can there be other worlds and universes, as science says now, or that the cycle of creation is renewed, so the angels who live in a different dimension from humans describe the matter because they have seen it before?!).
However, God taught him the names, and gave him the advantage of reason and the ability to distinguish and choose to be different from the rest of his creation.. That is, the advantage of man in this time and this universe is his ability to choose right or wrong.
And when the Almighty admitted him to Paradise and prevented him from eating from the forbidden tree, temptation and choice were placed before him in exchange for obedience.
The strange thing is that there is no Quranic text that Eve was the one who seduced Adam to eat from the forbidden tree, as the legends say, which is the frequent male interpretation of devaluing and demonizing women throughout history.
The important thing is that when Adam decided to use his right to choose and eat from the tree forbidden to him, his creation was completed, so God sent him down to earth as was intended by his creation from the beginning.
The value of a person lies in his ability to choose, even if it is incorrect.
If he did not make this choice, he would not have descended, and it would not have been for the creation of man to be perfected, or for him to reproduce and populate the earth.. That is, the descent of Adam and his wife to the earth was the completion of their creation, which separates them from the rest of the creatures whose decisions are made by genetic directions placed in their formation and they have no choice, like the angels in The sky, birds, animals, insects, fish, and other creatures on earth, and there is no punishment for them as frequent religious interpretations.
This is a point of view.. God knows best.
The truth is that many people today do not see the Genesis story about Adam and his wife as more than an allegory, and even some Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim scholars agree with this view. Although most of the interpretations of the interpreters, according to their time of religions for the beginning of mankind, contradict history and science, which created a conflict between philosophy, science and religion throughout the ages, the increase in knowledge may explain a lot.