NURSI’S VIEW OF SCIENCES

AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Prof. Dr. Yunus Çengel

Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, Turkey

(and University of Nevada, Reno, USA)

2012

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION • During the Middle Ages, Religion was the dominant influence in daily life,

and clergy held a monopoly on truth. This age is characterized by a

strong faith in the Church and the absolute authority of clergy.

• Aristotle’s (384 – 322 BC) doctrines related to the physical universe such as

the world being the center of universe and the planets moving in circular

motions were adopted as part of the doctrines of the Church.

• But the pioneering works of Copernicus, Keppler, and Galileo Galilei in the

16th century based on careful observations and experiments followed by the

formulation of the three laws of motion in 17th century by Newton disproved

the Aristotle doctrines and have shaken the Church’s credibility.

• This new method of acquiring knowledge about the universe on the basis

of observation, experimentation, and reason laid the foundations of the

scientific method and started the era of modern sciences.

• The revolt against the religious authority unwilling to loosen its grip on

knowledge is later dubbed as ‘scientific revolution’, and it resulted in the

Church losing more and more ground as sciences progressed.

• The continued scientific discoveries shattered the centuries old notions and

established the reason-based modern way of thinking.

RISE OF SCIENCE-BASED MATERIALISM • The scientific discoveries that refuted the long-held

beliefs and offered explanations of natural phenomena

cast a serious doubt on biblical authority, and resulted

in a growing skepticism about all religious truths.

• Everything was being questioned critically, and new

questions led to new discoveries. As the era of faith

and submission gave way to the era of reason, the

representation of knowledge shifted from religious

authority inspired by revelation to scientific

establishments relied on observation and reason.

• Eventually, the entire physical universe was declared

the domain of sciences, and religion was forced to

retreat into the realm of metaphysics and morality. But

the Church’s stand was weakened, and trust in

religious truths was deeply shaken.

• The dominance of science shed doubts on everything

that violated the natural laws such as miracles and

scriptures that spoke of supernatural.

ERA OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• During the 18th and 19th centuries, the world has

undergone a revolution in industrialization, dubbed as

‘industrial revolution’.

• At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a highly

successful and just as arrogant scientific establishment

that looked down on religion and all forms of the divine.

With expanding dominance of sciences and

materialistic philosophy, some argued, religions and

faith will become things of the past.

• Economic and social changes gave rise to

individualism and individual freedoms, and entangled

the moral fabrics of societies.

• All attention was turned to the world and to things that

provided material gain and enjoyment.

• The developments during the era of scientific and

industrial revolution showed that nothing would remain

the same, and religion was no exception.

NURSI and the REALITIES OF TIME

• Said Nursi is a contemporary religious scholar

who recognized the realities of time and

adhered to them rather than ignoring or

opposing them.

• He approached religion like a scientist by

challenging the mind with deep-probing

provocative questions related to theology and

religion, and then seeking answers to them

using rational arguments based on logic and

observations.

• Therefore, it can be said that Nursi adopted the

scientific method into religion in general and

theology in particular, and contributed to the

qualification of these branches of learning as

sciences.

• He did not hesitate from raising the most mind-

boggling questions and then resolving them in

a reasonable fashion.

ENLIGHTENMENT and REASON-BASED DISBELIEF

• Nursi viewed what looked to most as the peak of enlightenment and

awakening for humanity and the apex of civilization as abatement and

animalism.

• He saw this captivating wave of scientism and materialism that was side

stepping the divine and promising a joyous worldly life as a serious threat to

eternal life of people, and wanted to attract attention to this great danger.

• Being a realist, Nursi knew that faith in the divine was weak, and thus

basing his case on the verses of Holy Scriptures would be ineffective.

• Also, people were highly inclined towards worldly comfort and pleasures,

and asking people to give up the certain of the present for the probable of

the future would fall in deaf ears.

• Therefore, there was only one thing to do, and it was to counter reason-

based disbelief by reason-based belief, and

• to demonstrate that the purest, highest, and the longest lasting

pleasures even in this world are in belief and in leading a virtuous life.

• Nursi proved the matters of belief quite convincingly by refuting all

alternatives on the basis of observation, reason, and logical consistency.

NURSI’S APPROACH

• Nursi’s approach is very much in line with the scientific

approach.

• He builds his case on the basis of objective

observations and universally accepted facts, and

subjects his case to all sorts of scrutiny by heavily

engaging reason.

• He appeals his case to the mind for acceptance as true

knowledge only after showing by convincing arguments

that it passes all the tests for reasonableness,

compliance with observations, and conformity with

known facts.

• Therefore, Risale-i Nur “proves” the cases it makes to

satisfy the mind.

• In instances when the direct proof of a case is not

possible, Nursi uses the indirect approach and

disproves the opposing alternatives to show the validity

of his case.

• He then appeals to conscience for validation.

EVERYTHING IS MADE WITH KNOWLEDGE

• From atoms to galaxies everything is woven with a

web of knowledge.

• Scientific research is merely an attempt to expose this

knowledge structure of beings correctly and

completely. This is done by observing the glitters of

knowledge in the structures of beings and by inferring

the sun of knowledge that is the source of these

glitters with the mental eye.

• For example, the mass of cell is about one-billionth of

a gram. But the knowledge that is contained within

this cell fills volumes of books, and the amount is ever

increasing. Hundreds of scientists have been walking

through a cell whose length is one-hundredth of a

millimeter for years, and still there is no end at sight.

• The universe is a feast for knowledge, and a

mysterious book filled with wisdom waiting to be read

and understood. Nursi repeatedly emphasizes this

aspect of the universe with the phrase ‘the grand

book of universe.’

The fact that everything in

the universe is made with

knowledge and for all beings

seemingly to emanate

knowledge shows that there

is an all-encompassing

light of knowledge that

permeates into everything.

LIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE and MENTAL EYE

EVIDENCE OF KNOWLEDGE AS ‘EVIDENCE OF EXISTENCE

OF THE ALL-KNOWING ONE’

• Nursi relates precise measuredness in beings and the all-encompassing

glitter of knowledge to the divine name ‘All-knowing’:

• “A balance so perfect

• and measure so regular and unfailing

• govern in all living creatures and sorts of creatures from minute

particles to the planets of the solar system that

• they prove conclusively an all-encompassing knowledge and testify to

it with complete clarity.”

FROM KNOWLEDGE TO THE ALL-KNOWING ONE

“All the evidences for

knowledge are

evidences also for the

existence of the All-

Knowing One.

Since it is impossible

and precluded that there

should be an attribute

without the one it

qualifies, all the proofs

of knowledge form a

powerful and completely

certain supreme proof of

the Pre-Eternal All-

Knowing One’s

necessary existence.”

From ORDER to ORDERER

• Nursi views the presence of numerous branches of sciences as

evidence for the presence of order, and the presence of order

as the presence of an orderer:

• “A science has been formed about every field in the

universe and is being formed. The sciences consist of

universal laws. The universality of the laws discloses the

fine order in the field concerned. That is to say, each and

every science is a faithful witness to the fine order.”

SCIENCES CONTINUOUSLY SPEAK OF GOD

• When a group of high-school

students in Kastamonu visited Nursi

and asked him to tell them about their

Creator because their teachers do not

speak of God, he responded as

follows:

• “All the sciences you study

continuously speak of God and

make known the Creator, each with

its own particular tongue. Do not

listen to your teachers; listen to

them.”

• To Nursi, the science books and documentaries that do not

seem to be mentioning of God are indeed mentioning of God

constantly – just like a book or article written about a painting to

be talking about the artist and describing him or her indirectly.

MICROBE: A WONDEROUS DIVINE MACHINE • Nursi attracts attention to knowledge and consciousness, and states that

the existence of beings cannot be explained by the mindless and ignorant

cause-and-effect relations and the natural laws in the background:

• “A microbe that is invisible to the eye, a tiny animal, possesses a

rather delicate and peculiar divine machine. Since that machine’s

existence is a mere possibility, its chances of existence and

nonexistence are equal. It cannot come into existence without a

necessitating cause. It is essential that that machine comes into

existence with due cause. But that necessitating cause is not the

natural causes. Because the delicate order in that machine is the

result of knowledge and consciousness. The natural causes are

inanimate things with no knowledge and consciousness. One who

claims that intricate machine that amuses the minds to originate from

natural causes should bestow Plato’s consciousness and Calino’s

knowledge on every bit of natural causes. In addition, he should

believe that communication is present among the particles. Those

who are heedless of all wisdom and benefits in the grand order of the

universe pointing to a perfect will, an all-encompassing knowledge,

and a supreme power were obliged to attribute the real motive to the

inanimate causes.”

A CELL PHONE

• Cell phones function in full compliance

with the mechanical, electrical, and

electromagnetic laws and principles.

• But the presence of cell phones is not

the natural result of such natural laws.

• If there were no people in the world with

knowledge, artistry, will, wisdom, and

consciousness, there would be no such

thing as a cell phone today.

• The claim ‘Even if there were no

conscious human beings in the world, in

time there would form cell phones that

were capable of duplicating each other,

and aliens that land on earth would

collect cell phones from the ground like

pebbles’ has no scientific backing and no

validity.

A CHOCOLATE BOX LEFT AT THE DOOR STEP

• A person finds a box of chocolate gift wrapped in

a bag hanging at the door knob of his house.

• There is no question about the presence of the

box of chocolate since the five senses will

positively confirm it.

• The possible answers to the question ‘how did

this box of chocolate ended up at the door knob’:

1. Someone left it there intentionally as a sign of

love,

2. someone walking in the neighborhood dropped it

and a gusty wind blew it away,

3. the rain, wind, and lightening initiated chemical

reaction to form it and move it to the door knob.

• If there is no positive proof that a person left it, it

may be logical to accept the 2nd possibility. Now,

what if the same thing happens again the next

day?

CAPPADOCIA VALLEY, TURKEY:

CHIMNEY ROCKS AND UNDERGROUND CITIES

HOW ARE THEY MADE?

(If there is a design, there must be a designer.)

MATTER+POWER

WILL+

CONSCIOUSNESS+

KNOWLEDGE+

ART+

PURPOSE

MATTER+POWER

Wind, rain, hale; erosion

(No obvious purpose or will)

TRUE KNOWLEDGE vs OPINION vs BELIEF

• The primary sources of knowledge are observation and

experimentation that relies on the five senses, reason, written and

oral communication, perception, and association.

• Therefore, the acquisition of knowledge involves the five senses as

well as the sixth sense (inspiration) and the mental thought process.

• In humans, the acquisition of knowledge exhibits itself as developing

an innate understanding and growing awareness.

• Knowledge differs from opinions and beliefs in that mere beliefs

involve personal biases, opinions involve personal biases together

with doubt.

• Knowledge, on the other hand, involves a high level of certainty and

is free of personal biases and doubt.

• Therefore, knowledge is often characterized as justified true belief.

• It is something that the mind admits and the heart affirms.

MECHANISM OF A CLOSED WATCH

• Albert Einstein in Evolution of Physics: “In our endeavor

to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying

to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He

sees the face and the moving hands, even hears it’s

ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is

ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism

which could be responsible for all the things he

observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is

the only one which could explain his observations. He

will never be able to compare his picture with the real

mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility

or the meaning of such a comparison."

• There is certainty and unanimity in what is observed (the

face and the moving hands of the watch), but uncertainty

and differing opinions in the nature of the unobservable

(the sealed mechanism that runs the watch).

• Therefore, even in observation-based sciences, opinions

can easily be confused with plain facts and be perceived

as facts since they often come packaged together.

MIND AND CONSCIENCE

• There are two faculties in people that serve as

the center for acceptance and rejection of

information presented as true or false: the mind

and the conscience.

• The mind weighs things on the scale of reason

using universal logical rules.

• The conscience judges on the basis of the built-in

core values and the ethical rules.

• Therefore, the mind functions as the external

examiner and judge while the conscience

operates internally by consulting with other inner

faculties.

• Both the mind and the conscience play important

roles in accepting the presented information as

true knowledge or rejecting it as falsehood.

• What is true knowledge for one can be falsehood for another.

ONE SOURCE for TRUE RELIGION AND SCIENCES

• Nursi states that there can be no contention between true religion and

factual sciences. The source of true religion and factual sciences is the

same.

• He labels the expression ‘This fact contradicts religion’ as a ‘foolish

word’.

• He maintains that true religion and factual sciences must be allies working

together and not foes working against each other. This is because all

sciences originate from the holy names All-Wise (al-Hakim) and All-

Knowing (al-Alim) while holy scriptures come from the attribute Speech (al-

Kelam); and the Divine unity cannot allow contradiction.

• If there appears to be a contradiction, the two must reconcile by making

sure that the scientific fact is indeed a fact and that the scripture is

interpreted correctly. If there appears to be a contradiction between

authentic narrations and factual sciences, the mind is to be taken as the

base and the narration is to be interpreted.

• Reason is a valid criterion and a uniting reference for all humankind, and

authentic narrations cannot be understood or applied in a way that

commonsense cannot accept.

SCIENCES AND RELIGION HAND IN HAND

• Sciences that are based on certified facts can prevent nonfactual

interpretations in religion while religion can shed light to sciences to

progress in the right direction.

• As expressed by Albert Einstein in his famous quote ‘Science without

religion is lame, and religion without science is blind,” denying one

another is harmful to both religion and sciences.

• For example, if modern medicine subscribed to the notion that every being

is in its highest creation, rather than the notion that every being is the

outcomes of a chain of random events, it would not fall into the mistake of

searching for a baby food superior to mother’s milk or viewing menopause

as an illness and attempting to treat it with estrogen supplements, with

apparent adverse results.

• Like a rationalist, Nursi emphasizes the importance of passing the tests for

logic, consistency, and coherence in the evaluation of propositions: “Logic

and coherence should be taken as a guide.” “The guides that will point

to the path of moderation and stir away from extremism on both sides

are the philosophy of religion, lucidity, logic, and sciences.” Therefore,

Nursi views both empiricism and rationalism as valid approaches so long as

they are used in their rightful places.

POSITIVISM

• Positivism is the strict form of empiricism that limits genuine knowledge to

that which is based on sense experience alone.

• Founded primarily by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in 1830s and

spread throughout Europe in the second half of the 19th century, positivism

holds that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge

acquired by the scientific method using observations.

• Positivism requires knowledge to be testable, logical, and the outcome to

be observable with human senses. Any proof should be made by empirical

means only and not by rational arguments. It declares any knowledge

based on other sources such as innate faculties and intuition as

meaningless, and rejects all forms of metaphysics and inquiries about the

ultimate causes or origins of events.

• Therefore, positivist philosophy is confined to observable ‘positive’ facts

verified empirically by actual senses.

• It is plausible that positivism itself does not qualify as genuine knowledge

since it cannot be verified empirically.

• Therefore, positivism better fits into the domain of ideology, and the

positivistic view is labeled as ‘scientism’.

POSITIVISM: NOT QUITE POSITIVE

• Positivists label untestable knowledge not as wrong but as meaningless and

thus ignore it. Many philosophers rejected this confining approach.

• At first look, positivist approach seems appropriate for hard sciences

such as physics, chemistry, and geology since they are based on

observations, but even this is debatable in the light of quantum mechanics

since the presence of observer may influence the outcome.

• Also, based on physical laws, we precisely know what time the sun will rise

tomorrow morning. Yet positivism will reject this knowledge since it cannot

be tested (our senses are limited to the current time).

• Therefore, positivism is irrelevant for most knowledge, and thus cannot

be used as a general criterion for true knowledge.

• Nursi uses the expressions ‘understand no further than their eyes see,

have no heart, are blind, and have grown distant from spiritual

matters’ to describe those who subscribe to the positivist movement and

limit knowledge to what is acquired on the basis of observation and

experiments alone.

• He points out that the sphere of the mind is much larger than that of the

eye, and the domain of the hearth is much larger than that of the mind.

EMPIRICISM: LIKE A GROCERY STORE

• Five senses and empiricism is just one of the mechanisms of acquiring

knowledge.

• Declaring knowledge that is not suitable for testing in the laboratories as

unscholarly is not scholarship, but rather, it is prejudice and bigotry.

• The positivist approach can be suitable for sciences that are based on

observation and laboratory testing, but branches of learning are not limited

to sciences.

• The scale of grocer can measure only things that have weight. Ignoring

and even denying things like temperature, length, electric charge, time, and

light because they cannot be measured by a grocer’s scale is not

‘scholarship’; it is ‘grocer’ship.

• The scale that receives and measures the light

of knowledge is the mind, both knowledge and

the mind are non-matter.

• Limiting knowledge to the amount that can

reflect on matter is an attempt to materialize

knowledge and its processing center, the mind.

AREA OF EXPERTISE

• The views of positivists on non-matter areas do not have much validity.

• “With respect to a problem subject to discussion in science or art,

those who stand outside that science or art cannot speak

authoritatively, however great, learned and accomplished they may be,

nor can their judgments be accepted as decisive. They cannot form

part of the learned consensus of the science.

• For example, the judgment of a great engineer on the diagnosis and

cure of a disease does not have the same value as that of the lowliest

physician.”

• “Whenever there is disagreement about the nature of something, the

opinion of the person closely is valued no matter how intelligent the

far person is.

• Therefore, one cannot say that the philosophers that discovered

technological things like lightening and steam can also discover the

lights of the Qur’an and the secrets of truth. Because his mind is at his

eyes. And the eye cannot see what the mind and the heart see.”

DOES SMOKING CAUSE CANCER?

RATIONALISTS: YES; POSITIVSTS: NO

• Tobacco use is closely associated with lung cancer,

with 90% of lung-cancer deaths among men in the

US attributed to smoking.

• Men who smoke one pack a day are 10 times more

likely to suffer lung cancer compared with

nonsmokers. Also, smokers are up to 6 times more

likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers.

• For an ordinary person looking at these statistics it is

clear that smoking causes cancer and a rational

person should abstain from smoking.

• For a rationalist, the proposition ‘smoking causes

cancer’ is true knowledge since it is certified on the

basis of an overwhelming amount of evidence.

• Yet for a positivist, this proposition is false since there

are some smokers who never get cancer, and thus

falsifying the proposition.

DOES DRUNK-DRIVING CAUSE ACCIDENTS?

RATIONALISTS: YES; POSITIVSTS: NO

• Similarly, from positivistic view, the proposition

‘drunk driving causes accidents’ is false since

there are so many people who drove while drunk

without getting involved in a traffic accident.

• Positivist approach based on the strict scientific

method is limited to inanimate beings only, and is

not applicable to human beings.

• Adopting a rational approach, the whole world is

unanimous in discouraging smoking because of

its harm to smokers themselves and banning

drunk driving because of its potential harm to

others.

• Governments appeal to the minds of their citizens

with ‘facts’ based on data obtained from

observational studies to instill beliefs in them and

to change their behavior regarding smoking and

drunk driving.

RATIONAL APPROACH

• Nursi does the same thing in Risale-i Nur on

matters of belief and religion by presenting ‘facts’

on the basis of reasoned arguments stemming

from observations.

• Nursi strongly argues that a rational person

should choose belief over disbelief, just like

choosing non-smoking over smoking, using

statistics:

• “For would not anyone who considers himself

to be reasonable understand how contrary to

reason and wisdom such a person’s conduct

is, and how far from reason he has become,

if, thinking it reasonable, he gives half of his

property to a lottery in which 1000 people are

participating and the possibility of winning is

1 in a 1000, and does not give 1/24th of it to

an eternal treasury where the possibility of

winning has been verified at 99 out of 100?”

INDUCTIVE REASINING: CONNECT-THE-DOTS

• Sense experiences generate glimpses of data or information that are

reflections of underlying universal phenomena and are indicative of them.

• It is neither possible nor it is practical to conduct every conceivable

experiment related to a phenomenon. Therefore, after a sufficient number of

observations, we need to generalize the instances of facts that if a

proposition holds in all observed cases, then it also holds in all cases.

• The acquisition of universal knowledge requires some form of inductive

reasoning or simply induction, which is the process of inferring a law,

principle, generalization, conclusion, or judgment from particular instances

of occurrences.

• This is like playing the “connect the dots” game: The dots on the given page

are real, as everyone can observe, and they are placed correctly. But we

cannot make much sense of them unless we connect the dots as instructed.

• As the picture emerges, the individual dots lose their importance and

become insignificant since we have generated many more of them as part

of the connecting process.

INDUCTION: CONNECT THE DOTS

GENERALIZATIONS and DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

• Generalizations drawn by inductive reasoning have different degrees of

certainty, and there is always a risk for induction to lead to falsehoods from

truths, like getting the wrong picture by connecting the right dots incorrectly.

• But this is a risk worth taking as it is the lesser evil, and no scientific

progress and development can be made without such exercises.

• As the saying goes, if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck,

and quacks like a duck, we should not hesitate to call it a duck.

• Besides, we trust the truth-seeking humanity that it will eventually discern

falsehood from truth.

GENERALIZATIONS and DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

• Doctors must continue to make diagnostics using induction based on a

limited number of observed symptoms unless we are willing to do away with

medical science because of some bad misdiagnoses.

• Also, empiricists need to go beyond the direct sense experiences and admit

testimony as a legitimate source of knowledge since much data nowadays

are generated elsewhere, and scientific induction heavily depends on data

transmitted from reliable sources.

• And we have to rely on sound reason to sort things out and to make best

sense out of what we have under our hands.

INFERING FROM ART TO THE ARTIST

• In Risale-i Nur, Nursi gives outstanding examples in the

arena of induction using a sound train of logic.

• For example, judging from the observation that everything

in existence is made with art together with knowledge (like

a butterfly being a wonder of art while being a living flying

machine), he infers to the attributes of the artist:

• “It is a well-known fact that works of art which are well-

proportioned, symmetrical, perfect, and beautiful are

based on an exceedingly well-drawn-up plan. And a

perfectly drawn plan points to a perfectly sound

knowledge, fine intellect, and refined faculty of spirit.

• That is to say, it is the spirit’s immaterial beauty which

is manifested in art by means of knowledge. Thus, the

universe, with its innumerable material fine qualities, is

formed of the distillations of immaterial fine qualities

pertaining to knowledge. And those immaterial

qualities pertaining to knowledge and those

perfections are certainly the manifestations of an

infinite, eternal loveliness, beauty, and perfection.”

TESTIMONY AS SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE

• Testimony – information based on others’ knowledge – has long been a

common source of knowledge whose probability of truth depends directly on

the degree of reliability of the origin.

• Written testimony that passes stringent tests of scrutiny for authenticity, and

oral testimony that survives trustworthiness tests – like cross examination in

courts of law – are credible sources of knowledge.

• During a trial, for example, the testimony of a couple of trustworthy

witnesses is sufficient to establish guilt and convict an accused as charged.

• Once a judgment is passed, the commitment of crime changes from a mere

possibility to justified true belief and thus knowledge. It remains that way

until the knowledge is refuted by other more credible testimony or

compelling physical evidence such as contradictory DNA tests.

• What is required in courts of law for accusations to turn into knowledge is

not absolute certainty, which may be impossible to achieve, but rather the

establishment of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

• History is the discipline that deals with narrative description, analysis, and

interpretation of past events related to human beings, with aim of producing

an accurate account of the past on the basis of preserved authentic records.

CERTIFIED NARRATION (FILTERED THROUGH LOGIC)

• Nursi uses certified narration – narration filtered through logic – as a source

of knowledge in the Risale-i Nur.

• This way, he merges rationalism with certified narration.

• Although we have no direct experience of it, testimony is probably the

biggest source of our knowledge in real life.

• We are constantly fed information through the internet, television, radio,

newspapers, books, and telephones – even teachers in the classrooms and

coworkers at work.

• Only a small fraction of our knowledge is based on our five senses and

reasoning.

• The age we live in is called the ‘age of information and communication’

since a huge amount of information is constantly being generated and is

instantly transmitted all over the world.

• Therefore, disregarding testimony or transmitted knowledge as a credible

source of knowledge is a one-way ticket to dark ages.

• Of course transmitted knowledge should be scrutinized for logical

consistency and reasonableness, and discarded if deemed unreliable.

• .

NATURAL SCIENCES AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• Science can be defined as the continuing process of acquiring knowledge

about the universe in a systematic manner and reducing that body of

knowledge into general principles that is open to testing by others.

• Sciences have emerged out of philosophy, and the study of the physical

universe and the description of the workings of nature was the topic of

‘natural philosophy’, which is now called ‘natural sciences

• Science constitutes the branch of knowledge that is related to observed

phenomena in both animate and inanimate worlds. As such, scientific

information is universal in nature and it is common to all people since we all

share the same universe.

• Sciences are subdivided into the categories of natural sciences which study

natural phenomena, and social sciences which study human behavior and

societies. The natural sciences consist of physical sciences (physics,

chemistry, astronomy, etc.), the earth sciences (physical geography,

geology, hydrology, meteorology, etc.), and the life sciences (biology,

zoology, botany, genetics, medicine, etc).

• Social sciences include psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economy.

Sciences such as biology and social sciences that rely heavily on statistics

are called soft sciences.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• Scientific knowledge is condensed into testable (and thus falsifiable)

theories and laws. The scientific method involves the elements of

• (1) the collection of data and evidence through experimentation and

observation,

• (2) the formulation of hypotheses by the reduction of data and evidence, (3)

testing of the hypotheses,

• (4) elimination of any inconsistencies through reasoning, and

• (5) verification of hypotheses by further testing, examinations, and

reasoning.

• The goal of science is to acquire knowledge in order to better understand

and describe natural phenomena. This is done by revealing the intricacies

of the inner workings of beings, and thus exposing the invisible machines

than govern natural phenomena behind the scenes.

• The testing ground for material beings is the modern laboratories equipped

with the state of the art equipment and well-trained technicians.

• Hypotheses are verified or falsified on the basis of data obtained from

careful measurements.

NO ABSOLUTE CERTAINITY

• Even after being well-established, scientific theories are subject to

falsification by new contradictory data obtained by more careful

measurement. Therefore, absolute certainty in sciences is a rarity.

• For observational studies, the entire earth becomes an observatory.

• Scientific knowledge about the fields of psychology and sociology is derived

by carefully observing the common traits in the behaviors of individuals and

groups of individuals, respectively. Medical science involves both laboratory

studies and observational studies in acquiring knowledge related to health.

• Science pertains to perceived reality, and it is a valuable tool for trying to

describe what is. But it does not deal with untestable matters.

• The objective of science to understand, describe, and formulate physical

phenomenon (usually as physical laws or theories) underlying the

occurrences in natural world, and then use it to predict similar future

occurrences.

• Non-scientific information that is inconsistent with sciences will not find

much acceptance. Well-supported non-scientific information with convincing

arguments and logical consistency will be perceived by the human mind as

‘fact’ – just like scientific information based on observations/experiments.

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY

• Science is often mixed with opinions, beliefs, and extensions, and thus

unscientific information is often presented as science.

• To avoid confusion and mix-up, it should be remembered that science

refers to objective knowledge and deals with what is.

• Scientific knowledge is based on observable phenomena, and it is open to

testing by others for verification or falsification. The objective of science is to

describe what is on the basis of sensation filtered through reason, but not to

deduce.

• The conclusions drawn or deductions made for the insensible part of the

studied phenomena on the basis of what is sensed is philosophy and not

science. (Still, the line between science and non-science is not clearly

drawn).

• Therefore, when it is done right, there is unanimity in science since all

unbiased observers will observe the same, but conflict in philosophy since

the deductions made often reflect personal biases

MAKING THE RIGHT INFERRAL

• Nursi accepts the sciences being based on the five senses as part of their

nature, and casts the sciences that are based on the sensual experiences

as the sensory organs of humanity.

• He calls on people to interpret the knowledge that comes via the sciences

and points the high order behind the scenes and to make the right inferrals:

• “O mankind! If your thinking and your vision prove inadequate to

discover this high order, … examine the universe and read its pages

via the sciences that result from the joining of ideas of people and are

like the senses of humanity so that you see that high order that leaves

the minds astonished.”

• According to Nursi, if the world were a human being, the sciences would

have been its senses through which to perceive the environment.

• The scientific method relies on observations and careful reasoning. Science

analyzes what is sensed on the basis of reason and logic, and any

deductions that go beyond what is observed are not scientific.

• Studying the behavior of living organisms systematically under varying

conditions is science, but theorizing about how life started on earth is non-

science.

TESTING HYPOTHESES: THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

• Consistency with existing body of knowledge, conformity to observed

phenomena, and compliance with reason, and logical consistency are

important tools for testing hypotheses.

• The requirement of logical consistency can be used as effective means of

identifying and eliminating falsehood.

• This is commonly done by thought experiments even in the fields of hard

natural sciences like physics.

• The motivation behind thought experiments is clear: They are fast,

inexpensive, easy to device, and very effective especially in falsifying

hypotheses. Besides, sometimes it is impossible to set up real experiments

in the lab for certain phenomena (like those associated with black holes),

and experimental work is time consuming and expensive.

• Albert Einstein is famous for well-done thought experiments in physics.

• Said Nursi is also a master in setting up vivid scenarios and analyzing them

in the light of knowledge and reason.

• With often used expressions like ‘Is It at all possible …’, Nursi invites people

repeatedly to weigh differing ideas with the scale of logic.

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS: RELY ON

EXPERIMENTATION, OBSERVATION, AND REASON • They involve the collection of raw data that contain unprocessed

information, the analysis and classification of facts, checking for logical

consistency, and generalization – like the supply-and-demand law in

economics.

• Experimentation constitutes a major part of scientific investigations for

sciences that involve matter such as physics and chemistry.

• But sciences that involve the behavior of humans and human societies are

characterized as observational, and proceed mostly via observation and

reason.

• Social sciences attempt to use the scientific method to the extent it is

applicable, but humanities have no such concern.

• Philosophy and religion are treated as social sciences so long as they seek

explanations of social phenomena. They become humanities (cultural

sciences) when emphasis shifts to understanding, appreciation, and

interpretation.

• Social sciences cover the fields of study outside the natural sciences,

humanities, and the arts (between natural sciences and the humanities).

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION, AND THEOLOGY

• Philosophy, which means ‘love of wisdom’ and implicates ‘deep

understanding’ and ‘innate enlightenment’, is the discipline concerned with

the investigation of truth regarding existence through logical reasoning.

• As such, philosophy relies primarily on rationalism and thus reasoned

arguments rather than empiricism as its method of inquiry. This is to be

expected since the philosophical topics are not suitable for empirical work.

• The primary goal of philosophy is the discovery of the significance and

essence of existence, and the exposition of the intricacies associated with

the emergence, implications, and interrelations of beings.

• Philosophy is related to the underlying core concepts and principles that

characterize beings and govern events, and every discipline has a

philosophy that deals with the investigation of the basic concepts and

principles associated with it. The philosophy of science, for example, is

concerned with the foundations, implications, and methodology of science.

• The philosophy of religion, which deals with questions on religion, for

example, is considered a branch of metaphysics.

• Some branches of philosophy are logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics,

aesthetics, and semantics.

THEOLOGY

• Theology is the study of the divine, beliefs, nature of God, and religious

teachings.

• Natural theology is the branch of theology based on reason and rational

arguments alone with no recourse to revelation and scriptures. It differs

from revealed theology which is based on scriptures.

• Judging from the imaginative mental scenarios set up and the rational

arguments presented to demonstrate his cases in his Risale-i Nur

collection, Said Nursi can be labeled as a brilliant natural theologian.

• He uses natural theology as a platform to arrive at revealed theology and to

set up the proper framework for the interpretation of revelation, and thus

merging these two branches of theology and conforming reason with

revelation.

• Nursi states that the words on religion and theology of those who are

involved in the positive sciences based on matter do not carry much weight

since these two fields are much different than one another – just like the

words of an engineer on medicine do not have much value.

NURSI AND EINSTEIN

• Nursi views the universe as a major book, and the creatures as the lines or

pages of that book. The discussions in Risale-i Nur are based to a large

extent on observations and reasoned arguments, and thus they are fully

compatible with scientific approach. Therefore, although the risales are

religious pamphlets, they also resemble scientific articles.

• Einstein: “We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library

filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must

have written those books. It does not know how. It does not

understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly

suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but

doesn't know what it is.

• Nursi, like Einstein, sets up his experiments in mental world rather than the

physical world. Many risales start with a claim and end with a proof.

• Nursi supports this thesis with thought experiments such as: “Imagine

there is a pharmacy in which there are hundreds of jars filled with

quite different substances. A living potion and a living remedy are

required from those medicaments. So we go to the pharmacy and see

that they are to be found there in abundance, yet in great variety.

PHARMACY EXAMPLE

• Starting with the pharmacy example, Nursi states

that each living being may be likened to the living

potion in the comparison, and each plant to a living

remedy that is composed of matter taken in most

precise measure from numerous and various

substances.

• He declares the claim ‘causes created these’ and

attributing living beings to causes and elements to

be as unreasonable and absurd as the claim that

the potion in the pharmacy came into existence

through the jars being knocked over by accident.

• At the end, he states that all living creatures can

only come into existence “through a boundless

wisdom, infinite knowledge and all-

encompassing will.”

• With such reason-based arguments, Nursi aims to

satisfy the mind by overcoming all possible

objections and to establish contentment in the

heart.

APPEALING TO MIND

• Unlike the traditional religious scholars, Nursi does

not invite people to embrace faith by dropping

reason and unconditionally surrendering to the

commandments in the undisputable Holy Scriptures.

• That is, he does not appeal to the conscience or

hearths of people alone and bypass the mind.

• Instead, he places any religious matter into the

hands of minds, and challenges the minds to

examine the matter most critically using the most

stringent criteria for scientific information.

• He is not afraid of opening religious matters to all

sorts of questioning and criticism since he contends

that there can be no contradiction between the

sound mind and true messages of religion.

• The mind may not be able to fully comprehend

some realms of religion; but lack of comprehension

is not rejection

FROM ART TO THE ARTIST

• By carefully analyzing what is observed and making logical inferrals, Nursi

went further than the natural scientists in opening tunnels into the

phenomena governing ordinary events behind the scenes, and describing

those invisible phenomena fully with logical consistency. For example, Nursi

makes the following inferrals on the basis of the observation that all

existence, individually and collectively, exhibiting signs of great wisdom:

FROM ART TO THE ARTIST

• “The inscriptions and adornments of a faultless palace which are

perfect show behind them the perfection of a master builder’s acts.

• And the perfection of the acts shows the perfection of that effective

master’s titles and names, which demonstrate his rank.

• And the perfection of the names and titles show the perfection of the

other attributes qualifying the master builder’s art.

• And the perfection of the art and attributes show the perfection of the

abilities and essential capacity of that craftsman, which are called the

essential qualities.

• And the perfection of those essential qualities and abilities show the

perfection of the master’s essential nature.

• And in exactly the same way, these faultless works observed in the

world … this art in the well-ordered beings of the universe, point

observedly to the perfect acts of an effective possessor of power.”

MATERIALISTIC WORLD VIEW

• We sense many things – including force, love, and even life – only when

they manifest on matter, and naturally we think matter to be the source of

everything.

• This prejudgment that we grew up with without much questioning still forms

the main platform that sciences are built on.

• Nursi rejected this view and stated that “the matter in which they got

drowned did not even wet my toes.”

• While the materialistic thinkers present the familiar physical universe that

formed after the big bang as the whole of existence, Nursi views this

universe as the ‘corpse of creation’ which he terms the ‘manifest

universe’.

• He describes the ‘nature’ as the laws and principles of creation that regulate

the motions material beings, and sees nature as a divine printing machine

that prints the works of the Creator in the form of books:

• “There exists divine laws of creation that keep the motions of the elements

and parts of the corpse of creation, known as the manifest universe, in line

and in order. It is this set of the laws of creation that is called ‘nature’ or

‘divine printing machine.’”

NATURE: A PRINTING MACHINE

• To Nursi, natural laws are a section of the

constitution of creation called nature, and force

is the enforcement of these laws.

• The laws of nature being in effect since the

beginning of the universe and the tendency of

people to view illusion as reality set the stage

to dress nature with real external existence by

solidifying and extending the airy nature with

the imposition of the imagination.

• This is done to such extent as if there is an

invisible powerful hand that controls everything

from subatomic particles to galaxies, and

enforces the laws.

• In reality, what are known as laws and general

forces do not have the ability to serve as the

cause and the source for this universe.

• The traffic lights, and the traffic laws have to

power to make the cars stop or go.

BOOKS: PRODUCTS OF A PRINTING MACHINE • Thinking that the works of wonder are the make of nature which is nothing

more than a printing press is similar to the claim that a book is the natural

product of a printing machine.

• To Nursi, nature is nothing more than a channel of water, but somehow it is

confused with being the source of water.

• The superficial view that looks at a printing machine as the author of printed

books has paved the way for shallow and amusing situations.

SUMMARY of NURSI’S APPROACH • Nursi can be portrayed as a new-age religious scholar and a theologian as

he has chosen observation and reason as his main platform of study, with

testimony serving in a supporting role.

• Instead of taking scripts as indisputable facts, Nursi uses observations and

reason to prove the stated facts in the scripts.

• That is, he closed the door to blind submission that sidesteps the mind, and

opened the way for convincing via rational arguments by fully engaging the

mind.

• It can even be said that Nursi combined natural theology and revealed

theology and merged revelation with reason.

• In his approach Nursi combines the best of empiricism, rationalism, and

testimony and sets the stage for inference by appealing to the mind and

conscience of the reader.

• Nursi sets up vivid scenarios and thought experiments to appeal his case,

and fully engages reason with questions like ‘is it at all possible …?’

• Therefore, Nursi’s approach resembles in many ways the modern scientific

method of inquiry.

SOME CONCLUSIONS • Similar to the scientific and industrial revolutions, Nursi

has initiated a rational approach to religion at the down

of the new millennium by opening up even the most

sensitive theological matters to criticism and scientific

scrutiny.

• Nursi demonstrates in his Risale-i Nur collection that

faith and sciences are not adversaries but rather allies.

• He also mentions that all sciences continuously speak

of God and make known of the Creator in their particular

ways.

• Nursi maintains that there can be no contradiction

between confirmed scientific facts and religion.

• He states that careful observations and objective

thinking that form the platform of positive sciences

necessitate belief rather than disbelief.

• Despite the common thought, Nursi asserts that

sciences that maintain objectivity and logical

consistency confirm belief and not refute it.

Thank you!