Page 812 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

Let us consider another example: In the illusion within our
minds, whenever we let a pen go, it falls to the ground. As a re-
sult of research into the cause and effect relationship that gov-
erns these kinds of occurrences, we discover "the law of

gravity." God presents the images he shows us in our minds
as linked to particular causes and laws. One of the
reasons for the creation of these causes and laws is
that life is created as a test. Science is born as a re-

sult of research into the order within which these
laws and the collection of perceptions called the
"universe" function. That is why it is very important
to study science, the laws that appear to govern the

extraordinary images that God has created.
In conclusion, there is no justification for mate-
rialist claims that accepting the fact that matter is
perception means rejecting science. On the contrary,

those who genuinely accept the fact see science as
an important way of understanding this collection
God possesses the power to create effects without any
causes. One proof of this is the way one can feel the heat of of images, and the secrets within them.
the sun in a dream, even though the sun is not actually there. There is a great difference between this concep-

tion of science and that of the materialists. The laws
of nature that we have discovered by observing the totality of images in question are the laws of God, Who
created that same totality. The view of science held by materialists, who think that matter has a real exis-
tence, that the laws of nature stem from matter itself, and that it is these laws which actually created them,

collapses in the light of this truth.
Neither must we forget that God possesses the power to create all these perceptions without the need
for any cause or law. For example, God can create a rose without using a seed, or rain without the need for
clouds, or shadow and day and night without the Sun. God reveals this fact in a verse:

Do you not see how your Lord stretches out shadows? If He had wished He could have made them stationary.
Then We appoint the sun to be the pointer to them. Then We draw them back to Ourselves in gradual steps.
It is He Who made the night a cloak for you and sleep a rest, and He made the day a time for rising. (Surat al-

Furqan: 45-47)
As we have seen in this verse, God reveals that He first created shadow, then the Sun as a cause of it.
Dreams are an example that can help us to understand this creation better. Although our dreams have no

material counterpart, we still perceive the light and warmth of the Sun. From that point of view, dreams are
indications that perceptions of the Sun can be created in our minds without its actually being there.
However, within this test, God has also provided humans with a reason for everything. Day is caused
by the Sun, and rain by clouds. All of these are images that God creates individually in our minds. By cre-

ating a cause before an effect, God enables us to think that everything functions within specific rules, and
thus enables us to carry out scientific enquiry.

Objection: "Is there not a contradiction between describing the being of God with the proofs of His existence
in nature on the one hand, and saying that the physical world, put forward as a proof of His existence, does
not exist on the other?"

Reply: Some people who have not fully understood the essence of matter suppose that the statement
"The physical world consists of a collection of perceptions" means "Nothing exists." However, saying that
matter is a totality of perceptions or an image we perceive in our brains is not the same as saying that mat-
ter does not exist. There is a physical universe, but it exists only as a totality of perceptions. Just like our

dreams, it exists solely on the perceptual level.

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