Title: Do the Evolution and the Big-Bang Theories make God Redundant? Question: In answering the question why do we believe in the existence of God [1] , you have written: I believe in God, because I do not have any other explanation for my own existence or that of what surrounds me, except that of believing in a Wise designer and a Providing Creator. The only alternative answer given to the question 'Why do we exist', is: 'We just do'. 'By pure chance'. Do you not think that the Big-Bang theory and the theory of evolution give us a complete explanation of how we came into being? Why do you still believe in the existence of God? Do you consider these theories to be inaccurate? Answer: I am not technically qualified to comment on the accuracy or otherwise of the referred theories. Nevertheless, the way I understand these theories, they can in no way be considered as a 'replacement' for God. These theories do present interesting views regarding the process, through which the universe and the various species came into existence, but they do not attempt to explain the origin of the process itself. Suppose I were to say: 'God has given us tasty apples to eat'. Some one may not like my expression and try to convince me to remove 'God' from the sentence by explaining the process through which an apple seed sprouts from the land; getting its nourishment from the earth, becomes a tree, from which we get these apples. He might consider the mere explanation of the process through which we get apples to refute all involvement of God. What he would be ignoring in this explanation is that those who ascribe tasty apples to God, do not imply that God 'prepares' these apples in his kitchen out of nothing. On the contrary, they only imply that the whole universe, whatever exists in it (including the apples) and the laws and processes through which things come into existence are the work of an excellent, wise and merciful Planner and Provider, who they call 'God'. Thus, it is not merely the explanation of the processes through which things come into existence, but one regarding the explanation of the origin of the laws through which things come into existence, which is required to do away with 'God'. The Encyclopedia Britannica introduces the Big-Bang theory as: Widely held theory of the evolution of the universe. Its essential feature is the emergence of the universe from a state of extremely high temperature and density--the so-called big bang that occurred at least 10,000,000,000 years ago... According to the big-bang model, the universe expanded rapidly from a highly compressed primordial state, which resulted in a significant decrease in density and temperature. Soon afterward, the dominance of matter over antimatter (as observed today) may have been established by processes that also predict proton decay. During this stage many types of elementary particles may have been present. After a few seconds, the universe cooled enough to allow the formation of certain nuclei. (Essay on 'Big-Bang Model') Introducing the theory of Evolution, the Encyclopedia writes: Theory in biology postulating that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations. (Essay on 'Evolution') As should be clear, both the Big-Bang theory and the Evolution theory are estimations - based on the laws derived from the physical world around us - of the processes through which the various forms of existences came into being. Neither of these theories presents any view regarding the origin of the laws or of the energy or the matter, which initiated the 'Big-Bang' or the 'Evolution' and ultimately resulted in the beautiful world that we live in. Even if we were to consider 'Spontaneous generation' to be correct, we would still be faced with the question as to where did the non-living matter (through which life may be produced) get the potential of producing life. The questions that need answers do not relate merely to the origin of the species as they exist in their present form or to the process out of which the present form of the universe evolved; to provide comprehensive answers, they should also answer the origin of the original species, the original matter/energy, which produced the Big-Bang and the origin of the various laws which resulted in the various evolutionary processes. If one is not willing to accept the existence of God, then these questions can only have two answers, which the Qur'an has pointed out in the following ( Al-Toor 52: 35) verse: Have they come into existence out of nothing or are they themselves their own creators? Either all the wisdom, all the providence and all the laws entailed in the creation came into existence by a mere stroke of 'luck' (or 'misfortune'), without a wise and providing Creator or the existence itself is its own creator. Most of the people, who do not believe in 'God' have opted for the first option. Thus, I had written in my referred response: I believe in God, because I do not have any other explanation for my own existence or that of what surrounds me, except that of believing in a Wise designer and a Providing Creator. The only alternative answer given to the question 'Why do we exist', is: 'We just do'. 'By pure chance'. I hope this helps. April 14, 2001 [1] Reference is to the question titled " Existence of God ".