Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi's Criticisms Against Materialism's Conception of Religion and God

Abstract

In this study, the understanding of religion and God through matter in the historical process of materialism has been settled and determined, and the opposite views of Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi (d. 1914), one of the theologians of the New Science of Kalām period, have been tried to be revealed. In this context, first and foremost, a brief history of materialism is mentioned then Filibeli's views have given. Materialism is one of the notable philosophical schools that have found a place in the life of thought since Antiquity. The first steps of this system of thought are observed in Ancient Greece and the understanding of atomism. The common meeting place of the famous materialist philosophers of this period was the atomist understanding. On the other hand, Atomist understanding collects many divinity features such as being eternal and ever in the matter. Having significant effects on the history of thought, materialism experienced stagnation in the middle ages. The reason for this stagnation is that Christianity developed an active understanding of religion in the West, and therefore the views of the church adopted a conservative approach. It can be said that scholastic philosophy is one of the biggest reasons for the loss of the effectiveness of materialism. Afterward, the school of materialism showed a new revival during the period when the oppressive attitude of the church decreased with the scholastic philosophy and the religious reform and Renaissance movements were followed. Materialism, which has started to regain effectiveness since the 18th century, is based on matter and the field called material and does not accept any area other than matter. Materialism rejects the metaphysical field, which agrees with the entities that the sense organs can only perceive as the material field, and the information obtained through experimentation and observation. Since the knowledge and existence of beings such as God, angels, and jinn are of interest to metaphysics, spiritual beings entering this field are denied by materialism. Although it emerged in the Christian western world, materialism emerges as a system of thought that spreads in the following processes and influences the whole world. The ideas of materialism, which started to be seen in our country as a result of the return of students sent abroad with western ideas to examine the progress of the West in the political field, increased its effectiveness, especially through journals and translation. Materialism, which has made such progress in our country, has been criticized by many intellectuals, although some scholars have adopted it. Along with the spread of such ideas, a search for innovation was done in kalām, and the period of the New Science of Kalām began. One of the most important scholars of this period is Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi. Filibeli criticizes this system of thought for the general views of materialism through the concept of denial. Filibeli, who also touches on morality, states that materialism opens the door to immorality, resulting in anarchy.