Why science won’t prove God

A sharp clipper named Lexica left this beautiful graphic at Clipmarks:

clipped from www.sciencebuddies.org Overview of the Scientific Method The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. Scientists use the scientific method to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause something else to vary in a predictable way. in order for the scientific method to answer the question it must be about something that you can measure, preferably with a number. […]

Sometimes, people ask me, “Can you scientifically prove the existence of God?” The answer, of course, is “No.” And if we understood the question, we might say, “Why would you want to?” Because as the clip suggests, the “no” isn’t that the existence of God is unconvincing – it’s that the scientific method is an inappropriate test. And the clip shows why:

for the scientific method to answer the question it must be about something that you can measure, preferably with a number.

I can’t use the scientific method to prove most things—my birth date, or that I took a vacation last summer, or that I that I have some really good friends—for none of these are quantifiable, controllable, or repeatable. Yet I gladly and confidently enjoy those realities.  Not a doubt darkens those facts.

And with with similar gladness and some confidence, I have found myself in places where it was more reasonable to conclude God was near than that he was not.

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Tags: science, theology, apologetics, God, scientific+method, proof+of+God, existence+of+God, atheism, theism, deism, Christianity, faith, belief, Monte Asbury