Page 84 - Islam: The Religion of Ease

ISLAM: THE RELIGION OF EASE

had been widely accepted. It was commonly believed that in-
sects came into being from food leftovers, and mice from wheat.
Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this theory.
Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was be-
lieved that mice would originate from it after a while.
Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed
to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it was later
understood that worms did not appear on meat sponta-
neously, but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae,
invisible to the naked eye.
Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that
bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter was
widely accepted in the world of science.
However, five years after the publication of Darwin's book,
Louis Pasteur announced his results after long studies and ex-
periments, that disproved spontaneous generation, a corner-
stone of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne
in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous
generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple
experiment." 1
For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted
these findings. However, as the development of science unraveled
the complex structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life
could come into being coincidentally faced an even greater im-
passe.

INCONCLUSIVE EFFORTS IN THE

TWENTIETH CENTURY
The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin of
life in the twentieth century was the renowned Russian biologist

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