It’s been said that atheism is a religion. If you say that to an atheist, though, you’ll likely be met with a lot of eye-rolls, sighs of exasperation, and possibly a stern talking-to about how atheism is a lack of belief. Yet, in spite of all their demonstrations and protests, at the end of the day, atheism is rife with religious-like faith. There are many things that supposed “skeptics” must accept on faith but in this post, I’m going to only discuss five of them. So if you’re ready, let’s get to them.
Science is how we learn truth
An online atheist who calls himself King Crocoduck (KC) has made a video series titled, The Arrogance of Creationism. In video 4 of that series, he made the following comments.
You know, the most remarkable thing about science is that it works… Hate the method for being so rigorous – hate the conclusions for not conforming to your expectations – but do NOT deny its power!... Theology and philosophy simply cannot compete with science if the goal is to construct accurate models of reality.
I literally laughed out loud the first time I listened to the part where he said, “do not deny its power!” He sounds like a supervillain. Anyway, KC is displaying a common belief held by many atheists called scientism. Wikipedia defines scientism as, “the view that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality.” They have a sincere belief that anything that is true can be proven scientifically.
Let me ask you some questions: can you scientifically prove that truth can only be gained through science? Can you show me evidence that truth can only be known from evidence? Can I put truth under a microscope and examine it? What scientific evidence is there, for example, that George Washington crossed the Delaware and defeated the Hessians? Please show me scientific evidence for any of this. Take your time. I’ll wait. //RKBentley taps his foot patiently//
When I ask these questions of actual believers in scientism, they always respond with a lot of rhetoric and very little evidence. They believe it’s true. They tell me why they believe it’s true. But they have never shown any evidence for it. It’s just their faith!
Every phenomenon has a natural explanation
In an article containing 15 half-truths and lies about creationists, Scientific American made this very telling quote:
“Creation science” is a contradiction in terms. A central tenet of modern science is methodological naturalism—it seeks to explain the universe purely in terms of observed or testable natural mechanisms.
The obvious question is: why does modern science look for only “natural mechanisms”? That sounds like a bias to me. It's a bias toward naturalism where they intentionally exclude any possibility of a supernatural explanation in favor of natural one.
When Bill Nye toured the Ark Encounter with Ken Ham several years ago, their quasi-debate was captured on video. Several times in the debate, Nye made the same point as Scientific American, that science is the search for a natural explanation. At one point, while Nye was waxing on about the account from Joshua and how science does not allow miracles, Ham interrupts him and asks, “Why should I accept your definition [of science]?” Nye pauses for a moment, then, with a straight face, replies, “Because we have so much evidence for it.”
Regardless of how a person wants to define science, it does not change what is true. According to Nye, any time someone invokes a miracle, it's not science. If God created the universe in six days, then that is what happened regardless if Nye thinks it's scientific. It’s true regardless if it’s “supernatural.” Nye desperately wants people to believe that, if something isn't scientific, it's not true. I’m sorry, Nye, but there is no evidence for your definition of science. On what grounds can anyone say that every phenomenon must have a natural cause? Nowhere in the universe can methodological naturalism be observed or tested so the idea even contradicts itself. This is why they call it a tenet – a belief or principle, similar to religious dogma.
New matter/Energy is not being created
If you were to take all the energy that existed at the moment the universe began and assign to it the value of 1, today, the value would still be one. This is called the conservation of energy. You probably heard it described in highschool this way: energy (or matter) can neither be created nor destroyed. You can convert matter into energy (like burning a log creates heat) but the total amount of matter/energy in the universe remains constant. Or does it?
The ultimate origin of energy is a puzzle to secular science. If new energy can’t be created, where did all the energy come from in the first place? Well, they sort of invoke the Big Bang like it’s some kind of miracle. They are essentially saying that, once upon a time, new energy was created but it hasn’t happened since then and it won’t happen again. However, this is just something they accept and can’t really prove. No one has observed all the universe for all of time so no one can truly know if a new electron hasn’t popped into existence at some point. And they can’t see into the future so they really have no grounds to one never will.
Interestingly, Christians have grounds to believe this scientific principle. The Bible tells us that, after God created everything, He rested. He didn’t rest because He was tired. Rather, He simply stopped creating. New energy isn’t coming into existence the way it did in the creation week. God may have done creative miracles - like feeding thousands with a few loaves and fish or turning water into wine - but I don’t know if He created new energy while doing this. It doesn’t matter. God isn’t bound by the workings of the universe He created. So it’s entirely consistent for Christians to believe in miracles and simultaneously believe in the conservation of energy.
Atheists, on the other hand, are believers in poofism. They say there was nothing then - poof! - there was everything. Whatever mechanism they might imagine that caused it, what’s to stop that same mechanism from causing it again? They can’t know; they can only believe it hasn’t happened and that it won’t happen. There’s that pesky “believe” word again!
Physical laws do not change
Science would be very difficult to pursue if physical laws changed all the time. New technology is simply just a new way to apply things we’ve already learned. But how could we build something new if the things we’ve learned suddenly didn’t apply anymore? Yikes!
Fortunately, physical laws haven’t changed. Neither do we expect them to. To a Christian, it sort of makes sense. When God created everything, He also created the physical laws that would govern how everything would work. God does not change so there’s really no reason to expect Him to change the way His universe operates.
Skeptics, on the other hand, have no grounds to expect physical laws not to change. Remember, they already believe everything poofed into existence. To the unbeliever, there is no design or purpose to the universe. Physical laws are just our descriptions of how matter behaves and there’s nothing sublime about it. But if physical laws poofed into being without intent, it seems just as plausible that some other new dynamic could poof into existence that changes everything.
Some people will say that since physical laws haven’t changed before, there’s no reason to expect them to change in the future. That’s not very compelling. I could say, “I’m almost 60 years old and I haven’t died yet. I guess I’ll never die!” While that may not be a perfect analogy, it makes a point - just because something hasn’t happened isn’t proof that it can’t happen.
Secular scientists enjoy the benefit of the unchanging laws that the unchanging God has established. They do their work confidently, believing that what they have already learned will always continue to apply while robbing God of His glory for having created those laws in the first place. In a godless universe, why must physical laws never change? There’s no reason to expect that except for a blind faith.
Physical laws operate the same everywhere
Unbelieving scientists will tell you, unashamedly, that physical laws operate the same everywhere in the universe. How can they possibly know this? I shouldn’t even have to explain what seems obvious. We haven’t even visited the closest star outside of our solar system, yet scientists just sort of assume things work the same there as here. They can’t conduct any experiments to prove it, it’s just their belief.
Yet, just as in the last point, God is everywhere. God commands nature and it obeys Him. Since God is everywhere, I would expect nature to act the same everywhere. Christians may not be able to prove physical laws operate the same way outside of the galaxy as they do on earth, but we have a sound basis to assume they do. Unbelievers only have a blind faith.
Conclusion
Atheists claim to be open minded. They claim they go only where the evidence leads yet they are blind to the amount of faith they already exercise. God has given them a mind and the ability to reason. He has created a universe that behaves in a predictable and orderly way. It is only because there is a God that science is even possible. A skeptic is like a fool who claims not to believe in gravity, yet still knows better than to step off a tall building. He is only able to do anything because of God, yet lives his life believing he is the product of dumb luck.
Unbelievers are in denial about the religious nature of their beliefs about origins. They are trying to posit a creator with similar attributes that we normally associate with God. In other words, they want us to believe there is a supernatural, eternal, uncaused cause for the universe – but it's still not God! It's just something like God. The skeptics are invoking a god-like non-god to explain the same things Christians credit to God.
