The Atheist in My Head

By Saad Omais

-        . . . I seriously can’t understand why you still believe in God.

-       Well, if you look closely into the world around you, you would believe too.

-       But that is science . . . Science and God simply don’t add up.

-       No . . . that is what some scien-tists ‘believe’ is true. In fact, the scientific method, 
in one way or the other, must prove the existence of God.

-       How so?

-       One example is the commonly known issue of causation . . .

-       Wait … you mean what Hume said? That there is no such thing as cause and effect 
in nature . . . only events that in the past occurred after each other?

-       Well, al-Ghazali said it much earlier . . . but yes, that is mainly it.

-       And then you would say that God is what is keeping the necessary relationship 
between cause and effect, right?

-       Aha.

-       But where is your proof? Has this ever happened?

-       It is what people call miracles.

-       Have you ever seen a miracle?

-       Hmm no, but I believe they are true.

-       You are not even close to convincing me.

-       Well, if you choose to believe that physical laws exist absolutely, that gravity has always and will always cause things to fall, this leads to the belief that God exists too.

-       Go on.

-       Why is there law instead of nothing? Why are there constants that science assumes never change?

-       Simply, other universes can exist in which this does not apply: physical laws can be 
different or absent . . . you know it as the multiverse theory.

-       You got it wrong: I’m not saying why physical laws support life in our universe - which , by the way ,  is the only one we know of... I’m saying why have laws - anywhere - in the first place?

-       That is just the way it is . . . science cannot answer these questions.

-       True, but that is how science proves God’s existence: if causation is not necessary, God maintains the relationship. If causation is necessary, physical laws did not originate randomly; God put them there.

 -       But who said the world really exists as we see it? Perhaps the whole notion of scientific laws is a human illusion. Perhaps no laws exist to begin with.

-       So what you’re saying is that to disprove the existence of God, you assume that all we know about science is false, that our mental capacities are deceiving and perhaps that even we humans do not exist?

-       Yes, that’s what I’m saying.

-       . . . And you make fun of me for believing in miracles!