Note: The following text has been written in Harvard Academic style.

The referencing and bibliography are in standard Harvard style. The paras can be skimmed and scanned according to the Harvard skimming and scanning guidelines. The thesis statement is included in the introductory paragraph and each point is highlighted to provide fast paced reading experience.

In the following text, I will attempt to answer the question: Does Islam make more sense than atheism? I will conclude by providing proof of Islam being the true religion. To begin with, I will differentiate between atheism and agnosticism. Looking at why each of the aforementioned abandons religion, I will move forward explaining how Islam is different from other religions and will step on to explaining how islam coexists with science then I will be deconstructing the wrong perceptions of religion and providing rebuttals to major arguments put forward by them, finally, summing up all the statements in a single-para conclusion.

Atheism and agnosticism: According to Watson (1885) an atheist is a person who abandons religion and concept of God or any being superior to the physical phenomenon of nature (also: laws of nature). An agnostic, on the other hand, is a person who is midway between an atheist and a theist. An agnostic is the person who abandons religion but does not abandon the concept of superior beings. In Greek, Gnosis means knowing and thus being agnostic means not knowing. An agnostic says I am not sure

and thus gives God/Creator/Superior Nature, the benefit of doubt. It is very important to understand what category of anti-religious people one belongs to.

Why abandon religion: What is common between atheists and agnostics is that they both abandon religion. However, the reasons might be different. An atheist abandons religion because he cannot see God or make sense of the stories and commandments that religion has to offer. Sometimes, it is prayers not being responded to, that makes one think critically of what they had believed in for years as per Hari (2011). Moreover, an atheist is so strict a believer in science, that he believes that the science of his time is ultimate and final. Consequently, claiming that the only things that exist are the ones discovered by science, he says that there is no God. An agnostic, however, abandons religion because he doesnt find answers provided by religion satisfactory because they are not in line with the modern science. However, an agnostic is always open to existence of God but believes that none of the religions are true and it is quite possible that true God , if there is, is not interested in being worshipped at all.

Why leaving Islam is not the right choice: A person might leave Christianity, Hinduism or any other religion because there are so many errors that have been confirmed by

science. However, with Islam, a lot has been confirmed true by religion and what has been denied are only perceptions that Muslims had made and not the core content of religion. Islam is the only religion where God has no specified shape. In every other religion God is an invisible man in sky.

Islamic texts like Quran and Hadith mentioned a lot of things, subtly, that modern science proved hundreds of years later. First would be embryology. At the time when people believed in male ejaculate being the only factor of reproduction, believed in sperm being a miniature human, who grew into a life size baby and believed in a lot of things that were far, far away from what Quran had to say. It also needs to be highlighted that Muhammad did not know how to read and had the Arabian peninsula had no access to scientific material of outer world (like Greece). However, Islam mentioned: The formation of baby in three dark places while Rand (2009) explains the three foundation areas of human reproduction as Testicals, Ovaries and Uterus. At that time, people believed that the only two factors involved in reproduction are testicals and womb. Also, Quran mentions an embryo as being leech like. If we look at the work of Wang and Zhao (2010), the placental blood circulation is similar to a leech sucking in its subjects blood. A research paper by Tzortizis (2012) explains a lot of Embryology and its coexistence with Islam and also proves Muhammads ignorance of Greek scientific

sources. This paper is available at (http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/research/embryology-inthe-quran/). Moving away from embryology, Islam also coexists with atmospheric study: as Rosenberg (n.d.) mentions, there are seven layers of atmosphere. Similarly, in Quran, it has been clearly mentioned that there are seven layers laid out as the skies. Also, there was a period when science denied that sun was on the move. When Sun was considered stationary, people ridiculed Islam. However, now it has been proved that everything is on the move and not just a move but an orbital motion akin to floating; not just the planets, even atoms (Daley and Daley, 2005). Also, there has been a large amount of criticism for Quran calling the Earth flat. This is not entirely true, Quran has mentioned the Earth as Spherical, Suspended in space, Rotating on its AXIS, Travelling in space. And All space dwelling objects as travelling in circles. Specific quotations are available on this page (http://www.answeringchristianity.com/earth_in_islam.htm). Quran never mentioned Earth (the planet) as flat but only stated and the Earth and how it is LAID flat, this quote does not mean the Earth is flat (as Quran itself mentions it as oval), this only means that layers of Earth are laid on each other which is also proven by modern science.

Moving to theoretical part of science: there is possibility of time travel in Islam. Theoretically, according to special relativity (Einstein, 1905) if an object travels at higher speed than that of light, travelling into future is possible. In Islam, it is clearly mentioned through ahadith that Muhammad travelled at the speed of light and it is worthy of noticing that upon reaching heaven and hell, he found them to be full (which will happen in future according to Islam). So technically, Muhammad travelled forward in time by riding Buraq at speed of light. It is worth mentioning that if only high speed of buraq was the purpose of the metaphor, then Muhammad could have used the metaphor of an arrow out of a bow (which was really popular amongst the Arab folk). However, he chose light specifically.

A lot of Muslims might turn agnostic or atheist just because a lot of what they have listened to growing up does not make sense as science. However, lots of Islamic theories are not Islam therefore if science denies them; it does not necessarily mean that religion is wrong.

Islamic theories set straight by science: Darwins theory of Evolution: Humans and Apes had a common ancestor (Darwin, 1869). Agnosticism started

when (after this theory was published) Thomas Huxely became openly agnostic. People falsely assume that apes themselves were the ancestors of humans, what Darwin said was that Apes and Humans had common ancestors. And Islam believes that the common ancestors were humans (not entirely like the humans of today in terms of lifespans and heights) and Quran also mentions how apes came from humans when God cursed a certain people and turned them into apes. Islam also agrees that the very first human beings (metaphorically made by hands of God) did not have a language, science agrees. Islam mentions how, the first words (foundation of language) came from the sky when Adam did not find words to repent. Therefore, Islam does not entirely deny evolution, nor does evolution in any way prove Quran wrong. In fact, if we examine the thesis statement of Darwins work on evolution we find evidence from Quran that apes and Humans share a common ancestor.

The Big Bang theory: The theory proves wrong, creationism, in terms of world being made by hand as some religions claim. However, nowhere is Quran has it been mentioned that the world was made in such a way. In fact, in Quran, it is clearly mentioned that the world was created in a momentous impact of God saying be. What most Muslim scientists agree upon is that God saying be was the initial impact that caused the big bang collision, again providing theoretical basis where science and Islam can co-exist.

Noahs ark: While Christianity might mention that the whole Earth was flooded and all of species present today were present on the ark on that fateful day. In Islam it I only shown that the inhabited area of Noahs people was flooded and the animals they kept (be it as cattle or be it as pets) were all taken aboard in pairs to save any extinction. It is an open possibility that there were areas which were not flooded and were inhabited by creatures which were not on the ark but are still present today.

Life in grave: Islam mentions existence in grave. However, there is no hard limit as to this happening in this very dimension. In fact, the string theory mentions existence of different dimensions of universe strung together. Islam is open to possibility that after death, a person is shifted to another dimension.

There are some other arguments that atheist might put forward that are not related to science. One of them being : why will only humans be accountable and not animals. The point is, Humans are the only species capable of going against their nature, proving themselves as the only folk having free will. The ability and free will of Humans can be proved by sex change, going vegetarian (only species where some are carnivores, other omnivores and a few herbivores) etcetera. It is only

logical that the only ones having freewill are the only ones who can answer multiple choice questions.

A common agnostic belief is that if there is God, there is no freewill. And if there is God, he should be ignorant of decisions that humans make. And if God is making us do some actions, we should not be accountable. However, Islam believes there is free will. An analogy can be driven here: A person is being videotaped while he plays a game, if he kicks the ball out of the field, he will get flagged for foul play and if he does not, he will not be flagged for foul play. This is what destiny is, God has written a consequence for every action but he does not force the action. However, now if you watch the video again, you know what the person will do (kick the ball out or keep it in field) but you knowing that does not affect his freewill. However, God does not punish one for something they have not done yet even if he knows they will do it. For Humans, capturing the phenomenon of Gods foresight is difficult. An Easier way would be to simply imagine God as existing in future and knowing everything we will do already.

All in all, anyone with even a slightly open mind will accept a religion to be true if it proves true in terms of science that advances the scripture by 1400 years and coexists with modern theories. Islam is the only religion that can coexist with evolution, big bang, and even time travel while predicting the shape of the earth and characteristics of atoms hundreds of years before science reaches same conclusions.

Bibliography: All about philosophy, n.d. What is an agnostic. [ online] Available at: <http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/what-is-an-agnostic-faq.htm> [Accessed 22nd December 2012].

Darwin, C., 1869. On the Origin of Species. New York: D. Appleton Publisher Co.

Flint, R., 1885. Anti-Theistic Theories. N.l: Read books design.

Rand, C., 2009. Human reproduction. Chicago: Heinemann/Raintree.

Rosenberg, M., N.d. Layers of atmosphere. [online] Available at: <http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/p/layeratmosphere.htm > [Accessed 22nd December].

Russel, J.and Cohn, R. eds., 2012. Annus Mirabilis paper. n.l: book on demand.

Tzortizis, H. 2012. Embroyology in Quran. [online] Available at: <http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/research/embryology-in-the-quran/> [Accessed 22nd December].

Wang, Y. and Zhao, S., 2010. Vascular biology of placenta. New Jersey: Morgan & Claypool Publishers.

Watson, R., 1831. A biblical and theological dictionary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.