Why Do the Scientist-Christians Here Believe in God?

[Eddie (Edward Robinson)]

This is intended as a sort of “companion discussion” to Audrey Wagner’s recent discussion, i.e.:

The most current scientific evidence for the existence of God?

Welcome, Audrey! It’s great to see here a younger person (an inference based on your picture), a woman (of whom we don’t have nearly enough posting here), and an Eastern Orthodox Christian (of whom we don’t have many posting here, perhaps none at all). I’m respectful of the Orthodox tradition (which has much overlap with my own Anglican tradition), and who knows, I may end up there some day. I like your generic definition of God, which keeps the discussion at a level that is not likely to degenerate into quarreling about Noah’s Flood and so on – as all too often has happened on sites where science and religion are discussed. I have not read the book by Luke Barnes mentioned above, but there are other books which make fine-tuning arguments, including Nature’s Destiny by Michael Denton (and six other shorter books by Denton published by the Discovery Institute). So you can add those to your long-term reading list. I agree with some of the others about the need to distinguish betwe…

and also to:

The most current philosophical arguments for the existence of God?

Semantic content is precisely the issue that is in view. The point that Feser is illustrating is that no particular triangle can determinately represent the concept triangle as opposed to something more specific (such as triangle with these angles and side lengths) or more general (such as 2-d geometric figure), and all material triangles have features which are not part of, and in some cases actually at odds with, the concept of triangularity.

@Audrey

Audrey, as you’ll quickly pick up, a number of posters here are self-declared atheists. There are also, however, a number of Christians. However, of the Christian posters, not all are scientists. Many, such as myself, come from other areas of study, such as philosophy or theology. Hopefully you’ll enjoy talking with everybody, but since you are a Christian, and since you are interested in what science can (or can’t) prove about God, it’s likely you will have some general interest in the religious positions of the specifically Christian scientists here.

I don’t have an exhaustive list of which scientists posting here have explicitly or implicitly stated that they are Christians, and the following list is not complete (I’m sure I’ll inadvertently leave some out, and for that my apologies in advance), but here are some:

Joshua Swamidass
Daniel Ang (dga471)
Michelle Ols
Jordan Mantha
Curtis Henderson
Matthew Dickau (structureoftruth)
John Mercer

Some others I am uncertain about. I know that science graduate student Michael Okoko originally identified as a Christian as well, and he may still do so. I think that Ron Sewell may be a Christian as well, though I can’t recall if he identified himself as a scientist.

From time to time, some of these people have revealed something of their Christian beliefs, sometimes in a lengthy statement (which statements I always find helpful); others have only expressed their Christian faith or theology on a piecemeal basis, as it becomes relevant to the topic of the day. For those who tend to express it only piecemeal, you might, in interpreting some of their comments, need to ask them more direct questions to find out where they are “coming from” religiously or theologically.

You are of course free to ask your own questions, but some of the ones that interest me are:

1-Why do you, a Christian scientist, believe in God?
2-Why do you, a Christian scientist, think Christianity is true?
3-What do you, a Christian scientist, deem to be the core and non-negotiable affirmations of Christian faith or Christian theology?

Here I’ll ask only the first of these questions, and direct it specifically to the Christian scientists here. The first question is a good one to start with, since it builds on the discussion around your own opening question. Given that a number of Christian scientists have said that they do not think “scientific” design arguments (e.g., those advanced by people like Behe, Dembski, Meyer, and Axe) can establish the reality of God, then presumably they have not arrived at their own belief in God via such design arguments. How then have they arrived at that belief? Philosophical arguments? Conversion experiences? Trust in the plain meaning of the Bible? Trust in their parents, church leaders, etc. who taught them about God?

So that’s my first question to the specifically Christian scientists here: Why do you believe in God? What facts, reasoning, life experiences, etc. underlie and gird your belief?

(Those who have already held forth at length on this topic may wish to save writing time by simply supplying links to something they have written on this site or elsewhere.)