Science as Religion

February 24, 2002

by Charles E. Perry

Every so often I run into atheists who like to feel superior to religious people. You know the type; they will proclaim loudly that if people need to find comfort in fairy tales that’s fine, but not them. Oh no, they follow science which knows all, sees all, and explains all. Nothing but facts for them. What they don’t seem to understand, and I have great fun pointing out, is that science often requires unsupported belief as well.

Take evolution as an example. There are many who will loudly proclaim that science has proven evolution. It’s a fact. It’s how life arose, and science has the evidence. Except, of course, that science doesn’t have the evidence. What scientists did was take one observed fact, that sometimes there are minute physical changes within a species, and weave the theory that all life arose from the chance combination of chemicals in some primordial soup, and that man evolved from lesser animals.

They claim to have evidence; clear chains of progression from A to B, but the don’t. What they have is fossil animals that don’t look anything like each other, and they say this animal evolved from that one, but the intermediate steps seem to be missing from the record. Even worse, one of those animals, the coelcanth, had the temerity to be caught alive off the coast of Africa a few years back. The coelcanth was an animal they said which was clearly on its way to developing legs and becoming a land animal. They forgot to tell the coelcanth though, it thought it was perfectly adapted for the deep ocean environment where it lives.

When you believe in something without absolute proof of the truth it exists, that’s faith. When you surround that faith with ritual and attempt to convert others, that’s religion, and that’s what atheists and evolutionists do. Their god is named Science instead of Jehovah, but all they’ve done is fill a basic human need for a superior authority with something men concocted. And you can prove to yourself they’ve made it a religion by challenging their faith, and watching how fiercely they work to convince you they’re right by Heavens, er, by Science!

What, after all, is harder to believe? That there is a Loving Hand behind the creation of the profusion of life which inhabits our planet? Or that all life, plant and animal alike, arose from the sheer chance combination of chemicals? If you believe the latter, I have oceanfront property in Nevada to sell you, and I’ll give you a really good deal on it too.

Still, you will run into these people from time to time, and you will have to deal with them. My favorite way is to adopt a smug expression and say, "If it comforts you to believe that life arose from non-life, I certainly won’t try to talk you out of your fairy tale belief, but I, of course, know the truth." Watching them sputter is cheap entertainment.

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Charles E. Perry is a freelance writer living in Michigan. He has done a variety of things in his life, including Ward Supervisor at the State of Michigan's Maximum Security Mental Facility. His degree is in accounting, but he discovered writing and now spends his time hunched over a keyboard, hollow-eyed, looking for just the right word. Perry is the author of "How Government Should Work: A Look at the Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States," currently pending publication.

Send the author an E mail at Perry@ConservativeTruth.org.

For more of Charlie's articles, visit his archives.