My previous two articles have looked at proofs for and countering the existence of god. What I have discovered in my research on this is less about any real argument for or against god’s existence, but more about how people have reacted to attempts to prove/disprove the existence of god(s).
What we see from the research is that, more than anything else, science has risen as the chief challenge to religion, and religion has responded on every front including the scientific.
Science’s pursuit of understanding how life, the universe and everything works has presented a direct challenge to religion, as much of religion’s base is secured on beliefs relating to religion’s interpretation of the same area – how things work.
Science has taken Western states away from the direct control or influence from the Church, via the Enlightenment. The Church has responded in a variety of ways, including bringing science into the church and looking for reasons to dispute scientific theories that could disprove the existence of God, or evidence that supports that belief.
Yet the attack against the proof of Gods’ existence hasn’t come from a specific attempt. Indeed, Hawking’s work could be seen as the first proper attempt to define the existence (or non-existence) of God through scientific theory. Most other discoveries have allowed the theorising of the non-existence of gods. Many of the arguments against gods have come from philosophers, scientific atheists and probability mathematicians, not from a regular scientist and his/her grant maintained lab.
So whats the answer?
Well there isn’t one, certainly not to the question of whether any gods exist.
In fact we could see the conflict between Science and Church more as a reflection of human inconsistencies and struggles. It appears that the synchromesh between belief and fact is philosophy… yet getting a straight answer from a philosopher is as likely as creating a living pink unicorn from orange peel. Getting two philosophers to come up with a definitive answer…. well, I doubt the Universe has that long to wait.
The Elephant in the Room
Why do we need to prove or disprove the existence of any gods at all?
Lets look quickly at some simple thoughts. Surely if a god wanted us to have proof of his/her/its existence then surely they would be pretty blatant about it?
Consider if a god did exist and we proved it without doubt. What would happen to religion, especially without the need for prayer and belief? Without doubt whichever religion proved itself to be the true representation of that god’s wishes on this planet would become the administrators and controllers of our lives, but there would be no need for faith. There would be no need for religion itself. Places of worship would become call centres and customer service points. Eventually faith and hope would die out, as the very existence of a deity would not require them. And with a simple command anything achieved by the new administration could be overturned and ruined, leaving the administrators to mop up the mess.
Would religion really want this, just to prove they were right and everyone else is wrong, because in this you would only get to be right once.
Consider that we categorically prove that gods do not exist, what then? Science and philosophy would become king, governed competitively by money and reason. Yet science has not come anywhere near to understanding the universe, to curing us of our ills and of solving all our concerns. The expectation in man’s ability to resolve its own problems would come crashing down quickly and violently because, as a species, we are not patient. Finally there would be many in humanity that, without the hope of a miracle or an afterlife to explain this life’s miseries and trials, would just psychologically collapse… leading to who knows where.
Where to next?
It would be very easy for me, as an atheist and lover of science, to trumpet the victory of Science over Church. Yet religion is a core to human existence; humans need to believe and its not always enough to believe in oneself for some. In addition, some science these days is as mysterious as magic to many, and as about as useful.
One thing is certain: that the proving or disproving of the existence of a higher being that created us would fundamentally change human society so radically that it remains questionable if it would do us any good. For both sides of the fence this should be the real question; if humans have no gods, then what would they believe in and where would it take us considering our history?
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
