Is God Real?
Is God Real? A Question of Origins
Is God real? Surprisingly, this fundamental question is simplistic in nature. It is solved by asking another question, "Where did everything come from?" Where did space, time, matter, energy and information come from?
Theists have always acknowledged an Intelligent Designer as being the source of all things. Atheists, on the other hand, believe there is no Supreme Being. Prior to the 20th century, the majority of atheists held the universe to be eternal, without need of a Creator. However, laws such as thermodynamics and discoveries such as galactic motion and proton decay have led scientific authorities to this absolute certainty -- the universe at some point began! The implications of these scientific observations have caused atheists to seek out a mechanism by which the universe could have created and developed itself via random chance, without any Intelligent Director. The need for such a mechanism is foundational for atheists, because if they're unable to identify such a mechanism, they must either acknowledge the necessity of a Creator God or simply accept the fact that they cling to an unreasonable worldview. Enter the Big Bang theory, the related Inflation Universe theories, and Darwin's theory of evolution.
Is God Real? The Evolution Paradigm
Is God real? Not if you ask British Naturalist Charles Darwin. In 1859, Darwin purposed a mechanism by which evolutionary descent from a common ancestor may be possible without resorting to a Creator God. And so began the campaign to exclude God from science. The mechanism? Natural Selection. It has since been shown that Natural Selection is a conservative process, not a creative mechanism. Nevertheless, atheists cling enthusiastically to Neo-darwinian theory. In dramatic fashion, Evolution has become a "religion," where faith trumps empirical science.
H.S. Lipson, Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester, UK, agrees, "In fact, evolution became in a sense a scientific religion; almost all scientists have accepted it, and many are prepared to 'bend' their observations to fit with it" ("A Physicist Looks at Evolution", Physics Bulletin, vol. 31, May 1980, pg. 138).
Evolutionary theory seemed plausible in the 19th century, and even into the mid-20th century. At that time, our knowledge of molecular biology and genetics was very limited. Then, beginning in the 1950's, our knowledge of the microscopic world around us (and in us) began to grow by leaps and bounds. Today, our knowledge of external and internal biologic complexity, engineering, and design is overwhelming. With unprecedented discoveries in the fields of molecular biology, anatomy, biochemistry and genetics, it has become increasingly obvious that life is the result of Intelligent Design. The "simple" is no longer considered "simple" at all. For example, we can now view the intricate world of the "simple" bacterium, and realize that its propulsion device alone is more complex than the outboard motor on a fishing boat. Design Theory tells us that certain things, like this Bacterial Flagellum, are "irreducibly complex." Information Theory tells us that design is the result of intelligence. So, if the obvious design of living systems is the result of a mind, whose mind? God's mind!
Is God Real? The Humanist Campaign
Ask a Humanist, "Is God real?" and you will get a resounding "No!" What is a Humanist? A Humanist is one who adheres to the Humanist philosophy - really an atheistic "religion" built on 19th and 20th century foundations such as the Big Bang and Evolution. In 1933, the Humanists got together and put their doctrine on paper. The document was dubbed, "The Humanist Manifesto." The first plank of this 1st Manifesto states: "Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created." The second plank states: "Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process." (The Humanists updated their Manifesto in the 1970's.) Generally, Humanists believe the Big Bang (or one of the related Inflation Universe Theories) caused the origin of the universe as we know it. Thereafter, Humanists hold to the notion that random, macro-evolutionary processes brought forth mankind - "from the goo through the zoo to you" over billions of years.
