Science Doesn't Explain Everything So The Answer to All Questions Must Be God, Right?

A question thrown out often in debate between Christians and atheists is "If you can't explain the origin of the universe and the origin of life then why don't you just believe in God?" It is often followed up with, "Doesn't it make more sense to believe in God because all those questions are answered in the Bible. All science has is theories but the Bible has the Truth."

I have answered this question so frequently that I decided to write an article about why the lack of complete and perfect explanations of the origin of life and the universe do not make it seem logical for me to just believe in God instead of seeking answers.

I accept the fact that I don't know the answers to the questions of how exactly the universe came about and how exactly, life came to be. There are many good, scientific theories supported by tangible evidence. It seems likely that eventually, scientists will come closer to answering such big questions as the origin of life and the universe with a great degree of accuracy and certainty.

Demanding an absolute answer right now is much like asking a child to explain exactly how a rocket flies to the moon with complete technical details. The child does not know the answer but it doesn't mean he never will or never can. Nor does it mean that if the child said, "God makes the rocket go to the moon" he'd be correct. As a race, we are still children; your question is just a little too far beyond us as yet. So my answer is that I accept that I am not all-knowing.

Only through reason will we find the beautiful truth. Imagination is great but it doesn't compare to reality.

The wonder and power of reality is so great I am a little saddened by those who think they already have the explanations for everything in a tidy package called God. Life isn't tidy and easily understood. It's messy and strange and mysterious. One tiny shred at a time we're figuring it out; tiny bits of reality are stacking up.

I don't think you need to know what caused the universe to exist to say "I don't believe the universe was created by magic." Historically, everything people have claimed to be caused by magic has turned out to have a logical explanation. People used to think that maggots just came out of raw meat and turned into flies by magic. Later we learned that flies laid eggs in the meat which hatched into maggots that turned into flies; no magic involved, just flies laying eggs. People once believed that illness came from demons inhabiting the body or as punishment from God for their sins. We learned that illnesses are caused by germs, exposure to harmful elements, parasites, genetic problems and various other things unrelated to demons or gods. People used to think that lightning and thunder had something to do with Gods throwing temper tantrums; they blamed them on magic. We now know that there are rational explanations (involving no angry Gods) that explain thunder and lightning.

We have yet to reach the pinnacle of knowledge and I doubt there even is such a thing. We don't know everything, we probably won't ever know everything but we are learning. Just because we don't have all the answers it doesn't mean we have to accept an illogical answer like "it's magic" or "God did it." Just because there is a question there is not always a ready answer and even if there is an answer it may never be found in our lifetimes. It's OK to admit ignorance, especially when every human that ever lived shares that ignorance.

Most folks require something more than, "I can't answer all the questions in the universe" to convince them God is real. Of course we can't answer all the questions in the universe, we're only human.