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Many people are looking for scientific proofs for the existence of God. If we speak about God we have to consider the differences between the nature of things in the material world and the nature of the One whose existence is beyond it. Science is able to investigate and draw conclusions only from those subjects of human interest which are within the frame of the existing universe around us or in us. The right use of the term “God” presupposes Him as being the source of all kind of existence. We cannot place Him among the limits of our world because He is the one who created it having determined its limits. That is why those people who look for the answer for the question of God’s existence only through science can never find a definitive answer to their question, although science can support theism (belief in God) rather than materialism.
The opinion is widespread that science and faith are incompatible, or that science has proven that God does not exist. It is commonly held that God is an invention people use in order to explain everything that they cannot otherwise explain, and that this all-powerful, invisible being has been used by the “spiritual” authorities as a means of gaining power and keeping it.
Here, we do not want to deny that such things have taken place, or indeed still exist, and yet it is daring and arrogant to dismiss every experience of God that people have had as falsehood or deception. Rather, it is much more necessary to recognize the role and limits of science, and to approach the questions of faith in the appropriate manner.
It is, of course, quite correct not to include God in scientific research methods, i.e., to forbid that gaps in our knowledge of the things that can be investigated, are explained with miracles or divine intervention. In this point, all serious scientists are in agreement. This approach is in no way an argument against God’s existence. Rather, it should prevent anyone from using an argument in science which is impossible to prove, or which can be falsified.
With this approach, scientists such as Kepler, Newton, Faraday, Pasteur und Planck, to name just a few, had a lasting effect on physics and technology with their groundbreaking discoveries. Their method was “atheistic” although they were convinced theists.
They believed, as does every researcher, in a Universe with a logical construction and laws that can be investigated and understood. Furthermore, they acknowledged that God cannot be an object of research, because, as the creator of all things – including the laws of nature – he must be beyond the horizon of our scientific enquiry. God’s existence and creative power can be neither proven nor disproven with scientific means.
Whoever, on the basis of their own scientific knowledge or reason, presumes that God does not exist, has long since overstepped the boundaries of his field. With this, they have become equally as pseudo-scientific as those who think they can prove God’s existence with the help of scientific research.
This inability to scientifically prove God’s existence does not mean that we cannot know anything about God. It is indeed permissible, and even reasonable, to conclude from the laws of nature, a law-giver, and from the purposeful nature of many phenomena, a planner. Whoever stops thinking at this point, does not, strictly speaking, act unscientifically, but consciously chooses not to draw logical conclusions which are normal in daily life, and enable us to understand many things. It is self-evident that a computer program that we use has been planned and programmed by one or more programmers, and that they had something in mind with each and every detail. The supposition that there was no planner could not be taken seriously. The “building plans” for even the smallest living creature are incomparably more complex and comprehensive, and yet they are lightly dismissed as the product of perfectly random, aimless and chaotic events. This conclusion is not logical, and is not the result of scientific study.
Every atheist should therefore be aware of the fact that their opinion that there is no God is nothing more than an unprovable, not to mention illogical, supposition, with the following fundamental “beliefs”:
- All things came to exist by chance without reason or aim
- Laws were formed without plan or purpose
- Matter alone produces life – even structures such as DNA and the brain
- The mind, conscience and free will came into existence without plan or purpose
Even if some atheists are not aware of it, behind their beliefs lies the message that there is no eternal life, and therefore no meaning to life at all.
For a believer, faith means the belief in God as Creator, and as the absolutely good and righteous judge, to whom they can entrust their entire lives, and from whom they derive the certainty that our existence has its origin and aim in him. It is not about the explanation of problems of physics, but rather about the meaning of life.
These brief thoughts should help those who have avoided the question of God due to their scientific background, to understand that natural science can make no contribution to this matter. Furthermore, God is hidden from those who do not seek him – and vice versa – as in the words of Jesus: “Seek and you will find … for he who seeks, shall find”… (see Sermon on the Mount, Gospel of Matthew Chapter 5–7)
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