Will Science Eliminate God?
Since the time of Darwin, scientists have chipped away at faith in a Creator. Even miracles, they say, can be explained not by the supernatural, but by laws of biology, chemistry, physics and astronomy. Now, a growing number of theoretical scientists say they will soon arrive at a complete understanding of the universe that leaves no room for God whatsoever.
Are scientists about to rule out the possibility of God?
“As we learn more about the universe, there’s less and less need to look outside it for help,” says Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology who studies the origin of the universe. According to Carroll, as science has increased its understanding of the universe, the need for God to explain the existence of matter and life is approaching zero.
For example, the big-bang idea theorizes that all matter originated from one infinitely small, infinitely dense and hot singularity. Billions of years ago, it began expanding, astronomically. This is the most widely accepted scientific explanation of the universe’s origin. However, it doesn’t attempt to explain where the singularity came from in the first place, or what caused it to begin expanding. Many theologians point this out and credit the origin to God’s creation as described in the Bible.
But according to Carroll, scientists finally have an answer for that. Theoretical physicists can model what happened from now all the way back to 10-43 seconds after the big bang, he says, but even the tiny fraction of a second that remains unexplained may soon have an explanation. For example, many quantum gravity theories say the big bang wasn’t the starting point of time, but just “a transitional stage in an eternal universe.” This theory says that the universe acts like a pulsating balloon that inflates and deflates over and over again infinitely. There was no beginning and is no end—and thus, he says, no need for God.
Other cosmologists who disagree with this theory argue that the original big-bang theory is still correct, but that no God was required to jump-start it. Alex Filippenko, for example, an astrophysicist at the University of California–Berkeley, said at a 2012 conference that “the big bang could’ve occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there. With the laws of physics, you can get universes.”
So instead of believing in a universe that began expanding out of an infinitely small, dense and hot singularity all by itself, Filippenko believes in the creation of a universe due to universal laws of physics, chemistry and biology—which spontaneously appeared all by themselves.
But where did these laws come from? How did laws occur without a lawgiver?
To get around this criticism, scientists came up with the idea of the multiverse—an infinite number of unobservable parallel universes. Because there are infinite numbers of universes, there are infinite numbers of combinations of laws of physics and chemistry, and thus eventually one universe would by chance have the perfect conditions for life that we find in our universe, on our planet. We just happen to live in the lucky universe!
If a certain set of physical laws are true, “a multiverse happens, whether you like it or not,” notes Carroll. Then poof, there goes the need for God’s hand in starting the big bang.
Scientists ridicule belief in a God the Bible describes as having no end and no beginning, yet they say you should believe in a spontaneously generating, pulsating multiverse with no end and no beginning. Famous, highly educated university theorists laugh at people who believe that a God they cannot see or feel created the world around them—then propose the existence of infinite unobservable multidimensional parallel universes. God skeptics criticize belief in God who existed eternally without a maker, but ask people to believe in brilliantly functioning laws of physics, chemistry and biology that existed eternally without a lawgiver.
The world’s educated and wise have become fools.
People who rely on arrogance and intellectual intimidation will never disprove God’s existence by proposing alternate “scientific” creation theories—and not just because the theories are wrong. It is because these complex theories inevitably ask people to believe in something untestable and unmeasurable—the very two things scientists accuse God of being, and that supposedly separate science from the supernatural. If it is not testable and measurable, then by definition it is not science. It’s just another flawed faith.
God, on the other hand, is both testable and measurable in a very real sense. One basic biblical principle is cause and effect. Throughout the Bible, God challenges people to test Him and prove Him. God says if you obey Him, you will be happy, healthy, financially blessed, free from worry and possessing long life; conversely, if you disobey, you will come under curses. Billions of people have wittingly or unwittingly put God to the test—and lived the very real and observable results.
Have you put God to the test? Or do you simply believe what other people say? If you say you believe in science because it is testable and observable, then put God to the test today. God wants you to test Him. See if He won’t keep the promises He makes in the Bible. You can come to know God and experience the awesome way of life that leads to true happiness and purpose-filled joy.
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