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THE SUN RISES IN THE WEST – SCIENCE FOR THE HOUR

The metaphysical issue is still raised within the scientific
community. For example, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), publisher of the review Science,
held a conference in 1999 on Cosmic Questions, whose programme
included a day dedicated to the following topic: Is the Universe
designed? On this occasion, for instance, were asserted the
compatibility of Darwinian evolutionism with the faith in a Creator
or even the idea according to which quantum physics in no way
reduces the credibility of materialism and scientism. Furthermore,
the progresses in astrophysics led some scientists not to exclude
that evolution and the characteristics of the Universe are marked by
a plan or a creative principle. According to them, the laws and
constants of the Universe must be adjusted in an extremely precise
way so that life and thought can appear, since the slightest variation
of them would render impossible the emergence of any form of
complexity. These ideas come from scientists who recognize the
current theories, not from supporters of the creationist thesis, or
that known under the name of "Intelligent Design," which are both
critical of the theory of evolution.

The idea of an opposition between "creation" and "evolution"
forms part of the controversy involving the notions of creationism
1
and evolutionism . Varying responses have been given regarding
the question of their compatibility. It is not our aim to present and
study them here. We will limit ourselves to clarifying that at the
heart of the cultural area concerning the Quran, which is this
work’s primary object of study, is proposed and largely shared the
idea according to which the sacred text of the seventh century in no
way contradicts the naturalist idea of an evolutionary process since
the beginnings of the Universe, even going so far finds some
alignment with it. This process, conceived of as natural, is therefore
thought of as the chosen mode of creation, the work of
Transcendence. On this basis, evolution and creation, science and
theology, stand in agreement, in their complete acceptance of each

1
The opposition between creationism and evolutionism is essentially borne of
the divergent positions respectively dictated by literal sense of the biblical
verses, on the one hand, and by the scientific research, sometimes coupled with a
different exegesis of these verses, on the other hand.

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