years ago my chemistry professor deflated my faith by stating that he doubted the existence of God simply because there has never been any evidence of interaction between God and the observable universe.
I remember encountering this same doubting attitude from professors: God’s existence must be scientifically proven before any rational (i.e. non-superstitious) person can really believe that he exists. The modern secular attitude demands nothing less than evidence that God causes things to happen in the world, that he intervenes in and changes the course of the chain of material causation studied by science.
Your reference to John Stewart Bell’s theorem is an extraordinary example of physical events which occur “beyond” or “outside of” the domain of material causation. The now confirmed instantaneous interaction between quantum-scale wave-particles at arbitrarily large distances is an acausal relationship. There is no temporal separation between cause and effect, because they occur at the same instant, which means there is no causal connection between the two events in the classical sense. This is truly astonishing, but physicists are not particularly impressed; they see it as merely another aspect of the acausal nature of the quantum world discovered almost a century ago. And this discovery does not really answer the demand for hard evidence of God’s intervention in the classical chain of material causation.
In recent times those who believe in God have attempted to respond to this demand with the argument of intelligent design: If there is order in the material universe which cannot possibly be the result of mindless causation, we can confidently infer that this material order must have some non-material cause. This would establish a scientific basis from which it would be reasonable to progress to the belief that God supernaturally intervenes in the universe. These arguments are usually based upon the order apparent in living things, their evolution, and the way they go against the law of entropy by becoming more complex over time (instead of breaking down and becoming simpler). These arguments have had a real effect upon secular thinkers. The simplistic Darwinian mechanism of biological evolution as the random outcome of mindless material causation is no longer a fully credible explanation in anyone’s opinion. It is generally recognized that something more must be involved, and secularists have been forced to offer new mechanistic explanations for the evolving complexity of life forms, none of which has gained a general consensus. This is quite similar to the situation in cosmology, where there are currently dozens of competing theories.
You might be interested in some of the papers given at the 2016 Science Symposium sponsored by Urantia Foundation, since its theme was intelligent design. (http://www.urantia.org/urantia-book/study) I would particularly recommend the paper Unicellular Organisms – The Cambrian Explosion – Nano Machines by Dr. Ralph Zehr. The relatively simplistic idea of a living cell of half a century ago has been replaced by an immensely complex, stunningly dynamic, and amazingly coordinated structure which manifests what can only be characterized as purposeful behaviors designed to preserve and reproduce the whole cell. Some excerpts from his Conclusion:
“Our recently acquired ability to analyze living organisms at the molecular level has opened our eyes to myriads of nano-machines that function at unbelievably high speeds, performing precise actions, with astounding accuracy, based on specific instructions, coming from encoded sources stored in chemical libraries, that have reliably preserved and transmitted the mysteries of life from generation to generation for hundreds of millions of years.”
“So many moving parts! Flagella rotating at 100,000 revolutions per minute, ATP synthase motors turning at 8000 RPM, producing ATP molecules at 20,000 per minute, and protein motors carrying cargo at 8 nm per pace at 375 paces per minute.”
“One is reminded of an experience attending a ballet. So much movement but all perfectly synchronized to the music, all coordinated and fine-tuned.”
While everyone must make their own judgment, it seems clear to me that this is conclusive scientific evidence of a dynamically coordinated and unified material order which cannot possibly be the sole result of mindless causation; there must be some non-material cause at work to explain the phenomenon of life. There is a sound scientific basis for believing in the existence of a non-material reality and in its purposeful interaction with material reality.
“At the time of this writing the worst of the materialistic age is over; the day of a better understanding is already beginning to dawn. The higher minds of the scientific world are no longer wholly materialistic in their philosophy, but the rank and file of the people still lean in that direction as a result of former teachings.” (195:6.4)
This was written in 1935 and it appears that the worst of the materialistic age is now ending for some members of the rank and file, as well. This seems like a very positive and encouraging development with respect to the future acceptance of the fifth epochal revelation.
