Islam and Evolution

Theoretical Claims and Cognitive Frames

In this lesson

Discussion Duo

• Imagine a student asks you this question: "What does Islam say about evolution?"
• Discuss your response with an elbow partner.

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Evolution Defined 

• "Evolution may be defined as any net directional change or any cumulative change in the characteristics of organisms or populations over many generations—in other words, descent with modification… It explicitly includes the origin as well as the spread of alleles, variants, trait values, or character states." (Endler 1986: 5)

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Science Standards for Evolution�(CA Dept of Ed)

Science Standards for Evolution (Cont)�(CA Dept of Ed)

How is Evolution Covered in Our Textbooks?

Fossil Record and the Geological Time Scale

• Looking at igneous layers, evidence of life goes back 3.7 billion years.
• Scientists use fossils to distinguish eons, eras, and periods. 
• Different fossils are found in different igneous layers.  (Life Science, 189-193)

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Environment, Extinction, and Evolution

• Scientist understand that the disappearance of fossils is due to environmental changes. 
• Environmental changes lead to the extinction of various species and the survival of others.
• Some fossils share similarities and this seems to suggest relatedness. 
• Relation indicates biological evolution: “the change over time in related organisms.” (Life Science, 194-195) 

Darwin’s Theory

• Common Ancestry
• Variation—slight differences in inherited traits. 
• Natural Selection, “ the process by which populations of organisms with variations that help them survive in their environments live longer, compete better, and reproduce more than those that do not have the variations.” 
• Adaptation: an inherited trait that increases an organism’s chance of surviving and reproducing in its environment. (Life Science, 201-204)

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Evidence for Darwin’s Theory

• Comparative Anatomy
• Homologous Structures
• Analogous Structures
• Vestigial Structures (Life Science, 210-211)

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Evidence for Darwin’s Theory

• Developmental and Molecular Biology
• Studying embryos can give scientist better idea of how species are related. 
• Advances in the study of genetics has confirmed Darwin’s theory of common ancestry—scientists can compare genes and proteins
• Molecular clock can give scientists idea of when a divergence occurred. (Life Science, 212-213)

Human Evolution

• Absent from some textbooks, like McGraw Hill. 
• Present in high school and college textbooks, such as Campbell Biology, Biology (Miller and Levine), and The Living Earth. 
• Students are also likely aware of it due to popular culture. 

Textbook Examples

• "Modern-day humans evolved relatively recently compared to other species on the planet...Fossil evidence reveals that Homo sapiens evolved between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia in Africa." (HMH Science Dimensions, 204-205)
• "Between 6 and 7 Million years ago, hominins, the lineage that includes modern humans..., split from the lineage that led to chimpanzees." (Miller and Levine, 818)

Textbook Examples Continued

• "Homo sapiens with modern skeletons arrived in the Middle East about 100,000 years ago."     (Miller and Levine, 818)
• "Fossil evidence indicates that the ancestors of humans originated in Africa. Older species...gave rise to later species, ultimately including H. Sapiens." (Campbell Biology, 751)

In short, what does evolutionary theory state?

• That homo sapiens, like other contemporary primates, evolved from an earlier ancestral species, through the same processes of variation, natural selection, and speciation. 

The Status of Darwinism in Biology

What are the challenges?

Natural Laws and Causation (What does God do?)

• Natural selection provides an explanation that requires no outside intervention (naturalism).
• It is for this reason Dennet dubs Darwin's idea as a "universal acid," that, "eats through just about every traditional concept and leaves in its wake a revolutionized world-view, with most of the old landmarks still recognizable but transformed in fundamental ways." (Dennet, 63)
• In other words, if God is not needed to explain, why keep God? 

What is a cause? 

• In Islam we see that all relationships of Cause and effect are dependent on God.
• For example, Al Ghazali held that natural laws are patterns in God's actions. 
• Effectiveness of cause depends on God's will for it to be so, and relationships between causes and effects can be lifted. 

Miracles 

• A miracle is a contravention of customary cause and effect (Prophet Ibrahim (pbuh) in the Fire).
• Scientists don't like this because they say it would make science impossible—any anomaly in the data could be written off as a miracle. Thus they are committed to naturalism.

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Methodological Naturalism

• There are, according to Al-Ghazali, "some cause-and-effect relationships we must, as observers, deem to be certain (qat'i)." (Jalalel, 124).
• To deny natural causation is a type of madness. 
• However, "the cause-and-effect relationship...is determined by the will of God and can only be realized in the world in any given instance with His express permission." 
• Miracles are not to be assumed
• Example of Mariam, Zachariah

Biology in Practice 

• In practice, we can assume natural causes for things (for example, that a fossil had parents).
• The exception to this is things mentioned in revelation. 
• We would reject any claims of metaphysical naturalism: that the natural world is all there is.

Chance and Determinism

• Chance plays a role in evolutionary theory—mutation and genetic drift.
• Chance, understood scientifically, "the final state of a system cannot be completely specified in terms of its initial conditions." (Jalajel, 132)
• We can think of categories of chance: Epistemic Chance and Ontological Chance. (Malik, 197-198)

Epistemic Chance 

• That we are uncertain about a system. 
• Or that it's unknowable: "the impossibility for an agent to have epistemic accessibility for a given event." (Malik, 198)
• One type of Ontological Chance is also acceptable, "When something doesn't have a prior physical cause." Such as the Creation of mankind in the Quranic story of Adam). 

Epistemic Chance: Scriptural Examples 

• Islam recognizes probability and chance as phenomena that exist in the world that God Created. 
• Examples, Casting Lots and prohibition of gambling. 
• "The undeniable aspect of chance in the casting of lots in no way detracts from the outcome being fully determined by God." (Jalajel, 133).
• There can be some assumed determinism from empirical point of view (as with discussing causation above). 

Extinction, Suffering, and Waste

• Problem: Evolution by means of natural selection seems to indicate a lot of waste and unnecessary suffering. 
• This is a theological question, not a scientific one. 

Extinction (Suffering and Waste) 

In Scripture

What does Islam teach?

Creation of Adam

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• Hadith: “Human Beings are the children of Adam and Adam was created from Earth. God says, “Indeed, we created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes so you may come to know one another. Indeed, the most honored of you with God are those of you who are the most pious.”
• “O Children of Adam! Do not let Satan tempt you as he removed your two parents out from Paradise.” (Surah al-A’raf: 27) 

Islamic Approaches

Complete denial of Evolution (Creationism)�

• There are many in this camp—Zakir Naik, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Harun Yahya, etc. (Malik, 113)
• In this approach energy is directed at refuting scientific claims to justify textual accounts of the creation of Adam. 
• Often, the claims made against science demonstrate a lack of scientific understanding and are quickly refuted.   (Malik, 114-121)
• Also, this leaves question of what you will teach students for life science. 

Human Exceptionalism

• This account accepts evolution for all organisms but not for humans. 
• Adam is created miraculously and then all humans are descendants from him. Evolution perhaps explains differences in racial/linguistic features.  (Malik, 121-133)
• Scholars in this camp: Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Yasir Qadhi, Nazir Khan (Malik, 113)

Adamic Exceptionalism

• This position holds that all organisms emerge through process of evolution including humans. 
• Adam, specifically, was created miraculously and, after being placed on the earth, mixed in with all the others, and, after time, all of us are descendants of him. (Malik, 133-136)
• Proposed by David Solomon Jalajel (Malik 113)

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No Exceptions

• This position holds that evolution is completely true for all organisms, including human beings. 
• The story of Adam is considered an allegory that shows human beings our metaphysical position in the world (i.e. our role as khalifa, the temptations of Iblis, etc.). 
• There is no challenge to the science (outside of normal scientific theoretical debate).
• This approach faces scriptural challenges (the likeness prophet ‘Isa and Adam, etc.)  (Malik, 137-146)
• Held by Muhammad Iqbal, Nidhal Guessoum, Rana Dajani (Malik, 113)

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Malik, Islam and Evolution (New York: Routledge, 2021), 113.

Which one is the best?

• According to Malik, either Human exceptionalism or Adamic exceptionalism fits best with both the science and the scripture. (Malik, 330)

What to teach