Denying Our Innate Yearn for God is Absurd (6)
"New research finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in God. A three-year international research project, directed by two academics at the University of Oxford, finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in gods and an afterlife. A project involved 57 researchers who conducted over 40 separate studies in 20 countries representing a diverse range of cultures."[1]
Since human innate disposition can hardly be discounted, studies went to extreme and were conducted to investigate if there is a gene responsible for this religious inclination.[2]
This is a practical embodiment of the statement of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which he said more than 1400 years ago: "Every child is born with Fitrah (innate disposition, i.e. Islām) and his parents convert him to Judaism or Christianity or Magianism" Al-Bukhari & Muslim
Anthropologists observed that since beginning of time no societies were found without a worshiped deity; this confirms that natural instinct was the stimulus for man's perpetual yearn to connect with the Creator.
Plutarch (AD 46- 119) a Greek philosopher said: "If you go round the world you may find cities without walls, or literature or kings, or houses, or wealth, or money, without gymnasia or theaters. But no one ever saw a city without temples and gods, one which does not have recourse to prayer or oaths or oracles, which does not offer sacrifice to obtain, or celebrate rites to avert evil."[3]
Henri Bergson (1941) a French philosopher said: "We find in the past, we could find to-day, human societies with neither science nor art nor philosophy. But there has never been a society without religion"[4]
It is an inevitable necessity, which we sense with our heart and soul, that this phenomenal creation has a Creator. This tendency, toward the divine, increases specifically when man is in state of dire distress, disturbing calamity or fatal danger.
There is an English maxim, which says: "There are no atheists in foxholes", which means when the going gets tough everyone hastens to God! It is patently observable whenever one is in state of calamity he recourses to the Transcendent (God) for salvation.
Yusuf Islām, a former English pop singer called Cat Stevens who was an atheist, said: he nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California, United States, and shouted: "Oh, God! If you save me I will work for you." After he was saved, he went through a long quest; he thoroughly scrutinized multitudes of religions and came to a conviction that Islām is God's exclusively chosen religion.
Another intriguing incident occurred to Dr. Lawrence Brown, a white American doctor who was an atheist, when his new born baby girl was about to go through a series of open chest surgeries due to a deadly rare heart problem, he found himself compelled to call God. It was for the first time in his life he kneeled on his knees asking God, conditionally, if He saves my daughter I shall seek and follow the religion most pleasing to Him. He was astounded to find that his daughter was immediately cured. For him this was the beginning for the quest for God and after a thorough investigation he was led to Islām and became a popular advocate of Islām. [5]
There are many stories of atheists seeking God's help when afflicted with calamities.
Allāh, the Exalted, said: (And when adversity touches man, he calls upon his Lord, turning to Him [alone]; then when He bestows on him a favor from Himself, he forgets Him whom he called upon before) (Noble Qur'ān 39:8)
The way to serenity and a prosperous life is to surrender one's self to the innate yearn for God and from there one shall enjoy the blessed custody of Allāh ﷻ.
[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714103828.htm; see also, Justin L. Barret, "Born Believers" [2] Dean H. Hamer, "The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired Into Our Genes" [3] Kenny Rhodes, " The One Who Is: The Doctrine and Existence of God" [4] Henri Bergson, "The Sources of Morality and Religion" [5] To watch his amazing story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gr54pYc3Ak To read his story: https://www.allamericanmuslim.com/dr-laurence-brown.html
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