Bruno
Guiderdoni,
Institut
d'Astrophysique de Paris
(from
Science and the Spiritual Quest Conference: June 7-10, 1998)
In what sense could the theories
and data of modern science ``fit'' in the world view elaborated for centuries
by Islamic thinking? To address this issue, we have first to recall that the
Islamic tradition envisages a strong connection between faith and the pursuit
of knowledge, which is considered as ``a religious duty incumbent to all
Muslims, Male and Female''. The nature of this knowledge is three fold: it is
religious through the study of the Koran and the submission to its
prescriptions and prohibitions, intellectual through the investigation of the
world and reflection upon it, mystical through inner enlightenment directly
granted by God to whom He wants among His servants. As a matter of fact, these
three paths to knowledge must necessarily converge to a unique Truth, since God
Himself is unique. In this prospect, there cannot be any actual contradiction
between the results of scientific investigation and the religious doctrines, provided
they are not a complete illusion.
However, and precisely for that
reason, the connection of the evolving results of science with the symbolic
teachings of religion should be more subtle that the ``cheap concordism'' which
would consist in taking the literal meaning of some Koranic verses as alluding
to ``scientific facts'', and in interpreting allegorically those whose literal
meaning seems to be discrepant. This is rather the metaphysical worldview of
Islam which could provide clues for criticizing the reductionalist
interpretations of the discoveries brought forth by modern science, and for
grasping their possible meaning. In this context, this lecture will address the
possible interpretation of some basic features of modern cosmology in terms of
the Islamic teachings on the nature of reality. The fundamental mystery which
subtends physics and cosmology is the fact that the world is intelligible. The
Koran strongly recommends to ponder and meditate upon the Creation to find the
traces of the Creator in its harmony. Hence the so--called ``cosmological
verses'' which are frequently quoted as one of the many miracles included in
the Koranic text.
The exploration of the world is
encouraged, provided the explorer is wise enough to recognize that the harmony
that is present in the cosmos originates in God. By looking at the cosmos, the
intelligence He put in us constantly meets His Intelligence. Several Koranic verses
draw the reader's attention to the numerical order that is present in the
cosmos. The cosmic regularities which are a consequence of God's Will can thus
be qualified as ``mathematical regularities''The esoteric doctrines of Islam go
one step further. According to the views of the Akbarian school, funded after
the work of Muhyi-d-din Ibn Arabi (1165 -- 1240), the Creation is God's
self-disclosure to Himself through the veils and signs of the creatures. The
things “are” not, since only God is. They only own a given preparation to
receive being and qualities from God. The (relative) stability of cosmic
phenomena is rooted in God's (absolute) immutability. However, the status of
the cosmos is paradoxical, between absolute Being, God Himself, and absolute nothingness.
As a consequence, we cannot expect to reach clear--cut statements about the
fundamental reality of the world.
According to the Islamic theology,
God does not act by fixing the laws of physics and the initial conditions and
letting the world evolve mechanistically. As a matter of fact, there is nothing
like secondary causes, simply because God, as the “primary” Cause, does not
cease to create again the world at each instant. In this continuous renewal of
creation, the atoms and their accidents are created anew at each time. The
regularities that are observed in the world are not due to causal connection,
but to a constant conjunction between the phenomena, which is a habit or custom
established by God's Will. This principle of the Islamic theology apparently
contradicts the views of modern science, which of course stipulate the
existence of secondary causes. But we must understand the negation of causality
by the Islamic tradition as an emphasis on the metaphysical mystery of the
continuous validity of the laws. This questioning on causality is not an
obstacle to our scientific investigation of the cosmos. On the contrary, it
prompts us to reflect upon the way God acts, and shows His signs “upon the
horizons”(Koran, 41:53). In the Middle Ages, the distance to God's throne was
“measured” by the Arab astronomer al-Farghani to 120 million km, under simple
assumptions on the properties of the planetary spheres in the paradigm of the
Ptolemaic cosmology.
This ``spatial horizon'' was
eventually evacuated by the scientific revolution of the Renaissance and the
emergence of the Newtonian paradigm. In a simplistic interpretation of the
standard Big--Bang model, which has been rather fashionable during the last
decades, God takes place at the horizon of the singularity t=0 and at the
``particle horizon'' located 15 billion light-years from us. Now, it is indeed
possible that quantum cosmology will evacuate the notion of an initial
singularity. The universe might have emerged as a quantum fluctuation of the
vacuum. Moreover, according to the theory of chaotic inflation, our observable
universe is only a bubble located somewhere in an infinite number of
``patches'' of the physical universe, which could even have different values
for the constants of nature. Is there still a ``place'' for God if the universe
emerges from a random fluctuation of ``nothing'', if it has no spatial and
temporal boundaries, if the constants themselves could have any value? The
answer to this question should be negative, according to many scientists who
emphasize the efficiency of ``selection principles'' to explain the cosmic
order observed in our local patch. But, in fact, the horizon is always there:
why are the laws of quantum physics valid? As far as we can push it back, the
existence of an horizon seems to be required by the nature of our intelligence.
The renewal of creation taught by the Islamic doctrines also means the
continuous appearance of new creatures. At each level of the cosmos, there are
always new things. God is infinite and ``self--disclosure never repeats
itself''.
So God's self-disclosure is
endless. What appears in the Creation exactly corresponds to the flow of
possible things. This is why, according to al--Ghazali (1058 -- 1111), ``there
is nothing in possibility more wondrous than what is'', because what is
actually reflects God's desire to show up to us. This helps us understand the
Prophetic saying : ``Curse not time, for God is time.'' The production of an
infinite number of ``patches'' of the physical universe described by chaotic
inflation, reflects God's eternal self-disclosure. The appearance of ``emerging
properties'' at all levels of complexity, and particularly the appearance of
life and intelligence, is another aspect of this continuous self-disclosure. This
is why Ibn Arabi comments: ``God does not become bored that you should become
bored.'' Now modern cosmology tells us that Man is at the top of a huge cosmic
building. The apparition of Man was made possible by many ``coincidences'' in
the laws of physics and the values of the constants, which fix the properties
of the cosmic and terrestrial structures. The extension of time behind us and
of space around us is a necessary condition for our very existence, as the vast
extensions of the deserts of sand and ice are necessary for the ecological
balance of the earth. So we should not invoke our smallness to refuse our
spiritual vocation. This is not the quantity of space and time which matters,
but the quality of complexity that our existence manifests. Moreover, in spite
of the vast extension of space and time, our location at the center of the
observable universe makes the partial reconstruction of our past possible.
Finally, the strongest connection between science and the spiritual quest might
be found in the very nature of these pursuits.
The philosophical definition of
scientific truth is a debated issue. But what we can define with great accuracy
is the method that leads to the development of scientific knowledge. In other
words, the philosophical ``truth'' of science lies it the fecundity of its
method. So cosmology, as well as the other sciences, is mainly an on--going
process. We can view this process as continuous approximation of truth, and
indeed, it is sometimes so. But, at other periods of its development, science
has opened completely new paths. We can also defend the point that the
scientific pursuit leads to both a growth of our knowledge and a growth of our
ignorance, since the number of theories that do not work increases in the
process, and the answers to our questions immediately suggest new questions the
existence of which was not even suspected previously.
There are surprising similarities
between this open process leading to the growth of scientific knowledge, and
the pursuit of religious knowledge as it is viewed by the metaphysical
doctrines of Islam. Here, the dogmas represent what can be said, and must be
said, about the spiritual vocation of Man. But, of course, the ideas we make
about God are limited to our own understanding. They immediately become idols
if we think we have gotten the truth. So we have to get the highest idea about
God, by destroying the idols we continuously make in ourselves. We can progress
only if we know that we do not know, in an apophatic approach to God. In this
prospect, we must resist to the tantalizing idea to transform God into a
``God--of--the--gap'' who only fills up the ``hole of incompleteness'' that is
present is our knowledge. On the contrary, the growth of scientific knowledge,
and the pursuit of the spiritual quest both require the existence of this hole.
God is not ``in the hole''. He has created the hole as an intrinsic property of
our intelligence so that we can find Him.
Thus, for a Muslim cosmologist, the
exploration of the cosmos is a way of worshiping God. God's creation of Man
makes science possible since our intelligence finds the trace of God's
Intelligence in the harmony of the world. However, there is a significant
difference between the scientific pursuit and the spiritual quest, which deals
with the ending point of our existence. Contrary to the scientific pursuit, the
spiritual quest is not limited to the intellectual search for truth and the
production of useful out comes. It primarily aims at transforming Man, so that
he can be prepared to the After life, which is also a broader locus for
knowledge.
