Posted on by wrote in General, General Apologetics, Q & A, Science and the Bible.

Question:

When doing apologetics research I like to compare my pro theist view with a different opinion so I can see with one has more merit. Usually this brings me to Reddit, which is known for being a cesspool of toxic atheism. Sadly they don’t really give me any actual information to work with, they just say that science has already disproven God and that debates between atheists and apologetics is one sided in favor of atheist. They also say things like there is no evidence for God and that reasons to believe are not overwhelming and that more people are choosing to not believe in God. My questions are, do you think recent scientific developments are disapproving of the existence of God and do you think more scientists have have started believing in a higher power in recent years , and have people in general started turning more towards Jesus in recent years? I guess my overall question would be do you think the fine tuning argument for God has gotten stronger over the years contrary to what a lot of atheists in Reddit says and should I stop worrying about the things that they say? I look forward to your response.

Answer:

A survey was taken in 1914 and again in 2009 by the Pew Research Company. Here it is:  Belief Among Scientists Survey     This poll revealed that the percentage of scientists who believe in some sort of higher reality has remained fairly constant: somewhat above 50%. If you break down the data, belief among younger scientists is considerably higher than their older colleagues. This is an encouraging trend.  The percentage of scientists who practice Christianity specifically has gone down somewhat in the past hundred years, but the percentage of those who believe in some sort of supernatural reality or presence has held surprisingly steady, and the data suggests it may begin increasing over the coming years.
I believe that one reason that belief amongst scientists has not gone down is because of the overwhelming evidence for design which has been produced from the slam-dunk nature of the evidence for the big bang, which implies the universe was created.  The overwhelming new evidence for fine tuning revealed in the past seventy years or so has also helped to prevent the percentage of scientists who believe in a universal intelligence from going down. And yes, to answer your question, the amount of such evidence has increased dramatically in recent years.  Whereas the population as a whole has tended somewhat toward unbelief, scientists have bucked that trend.
Now, it is true that the loudest portion of scientists, unfortunately, are the atheists and determinists.  For cultural reasons, unbelieving scientists are, generally, more willing to voice their opinion openly and even aggressively, which gives a different impression from the underlying reality.  The sad truth which I have observed is that believers tend to hold their views to themselves when in group settings with fellow scientists.  Let me give a specific example.  At my last job before I retired from teaching chemistry, I was from a department with seven professors.  Of the seven, four were strong believers, one was wishy-washy, and two were atheists.  I had an adjunct professor I often taught with who was an agnostic, tending toward atheism. But, when we taught in our classes on the evidence for design, he changed his mind.  One day he came into my office and declared:  John, there is a Creator!  That was a cool event.
My answer to your question is that, whereas our culture in general has moved slowly but inexorably away from belief in God (a number of reliable studies have shown this), the number of scientists who believe, surprisingly, has not moved as far in that direction, and one reason for this interesting and even surprising fact is found in the evidence from fine tuning and from the big bang which very strongly supports the conclusion that there is a Creator of the universe.  No, belief in God among scientists has not increased, but it has been prevented from decreasing due to the newly revealed evidence for a Creator.
Here is my suggestion:  Stay completely away from Reddit.  Do not go there at all.  They have nothing to offer you positive to help your faith.  David said in Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the one who does not… sit in the company of mockers.  I would avoid these mockers like the plague!  When these mockers say that science has disproved God, they have no idea what they are talking about.  This is utter nonsense!!!  Stay away from these mockers! That is my advice.  Delete Reddit from all your devices.
John Oakes

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