Page 184 - Allah is Known through Reason

nothing but an illusion". The subject explained in this chapter is one of

the most important and most exciting subjects that one can ever come
across in one’s life. There is no chance of them having faced such a cru-
cial subject before. Still, the reactions of these scientists or the manner they
employ in their speeches and articles hint at how shallow and superficial
their comprehension is.
The reactions of some materialists to the subject discussed here show
that their blind adherence to materialism has caused some kind of harm to
their logic. For this reason, they are far removed from comprehending the
subject. For instance, Alaattin Senel, also an academician and writer for
Bilim ve Utopya, expressed similar sentiments as Rennan Pekunlu saying,
"Forget the collapse of Darwinism, the really threatening subject is
this one". Sensing that his own philosophy has no basis, he made
demands such as "prove what you say!" More interestingly, this writer has
himself written lines revealing that he cannot grasp this fact, which he con-
siders a menace.
For instance, in an article in which he discussed this subject exclusive-
ly, Senel accepts that the external world is perceived in the brain as an
image. However, he then goes on to claim that images are divided into
two: those having physical correlates and those that do not, and that
images pertaining to the external world have physical correlates. In order
to support his assertion, he gives "the example of the telephone". In sum-

mary, he wrote: "I do not know whether the images in my brain have cor-
relates in the external world or not, but the same thing applies when I
speak on the phone. When I speak on the telephone, I cannot see the per-
son I am speaking to but I can have this conversation confirmed when I
later see him face to face." 39
By saying so, this writer actually means the following: "If we doubt our
perceptions, we can look at the matter itself and check its reality."
However, this is an evident misconception, because it is impossible for us
to reach the matter itself. We can never get out of our mind and know
what is "outside". Whether the voice on the telephone has a correlate or
not can be confirmed by the person on the other end. However, this con-

184 Allah is Known Through Reason