Deism and Its Criticism in Transition to Secularism from Humanism

Ekrem Uysal

Makale detayları

Deism and Its Criticism in Transition to Secularism from Humanism

Yazarlar:

Ekrem Uysal

Yayıncı:

Gaziantep University

Ana Başlıklar:

İslam Mezhepleri | Kelam

Dergi:

İlahiyat Akademi Issue 20, pp.99-126

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

12/2024

Belge Dili:

Türkçe

Document ID (Org No.):

2001335787

pISSN:

2149-3979

Anahtar kelimeler:

Özet:

 According to Islamic theologians, Allāh exists without needing anybody, he is eternal and everlasting, and he creates the world outside of him and the beings within it. According to adetullah habit of Allāh, Allah organizes the universe which he created with certain measurements, and intervenes in its continuity, and Allāh makes human beings the owner of their wills and holds them responsible within the framework of the Divine Pattern. Because of this, reason and revelation are presented as two things that complement each other. Deism, on the contrary, puts forward the belief in a God who does not intervene in the world affairs after creating it, who has cut off contact with people, and by rejecting revelation, this idea attributes the order in the world to the nature, completing the role assigned to God. According to the view of the German deist Samuel, who is one of the most obvious examples of this idea, nature itself is a system of divine revelation, and everything else is religious rituals made up by humans. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about the existence of a supernatural revelation. Because God achieves His goal through a system, which everyone can understand. In this case, God does not need any messengers or a miracle to be performed by a messenger. On this issue, Voltaire, who is considered a very strict deist, stated that all clergy, churches and similar organizations that consider themselves the sole representatives of God on earth and make decisions on his behalf are a herd of intolerance. Deism, which gives unlimited freedom to humans, claims that religious rituals are contradictory to reason and science, and attributes an extraordinary mission to mind and nature, also approaches the institution of prophethood negatively. However, it should be stated here that even if there are differences in the Sharīʿa of the prophets in the field of practice, no prophet has ever declared an idea that rejects what the previous prophet brought in matters of faith. From Prophet Ādam to Prophet Muḥammed, all prophets confirmed each other and conveyed the divine orders and prohibitions to people as they were. To attribute some distortions that occurred after the Prophet to the institution of prophethood is a great injustice. Matthew Tindal, who has a more moderate and unifying approach to the issue, draws attention to this situation and claims that the main purpose of natural religion and revelation is to praise God and benefit humans. He argued that the teachings, aims and basic principles of both should be the same. As a result, he stated that if the true teachings of Gospels were put forward, moral principles that everyone would accept, together with a natural understanding of religion, would dominate humanity. When the issue is looked at from this perspective, we can see that even though the concept of deism is new, the idea it defends has actually existed throughout the human history. In every period, in which right and wrong existed, individuals or groups, who rejected revelation, have always continued to exist alongside those have accepted the existence of a creator God. However, especially after the Renaissance and Reform movements, scholastic and esoteric beliefs in Christian theology faced with harsh criticism from society. In this process, this ultimately caused deism to develop and become widespread. The formation that we have put forward will discuss the process of deism and its theological criticism in the adventure of transition from Humanism to Secularism in the Christian Europe.

 According to Islamic theologians, Allāh exists without needing anybody, he is eternal and everlasting, and he creates the world outside of him and the beings within it. According to adetullah habit of Allāh, Allah organizes the universe which he created with certain measurements, and intervenes in its continuity, and Allāh makes human beings the owner of their wills and holds them responsible within the framework of the Divine Pattern. Because of this, reason and revelation are presented as two things that complement each other. Deism, on the contrary, puts forward the belief in a God who does not intervene in the world affairs after creating it, who has cut off contact with people, and by rejecting revelation, this idea attributes the order in the world to the nature, completing the role assigned to God. According to the view of the German deist Samuel, who is one of the most obvious examples of this idea, nature itself is a system of divine revelation, and everything else is religious rituals made up by humans. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about the existence of a supernatural revelation. Because God achieves His goal through a system, which everyone can understand. In this case, God does not need any messengers or a miracle to be performed by a messenger. On this issue, Voltaire, who is considered a very strict deist, stated that all clergy, churches and similar organizations that consider themselves the sole representatives of God on earth and make decisions on his behalf are a herd of intolerance. Deism, which gives unlimited freedom to humans, claims that religious rituals are contradictory to reason and science, and attributes an extraordinary mission to mind and nature, also approaches the institution of prophethood negatively. However, it should be stated here that even if there are differences in the Sharīʿa of the prophets in the field of practice, no prophet has ever declared an idea that rejects what the previous prophet brought in matters of faith. From Prophet Ādam to Prophet Muḥammed, all prophets confirmed each other and conveyed the divine orders and prohibitions to people as they were. To attribute some distortions that occurred after the Prophet to the institution of prophethood is a great injustice. Matthew Tindal, who has a more moderate and unifying approach to the issue, draws attention to this situation and claims that the main purpose of natural religion and revelation is to praise God and benefit humans. He argued that the teachings, aims and basic principles of both should be the same. As a result, he stated that if the true teachings of Gospels were put forward, moral principles that everyone would accept, together with a natural understanding of religion, would dominate humanity. When the issue is looked at from this perspective, we can see that even though the concept of deism is new, the idea it defends has actually existed throughout the human history. In every period, in which right and wrong existed, individuals or groups, who rejected revelation, have always continued to exist alongside those have accepted the existence of a creator God. However, especially after the Renaissance and Reform movements, scholastic and esoteric beliefs in Christian theology faced with harsh criticism from society. In this process, this ultimately caused deism to develop and become widespread. The formation that we have put forward will discuss the process of deism and its theological criticism in the adventure of transition from Humanism to Secularism in the Christian Europe.

 According to Islamic theologians, Allāh exists without needing anybody, he is eternal and everlasting, and he creates the world outside of him and the beings within it. According to adetullah habit of Allāh, Allah organizes the universe which he created with certain measurements, and intervenes in its continuity, and Allāh makes human beings the owner of their wills and holds them responsible within the framework of the Divine Pattern. Because of this, reason and revelation are presented as two things that complement each other. Deism, on the contrary, puts forward the belief in a God who does not intervene in the world affairs after creating it, who has cut off contact with people, and by rejecting revelation, this idea attributes the order in the world to the nature, completing the role assigned to God. According to the view of the German deist Samuel, who is one of the most obvious examples of this idea, nature itself is a system of divine revelation, and everything else is religious rituals made up by humans. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about the existence of a supernatural revelation. Because God achieves His goal through a system, which everyone can understand. In this case, God does not need any messengers or a miracle to be performed by a messenger. On this issue, Voltaire, who is considered a very strict deist, stated that all clergy, churches and similar organizations that consider themselves the sole representatives of God on earth and make decisions on his behalf are a herd of intolerance. Deism, which gives unlimited freedom to humans, claims that religious rituals are contradictory to reason and science, and attributes an extraordinary mission to mind and nature, also approaches the institution of prophethood negatively. However, it should be stated here that even if there are differences in the Sharīʿa of the prophets in the field of practice, no prophet has ever declared an idea that rejects what the previous prophet brought in matters of faith. From Prophet Ādam to Prophet Muḥammed, all prophets confirmed each other and conveyed the divine orders and prohibitions to people as they were. To attribute some distortions that occurred after the Prophet to the institution of prophethood is a great injustice. Matthew Tindal, who has a more moderate and unifying approach to the issue, draws attention to this situation and claims that the main purpose of natural religion and revelation is to praise God and benefit humans. He argued that the teachings, aims and basic principles of both should be the same. As a result, he stated that if the true teachings of Gospels were put forward, moral principles that everyone would accept, together with a natural understanding of religion, would dominate humanity. When the issue is looked at from this perspective, we can see that even though the concept of deism is new, the idea it defends has actually existed throughout the human history. In every period, in which right and wrong existed, individuals or groups, who rejected revelation, have always continued to exist alongside those have accepted the existence of a creator God. However, especially after the Renaissance and Reform movements, scholastic and esoteric beliefs in Christian theology faced with harsh criticism from society. In this process, this ultimately caused deism to develop and become widespread. The formation that we have put forward will discuss the process of deism and its theological criticism in the adventure of transition from Humanism to Secularism in the Christian Europe.

 İslâm kelamcılarına göre Allah zâtıyla kâim, ezelî ve ebedî olup zâtı dışındaki âlem ve içindeki varlıkları kendisi yaratmaktadır. Âdetullaha göre Tanrı, belli ölçüler dahilinde yarattığı âleme düzen vermekte, her an onun işleyişine müdahil olmaktadır ve bu Tanrı, insanoğlunu da irâde sahibi kılmak suretiyle sünnetullah çerçevesinde yaptıklarından sorumlu tutmaktadır. Bunun için akıl ve vahiy birbirini tamamlayan bir bütünlük şeklinde sunulmaktadır. Deizm ise bütün bunların aksine âlemi yaratmakla birlikte ona müdahale etmeyen, insanlarla irtibatını koparmış bir Tanrı inancını öne sürmekte; vahyi reddederek Tanrıya biçilen rolü akla yüklemekte, âlemdeki nizamı doğa yasalarına bağlamaktadır. Bu düşüncenin en bariz örneklerinden birisi olan Alman deist Samuele göre doğanın kendisi Tanrısal bir vahiy sistemi olup bunun dışındakiler insanlar tarafından uydurulan dinî ritüellerdir. Bundan dolayı doğaüstü bir vahyin varlığından bahsetmek mümkün değildir. Zira Tanrı herkesin anlayabileceği bir sistem üzerinden hedefini gerçekleştirmektedir. Bu durumda Tanrı, herhangi bir elçiye veya elçinin göstereceği bir mucizeye ihtiyaç duymamaktadır. Bu konuda çok katı bir deist kabul edilen Voltaire, kendilerini Tanrının yeryüzündeki yegane temsilcileri sayan ve Onun adına hüküm veren bütün din adamı, kilise ve benzeri oluşumların hoşgörüsüzlük sürüsü olduğunu dile getirmiştir. İnsana sınırsız özgürlük veren, dinî ritüellerin akla ve bilime aykırı olduğunu iddia eden, akla ve tabiata olağanüstü bir misyon yükleyen Deizm, nübüvvet müessesesine de olumsuz yaklaşmaktadır. Ancak amelî alanda peygamberlerin şeriatlarında farklılık olsa dahi itikadî konularda hiçbir peygamber kendinden önceki peygamberin getirdiğini reddeden bir fikri asla beyan etmemiştir. Hz. Ademden Hz. Muhammede kadar gelen bütün peygamberler birbirini tasdik etmiş, ilahi emir ve yasakları olduğu gibi insanlara ulaştırmışlardır. Peygamber sonrası ortaya çıkan bir takım tahrif hareketlerini nübüvvet müessesesine mal etmek büyük bir haksızlıktır. Konuya daha ılımlı ve birleştirici yaklaşan Matthew Tindal da bu duruma dikkat çekerek doğal din ile vahyin asıl gayesinin Tanrıyı övme ve insana fayda sağlama olduğunu iddia etmiştir. O, her ikisinin de öğretilerinin, amaçlarının ve temel ilkelerinin aynı olması gerektiğini savunmuştur. Bunun sonucunda şayet İncillerin gerçek öğretileri ortaya konulursa doğal bir din anlayışıyla birlikte herkesin kabul edeceği ahlaki ilkelerin insanlığa egemen olacağını ifade etmiştir. Konuya bu perspektiften bakıldığında deizm kavramı yeni bile olsa savunduğu düşüncenin aslında insanlık tarihi boyunca var olduğu görülecektir. Hak ve batılın mevcut olduğu her dönemde, yaratıcı bir Tanrının varlığını kabul edenlerin yanında vahyi reddeden bireyler veya gruplar her zaman mevcudiyetlerini devam ettirmişlerdir. Ancak özellikle Rönesans ve reform hareketleri sonrasında Hıristiyan teolojisindeki skolastik ve ezoterik inançlar toplum tarafından sert eleştirilerle karşılık bulmuş ve nihayetinde Deizmin gelişip yaygınlaşmasına neden olmuştur. Bu çalışmada Hıristiyan Avrupasında Hümanizmden Sekülerizme geçiş serüveninde Deizmin süreci ve kelamî açıdan eleştirisi ele alınmıştır.

Makale detayları

Deism and Its Criticism in Transition to Secularism from Humanism

Yazarlar:

Ekrem Uysal

Yayıncı:

Gaziantep University

Ana Başlıklar:

İslam Mezhepleri | Kelam

Dergi:

İlahiyat Akademi Issue 20, pp.99-126

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

12/2024

Belge Dili:

Türkçe

Document ID (Org No.):

2001335787

pISSN:

2149-3979

Theology

Deism

Christianity

Universe

Revelation

AfterlifeKelâm

Deizm

Hıristiyanlık

Âlem

Vahiy

Ahiret

Sayı

Makale detayları

Yazarlar: Ekrem Uysal

Yayıncı: Gaziantep University

Ana Başlıklar: İslam Mezhepleri | Kelam

Dergi: İlahiyat Akademi Issue 20, pp.99-126

Belge Tipi: Makale

Yayın Tarihi: 12/2024

Belge Dili: Türkçe

Document ID (Org No.): 2001335787

pISSN: 2149-3979

Sayı

Yazarlar:

Ekrem Uysal

Yayıncı:

Gaziantep University

Ana Başlıklar:

İslam Mezhepleri | Kelam

Dergi:

İlahiyat Akademi Issue 20, pp.99-126

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

12/2024

Belge Dili:

Türkçe

Document ID (Org No.):

2001335787

pISSN:

2149-3979