Atheists' Objections to Evidence for God's Existence, Part 4

When atheists claim that there’s no evidence for God, they almost always mean that there’s no scientific evidence for God’s existence. By this is usually meant that there’s no evidence of God’s existence that can be tested or measured according to the scientific method. The scientific method, first established in the 17^th century and since continually revised, includes a number of steps by which physical phenomena can be tested and measured in order to gain knowledge, or correct past misinformation, about the natural world. These steps are:

• Question – a question to be answered based on research in a field of knowledge.
• Hypothesis– a conjecture or explanation that can be tested.
• Prediction – a prediction of how the testing of the hypothesis will play out.
• Experiment– a test to determine whether the hypothesis is correct.
• Analysis – assessment of the data to determine whether the testing did, indeed, turn out as predicted so that the hypothesis can be accepted (or rejected if it didn’t turn out as predicted).

In addition to these five steps, the scientific community expects certain things of experiments before it will place confidence in either accepting or rejecting a hypothesis. These are:

• Replication – an experiment ought to be reproducible, with the same outcome.
• Peer Review – the experiment is reviewed by (hopefully) experts who aren’t invested one way or the other in the outcome, to catch any mistakes in the original experiment.
• Data Recording and Sharing – the data along every step of the process should have been recorded, and the data and results shared, usually by means of publication in a peer reviewed journal.

Critics accuse those who demand evidence of God’s existence that can be measured by the scientific method of scientism, that is, the tendency to reduce all legitimate knowledge to the scientific form of knowledge. Adherents of scientism, if you will, insist that if science can’t get to the bottom of something, than it’s not real. Believers, as well as historians, attorneys, and many scientists other than physicists, will argue that there are a great many different kinds of evidence than that provided by the scientific method. Our judicial system relies on evidence that isn’t always physical evidence, so it can’t always be tested or measured, though it may be corroborated by physical or other types of evidence. Testimonial evidence, the oral statements of witnesses, is held in high regard by our courts, as is documentary evidence. Statistical evidence is used to support the probability of events, or the superiority of one position over another. Even circumstantial evidence has its place when little other evidence can be found.

The notion that the only knowledge in which we can have any confidence is knowledge attained by the scientific method is, first of all, a poor attempt to define the terms of the argument too narrowly and, second, clearly false. I don’t need to use the scientific method to know that my mother’s maiden name was Grant, that Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September of 1862, that I’m allergic to poison ivy, that the Moon orbits the Earth, that Michelangelo sculpted the Pieta, that the oldest confirmed human archeological site in the Western Hemisphere is at Pedra Furada in Brazil, that Mount Everest is taller than K2, that the number of babies born in the local hospital in any given year will roughly equal 50% girls and 50% boys, or that the Great Smoky Mountains are the habitat for one of the largest varieties of plant and animal life in the world. All of these facts can be known by methodologies other than the scientific method: oral testimony, documentary evidence, personal experience, carbon dating, mathematical measurement, statistical evidence, or simple observation and comparison. Furthermore, the scientific method is completely useless in attaining or confirming whole chunks of knowledge and information accessible to humans. What is the distance in miles between Austin, TX and Knoxville, TN? What is the number one selling song in the pop-rock era? How did the Bantu come to dominate sub-Sahara Africa? What characteristics apply in assigning a painting to the Romantic versus the Impressionist period? What cultural/historical determiners contributed to the adoption of the Germanic language family by inhabitants of the English Isles? What is the recipe for angel food cake?

Demanding that knowledge of God, including knowledge of His existence, be demonstrated by the scientific method is really an example of asking the wrong question. It’s essential to know the temperature at which dough rises and cooks through, and to be able to rely on that knowledge, in order to bake an angel food cake. This knowledge is useless, however, when I’m asking what ingredients I need to pick up at the grocery.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.