Religion and Science
4. Religion and the Life Hereafter
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account for creativity in the fields of the arts
and the sciences. Matter cannot have a creative
faculty. This is an attribute of the soul ... After
proving the existence of soul as something
separate, the second stage is to prove its
survival, that is, its capacity to survive after the
death of the body (pp. 171-72).
As a corollary to this he adds: ‘Though Avicenna
has presented lengthy arguments about the
existence of the soul, these are nothing but word
games—or tautology—just like other Greek
philosophic thoughts. If an atheist bent on denying
its existence says, “What you have said is just a kind
of repetition of your claim. It has nothing to do with
the argument but is a reiteration of your initial
statement and may be matter is itself responsible for
its kaleidoscopic manifestations after combining in
a particular way; the working of a machine and the
music of a musical instrument are similar things,
but without having any kind of spirit. There is no
logic by which he can be reduced to silence. That is
why Imam Ghazzali did not produce any logical
argument about the soul” (p.175).
