Can Science Reduce the Probability that God Exists? SCIENCE AND GOD

INTRODUCTION Claim: Science is incapable of testing the supernatural realm. Definitions Science: Science is a way of knowing, however it is not the only way and in fact if we define it as such, we eliminate other valid ways of knowing. God: An omniscient and omnipotent a superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes; a deity.

NOMA Non-Overlapping Magisteria: view that science and religion each represent different areas of inquiry The lack of conflict between science and religion arises from a lack of overlap between their respective domains of professional expertise Truth cannot contradict truth He argues that science is not suited to task of testing the existence of souls, ghosts, and the after-life “The history of pseudoscience shows unmistakably that even the most convincing evidence still leaves people free to deny it. Even if God came down from the sky and walked across the English Channel on global television, many people would rationalize the event away (it wasn't my god, therefore it must be fake; it was a computer-generated hoax, etc.).” Science cannot test faith Each subject has a legitimate magisterium or domain of teaching authority (these magisteria do not overlap) NOMA represents a principled position on moral and intellectual ground, not a mere diplomatic stance The net of science The net of religion These two magisteria don’t overlap Science and religion both bump right up against each other

VALIDITY OF SCIENCE Definition of the Supernatural. -Is defined as events or things that cannot be explained by nature or science and are assumed to come from beyond or to originate from otherworldly forces. “Super” means…(separate, different) Science explains by use of natural processes Based on assumptions (no actual proof of proving the supernatural) Changing nature theories Science- empirical realm, Religion-morals

BAYESIAN THEOREM Bayesian thinking is a useful tool in evaluating the probable truth of a claim. Its weakness is that the individual who is doing the evaluation assigns the starting values. This means that even though the process is mathematically sound, the ending result is swayed by the researcher's bias. In Fishman’s worldview article, the existence of God is evaluated using Bayes theorem. Fishman’s calculations through the Bayesian were exactly of that and nothing more than just mere assumptions on his assignment of evidence and probabilities. Seeing as most of the evidence supporting religion comes from the anecdotal plane, conflicting results emerge from this. Science is limited to explaining the natural world, and as supernatural entities are not a part of nature, they cannot be investigated by science. Supernatural beings are separated from nature. Bayesian theorem cannot use any kind of supernatural evidence as causation in its explanations because science can only reference evidence that is limited to the natural world.

BAYESIAN THEOREM Since science reaches conclusions on how the world works based on best fit with the empirical evidences, epistemological results would actually differ from person to person based on their perception of the worldview. Even when claims against the existence of supernatural entities is, we must realize that most of science is not set in stone and scientific conclusions are more or less provisional thus lacking solid conclusions due to the fact that the supernatural plane lies beyond the scope of testability that science covers. Conclusions derived from this is based on the perceptions through one’s epistemology.

Theist Scientists -Sir Francis Bacon Known for establishing the scientific method -Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei Both astronomers and proponents of a Sun centered system -Rene Descartes Made major contributions to the fields of mathematics and philosophy, helped to lay the groundwork for rationalism in the 17th century -Isaac Newton Revolutionized the fields of physics, astronomy, calculus and many others -Gregor Mendel Founding father of genetics, was elected abbot of his monastery -William Thompson Kelvin Huge contributions to multiple scientific fields, father of modern physics

Modern Theist Scientists -Albert Einstein One of the most influential scientists in the 20th century, recipient of the 1921 nobel prize in physics, creator of Einstein’s Special theory of Relativity. "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." -Francis Collins Leader of the Human Genome Project, physician and geneticist, Director of the NIH

CONCLUSION NOMA states that religion and science are two separate doctrines that each have their own ways of knowing that apply to them. Science concerns itself with testable and measurable universe. Just because science doesn't have a measure with which to test god, does not mean god does not exist. The word supernatural denotes events or beings which exist outside of the natural world. Since science is limited to explaining the natural world by order of natural processes, it cannot link causations or make conclusions on supernatural entities as they are not within the natural plane. God is defined as supernatural, therefore it is unreasonable to expect that science would be able to test the existence of god.