Answer:  The overwhelming majority of the scientific world has accepted, especially in the last 40–50 years, that the Universe was created out of nothing about 13.7 billion years ago in the event called the Big Bang. In other words, the Universe is not eternal—it has a beginning. Therefore, there must be a Creator who brought it into existence from nothing.

Now, let us speak of the present Universe and the world we can observe today.

What we call the laws of Physics (or Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics, etc.)—the formulas and equations—are in fact only mathematical descriptions of the already-created order. They exist notionally or virtually on paper (or on a screen); they have no external or physical being of their own.

It is exactly like the Constitution or law books of a country: these are intellectual writings, sentences on paper. They do not govern or administer the state by themselves; they do not act; they are not agents.

Those who govern the state are real beings with external existence and with power and authority: the President, Ministers, Members of Parliament, Judges, Prosecutors, Generals, etc.

There are criminal laws, yes —but to execute them one needs entities that exist physically: police officers, prosecutors, judges, prisons, wardens, and so on.

Because the philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries confused physical (real) existence with conceptual (virtual) existence, they fell into the fallacy and the atheistic swamp of believing that “the laws of nature” themselves create, make, and manage everything in the world—an idea both irrational and self-contradictory.

In truth, it is evident that those physical, chemical, biological, and astrophysical laws—whose written expressions we see on paper—are merely formulas describing the perfect harmony, order, and balance of an already-existing, wonderfully designed system. They have no real, external being; they are only intellectual and mathematical representations.

Nature itself—with all its animals, plants, flowers, stones, crystals, atoms, and molecules—is a collection of magnificent works of art that point with the “eye of reason” to their infinitely wise and powerful Artist, the Supreme Creator.

A perfect work of art requires a perfect Artist.

The same applies to the law of Gravity or Attraction that operates among planets, moons, stars, and galaxies. Although gravitational waves should be the greatest force and energy in the Universe, they have not yet been directly detected even by our most advanced instruments and high-tech devices. The gravitational law itself is mathematically true and well-defined—but the actual act of attraction and holding together belongs only to the One of Infinite Power and Knowledge, the Sustainer (al-Qayyūm), who keeps every being in existence, moves and vibrates them in harmony.

In summary: Nature is nothing but an artwork and an act; it is not the Artist or Agent.

The laws of the universe are nothing but written formulas expressing the perfect harmony and order; they themselves can never act or create.

This explanation is adapted from Said Nursi’s “Treatise on Nature” (Risale-i Nur Collection, The Flashes — 23rd Flash).

I can send you the illustrated and annotated mobile version if you wish.

Dr. Ali Kemal Pekkendir

Windsor, UK

30 October 2021

akpekkendir@yahoo.com

THE TREATISES OF LIGHT (Risale-i Nur) : EXPLANATION OF THE QURAN

By Said Nursi (1877-1960)

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