Page 884 - Atlas of Creation Volume 1

ture… and so on in an endless regress of eyes and pictures. This is absurd. 196
This problem puts materialists, who hold that nothing is real except matter, in a quandary: Who is be-

hind the eye that sees? What perceives what it sees, and then reacts?
Renowned cognitive neuroscientist Karl Pribram focused on this important question, relevant to the
worlds of both science and philosophy, about who the perceiver is:

Philosophers since the Greeks have speculated about the "ghost" in the machine, the "little man inside the little
man" and so on. Where is the I—the entity that uses the brain? Who does the actual knowing? Or, as Saint Francis
of Assisi once put it, "What we are looking for is what is looking." 197
This book in your hand, the room you are in—in brief, all the images before you—are perceived inside
your brain. Is it the blind, deaf, unconscious component atoms that view these images? Why did some atoms

acquire this quality, whereas most did not? Do our acts of thinking, comprehending, remembering, being de-
lighted, being unhappy, and everything else consist of chemical reactions among these atoms' molecules?
There is no sense in looking for will in atoms. Clearly, the being who sees, hears, and feels is a supra-ma-
terial being, "alive," who is neither matter nor an image. This being interacts with the perceptions before it by

using the image of our body.
This being is the soul.
The intelligent being reading these lines is not an assortment of atoms and molecules and the chemical
reactions between them, but a soul.

The Real Absolute Being

We are brought face to face with a very significant question: If the world we confront is comprised of our

soul's perceptions, then what is the source of these perceptions?
For an answer, consider that we perceive matter only in our imaginations, but can never directly experi-
ence of its counterparts outside. Since matter is actually a perception to us, it is something "constructed."

That is, it must have been caused by another power—which means that in fact, it must have been created.
Moreover, this creation must be continuous. If not, then these perceptions would quickly disappear and be
lost. Similarly, a television picture is displayed only as long as the signal continues to be broadcast.
So, who makes our soul that continuously watches the stars, the earth, the plants, the people, our body
and everything else that we see?

Very evidently, there exists a supreme Creator Who has created the entire material universe, and Who
ceaselessly continues His creation. Since this Creator displays such a magnificent creation, surely He has
eternal power and might.

This Creator describes Himself, the universe and the reason of our existence for us through the book He
has sent down.
This Creator is God, and His book is the Qur'an.
The fact is, the heavens and the Earth—that is, the universe—are not stable. Their presence is made pos-
sible only by God's creation, and that they will disappear when He ends this creation. This is revealed in a

verse as follows:
God keeps a firm hold on the heavens and Earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they van-
ished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving. (Surah Fatir:
41)

This verse is describing how the material universe is maintained under the might of God. God created
the universe, the Earth, mountains, and all living and non-living things, and maintains all these under His
power at every moment. God manifests His name al-Khaliq in this material universe. God is al-Khaliq, in
other words, the Creator of all things, the Creator from nothing. This shows that there is a material universe,

outside our brains, consisting of entities created by God. However, as a miracle and manifestation of the su-
perior nature of His creation and His omniscience, God shows us this material universe in the form of an "il-
lusion," "shadow," or "image." As a consequence of the perfection in His creation, human beings can never

reach the world outside their brains. Only God knows this real material universe.

882 Atlas of Creation