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Human beings are indeed unique creatures. It doesn’t matter someone’s background when he looks into the subject, whether it is scientific, philosophical or religious we will find almost every scholar putting the human being in a different condition from the rest of the creatures – above them -, with characteristics that enable him to take his place as the best of creatures. But from this point the road splits into two different ways of studying this wonder of creation.
The scientific stream that separates itself from religion occupies itself with studying the human being as it studies anything else. Giving the measures and explaining the material causes or effects of everything that’s related to the matter. It talks about the human as being only this wonderful machine that works in the best way possible, just as it’s the case with any other creature. But the human takes his superiority over the rest by the ability of learning and gaining knowledge that’s incomparable with any other creature. And by this knowledge he can surpass any task that he finds himself incapable of accomplishing it just by his natural physical ability. He can change the environment around him in a way that no other living creature can. And he can subjugate to a large degree other creatures to his will and comfort. The scientific view explains the material side of the human being: what he’s made of and how does he work.
But because science’s concern is the material, it finds problems with explaining the spiritual and the occult. To the three main questions that occupy the main aspect of philosophy and religion, rather, that are the pillars upon which all the other questions are built on, science finds itself impotent in giving convincing and pleasing answers to mankind. It can only come up with theories to answer where we came from, all of them decreasing the status of the human being that it’s agreed upon. It cannot answer where we’ll go, since this is an occult matter, so it doesn’t occupy itself with this study. It’s impotent in answering why we are here, since it only studies the material causes for the existence. It goes as far as denying a lot of times anything to do with the spiritual or the occult since it cannot prove them with its usual methods. In other words it cannot prove and so it cannot believe in anything that the human eye can’t see or the human mind cannot comprehend. We can say to those who follow this way that their minds have been limited to their eyes.
And from this point all the philosophies that are based on science only, or better saying are based on the material knowledge only and do not try to see beyond it, come to conclusions that not only differ from themselves but also cause more corruption than benefits. They cannot explain where we’re from or make us fall from our status to the status of lower creatures. They do not offer the answer to why we are here, so it makes our existence futile. They don’t answer where we’ll go so they make our actions futile and our death the final end.
This way of thinking is what takes the hope from people’s hearts, bringing them despair. It’s what makes people set low values for their lives with so limited objectives for so vain or worldly reasons. Why would someone who sees life this way do anything that doesn’t result in a worldly benefit for him? It is the reason for what we find or complain about anything bad or unjust that happens in the world today, where someone who only worries about his worldly life will do anything in order to improve it the way that he sees better fit. Or where someone who is old or in difficulties or lost something he loved loses his will to live. Or where people base their relations to one another on what they can profit for themselves. Could anyone imagine a happy society consisting of individuals with such characteristics?
But religion itself takes a different approach when analyzing the human being. As science it looks to his body similarly to other creatures and, of course, superior to them through his intellect. But it adds up an important side to the human being, better yet, the most important side in him that is the spiritual side represented by his soul. It looks to the human being as a table supported by the following three legs: the body, the mind and the soul. All of them needing its own nurturing and development: food for the body, learning for the mind and worship for soul.
Although, as we said before, science that separates itself from religion turns the human being from a high status in creation to something very close to other creatures as animals, religion that doesn’t deny science or philosophy only has to gain and add to the real value of the human being as the most noble of creatures. It studies the human being with all his aspects and can offer the right answers for the problems found in humans by knowing their true origins. Just as medicine is responsible for studying and sustaining the body’s health, and just as education tries to develop the mind, religion is responsible for keeping the soul healthy from certain diseases and developing it to reach higher levels. So without a doubt the human being is a better, more complete creature, when looked under the light of these three aspects.
Not only that, religion has also provided philosophy with true strong bases so that the questions that may annoy the human mind can be finally answered and building philosophies may be formed instead of destructive ones.
It tells us that the human being exists through the creation of a God much more powerful and much more knowledgeable than him. And that the reason for his wordly life is for a test, to see how much can he develop as a whole and more importantly as a soul. Because of that he may find difficulties which are more than justified when the reward for his success is known. And that leads us to the most important point which worries any human being that has learned the meaning of death and that he too will die. And religion brings us the good news that there is another life, where good actions will be rewarded and bad actions will be punished. Is there any other incentive like this for encouraging good deeds? Can anything comfort someone who has lost someone or something he loved as the belief of meeting that someone or having something better in another life? Is there any society better than the society where its people base the relations between them not only upon temporary benefits and understandings but rather eternal ones?
There is nothing that can substitute in a society what the belief in the hereafter and the belief of God Who rewards good deeds and punishes sins can do. And that it’s why we can see in the world and throughout history that any society that has developed materially without spiritual development has only increased in corruption and oppression until it met its end. For there can be no society that continues upon those things: people will eventually be tired of it and try to choose and move to something better. They will prefer eventually to being seen as valuable creatures than as low short-living ones. They will prefer to have their lives based on what is bigger than themselves. And most importantly they will prefer living knowing that there is more in life than life itself.
So the happy person is the one who sees himself complete in all his three spheres of existence. And that profits from religion rather than loses from denying it. And that uses his three spheres of knowledge (science, philosophy and religion) to understand himself better and as a result the world around him.