QUESTION: But if there are no gods
how did the universe get here?
ANSWER: All religions have
myths and stories which attempt to answer this question. In ancient
times, when man simply did not know, such myths were adequate, but
in the 20th century, in the age of physics, astronomy and geology,
such myths have been superseded by scientific fact. Science has
explained the origin of the universe without recourse to the
god-idea.
QUESTION: But so many people
believe in some form of god, it must be true.
ANSWER: Not so. There was a
time when everyone believed that the world was flat, but they were
all wrong. The number of people who believe in an idea is no
measure of the truth or falsehood of that idea. The only way we can
tell whether an idea is true or not is by looking at the facts and
examining the evidence.
QUESTION: You say there is no
evidence for the existence of a god. But what about
miracles?
ANSWER: There are many who
believe that miracles are proof of gods existence. We hear wild
claims that a healing has taken place but we never get an
independent testimony from a medical office or a surgeon. We hear
second-hand reports that someone was miraculously saved from
disaster but we never get an eye-witness account of what is
supposed to have happened. We hear rumours that prayer straightened
a diseased body or strengthened a withered limb, but we never see
X-rays or get comments from doctors or nurses. Wild claims,
second-hand reports and rumours are no substitute for solid
evidence and solid evidence of miracles is very rare. However,
sometimes unexplained things do happen, unexpected events do occur.
But our inability to explain such things does not prove the
existence of gods. It only proves that our knowledge is as yet
incomplete. Before the development of modern medicine, when people
didn’t know what caused sickness people believed that god or the
gods sent diseases as a punishment. Now we know what causes such
things and when we get sick, we take medicine. In time when our
knowledge of the world is more complete, we will be able to
understand what causes unexplained phenomena, just as we can now
understand what causes disease.
