Recently I finished reading a book by Eric Metaxas entitled Is Atheism Dead?. I had read another book by Metaxas about Bonhoeffer. Metaxas is a good writer so when I heard about this book it was a given I would read it.
Metaxas’ thesis is that the current findings in science point to a creator. One example is The Big Bang theory which states the universe began as a single point and has been expanding ever since so it had a beginning there must have been a creator. A second example is that science shows that we live in a Goldilocks universe. For example, if the earth was any smaller, the magnetic field of the earth would be weaker which means the solar wind would strip away the earth’s atmosphere. If the earth was any larger, it would have a more powerful gravity which means water, methane, and carbon dioxide could not escape our atmosphere which means our atmosphere would be so thick we could not breathe. Metaxas gives many other examples of our universe and solar system being so fine-tuned that the possibility of our universe happening by chance is extremely remote. [1]
The problem with relying on science to prove the validity of God’s existence is that science can change. The scientific method of developing a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, revising the hypothesis based upon test results, and then repeating the process means that even well established “scientific facts” can be in error if new data contradicts. For example, astronomers find the oldest stars have only a third as much lithium as the Big Bang theory predicts. [2] Now maybe astronomers will figure out why this discrepancy exists within the framework of the Big Bang theory or maybe they will need to develop an entirely new theory for the existence of our universe.
It will be interesting over the next few years to see if science continues to develop evidence for a creator God without realizing it.
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[1] Eric Metaxas. Is Atheism Dead?. Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2021.
[2] Ken Croswell. “The Lithium Problem”. Sky and Telescope, May 2022, p. 21-25.
