Defence of religion in the new science of kalām against materialism's conception of religion

Materialism is a system of thought which has started to spread as a revolt against the opressive attitude of the church especially in the west since 18th century; claiming everything is nothing but matter by basing it on the matter and the world visible to eye, stating that there is not a field beyond matter, i.e metaphysical elements don't exist, and everying occurring in life can be explained through only factual reasons; therefore claiming that there isn't a supernatural force, in other words the thought of God. Materialism, first steps of which are seen to be taken in Ancient Greece thinking, come until today by improving the theory of atomism. Materialism which lost its activity as a consequence of domination of scholastic understanding in the Medieval period, could not get a foothold in that period completely. The west which experienced a period of enlightenment through the renaissance and reform movements, started to break the oppression of the church which it saw against the science, by giving importance to the science. Though materialism essentially emerged by targeting Christian world, Islamic world was also affected by the thought of materialism exercised its influence over the whole world over time, subversive activities and thoughts against the religion were formed in time. School of materialism was started to be felt in our homeland with the return of the students sent to the west with the intention of observing the progress the west had made and their receiving education, as a result of the stagnation and recession in scientific - political field in our country. This trend spreaded to Islamic world especially through especially the magazines and translations. Development of materialism in Islamic world did not remain confined to our country, but spreaded to Northern Africa and Indian subcontinent as well. Many scholars thinking that the methods of the classical science of kalām fell short of responding to the philosophical schools emerged in that age, supported the idea of reform and rearragement of the science of kalām for the problems of the period. Consequently, scholars supporting this idea developed a new method of science of kalām and ushured in an era of New Science of Kalām. In this study, first the process of the emerge of materialism, basic teachings of this system of thought, its representatives and its effects towards Muslims will be presented. By trying to detect arguements and materialism criticisms presented by kalām scholars of the New Science of Kalām period in our country against the materialism and its criticisms for religion and the thought of god, the approach of the New Science of Kalām period to this subject will be presented. Keywords: Theology, Materialism, New Science of Kalām, Metaphysics, Conception of God, Conception of Religion, Matter