GOD Vs. Science

A science professor begins his school year with a lecture to the students, "Let me explain the problem science has with religion." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

"You're a Christian, aren't you, son?"

"Yes sir," the student says.

"So you believe in God?"

"Absolutely."

"Is God good?"

"Sure! God's good."

"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"

"Yes."

"Are you good or evil?"

"The Bible says I'm evil."

The professor grins knowingly. "Aha! The Bible!" He considers for a moment. "Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?"

"Yes sir, I would."

"So you're good...!"

"I wouldn't say that."

"But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't."

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. "He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?"

The student remains silent.

"No, you can't, can you?" the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.

"Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?"

"Er...yes," the student says.

"Is Satan good?"

The student doesn't hesitate on this one. "No."

"Then where does Satan come from?"

The student falters. "From God"

"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"

"Yes, sir."

"Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?"

"Yes."

"So who created evil?" The professor continued, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil."

Again, the student has no answer. "Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?"

The student squirms on his feet. "Yes."

"So who created them?"

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. "Who created them?" There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized. "Tell me," he continues onto another student. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"

The student's voice betrays him and cracks. "Yes, professor, I do."

The old man stops pacing. "Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?"

"No sir. I've never seen Him."

"Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?"

"No, sir, I have not."

"Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."

"Yet you still believe in him?"

"Yes."

"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?"

"Nothing," the student replies. "I only have my faith."

"Yes, faith," the professor repeats. "And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith."

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. "Professor, is there such thing as heat?"

"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."

"And is there such a thing as cold?"

"Yes, son, there's cold too."

"No sir, there isn't."

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. "You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees."

"Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it."

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

"What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?"

"Yes," the professor replies without hesitation. "What is night if it isn't darkness?"

"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word."

"In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?"

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. "So what point are you making, young man?"

"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed."

The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. "Flawed? Can you explain how?"

"You are working on the premise of duality," the student explains. "You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought."

"It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it."

"Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?"

"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do."

"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

"Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?"

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean."

The student looks around the room. "Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?" The class breaks out into laughter.

"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir."

"So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?"

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. "I guess you'll have to take them on faith."

"Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life," the student continues. "Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?"

Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

wow, i am in awe, this has to be the best thing i have ever read. i am still shocked and amazed man. much props for finding this.

Hehe. This is good stuff. An apologetics teacher and my pastor taught me this, so I'm fully aware about what you just posted! It's ONE of the many refutes against atheism. Major props for posting this. Everyone should read this.

WhiteAccord.. you.. Christian?

Amen

awesome find

it's funny how we breathe air but have never seen it...without it, well...you know when you dont have any.

Amen! reminds me of the story of a student at UCLA. the professor was athiest and every year he asks his class if they believe in God. im not sure how but every year, they would be scared? and one year, a freshman was in the class. At the end of the year the professor asked the question about God or something like that, and that freshman stood up and yea.. i don't remember the story correctly xD

Thats awesome, professor = owned

Well first off let me just say that I do believe in God, and I do believe in science as well and that it doesn't conflict with my beliefs...

This was an interesting read, but I don't see the conclusion its trying to make... All it does it point out some errors the professor used in his wording is all:

I do believe in cold and darkness, I experience them both everday. Yes cold is the absense of heat and particle rotational, translational resonant motions; and dark is the absense of light-- the radiation produced from varying perpindicular electric and magnetic fields. We just have words to describe these phenomena so we can communicate the ideas to eachother. They are infact accounted by science though, the presense and the absense of them both are explained by science. I fail to see how this is evidence to support the existence of God.

I take it as its supposed to mean just because there is good in the world that the reciprocal is not evil? Just the absense of good? And that good is the presense of God and evil is the absense of God? Theres no scientific basis for these statements, but there is scientific basis for "evil". Theres so many things that explain evil actions... one for example is the study where the skulls of serial murderer's were examined and all had a buldge towards the front of the cranium. Further studies showed that irregular formation of brains created an urge in these individuals to commit these murders, it came down to a physical reason that we could observe and measure using our senses as everything else. Not because God was not present in them or something along those lines.

About the professor's brain. If I were to award one billion dollars to someone to prove the professor had a brain I'm sure many people would be able to provide the evidence easily. Its something that we can observe and explain, proving the existence of God however, an idea that is void of being experienced by our senses and no one could prove this to us for a billion dollars.

Anyways I don't know what the point of this post was really, I guess the logic the boy used to create a case for God's existence just didn't cut it for me and didn't seem to narrow down to a conclusive point. But this doesn't mean science does prove everything.

How did the universe begin? Where did everything come from? How come we're the only planet we know of with life on it? These are an example of questions science has never been able to explain, there have been theories but never any conclusive proof or breakthroughs. So I do think there is a God, perhaps the existence of God can provide answers to the above questions even, I guess I won't have my proof till I'm dead though.

ryan s said:

awesome find

it's funny how we breathe air but have never seen it...without it, well...you know when you dont have any.

Click to expand...

Ah but we have seen it As it is though its just not dense enough for us to see and doesn't have a distinct color we're able to detect at this density. But we do feel, taste, smell, hear it. When we pressurize this air however and condense it into perhaps a liquid form so that it is dense enough for us to see, then we satisfy the last and final sense. Sorry if im boring everyone but I'm a die hard believer in science

the reason why science can never line up with logic is simple. like the student said, no one has seen evolution...it is not something we can reproduce using scientific methods. proving it scientifically is impossible. science has its place. we can never recreate the life of george washington, but we believe he was our first pres.



without getting into an argument, the legal-historical method is the thing we need to use to judge these things.

example: did you watch tv last night? if no one saw you watching tv, how can you prove it? the "if a tree falls in the forest" thing is more philosophical and opinion than anything...

there are some things we cant explain, that's just how it is. other than faith in something based on the evidence we have, simply because we cant recreate it in a lab doesnt mean it can/should be dismissed.

too deep for a car forum

on a side note...i love listening to people try to describe a color without using comparisons to other colors or objects. now thats some fun philosophy...define something that defines itself