ATHEISM AND THEISM PART III
That leads us then to theism and why it is better to believe.
Atheist, Sam Harris, has gotten a lot of notoriety (and royalties) out of his popular book, The End of Faith. It’s an unfortunate title, because everybody has faith, everybody believes. Human beings are incorrigibly religious and always believe in something. Belief is a universal human phenomenon. Believing is as natural and as inevitable a breathing.
It was W. C. Fields who said, “everyone’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink!” W. C. Fields got it right. We all believe. It’s the content of the belief that makes the difference! So what contents of belief might we suggest? Of course, belief in God underlies it all.
I think it’s better to believe in God because it enables us to question the dogmatisms of science. For example, Yale University astrophysicist, Meg Urey, wrote recently of the discovery of “dark energy” in the universe. “Until very recently” says Urey, “we thought we were on the brink of understanding all cosmology – then came Dark Energy... We now are at the beginning of a great new adventure in understanding,” says Dr. Urey. (Parade Magazine, May 27, ’07. P.5)
The late Jacob Bronowski, a cutting-edge scientist at MIT and the Salk Institute, said there was a time when science thought it was about ready to sum up all reality. And then, a new discovery would open new vistas and reality would lurch beyond us into infinity, said Bronowski. (see his The Ascent of Man, Chapter 11) Belief in an infinite God keeps us open to new truth.
Besides, says scientist and chemist Anthony Standen in his book, Science Is A Sacred Cow, how many of us would want to live by the science of fifty years ago. Would we want the medical science of fifty years ago? Fifty years from now, will our medical and scientific knowledge be regarded as out of date? Today’s scientific truths may not be quite as true tomorrow.
Belief in God keeps science and religion open to new truth. Neither science nor religion benefits by authoritarian dogmatism. Or as Brenowski put it: “Truth is the drive at the center of science, it must have the habit of truth, not as dogma, but as process.” (Science and Human Values, P. 60)
If believing helps us question the dogmatisms of science, it also keeps us open to new, exhilarating truths of scientific discovery. Turning aside from a materialistic, reductionistic, deterministic universe to a dynamic universe of mind and energy opens up exciting new ways of understanding.
For example, physicist Henry Stapp, of Berkeley, speaks of the EPR theory – the Einstein-Poldosky-Roden theory – of the universe. He says this is one of the most important findings of science every because it relegates space, time and matter to a provisional status. In other words, the very stuff of the universe on which current atheists writers base their certainties, is itself uncertain, or provisional.
Professor Stapp says this theory provides an opening in the cloud of unknowing through which physicists glimpse another world. Stapp puts it this way,’…the fundamental process of nature lies outside space-time, but generates events that can be located in space-time.” Or to put it plainly, what runs the show (of the universe) lies outside the show. World religion expert, Huston Smith, says this EPR theory finally gives science and religion an level playing field (Why Religion Matters, P. 175-176) Because as Stapp’s close associate said, “If you begin with matter as a given, you’re lost.” You’re stuck with materialism. But the EPR theory opens up Infinity.” (Ibid. P. 176)
(to be continued)
