FREE THINKING:
EXPLORE THE REALMS OF KNOWLEDGE

Once when I engaged in a debate with a group of students training to be science teachers, on the subject of God, they were astonished to hear that I didn’t believe such a deity existed. This was for them surprising, as I was training to be an RE teacher, and I had a belief in God myself.

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Subsequently, Christians I have known have been stunned by this revelation and question my own faith.  Of course, my premise for holding a contrary view is quite logical and I would suggest a reasonable argument.

Firstly, natural scientists are bound by the laws governing our existence, like those of physics, chemistry, and biology. These are based on empirical evidence determined by experiments and observations. Fundamental to these are our five senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

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Therefore, existence is based upon them, so logically God, like ghosts, the Loch Ness monster and the Big Foot cannot exist.

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I certainly agree with this approach and so an unprovable deity cannot be thought to exist. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word ‘exist’ to mean, ‘have objective reality or being’, certainly there is no way our known senses can be objective about something that can not be empirically verified.

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However, it is becoming clear, as humanity moves forward, that evidence simply based on our senses alone is limited. Astrophysicists tell us that our universe consists of dark matter which seems to outweigh visible matter roughly six to one, making up about 27% of it and dark energy equates to approximately 68% of the whole. Both these phenomena are certainly real; nevertheless, presently they are unable to be empirically verified.

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Consciousness is another unexplained phenomenon. We know that the brain functions like an immense computer, but we are no closer to understanding consciousness. Professor Dave Chalmers an eminent Philosopher suggests consciousness might be the sixth sense. If this is true, there is a vast amount of work and research to be done. Certainly, there is no evidence to suggest that such a claim is impossible.

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Therefore, God’s existence might not be something we can prove considering the limitations of our current investigative formulae and our present imperfect means of empirical verification.

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However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that such a deity might not be ‘real’. So I might not believe God exists but I still believe he/she is ‘real’.

So as Sheldon says in the sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’, It's-it's like finding dark matter, except they're looking for dark matter. I wasn't even looking for you. S-So you're even better than dark matter.