51 Quotes by Salman Ahmed Shaikh

As far as understanding the properties of matter is concerned with the objective of making our lives useful, religion does not oppose science at all. There is no inherent conflict between science and religion if the scope of both science and faith are duly understood and acknowledged. Faith based worldview does not oppose the use of various tools for obtaining useful knowledge and then using that knowledge for material ends both at an individual and at the societal level.

Not only consciousness, but why the physical processes have led to us having consciousness in the first place is beyond explanation through science or scientific method. Some scientists try to skip or assume this question away by denying consciousness.

Belief in single origin of life from the Ultimate Creator brings humility that we are one of many creations in the universe and should not be proud as all creatures have single source of origin, no matter howsoever they differ in the chemical composition of their bodies and respective strengths.

In ancient history, people regarded rivers, springs, and the sea as gods and worthy of worship. They held them to be objects of reverence rather than of conquest. Imbued with the philosophy of monotheism, Muslims saw these phenomena of nature as God’s creations. Belief in monotheism freed inquiry and made it possible to use material things in beneficial ways rather than regard them as objects of worship.

A descriptive theory might or might not adequately describe the physical process, but if it transcends boundaries of physical explanations and starts giving philosophical meaning of the reality, then the latter endeavour is not within the scope of science. Theory of evolution might be an admissible scientific explanation of the physical process if the evidence supports it, but the Darwinian view of life beyond biology and into social organization is a philosophical conjecture.

The intellect with which we discover knowledge about the matter in physical sciences to answer the question of ‘What is’ and ‘How it is’ and the conscience with which we differentiate between right and wrong, are neither our own creation nor have they appeared by themselves. Electrical appliances function in full compliance with the mechanical and electromagnetic principles, but their existence is not the result of such natural laws alone.

By learning syntax of programming languages, we can learn to make new and variety of computer programs, but it does not negate the inventor of the programming language. Matter had existed before we had human life in the universe. We had only learnt to use matter in different ways. Scientific enterprise does not run nature, but merely tries to understand it. Sun, moon, seas, rivers, mountains, forests, clouds and basic chemical elements had all existed even before we arrived in this universe.

When we look at a computer program and find loop in the code which enables the program to run endlessly, it does not mean that there was no author and that the endless program had no point of start. If an executable computer program is run and complex animation appears on screen which runs and runs with unique things appearing from time to time, one cannot imagine that the program was made from nothing and by no one and it just came by chance.

What eludes us is to think about the meaning of our own lives. We would do research in distant galaxies, distant past of the universe and in the smallest particles of matter, but we remain ignorant about the meaning and purpose of our own existence.