Is the world explainable without God?

Many religious thinkers do not find a purely scientific account of the universe plausible. Areas where the scientific explanation is questioned include the universe's origin, life on earth, human consciousness, and human morality.

Implications to Other Questions

Does God exist?

+

If you believe B then possibly you believe A

Did complex life evolve through the process of natural selection?

If you believe A then presumably you believe not B

Must God exist to explain how the universe began?

Do miracles happen?

Are spiritual experiences proof of the supernatural?

Experts and Influencers

Suggest Expert Quote (click to expand, no login required)

Agree

Experts In Science

Steven Weinberg Nobel Laureate in Physics

Agree

...it seems to me that physics is in a better position to give us a partly satisfying explanation of the world than religion can ever do, because although physicists won't be able to explain why the laws of nature are what they are and not something completely different, at least we may be able to explain why they are not slightly different. ... Religious theories, on the other hand, seem to be infinitely flexible, with nothing to prevent the invention of deities of any conceivable sort.

Edit Pitches

01 Apr 1999 Source

Sub-Arguments Of This Expert:
Must God exist to explain how the universe began?
Disagree
Do miracles happen?
Disagree

Richard Dawkins Evolutionary Biologist, Writer, Atheism Activist

Agree

The whole scientific enterprise is aimed at explaining the world in terms of simple principles. We live in a world which is breathtakingly complicated, and we have a scientific theory - we have several - which enables us to see how that world could have come into being from very simple beginnings. That's what I call understanding. ... Reductionist explanations are true explanations. ... I don't think God is an explanation at all.

Edit Pitches

09 Jan 2006 Source

Sub-Arguments Of This Expert:
Did complex life evolve through the process of natural selection?
Agree
Do miracles happen?
Disagree

Disagree

Experts In Politics

Sam Brownback Senator, Republican

Disagree

Yet I believe, as do many biologists and people of faith, that the process of creation — and indeed life today — is sustained by the hand of God in a manner known fully only to him.

Edit Pitches

31 May 2007 Source

Sub-Arguments Of This Expert:
Did complex life evolve through the process of natural selection?
Disagree

Kevin Rudd Australian Prime Minister, 2007-2010

Disagree

You can't simply have, in my own judgment, creation simply being a random event because it is so inherently ordered, and the fact that the natural environment is being ordered where it can properly coexist over time. ... If you were simply reducing that to mathematically probabilities I've got to say it probably wouldn't have happened. ... So I think there is an intelligent mind at work.

The Common Sense Pitch

Edit Pitches

29 Aug 2008 Source

Comments

Add Your TakeOnIt (click to expand, no login required)

0 Points Anonymous 17 Jun 2010 Stance on Question: Agree

I think the world is explainable either way, especially with the growth in research at the subatomic level over the past many years. Note that I am answering the question asked (is the world explainable without God) and I do not mean to cause the assumption that I therefore disbelieve in God. I believe that we can only ever explain the universe and life be considering every option until one is proven impossible. (note again I say impossible, not less possible)

0 Points Benja 17 Jun 2010 Stance on Question: Agree

"I believe that we can only ever explain the universe and life be considering every option until one is proven impossible."

It's more accurate to say that scientific theories are inherently falsifiable. We only hypothesize theories that are necessarily vulnerable to being proven wrong, and theories that cannot be proven wrong are vacuous.

The problem with using God as an explanation, is that such explanations are inherently unfalsifiable - they can never be proven wrong. Someone who says "God explains X" don't actually create experiments whereby the outcome could result in them saying "I agree that this disproves or lowers the probability that God exists". Now, I can accept that such explanations may help people deal with life, have a more poetic and sublime view of the world, and socially resonate with other people who also use God as explanations for events. However, in these cases, the word "explanation" has stretched to the point it's really divorced from its everyday usage, and is actually antithetical to its scientific usage.

0 Points OmnipotentRabbit 10 Apr 2010 Stance on Question: Mostly Agree

With and without God it is equally explainable; if not more through science, since it allows one to eliminate the question of its behaviour. But neither side provides a concise enough argument to make something completely solid.

Yet Science is coming closer than God's Ministers to finding the solution.

1 Point JGWeissman 08 Mar 2010 Stance on Question: Agree

The world had better be explainable without God, because introducing God adds a lot of questions, and, due to a lack of description of God's behavior, fails to produce any answers better than pushing back the question to "Why did God do that?".