" We will show you Our signs in the universe and in yourself till it becomes clear to you that what the messenger has brought is the truth", proclaimed Qur'an fourteen centuries ago (Ch 41 V 53). Scientific discoveries and advancement of technologies in the last century are mostly considered as an economic opportunity and a means to live a life of pleasure and comfort. But they have also opened new vistas of God consciousness to those who are not arrogant about what they know but are humbled by what they don't know. That is why Qur'an says: it is the knowledgeable who revere Allah the most (Ch 35 V 28) Indeed if we looks into the universe and ourselves, not just with the sight which we shares with animals but with a vision which is the virtue of a human being, we will indeed cry out from the bottom of our heart that God alone is the reality and force behind our existence in this universe. But for this we should get rid of the devil in us which inspires us to reject God just because of our little role in making these inventions by using the intellect and the materials provided by God.
Man's sojourn into space might give an atheist a feeling of conquest of the universe but for a religious person it inspires awe and a feeling of humility. It dawns on him a realization of his insignificance before the magnificence of the universe, and yet makes him feel proud for his ability to penetrate into its secrets. These mixed feelings of insignificance and still being a functional part of it in spires in man a God Consciousness which is much deeper and everlasting than any sermon.
Similarly an entomologist is astounded by the variety of insects on the land; an ornithologist is astonished by the assortment of birds, their behavior, and their calls; a marine biologist is surprised at the multiplicity of marine life; an oceanographer is wonderstruck by the vastness of the oceans, its resources and its role in making our weather; a botanist is still counting the flora on the surface of the earth, and a zoologist is amazed at the variety of fauna inhabiting it. Geologists are still not able to fathom the mineral resources buried in the earth for the need of all mankind till eternity.
The arrangement which God has made by providing us with the fertile lands, the system of rain, the ice caps, the rivers, the underground water reserves, the germinating process in the seeds, and above all giving the agriculture community an enduring interest in tending their lands to provide us with our most essential need of food. It is astonishing to see how so much variety of food in form of cereals, pulses, lentils, vegetables, herbs, fruits and nuts with so many different tastes is grown in the same soil to satiate our demand for variety. We don’t even ponder about this stupendous arrangement which God has made for us, and think that we are getting our food because of the paper and plastic money which we have earned.
When an embryologist looks into the stages of development of a cute little baby from a single cell he is not just astonished but also overwhelmed by the power of the Creator to create this marvel of
His creation in the darkness of the womb. A physiologist who studies the functioning of various systems in the body and the various chemical reactions taking place in the body to metabolize the food and excrete the waste and maintain a balanced internal milieu is wonder struck by this smooth functioning of our body at no cost. When a psychologist probes into the mind of individual from infancy to senility he is amazed at its wonders. All the capabilities and capacities packed into us to give us a life of health and happiness are taken for granted till we are incapacitated by some affliction. Doctors are amazed at the healing power of God and the fighting spirit of man in overcoming these afflictions more than their expertise and the medicines when they see them fail in other cases. If we see ourselves with this vision, our being becomes the scripture that evokes a level of God consciousness which can't be achieved by spending a life time studying scriptures at a seminary.
There are several religious beliefs which were outside the pale of understanding for people of yester years.
Thanks to the discoveries and inventions in the past decades that it has become easier for us to understand and believe in the power of God than it was for people before us. The prerequisite to reach this understanding is the humility to accept that when we with the intellect and the materials provided to us by God are able to do what we are doing, God who has gifted these things to us must be more powerful to do what the prophets have told us about Him.
One of the overbearing beliefs in religion which restrains man from doing the wrong and motivates him to do the right thing is the belief that God is watching over him (Ch 57 V 4). GPS technology which we have created with the help of faculties given to us by God is not just to help us reach our destination or be located when we are lost, but also to develop this consciousness that God is watching over us. Based upon the signals sent by chip in the GPS, the satellite is capable of establishing our location and directing us to our destination. Like the chip in GPS system, the spirit of God which is in us is in constant communication with Him and keeping Him informed about where we are and what we are doing.
But we find it convenient to deny this because it haunts us to believe that some one is watching us while we are engaged in our evil deeds. The night vision technology which is now available to us should keep us wary about committing sins in the dark.
God definitely has better night vision technology to visualize and record our sins committed in the dark than what he has helped us to discover for our own use.
Another religious belief is that when we deny our wrong doings on the Day of Judgment, God will present the whole scene of our crime before us (Ch 99 V 6-8). Now when we are able to record the memorable events of our lives on VCRs and DVRs and see it again and again, it becomes difficult for us to deny this possibility.
The question about where God has stored the life stories of zillions of individuals to be shown on the Day of Judgment becomes meaningless when we ourselves are using small memory storage devices with unbelievable storage capacity. The circuits for these memory devices are made by silica, a single most abundant element kept on our earth to absorb and store the images of our acts to be revealed to us in the hereafter. Eternal presence of sound waves of our spoken words in the air whose retrieval is scientifically possible adds sound to the images of our evil actions ingrained on silica to be presented as proof when we deny our evil deeds.
Interactive, intelligent assistance which we get over the telephone about details of our customer accounts, movie and airline reservations etc.
which is provided by a chip supports the holy scripture which says: when we deny our evil deeds, our mouths will be sealed and our hands and our feet will bear witness for them (Ch.
36 V 65); And our skin will speak and say: Allah who has given the power of speech to all things has commanded us to speak (Ch 41 V 21). It is impossible to deny this when we see a chip designed and deployed by us is talking to us in
