Science Explains Everything So We Don't Need God
A recent survey of university faculty in chemistry, physics and biology revealed some surprising results.
51% believe there is a God
31% believe in a personal God
7% say they don’t know
11% are atheist
Scientists themselves disagree with the notion that their profession has somehow disproved or eliminated the possibility of God. The universe appears to be much more complicated than can be explained by science. Stephen J. Gould, renowned evolutionary biologist at Harvard said: “Science simply cannot adjudicate the issue of God's possible superintendence of nature. We neither affirm nor deny it.” The study of science is just as likely to lead someone towards God as away from God. Indeed what if instead of disproving God, science actually serves to explain God?
At least two significant moments in the natural history of the universe beg the question of God. These moments force us beyond trying to explain what happened to another question: who is behind it? The first moment would be creation. It’s widely accepted that the universe had a beginning. There was a dramatic moment when nothing became something. The second moment would be the birth of life. There was an equally dramatic moment when inanimate objects became living beings. The question is not how it happened but who is behind it? The late Stephen Hawking put it this way:
“If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in 1000 thousand million millionths, the universe would have re-collapsed...the odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are religious implications.”
Hawking was not a Christian but even he could see the inescapable God question that all human research points to.
King David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork…” (Psalm 19:1) His point was simple yet profound, the natural world around us is filled with testimony to the power and the glory of God. To study physics, chemistry or biology is likely to lead the researcher ever more deeply into nature’s witness to its Creator.
If you’ve been carrying about in your head the popular notion that science has disproved God, it merits a rethink. It does not stand up to scrutiny. Science is not the necessary enemy of faith, indeed for many it is an ally. The God question can’t be so easily dismissed.
The great French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal observed that God either exists or he doesn’t. There is no middle ground. It’s like your spouse going on vacation. You are either going along or you are not. If you tell her “I’m not sure I’m going” it really means you’re not. You either get in the car or you don’t.
If you say there is a God and it turns out you are wrong in the end—you don’t lose anything. In fact you gain a lifetime of generous, joyful living. If it turns out there is a God, then you were right and you have correctly embraced the meaning of life. If I say there is no God and I am wrong, I’ve lost everything. I’ve missed the meaning of life. I’ve wasted my time on earth. Pascal rightly encourages us to wager that there is a God. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Believing in a God is still a long ways off from believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But it’s the first step to take for anyone who seeks the truth.
