RE: HOW I BECAME AN ATHEIST BY ROLU ADEBOLA! (PART 1)

It takes a lot of courage and conviction to share what one holds dear to ones heart. Mr Rolu, your journey to Atheism is both a welcome hypothesis and study that needs constructive examination. To start with, it is a well established notion in scientific community that there is no final solution as one laudable discovery becomes a basis for asking another question and thus question and not answer is the beauty of Science. My own contribution is premised on the basis of faith and reasoning taking into cognizance that human evolution is not a sudden process rather through a gradual cycle. I am going to argue via stages (PART 1, 2….etc) of human creation from the first man on earth, that is, Adam (ASW).

The Glorious Quran refers to the creation of human beings thus : “It is He (Allah) who has created man from water. Then He has established relationships of lineage and marriage; for thy Lord has power over all things” – Q25:54. The above verse refers to the creation of Prophet Adam (ASW) and the established relationship through Eve (Hawau), obviously every human being emanated from these two sources. Only after advances have been made in Science do we now know that cytoplasm, the basic substance of the cell is made up of 80% water. Modern research has also revealed that most organisms consist of 50% to 90% water and that every living entity requires water for its existence.

Again, the Glorious Quran mentions no less than eleven times that human being is created from ‘Nutfah’, which means a minute quantity of liquid or a trickle of liquid (sperm) which remains after emptying a cup. The Quran says “Was he not a drop of sperm emitted (in lowly form)? Then did (Allah) make and fashion (him) in due proportion. And of him He made two sexes, male and female” – Q75:37-39. The Supreme Being is reasoning with YOU and I when He asked question in the verse above : “Was he not….?”. He also demonstrated His supremacy of creation when He said “Allah make and fashion him in due proportion…”.  Primarily, sex determination occurs according to the Glorious Quran at the fertilization and depends upon the type of sex chromosome (X or Y) in the sperm that fertilizes an ovum. Thus, Almighty Allah asserted “That He (Allah) did create in pairs – male and female, from a sperm-drop when lodged (in its place)” – Q53:45-46. It is therefore out of place to blame a woman for girl child since woman only brings forth X-chromosome.

In the course of fashioning our existence, Almighty Allah (SW) explained the stages of Embryology that was not known to anyone then (be it scientists or otherwise) to the last messenger – Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) in 14 centuries ago. God says “And indeed We created man (Adam) out of an extract of CLAY (water and dust); thereafter We made him (the offspring of Adam) as a NUTFAH (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge) and lodged it in a safe lodging (womb of the woman). Then We made the Nutfah into a CLOT (a piece of thick coagulated blood), then We made the clot into a LITTLE LUMP OF FLESH, then We made out of that little lump of flesh BONES, then We clothed the bones with FLESH, and then We brought it forth as ANOTHER CREATION. So blessed is Allah, the Best of Creators” – Q23:12-14.

In 1677, Hamm and Leeuwenhoek were the first scientists to observe human sperm cells (spermatozoa) using a microscope. They thought that a sperm cell contained a miniature human being that grew in the uterus to form a newborn. This was known as the perforation theory. When scientists discovered that the ovum was bigger than the sperm, it was thought by De Graf and others that the foetus existed in a miniature form in the ovum. Later, in the 18^th century Maupertuis propagated the theory of biparental inheritance. Recently, Prof. Marshall Johnson of Dept. of Anatomy, Thomas Jefferson University would have this to say about embryological stages of human development “I see nothing here (in Quran) in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved in scientific description of embryo when Muhammed (PBUH) recited the Quran”. Again, Dr Keith Moore, a non-Muslim professor of Embryology and a world expert on the subject at the University of Toronto was once asked ‘How do you explain this information in the Quran?’ Dr Moore’s response was, ‘It could only have been divinely revealed!’ (…to be continued)