Nowadays there seems to be fierce debates going on everywhere, whether it is a TV show, a conference, a gathering etc; usually being about religion v evolution, since it attracts the most audience I guess... The evolutionist side is usually presented/defended by an Atheist Professor of an area of science (usually a biologist or a physicist) whereas religion; by a Christian priest or some (again a Christian!) primary school teacher who doesn't have a clue about what the opposition is talking about; with no or little knowledge in science. This makes the whole program biased, unfair and to put it into one word worthless; surely there should be a scientist on the other side too! One could argue these TV channels are being controlled by atheists and anti-theists but this is not what I am going to talk about today though; that could be a subject for another article...
Of course after the allotted time is over, the result: religion is humiliated and seeming like it is a total fake and a deceit; whereas the scientist seems to be talking the truth, only the truth and nothing but the truth! In this article I will touch a few of the famous points atheists use to eliminate the claims of the opposition and intellectually seem to flatten them and say my verdict on these.
Most famous point is the belief of Christians (even though that can differ between the thousands of denominations within Christianity) that the Universe was created six thousand (6000 or around) years ago; which is proved to be wrong by modern science when we have dinosaur and other ancient organisms' fossils which have lived millions of years ago in this very Earth that we are living on, which is proof that even the Earth is older than the above mentioned figure let alone the universe (age of universe is thought to be around 13-14 billion years). For them of course if the Bible was the word of God; even a single mistake in it will put doubts into people's minds about its validity; surely the all wise, all knowing God should know everything that has happened...
Atheists even use philosophical questions to silence; for example if God is all mercy and all good, how come there is so much suffering and destruction? Why did he create evil and the Devil? If God is just, why does a child molester go to Heaven just because he believes? These are questions that have always troubled Christians; this is because the Bible does not answer these questions... As a result these unanswered questions or unconvincing answers most of the time lead the thinkers to atheism. But one fundamental point here; is Christianity the only existing religion? For example there is Islam (1.5 billion followers) and Judaism (20 million). Then; there are several religions which believe in Karma and reincarnation like Buddhism (375 million) and Hinduism (850 million) which should also be considered (numbers from: several sources)...
To start off my opinions, It is reasonable to say that no one can ever say that God doesn't exist because for one to make this bold claim they have to prove to us that they have travelled all around the universe, looked everywhere in and outside (with instruments which can detect every single presence), or have died and resurrected and seen that there is no Hell or Heaven, then maybe one will have the right to speak up. But in contrary Atheists (especially ones who are scientists) seem to impose a Godless world view and present their beliefs as facts, which smells fishy to me.
My belief is that Atheist scientists are adapting science and/or use science as a disguise to suit and support their materialistic ideology which holds that the only thing that exists is matter. People can believe whatever they want to believe but should not make science a toy or a play-ground of ideologies and must only present facts. One must also understand that believing that life on earth came to being as a series of coincidences requires a bigger faith than believing that an intelligent designer was involved in creating it. So atheism could also be classified as a religion. If I am to use a little example of how much faith is required for one to believe that every living thing came alive as a series of coincidences using Science and mathematics: Let's have a look at the probability of an average sized protein – made up of 500 amino acids being arranged in the correct sequence (assuming that there is a trial and error mechanism in nature; which there isn't); however I must state the following calculations do require some scientific understanding of how a protein is formed in order to fully comprehend what is going on...
Probability of Protein Formation
There are 20 different amino acids, so there is 1 in 20 chance for the correct amino acid to be chosen; For 500 amino acids:
(1/20) to the power of 500 =10 to the power of -650 (minus)
Correct sequence doesn't cause a functional protein either! All the amino acids have to be of the L type (other is D) isomer:
(1/2) to the power of 500 =10 to the power of -150
Maybe I'll stop there (but the amino acids need to bond by a peptide bond at the right place)...
So as a result we get:10 to the power of -800as the probability of a single average sized protein to be formed by chance again; again assuming that there is a trial and error mechanism in nature...
10 to the power of -800 is so low (see calculations below) that it is considered impossible in statistics (probabilities below 10 to the power of -50 are considered as just theoretical probabilities and not possible).
Of course a protein means nothing by itself and only a scientist knows how complex an organism is whether it is made of a single or several cells, even the smallest known free living bacterium, mycoplasma genitalium (single celled) has 100's of different proteins. Now to make it more complex, our body is made up of 100 trillion cells (this number is so large that, if you were to try counting from one, you would die before reaching it; so don't try it please). These are only a few of the impossibilities of using the Theory of evolution to try and explain how life on earth began which are not even touched onto by atheist scientists, which is not the way science works (or should work!)...
Atheists (materialists) also deny the existence of the soul; then one would ask: what is the difference between the dead and the living body just a split second before the death of a person? Have we ever observed dead material come alive? No! Surely it is the soul which is the biggest stumbling block to materialism.
I believe in the existence of a God and science increases my faith because I believe that Science can only validate the true religion and nullify the false ones; but we must respect the fact that everyone has the right to believe in any religion, including atheism without compulsion!
To finalize my opinion, the debate between Atheists and Creationists will last forever because it is a matter of beliefs, but no one has the right to impose their beliefs on the opposition as truth; so Atheists must leave Science alone and only present facts as facts and theories as theories, and Creationists must never try to act like they have the right to send unbelievers to Hell fire! It is becoming clearer that respect and dialogue is the most needed thing at the moment... I will have a lot to say in a debate of atheist v theist whether in scientific and/or philosophical terms but I believe a debate is not solution but cause of segregation which is the last thing we need at the moment...
References:
Harun Yahya: "Atlas of Creation" & "Collapse of Evolution"
Solomonet al, Biology 6th Ed. 2002
