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HENRY - How can any competent scientist believe in God and a life after death? There is no provable evidence for the existence of a God.
If there is a God he would not allow innocent children to suffer through life with sickness, disease, war, and abuse.There really is no such thing as faith causing some supernatural thing to happen.
Anything that appears supernatural has a scientific reason behind it.People who believe in God are suffering from delusion and use confirmation bias to perpetuate their beliefs in something that is not true. This will eventually cause them to suffer psychologically and emotionally.
JOEL - I myself am a scientist and obviously a very religious person who does believe in God as do many other prominent scientists. But from a purely scientific standpoint you are correct. There is no solid provable evidence for the existence of a God or an afterlife. There are other kinds of evidence, anecdotal for example, that require faith to interpret that kind of evidence, to mean there is a God. I have faith there is a God because of certain things I have experienced, but I can't prove it empirically because I have not seen His actual being with my eyes although I do see His hand in the creation of all things in this world. Faith can sometimes be stronger than fact.
I see God as the head scientist who knows how everything works, since He is the one who created it and we scientist are trying to figure out how He did it. In my work I can keep science and religion separate for the most part and do what is necessary as a scientist to get results. There have been times, however, I have prayed to be inspired on how to solve certain problems and succeed in my work. It's not that hard to do that and at the same time believe in a God that was involved in the creation of the universe. God and science are not mutually exclusive.
If it turns out there is no God or life after death I will never know it. It's a win/win situation. In the meantime I have the hope I will see my wife and child again who passed on before me.
I have seen the supernatural influence of cause and effect in the natural world. Of course those with no faith will say it is not supernatural. So far I have experienced no psychological stress because of my beliefs. Anytime proven facts that are at odds with what I believe I am willing to wait patiently for the reason and answer from God. Maybe in the next life. As a scientist I know that very few things remain stable. Scientific facts are not the same as absolute truths. There is often newer information that is discovered that changes what we thought we knew. Until someone can prove to me there is no God I will stick to my faith that there is a God. I will stick with what has worked for me for the past 70 years.
What God does or does not do is at least internally consistent and makes sense. How can you know for sure your definition of what God should be is the right one? According to scripture God wants us to love and serve each other. How can we serve each other if there is no one in need of service? He allows bad thing to happen to people to humble them and give us opportunities to serve them. He also gave us our free will to either choose to do good or choose to do bad. He will not interfere with a persons free will and force him to not do bad things or to always do good things. This is so He has evidence to pass righteous judgment against those who hurt others. The innocent victims will not be held accountable for what happens to them. It is up to us to help those victims the best we can. It is a test for us to see how compassionate we can be.Even God operates by laws that are eternal and that don't change, and He would not change them. Free will is one of those laws. What a boring life this would be if everyone only did good. No one would be able to even appreciate the good if they don't experience the bad. They would not know what good is. Without opposition in this life we would all be walking around like robots with no real purpose in life.
Even without religion faith is a real principle that can provide strength and motivation to proceed without having all the facts that might otherwise be necessary.Even though one might have some facts they might still not be able to make a decision on what to do. In that case a leap of faith can be the stronger force that gives confidence and compels a person to actually succeed at doing something. Faith can be amplified by the spirit of God which will influence your own mind and sprit, encouraging you to act on something. In that way I think faith can be a stronger force than just facts, but they can and do often work together.Faith is a powerful thing that can keep hope alive and strong. Faith in God and eternal life gives us a stronger reason for living this life besides just existing. It answers the questions of why we are here and where we are going after life. Maybe you feel you don't need that but I am certainly grateful for it.
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