SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY ~ Islam is a religion based on the belief in one God. To the Muslim, this belief cannot be accepted blindly and without question. Men and women are expected to use their intellect and the evidence around them to come to this conclusion. One is meant to ponder the existence of God, religion, and one’s place in the universe, in that order. If these concepts remain unexamined, the very foundation of belief is considered weak and without merit. The Quran, the Islamic holy book, constantly asks its reader to look around them for signs of God’s existence (3:190, 2:118) and to examine everything within the universe for meaning. Muslim scientists point to DNA and molecular structure as coded building blocks that make up everything in the Universe. Nothing in nature, they say, is completely chaotic; everything is built with a scientific code that is governed by a law. This observation may then lead one to deduce that such precise structure and laws might have been planned in a deliberate and intelligent way, which could mean these things were created by something sentient—a god. The Quran encourages one to study nature and science to find signs of God’s existence. In other words, in Islam, science is evidence of God’s existence, not proof against him.