Although it is common for neo-Darwinists to assert that natural selection -- the most important process in evolution -- is the 'blind watchmaker' in place of a conscious designer, yet evolution is not at all inconsistent with a belief in God, something Darwin himself recognized in the final passage of "The Origin of Species:"

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved."

Also, it is questionable whether Darwin considered natural selection a substitution for a deity, for he writes:

"It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets?"

The biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky -- famous for his statement "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" – explains how natural selection's apparent 'blindness' might be incorporated into a theistic worldview:

"There is nothing conscious or intentional in the action of natural selection. A biologic species does not say to itself, 'Let me try tomorrow (or a million years from now) to grow in a different soil, or use a different food, or subsist on a different body part of a different crab.' Only a human being could make such conscious decisions. This is why the species Homo Sapiens is the apex of evolution. Natural selection is at one and the same time a blind and a creative process. Only a creative but blind process could produce, on the one hand, the tremendous biologic success that is the human species and, on the other, forms of adaptnedness as narrow and as constraining as those of the overspecialized fungus, beetle, and flies mentioned above" [Mark Ridley ed. "Evolution" Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 381].

Regarding the organic diversity in life, Dobzhansky writes:

"The organic diversity becomes, however, reasonable and understandable if the Creator has created the living world not by caprice but by evolution propelled by natural selection. It is wrong to hold creation and evolution as mutually exclusive alternatives. I am a creationist and an evolutionist. Evolution is God's, or Nature's, method of Creation" [Ibid., p. 382].

He adds:

"Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not. It is a blunder to mistake the Holy Scriptures for elementary textbooks of astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology" [Ibid., p. 387].

And, finally, alluding to one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, he writes:

" ... [T]here is no doubt at all that Tielhard was a truly and deeply religious man ... Moreover, in his world view science and faith were not segregated in watertight compartments, as they are with so many people. They were harmoniously fitting parts of his world view. Tielhard was a creationist, but one who understood that the Creation is realized in this world by means of evolution" [Ibid.]

Dr. Kenneth Miller, an evolutionary microbiologist who teaches at Brown University and author of "Finding Darwin's God," also believes that the beauty of evolution is a great testament to the intelligence of the Creator:

"It seems to me that the scope and scale of evolution can only magnify our admiration for a creator who could set such a process in motion. To the deeply religious, evolution may not be seen as a challenge, but rather as proof of the power and subtletly of the creator's ways. The great Architect of the universe might not have written down each DNA base of the human genome, but He would still be a very clever fellow indeed."

It is indeed heartening to know that there are many scientists who do not divorce religion from science, but instead believe that the two illuminate each other in special ways. It is little wonder, then, that Albert Einstein once wrote that "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."

Even if we, as Muslims, cannot accept the entire story of human evolution as science currently portrays it, we can remain as much in fascination by the sheer 'grandeur ... of life' surrounding us as Darwin. Praise be to God, who created all things and imbued them with such extraordinary beauty.

Omar Sarwar

Thank you for your invaluable contribution. I am sure the reader would, insha'Allah, greatly benefit from it.

Regards,

Moiz Amjad
February 25, 2002