Consider, for example, that man according to natural law should dwell upon
the surface of the earth. By overcoming this law and restriction however
he sails in ships over the ocean, mounts to the zenith in aeroplanes and
sinks to the depths of the sea in submarines. This is against the fiat of
nature and a violation of her sovereignty and dominion. Nature’s laws and
methods, the hidden secrets and mysteries of the universe, human
inventions and discoveries, all our scientific acquisitions should
naturally remain concealed and unknown, but man through his intellectual
acumen searches them out of the plane of the invisible, draws them into
the plane of the visible, exposes and explains them. For instance, one of
the mysteries of nature is electricity. According to nature this force,
this energy should remain latent and hidden, but man scientifically breaks
through the very laws of nature, arrests it and even imprisons it for his
use.
In brief, man through the possession of this ideal endowment of scientific
investigation is the most noble product of creation, the governor of
nature. He takes the sword from nature’s hand and uses it upon nature’s
head. According to natural law, night is a period of darkness and
obscurity, but man by utilizing the power of electricity, by wielding this
electric sword overcomes the darkness and dispels the gloom. Man is
superior to nature and makes nature do his bidding. Man is a sensitive
being; nature is minus sensation. Man has memory and reason; nature lacks
them. Man is nobler than nature. There are powers within him of which
nature is devoid. It may be claimed that these powers are from nature
itself and that man is a part of nature. In answer to this statement we
will say that if nature is the whole and man is a part of that whole, how
could it be possible for a part to possess qualities and virtues which are
absent in the whole? Undoubtedly the part must be endowed with the same
qualities and properties as the whole. For example, the hair is a part of
the human anatomy. It cannot contain elements which are not found in other
parts of the body, for in all cases the component elements of the body are
the same. Therefore it is manifest and evident that man, although in body
a part of nature, nevertheless in spirit possesses a power transcending
nature; for if he were simply a part of nature and limited to material
laws he could possess only the things which nature embodies. God has
conferred upon and added to man a distinctive power, the faculty of
intellectual investigation into the secrets of creation, the acquisition
of higher knowledge, the greatest virtue of which is scientific
enlightenment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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