{"id":64374,"date":"2018-08-29T19:27:05","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T01:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=64374"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:52:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:52:43","slug":"signs-clear-for-those-who-have-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/08\/signs-clear-for-those-who-have-knowledge.html","title":{"rendered":"“Signs clear for those who have knowledge”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
A view of Astoria, Oregon; the Astoria\u2013Megler Bridge; and the mouth of the Columbia River from atop the Astoria Column \u2014 on a less overcast day than today.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the recurrent themes in the Qur\u2019an is a kind of simple natural theology, an argument from apparent \u201cdesign\u201d in nature to the existence of God. \u00a0It\u2019s by no means a rigorous syllogism, but, rather, an appeal to \u201cthose with eyes to see\u201d to draw the right conclusion from the wonders of nature about them, an assurance to those who want to believe that their desire isn\u2019t contrary to reason.<\/p>\n

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A typical passage is this one, in M. A. S. Abdel Haleem\u2019s Oxford English translation:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is God who splits open the seed and the fruit stone:\u00a0 He brings out the living from the dead and the dead from the living\u2014that is God\u2014so how can you turn away from the truth?\u00a0 He makes the dawn break; He makes the night for rest; and He made the sun and the moon to a precise measure.\u00a0 That is the design of the Almighty, the All Knowing.\u00a0 It is He who made the stars, so that you can be guided by them in the dark, on land or sea: We have made the signs clear for those who have knowledge.\u00a0 It is He who first produced you from a single soul, then gave you a place to stay [in life] and a resting place [after death].\u00a0 We have made Our revelations clear to those who understand.\u00a0 It is He who sends down water from the sky.\u00a0 With it We produce the shoots of each plant, then bring greenery from it, and from that We bring out grains, one riding on the other in close-packed rows.\u00a0 From the date palm come clusters of low-hanging dates, and there are gardens of vines, olives, and pomegranates, alike yet different.\u00a0 Watch their fruits as they grow and ripen!\u00a0 In all this there are signs for those who would believe.\u201d\u00a0 (6:95-99)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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With friends, we visited Fort Clatsop<\/a> today. \u00a0From\u00a0December 1805 to March 1806, this area \u2014 where a visitors center and a replica of the original fort now stand \u2014\u00a0was the winter encampment for the Lewis and Clark expedition. \u00a0 While there, we took in a couple of short historical films and an explanatory demonstration of a flintlock musket (which, as it happens, was given by a summer ranger, now retired from Washington State government service in Olympia, who is a graduate of BYU).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We also visited Astoria and drove across the Columbia River for a brief visit to Washington.<\/p>\n

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Posted from Seaside, Oregon<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 One of the recurrent themes in the Qur\u2019an is a kind of simple natural theology, an argument from apparent \u201cdesign\u201d in nature to the existence of God. \u00a0It\u2019s by no means a rigorous syllogism, but, rather, an appeal to \u201cthose with eyes to see\u201d to draw the right conclusion from the wonders of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[66,183,407,61,2268,82],"class_list":["post-64374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-islam","tag-koran","tag-laws-of-nature","tag-natural-theology","tag-nature","tag-quran"],"yoast_head":"\n"Signs clear for those who have knowledge"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    One of the recurrent themes in the Qur\u2019an is a kind of simple natural theology, an argument from 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