The God Paradigm: Updated

 

The God Paradigm:  Updated

The purpose of this book is not to prove God.  It is to demonstrate that the evidence for Him is overwhelming and compelling, contrary to what many physical scientists say.  It is to reassure people of faith in God that their faith is more reasonable, and more practical, than any alternative.  For those who disbelieve in God, it is an invitation to look at the facts.

It is one thing not to believe in God.  That’s a personal matter.  It is quite another to ignore the vast and growing evidence that ever more strongly points to Him.

The best explanation for many new scientific observations, is that there is an intelligent designer, a creator, which is the God of the Bible.  With each passing year, it becomes less and less reasonable to deny that.  The evidence continues to accumulate.  Moreover, it is not just the number of items of evidence that is significant, but also, the manner in which those pieces fit together.  A jigsaw puzzle could be put together even if there were no picture on the pieces, simply because the contours of the pieces fit together.  What is more astounding, in science, is that in addition to the pieces, there is a grand picture that is revealed when the pieces are combined.

This book is a survey of that evidence.  It comes to us from scientists who are, in their fields, among the most highly regarded.  Their research has been peer reviewed by skeptics, and found to accord with the highest standards.  Those fields include physics, biology, chemistry, and many others.  Mathematics makes a contribution, and even such science-related fields as engineering.  Nor is it physical science alone, but also, logic, reason and philosophy—they all supply various pieces of the puzzle, pieces which fill out the grand picture, a picture that is not only cosmological, but artistic and poetic as well.

There is need for an update, because the evidence has continued to pour in.  Perhaps the most dramatic evidence is that supplied by what scientists call, predictive value.  Much as an investment counselor can be assessed by the accuracy of his predictions, so also are scientific theories.  A competent chemist may predict what will happen if two newly discovered substances are combined.  Will they produce a reaction?  Will they burn?  Will they form a solid, or maybe a gas?

Likewise, the truth or falsehood of a scientific theory is measured by the accuracy of its predictions.  A theory that makes no predictions at all is useless, and one that makes incorrect predictions is rated as false.  Some scientists theorized that life is created by God.  They predicted a new discovery that in fact was later made.  They predicted that certain genetic structures, called “junk DNA,” are not the useless remains of evolution, which evolutionists claimed they are, but instead, have a vital and active function.  Then, it was discovered to be just as predicted.  The so-called “junk DNA” is not junk at all, but an important part of living cells,

This, and many other items of evidence, have continued to accumulate, and have continued to contribute to our understanding of nature.

This being the case, one wonders, why do so many highly educated people, including scientists, continue to dismiss God from their working worldviews?  It is because a philosophy, not science, has become deeply embedded in the psyche, and in the institutions, of those people.  That philosophy goes by many names, one of them being, “physicalism.”  According to physicalism, the only things that exist are matter-energy, space-time, and the laws of nature that govern them.  Nothing else exists, including spiritual reality.  To be more precise, physicalism states that even if spirit does exist, there is no scientific evidence for it.

The God Paradigm (it may go by other names as well) is the philosophy that states that, not only is God real, His existence is the necessary basis of all that is real.  Without reference to Him, there can be no understanding of physical reality.

We have reached a fork in the road, so to speak.  There are practical consequences arising from the decision that individually and collectively will be made as to which path to travel.  Acceptance of the God paradigm will lead to research in directions that are now either neglected or misguided.  It regards humans, as beings of spirit, with aspects that include both the physical and the moral.  It regards standards of morality as being founded in absolute principles.  It regards human rights as sacred.

While moral people may aver that physicalism is correct, they follow a philosophy that regards humans as mere objects without eternal souls.  If we are nothing but temporary chemical reactions, then what basis is there for treating each other as anything more than that?  Sooner or later, concentration camps and Gulags will surely result, unless the God paradigm prevails.