The Impact of Natural Sciences on Belief among Western Scholars in Light of Islamic Theology: An Analytical and Critical Study

Abstract

This study examines the impact of physical theories on religious beliefs in the Western scientific community, and the various doctrinal trends that resulted: atheism, agnosticism, and natural theology. These movements relied on the findings of the natural sciences to substantiate their positions: atheism employed science to deny anything beyond matter; agnosticism invoked the limits of scientific explanation as a pretext for doubt and hesitation, while natural theology sought to reconcile science with biblical texts. The study evaluates these trends from the perspective of Islamic theology, employing analytical, critical, and comparative approaches to uncover their philosophical and intellectual foundations and the degree of their consistency or contradiction. The study concludes that, despite their reliance on advanced scientific insights, these trends suffer from fundamental shortcomings and contradictions. In contrast, Islamic theology offers a more comprehensive vision, grounded in authentic rational and natural principles, such as the principle of occurrence, change, and continuous creation; the relativity and interpenetration of time and space; the theory of individual essence; and the concepts of possibility and probability. This highlights its potential as a critical framework for evaluating and discussing the doctrinal positions of Western scholars.

The study recommends reactivation of the approach of Islamic theology to be a cognitive critical framework through employing its natural principles, and it also recommends the necessity to link experimental research with philosophical theological research in a sober scientific discourse.