The Divine Reality God, Islam & the Mirage of Atheism

This is a wonder-full book written by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, why I take a lot of interest in this book because I teach jurisprudence. In jurisprudence, we try to understand why anything is penalized and how we can rationalize certain things and why things are objectively and subjectively wrong. In short, we study what is law and what law should be. The question of subjectivity and objectivity is a complex one and while teaching western jurisprudence theories, this question becomes more and more difficult to answer. Since our jurisprudence has a lot of western theories so it is important for us to understand the western political and philosophical thought as well.

The problem with western jurisprudence is that everything can be deconstructed to one whim and desire. When we teach natural law, it started with Greek philosopher where it talks about philosophical naturalism that everything has a cause whereas methodological philosophy (jurisprudence) talks about if anything is scientific like logical positivism it cannot be referred to God like the concept of H.L Hart and alike that there is no relationship between law and morality. In his words, he wrote in a book 

“There are two types of naturalism: philosophical and methodological. Philosophical naturalism is the philosophy that all phenomena in the universe can be explained via physical processes, and that there is no supernatural. Methodological naturalism is the view that if anything is deemed scientific; it can never refer to God’s Divine activity or power. The atheist conflates philosophical naturalism with methodological naturalism”

 In this book, one can seek clarity that Islam has no problem with science but since science is ever-changing and its “conclusion is not engraved in stone”. It is very hard to base our morality on these concepts because it is always changing. The book has given many examples to justify these position for example in one of the instances he has discussed his debate with Professor Krauss and he is a renowned scientist when asked about the question of incest that whether it is moral or immoral, legal or illegal he can’t answer that question objectively because of his believes on those scientific principles. 

 The chapter about morality is one of the best chapters which have a tagline that “knowing God is knowing good” that if we follow God's command is always good because the author said we human being just have the pixel and God has the whole picture. He understands things better that why are we suffering and why wrongs are happening in this world. Our knowledge is limited to understand divine wisdom.

He further emphasizes the problem of moral objectivity and subjectivity by further emphasizing on more distinction about the moral absoluteness, while often discussing moral objectivity we reach to moral absoluteness and we should understand that our lives are not perfect and pain and suffering are part of our lives what religion helps us in helping to reach at the objectivity of certain things with the help of Islamic principles, but moral absoluteness is beyond human beings. 

The writer also discussed the problem of inductive and deductive reasoning, how shallow and subjective these principles are, to understand the religion and the divine nature of God. The problem with this thinking is that Islam has no problem with science and scientific principles but justifying the religion on the basis of those principles is a problem.

The book is basically a reply to atheism and another pseudo-scientific way of understanding God and religion and suggests that religion gives more meaning to life then atheism.

The book is divided into sixteen chapters

Chapter 1—Atheism: Its Definition, History & Growth

Chapter 2—Life Without God: The Implications of Atheism

Chapter 3—Adversaries of Reason: Why Atheism is Irrational

Chapter 4—Self-Evident: Why Atheism is Unnatural

Chapter 5—A Universe from Nothing? The Qur’an’s Argument for God.

Chapter 6—The Divine Link: The Argument from Dependency

Chapter 7—Denying God, Denying You: The Argument from Consciousness

Chapter 8—Divine Precision: The Designed Universe

Chapter 9—Know God, Know Good: God & Objective Morality

Chapter 10—Divine Singularity: The Oneness of God

Chapter 11—Is God Merciful? Islam’s Response to the Problem of Evil & Suffering

Chapter 12—Has Science Disproved God? Deconstructing False Atheist Assumptions

Chapter 13—God’s Testimony: The Divine Authorship of the Qur’an

Chapter 14—The Prophetic Truth: The Messenger of God

Chapter 15—The Free Slave: Why God is Worthy of Our Worship

Chapter 16—Conclusion: Transforming Our Hearts

Afterword—Don’t Hate, Debate: Dialogue with Islam