Jesus Among Secular GodsSample

Scientism

Scientism is the view that science has disproven the existence of God. As the psalmist says though, science has given us much reason to believe in God. As recent scientific and philosophical evidence affirms, the universe had a beginning and has not existed eternally, contrary to Aristotle’s view that dominated scientific thinking for centuries. Academic evidence reveals that everything—matter, energy, space, and time—came into exis- tence ex nihilo, or “out of nothing.”

Science and philosophy have merely confirmed what the Bible unambiguously affirms in such passages as Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19:1; and Hebrews 11:3. Atheism cannot account for the change from nothing to something, but Christianity can. The best explanation is that the cause of the universe is something highly powerful and highly creative from outside space, and it is hard to think of a better candidate for that description than God.

A universe as complex as ours meets all the conditions necessary to sustain life. Atheism can explain the amazing fine-tuning of our universe only by appealing either to (1) random chance with a probability of success essentially equal to zero or to (2) an unsubstantiated metaphysical guess such as the multiverse (the idea that our universe is just one of many). However, the Bible offers a much more plausible explanation. In His love and wisdom God established the laws of the heavens by creating, fashioning, commanding, and ordering our universe so that we could inhabit it.

For a Christian, this act of faith is a reasonable one, for it is based on the character of God, who cares for us and wants us to live orderly and coherent lives in which we can find meaning (see Col 1:17; Heb. 1:3).