Traditionally, it is religion that has inspired people to believe in God. In our time, however, science has begun to discover God.
Antony Flew (1923-2010), English professor of philosophy and outspoken atheist since his teens, shocked his colleagues in 2004 when he stated that God probably did exist. Three years later, he published the book There Is A God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.
Flew had always said that there was no evidence for the existence of God. New scientific research made him, however, a believer.
“Speaking in a new video, Has Science Discovered God? Flew argues that the investigation of DNA ‘has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce [life], that intelligence must have been involved.’
The first indication of his about-turn came in a letter to Philosophy Now magazine, in which he said: ‘It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism.’
Flew […] said: ‘My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: follow the evidence, wherever it leads.’”
(Atheist finds ‘God’ after 50 years, an article by Laura Smith in the Guardian (London) 11th Dec. 2004.
Flew is not alone to lose faith in an atheism / naturalism that preaches physical coincidence as the origin of life and the universe. Many things point to the fact that intelligence is a far better explanation of how it all began. Modern science has discovered how incredibly fine-tuned everything is. Precise genetic instructions carried by the DNA are essential for the functioning, development and reproduction of all organisms known to us.
Discoveries in biochemistry, physics, cosmology and quantum mechanics have shown us that carbon-based life requires a fine balance between physical and cosmological quantities. Only carbon can form the long molecules required for life to exist.
Even slight changes in any of those quantities would make that essential balance impossible. Life as we know it, would then not be able to exist.
Many scientists have concluded that such a delicate balance could not come about in a random way. This is widely regarded as a proof of divine design, even a proof that God must exist.
Science has found that even the Big Bang was fine-tuned in an amazing way. The initial conditions of the Big Bang show that it evolved smoothly – if the Big Bang had evolved unevenly, the result would have been a cosmos like a turbulent sea, made up of black holes. Sir Roger Penrose, the distinguished British mathematical physicist, calculated that the chance of an even start would be an incredible 1 in 1010123. Only a designer would have been able to fine-tune the Big Bang to such a degree.
Text: Knut Holdhus
More about God
