Page 36 - The Qur'an Leads the Way to Science

THE QUR'AN LEADS THE W A Y TO SCIENCE

that the maggots that appeared on meat
did not form spontaneously, but came
from flies laying their eggs on it. Upon
this discovery, the defenders of the
"abiogenesis" idea retreated and claimed
that, not big organisms like maggots or
frogs, but invisible microbes were
produced from non-living matter. The
debate lingered over the next two
centuries. The French biologist Louis
Pasteur finally demonstrated, through a
series of experiments, that microbes
could not develop from non-living
materials either. Pasteur summed up his
conclusion in the following words:
Can matter organize itself? In other
words, can organisms come into the
world without parents, without
ancestors? that's the question
to be resolved…. There is no In the scientific understanding of
known circumstance today in the Middle Ages, people supposed
which one can assert that that living organisms could arise
from non-living materials. For
microscopic beings have instance, it was thought that
originated without germs. 18 maggots which developed on
uncovered meat arose
Redi and Pasteur had one spontaneously. However, this idea
thing in common: both scientists was put to rest first by F. Redi's,
then by L. Pasteur's discoveries.
believed in the existence of God,
and that life was created by Him.
Their belief played a critical role in their
recognition of the absurdity of the idea of
abiogenesis. Effectively, while a number
of scientists under the influence of
materialism (evolutionists such as
Darwin, Haeckel, etc.) had subscribed to
the view of abiogenesis, others, who

34