“If you board the wrong train,
it is no use running along the corridor
in the other direction.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How often have you heard atheists claim there is no “scientific evidence” proving the existence of God?
Atheists who make this claim have no understanding of the difference between scientific evidence, scientific theory, and faith.
For science, evidence is a fact or result which is measurable, predictable and repeatable. For example, scientists measured that it takes 87.969 Earth days for the planet Mercury to complete one orbit around the Sun. This fact is evidence that Mercury orbits the Sun, its “year” is periodic and predictable.
A theory is a proposition, a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain something as yet unproved – such as the Big Bang Theory – which fits the known scientific facts, but which may or may not be a true expression of reality. This is where atheists trip up. Those who believe or do not believe God exists are simply making a choice as a matter of faith.
Faith is a belief based on spiritual inspiration rather than physical evidence. It lies in the realm of Mankind’s non-intellectual intuition. There is no evidence which can prove his belief is right. But the faithful need no evidence. They have powerful intuition that there is some purposeful, unknowable force which powers the cosmos. Science seeks to explain the unknowable force, generating many theories along the way.
On any subject which cannot be directly observed or measured, there may be many different theories which fit the known facts. But cherry picking facts which support your theory, and ignoring those which don’t, do not prove a theory. And tomorrow, new facts which invalidate today’s theory may come to light. In the end, only one theory will be proven correct. But I suppose that’s another theory which can’t be proven.
I am a Deist, in the tradition of many of our nation’s Founding Fathers. That is, I believe God exists as “the Great Architect of the Universe.” Now, atheists seem to think that everyone who believes in God is an intellectual midget, stuck in ancient beliefs, mysticism and mumbo-jumbo. Or that everyone pictures God as some superhuman being living in the sky, wearing white robes and bearing a long white beard. In other words, a child’s vision of God.
Psychology asks, did God create Man, or did Man create God? How is it that every civilization we know of created its own god? Different gods, to be sure. One reason we can be sure of is that Man quickly recognized his own diminutive nature in the cosmos. He looks up to the sky and sees things so awe inspiring that his instincts tell him some power beyond his understanding is at work, keeping it going according to barely guessed-at rules which regulate the interactions of space, matter, time and energy.
There are cosmological “theories” galore. The Big Bang. Steady State. Oscillating Universe. Fluctuations in the Vacuum (no, not a Hoover). Symmetry-breaking. Inflation and Expansion of Space. Dark Matter. The Many Universes Theory. And my personal favorite, Collapse of the Wave Function. Theories ad infinitum. Theories ad nauseam. Each kind of fits the evidence. Kind of. But none are as yet unassailable.
Deists do not describe God as a superhuman being. Not a being at all. We only believe that whatever created the Universe and keeps it going, presumably toward some unknowable future; is God. If Science ultimately proves fluctuations in the vacuum are responsible for the way the universe has evolved, perhaps that is what God is. Who knows, in the distant future, maybe science will get to the truth of it all.
But beyond the question of how it all began, Mankind yearns to know if God, or that force which operates the Cosmos, knows we are here, hears our prayers and intercedes in our destiny. Perhaps most of all Man yearns to know if there really is an afterlife. The sort believed by the Egyptians and other ancient cultures? The sort promised by Jesus?
And what of Jesus? According to The New Testament, he qualifies as the most unique human who ever lived. As a Deist, I believe in Science. I do not believe a human can actually die and return to life. But are we being too narrow-minded here? Today, Science can bring about virgin births. Men can die, or at least seem to be dead, and then be resuscitated. Certainly some advanced race could have engineered the birth, education, death and transformation of Jesus. Who and why? Another subject for another time.
Contrary to their own claims of modernism, atheists seem to be living in the Dark Ages, grasping for ways to destroy religion. Why? For some, such as the late Christopher Hitchins, it may be the ultimate act of rebellion against a religious upbringing which they see as somehow failing or hurting them. Perhaps others hate Judeo Christian tradition because it is one of the pillars of Western Civilization. But what does our tradition ask of atheists which they find so abhorrent? To not murder. To treat others as they would be treated. To allow God-fearing people to keep their faith. Surely atheists can live with these few rules. It’s the more subtle beliefs with which they seem to have trouble. Admonitions against certain lifestyles and such. Oh, bother.
Not that there aren’t religionists who cross the line many times. We especially abhor those preachers who talk the talk but do not walk the walk.
But religion is not the same as belief in God. Religions require a belief in some sort of god, but faith in God does not require religion. Here again atheists seem to be confused. Albert Einstein was not a religious man. But he believed a Greater Power had a hand in the workings of the Universe. He argued subatomic particle behavior theory with his contemporaries, he had difficulty with Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, claiming that “God does not play dice” with the Universe. In the context of cosmology, it is difficult to see how, or why, any intelligent person would exclude even the merest possibility of the force of God in the birth and workings of the cosmos.
That atheism isn't satisfied to live with its own unbelief but has to tear down the faith of others should be an object lesson for those religious zealots who feel a duty to proselytize their own beliefs. One is as unseemly as the other.
As a Deist, I say, if you are an atheist, go ahead and live your life as your conscience dictates. But why spend your time engaging in a war to destroy someone else’s faith? Let the faithful have their Christmas and Easter. How is a nativity scene or midnight mass harming you in any way? It’s all in your own mind, in the strict orthodoxy of atheism. In other words, your religion!
Theoretical physicists, cosmologists (and those who teach it) who bring atheism into their calculus are equally disingenuous as those who bring religion into theirs. If Science eventually proves the cosmos operates without the influence of a Greater Power, than I will bow to it. Until then, the seeking of truth requires the seeker to be neutral. Willing to judge on the merits, the factualness of the evidence. As long as it is factual. Not simply the theory du jour.
