What things in science make you believe in god?

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HI all

I’m new to the forum. I’m only 15 but I am having doubts about my faith in the sense of whether or not God actually exists. I was wondering what things in science/nature that you see make you believe in god because I prefer scientific evidence for God (I know it can’t say he exists in the sense of something tangible but at least the effects of his works. I was really lost and becoming a full blown Atheist but this site godandscience.org/ (if you have any like it please tell me) has really changed my mind and I would say I’m now probably a weak believer, so I just wanted to know some things which makes you think God exist to push me over the edge.
 
When I was returning to my faith one of the things I asked my brother (he’s a deacon) is how did he reconcile his science background with his faith. He is a research scientist, doing medical research. His answer at the time didn’t make sense to me and he never elaborated, but I get it now. What he said was that his science background only served to reinforce his faith. The only examples he used were those I specifically questioned, such as space and the biology of living organisms. And what he said was, take a look - a really good look - at space. The likelihood of that happening by chance is just so ridiculously low as to be disregarded. The same with biology. If you look at cell structure and function, and then go on to the larger aspects of biology - body function and design for example - again, you have something that just cannot possibly have happened by chance.
Study science - as many areas as you can, but especially biological sciences. You’ll see what I’m talking about.
And you know what else? Keep questioning, because the more you question, the more you learn. And the more you learn, the more you will strengthen you faith.
God bless you and keep you close always.
 
all of science makes me believe in God

as amazing as is His creation,
it is so because His nature is love, infinite beauty, goodness and truth
without Him, the universe is a meaningless clockwork

science is possible because He created a rational universe
He is not off somewhere in eternity, dreaming;
the universe is real - it’s rules are His word

oh yeah, He created us in His image with a rational mind
able to comprehend our world

i can’t say that any one thing makes me believe more in God than another
but love is the clincher
 
For me, it’s the human body. It’s the perfect example of electrochemical robotics that was designed eons before humans even managed a mere fraction of the functionality. The eyes are fully functional colour cameras with autofocus features, lenses and optical sensors. Humans didn’t manage this till only just over a hundred years ago, and even today cannot yet fully transmit full-colour signals to the brain for processing. One day I know we will accomplish this but after how long? 2.3 million years from the time man first evolved?

I can put fully functional parts of a camera in a box and shake it till kingdom come, and there’s probably a slim chance they will assemble into a fully functional camera. What are the chances of an amazingly designed electrochemical device as fully functional as the human eye forming without some kind of intelligence behind the design?

I’m a man of science too and I recognize design when I see it. It’s precisely because of my knowledge of science and probability that I know God exists because my very existence cannot be attributed to chance.
 
I think sometimes it is necessary to simply ask God for help in believing, as the man who brought his demon-possessed son to our Lord said:

“I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

The intercession of a saint can also be productive.
 
What about science?

To put it simply… everything.

The complex, yet organized (even in quantum mechanics), structure of everything in the universe that somehow manages to work and somehow came from nothingness, to me, is a display of God’s power over all things. Even when I struggled with my faith in high school, I never lost a belief in God, because whenever I looked at science, I just saw it as evidence of God staring me in the face.
 
One thing that springs to mind is an experience I had when I was a teen and I really had a whole lot of doubt about God. I was on a trip to Shedd’s Aquarium in Chicago and I was looking at all the different tanks and I came across these seahorses. They had all of these bizarre growths coming off of them that served absolutely no purpose other than to make the seahorse look exactly like the specific kind of seaweed in lives in. I remember thinking, “We’re supposed to think that something like that is a coincidence? That a specific species of seahorses completely randomly started sprouting growths that made it look like the specific breed of seaweed it lived in?” After that, I was pretty open to the idea of intelligent design.
 
HappyKid said:
HI all

I’m new to the forum. I’m only 15 but I am having doubts about my faith in the sense of whether or not God actually exists. I was wondering what things in science/nature that you see make you believe in god because I prefer scientific evidence for God (I know it can’t say he exists in the sense of something tangible but at least the effects of his works. I was really lost and becoming a full blown Atheist but this site godandscience.org/ (if you have any like it please tell me) has really changed my mind and I would say I’m now probably a weak believer, so I just wanted to know some things which makes you think God exist to push me over the edge.
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I belive in God because I reject the atheist hypothesis. The atheist hypothesis states that everything came from something, and everything has a beginning. But if everything has a beginning, then how can there ever be a beginning? Because the first thing to ever exist would have to be made by something else according to atheists.

The other hypothesis states that there is an eternal God that has no beginning an no end. All things came from God. Atheist often ask, “then who made God?”. This question doesn’t hold water because that is not part of the theistic hypothesis, which states that God is eternal. Asking “who made God” is judging the theistic hypothesis from an atheistic stand point. Hope this helped and God Bless!
 
Anthony_V said:
There is something rather than nothing.
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Thank you for your reply and the other people as well.This was something that also changed my position but why exactly is the Catholic faith the one? This would be very helpful to me if answered.
 
HappyKid said:
HI all

I’m new to the forum. I’m only 15 but I am having doubts about my faith in the sense of whether or not God actually exists. I was wondering what things in science/nature that you see make you believe in god because I prefer scientific evidence for God (I know it can’t say he exists in the sense of something tangible but at least the effects of his works. I was really lost and becoming a full blown Atheist but this site godandscience.org/ (if you have any like it please tell me) has really changed my mind and I would say I’m now probably a weak believer, so I just wanted to know some things which makes you think God exist to push me over the edge.
Click to expand...
I was studying Art History as part of my Painting major, and one of the things we learned was how to tell if various kinds of work were made by the same artist. In order to develop this skill, we were required to go to art galleries frequently, and to test ourselves by identifying which art pieces were made by the same artist, without looking at the tags. I’d gotten proficient with it, to the point where I was rarely mistaken.

I attended a Science Museum with my grandmother one weekend as a treat for her (she really liked science), and when I compared the various different minerals that were on display with the exhibits about trees, and the exhibits about cellular development in mammals and in amphibians, there was a second when I forgot that I wasn’t in an art gallery, and I remember thinking, “Hey, these were all made by the same artist - I wonder who?” And then of course I came to myself and realized that, of course, all of them were made by God. 🙂

I also find it interesting that the entire Universe runs on laws, such as Newton’s Law of Gravity, and that the movements of the stars are mathematically predictable. Such a complex system seems impossible to have just created itself, or to be the result of a long series of random accidents. I’ve had my share of random accidents in my life, and I’ve never seen anything good appear from the wreckage - on the contrary.
 
I’m 15 too, so I s’pose I can relate. One day, I was thinking about how incredibly unlikely everything in the world just came by chance is. Then, I thought about how someone like God can exist and how almost crazy it sounds. Then it sorta hit me - neither of these make sense, every theory you can come up with will sound just as strange or illogical as the next. This really opened my mind and gave me the ability to have some faith in God’s existence. Nowadays, I just seem to notice some things that strengthen my belief, things like water falling from the sky and how somehow a new little soul can be made within another. Everything in this world is a little strange, when you think about it.
 
HappyKid said:
Thank you for your reply and the other people as well.This was something that also changed my position but why exactly is the Catholic faith the one? This would be very helpful to me if answered.
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You can be sure that the Catholic faith is true from reading the early churh fathers writings. Many protestants convert because of this. They read te writings of the early church and find out the doctrines amswers all Catholic. This is a letter written by St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was a student of John the Apostle, and a Martyr who was fed to the lions by the Roman Empire. Chapter 6 and 8 are the best for proving the Catholic faith becuase it talks about Bishops and the real presence of Christ is the Eucharist. The chapter are only a few verses long so it’s short.

earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-smyrnaeans-hoole.html

There are also many miracles that prove the Catholic faith. Look up Fatima in 1917. 70,000 people witnessed a miracle at one time.
 
jmcrae said:
I was studying Art History as part of my Painting major, and one of the things we learned was how to tell if various kinds of work were made by the same artist. In order to develop this skill, we were required to go to art galleries frequently, and to test ourselves by identifying which art pieces were made by the same artist, without looking at the tags. I’d gotten proficient with it, to the point where I was rarely mistaken.

I attended a Science Museum with my grandmother one weekend as a treat for her (she really liked science), and when I compared the various different minerals that were on display with the exhibits about trees, and the exhibits about cellular development in mammals and in amphibians, there was a second when I forgot that I wasn’t in an art gallery, and I remember thinking, “Hey, these were all made by the same artist - I wonder who?” And then of course I came to myself and realized that, of course, all of them were made by God. 🙂

I also find it interesting that the entire Universe runs on laws, such as Newton’s Law of Gravity, and that the movements of the stars are mathematically predictable. Such a complex system seems impossible to have just created itself, or to be the result of a long series of random accidents. I’ve had my share of random accidents in my life, and I’ve never seen anything good appear from the wreckage - on the contrary.
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👍:yup::clapping:

Yep, that’s God’s signature, right there in the lower left-hand corner… 😉

Just look at a giraffe, or a platypus, or…this…

Vampire Squid
 
HappyKid said:
Thank you for your reply and the other people as well.This was something that also changed my position but why exactly is the Catholic faith the one? This would be very helpful to me if answered.
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The story of how God came to be with human beings, and how He came to establish His Church, is in the Bible. It began with Adam and Eve, our very first parents. They were the very first “church.” Of course they didn’t call it that, but they spoke with God and walked with God. One day they disobeyed God, and they lost their relationship with Him.

As time went on, there were more and more families populating the earth, and soon there were many nations and tribes, with all kinds of different beliefs about God, because God had not yet revealed Himself to the world.

About four thousand years ago in a little place called Haran, there was a man named Abram who lived with his wife, Sarai, and they had no children. God revealed Himself to Abram and said to him, If you will be my people, then I will be your God. I will make your descendants as many as the stars. Abram believed God, and he and Sarai had many adventures, which you can read about in the Book of Genesis, and eventually, Sarai became pregnant with a son, and they called him Isaac. Isaac grew up, got married, and had two sons - Jacob and Esau.

Jacob had a tumultuous relationship with God, and one day he actually got into a wrestling match with an Angel. The Angel changed his name to Israel, which means “one who strives with God.”

Israel grew up and married two women - Leah, and Rachel. Leah and Rachel gave him 12 sons, who, in their turn, became known as “The Twelve Tribes of Israel.” They became God’s chosen nation, because they chose to believe in Him.

Fast-forward through a whole lot of fascinating history, up to the time of Jesus. Jesus was born into the tribe of Judah. Jesus had no earthly father; his father was God, and in fact, He was God, and He took on a human nature in order to live as a human being on the earth. He gathered disciples around Him, and taught them His way. His followers were eventually rejected from the nation of Israel, and became the founders of the Catholic Church. Every Bishop and Pope who has ever served in the Catholic Church traces his authority back to the authority of Jesus’ followers - authority which was given by Jesus to them from Himself as God.

That’s why the Catholic Church is the true Church - because it came out of Israel, which was originally established by God in the Old Testament, and because it was personally authorized by Jesus and given to His followers when they were walking the earth, when they were rejected by Israel.
 
Allegra said:
One thing that springs to mind is an experience I had when I was a teen and I really had a whole lot of doubt about God. I was on a trip to Shedd’s Aquarium in Chicago and I was looking at all the different tanks and I came across these seahorses. They had all of these bizarre growths coming off of them that served absolutely no purpose other than to make the seahorse look exactly like the specific kind of seaweed in lives in. I remember thinking, “We’re supposed to think that something like that is a coincidence? That a specific species of seahorses completely randomly started sprouting growths that made it look like the specific breed of seaweed it lived in?” After that, I was pretty open to the idea of intelligent design.
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i like this because i think the same way. there are lots of reasons to believe but as there are many types of people with their own interests you will find your own interests in life can be the factor to draw you into considering the serious possibility of a directing intelligence.
plants and animals and inanimate matter does not know anything and our greatest scientific brains cannot create even a blade of grass but something like a seahorse or fish or insect can create themselves on a genetic level far beyond the understanding of science.
mimicry and camouflage in nature is extremely interesting because it involves genetic engineering but also a philosophical understanding by the animal or plant not only of themselves but also of other creatures and their environment. animals and plants simply cannot have the intelligence to understand their own genetics far less engineer their own genetics themselves when we as the most intelligent creatures in the known universe cannot even understand the complexity of the genetic engineering necessary.
if you find yourself interested in this aspect of nature and the intense problem of mimicry and camouflage in nature have a look at this fish, its camouflage is a perfect replica of a decapitated head of a larger fish. how the fish could think of camouflaging itself as a head of a decapitated fish, far less how it could genetically engineer its shape and colour and markings to match a fish head is really impossible for a creature such as a fish and equally impossibly for human scientists.
have a look, its the head of a dead fish in all its perfect details, including a section of backbone and the colour and texture of dissolving fish flesh between the mimicry of backbone and the head. Squint your eyes, and remember tat predators and prey of this fish see colours in different ways.http://lh4.ggpht.com/-PTykPi5vdF8/SpUgvzsH6wI/AAAAAAAAGIg/x_UMy1gT1XQ/IMG_7824.jpg

there are many surprising mimics in nature, this is just one for marine fish-likers.
 
Science is not what makes me believe in God. I believe in God for other reasons that are not germane here.

However, in thinking about science, I think those things in science that tend to confirm my belief in God are the “singularities”.

It seems physicists, and perhaps mainly astrophysicists keep running into more and more of them. It’s not a matter of just not having a microscope or telescope big enough, they really are running up against things that seem inherently unknowable. So they rely more and more on mathematical constructs that seem to explain phenomena that can’t be tested or viewed or in any way observed, and, as long as the math doesn’t contradict itself, accept those constructs. Or at least they do until somebody else comes along with another set of equations that most think discredits the last set. And they do that with regularity.

But they don’t actually observe any of it, and can’t. What’s in the center of a black hole, for example? How do particles actually behave in that environment? What does the energy do when it can’t ever be observed? What preceded the “string” they think expanded to make the Big Bang? Was it “membranes”; absolutely uknowable dimensions clashing together to creat another universe? And if so, where did the “membranes” come from? What rules do they follow?

Math. It’s all math that’s true until somebody shows with other math that it’s not true, or at least doubtful enough to persuade other physicists that it ought to be considered doubtful, at least until some other physicist demonstrates that it’s plausible again. And it’s all theoretical. And they’ll never actually observe any of it. We’re at that point in a number of things. We’re beyond experimentation (the true “scientific method”) in a lot of things. We’re beyond observation. We’re even beyond theoretical knowledge of things that must be very basic to creation. We’re “locked out” of some things, and seem more “locked out” all the time.

And so, there are perhaps whole universes with rules utterly different from the ones in this universe? They all think so now. No, more than that, there are perhaps something-or-others massively greater than universes, and then perhaps something-or-others massively greater than the first something-or-others? They seem to think that too.

For me, as for some, it’s not so very difficult to imagine that in a “creation” (if you want to call it that) so utterly beyond our ken that we are simply reduced to creating theoretical explanations of it on chalkboards, (one is reminded of aborigines scrawling images of the world on the back of a huge turtle or something, and thinking it’s adequate) there very well could be something greater than all; something that writes the rules we will never know but which our math tells us must be there somehow, but logically must be “orderly” in a way we can’t check out.

It’s immensely humbling to know, as we really do know now, that there are vastnesses and orderlinesses we’ll never observe as human beings.

One more thing. Some physicists like Hawking, for example, postulate (again with chalk) that “nothing” and “something” are simply opposite sides of the same coin. This, some think, is “proof” that the universe is self-creating. Somehow the “something” and the “nothing” separated so we see the “something” but don’t see the “nothing”. Setting aside for a moment the fact that we know we can’t know all the “rules” (and some severely challenge Hawking) what is the separating principle between the two?

The phrase “the mind that thinks it” fairly leaps to the tongue. The mind that, as, interestingly, Genesis puts it, “separated the light from the darkness”. Separated “something” (light) from “nothing” (darkness). Hmmmm. And Genesis was written when? And at the direction of whom?

Personally, I was inclined to believe that we all exist in the Mind of God anyway, because the Church teaches that. But for His remembering me, I would disappear utterly in (what some might think of as) a matter-anti-matter “poof”.

And so, I believe, those things we don’t know and, worse, can’t know, are known and knowable only to the Mind that holds it all in existence and makes all the rules.

So again, science doesn’t make me believe in God. But at a point, it seems to bolster the notion. What many of us seem to lack is sufficient intuition or imagination to really see it.

And maybe sometimes we just don’t want to see it because, well, then we would be responsible for our conduct, wouldn’t we?
 
Look at the design of an atom…it has a nucleus in the centre with electrons revolving around the nucleus.
Now look at the solar system…It has the sun at the centre with planets revolving around the sun.
Yet the atom is almost the smallest particle in the universe and a sloar system is well…very large…Isnt this impossible from an atheistic point of view?
God loves beauty and order…the atom and solar system are proof of that.
 
HappyKid said:
Thank you for your reply and the other people as well.This was something that also changed my position but why exactly is the Catholic faith the one? This would be very helpful to me if answered.
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The Christian Tradition has a very steep spiritual and intellectual tradition which I cannot possibly enumerate here.

As far as things I can say very simply, I will say this:
All other religious founders claimed to have found a way, a truth, or a life. Christ claimed to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That is radically different. If he was wrong, he was either a lunatic or a liar. If he was a lunatic, I can’t imagine how he gained as many followers as he did. If he was a liar, I can’t imagine he could secretly be so hypocritical for so long without being caught by the pharisees. If he was right, we have a moral obligation to believe his teachings.

Pick up a copy of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and Abolition of Man from your local bookstore. Also see if you can check out St. Augustine’s Confessions.
 
Symbiotic relationships.

Some species of animals could not exist without another species.

Some plants have seeds that can not germinate until they’ve gone through the digestive tract of a certain animal that eats its fruit.

🙂
 
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