Most of us are familiar with the Nietzsche quote, “God is dead”, but there are few who know what follows (There are also few who are able to spell “Nietzsche” correctly on the first attempt)…
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? […] Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
Nietzsche didn’t mean that God, who once existed, had died; he meant that through the progress of science and enlightenment, human beings had transcended their superstitious, religious beliefs and had traded them for an objective explanation of the world that no longer required a god (or any supernatural being for that matter). Diseases, which had been previously attributed to curses, witchcraft, or Satan, could now be explained by science. The traditional belief of the earth’s age was being increasingly eclipsed by scientific discoveries, which portrayed the earth as an ancient, 4 billion year old rock, nearly half a million times older than many had thought. Reason replaced faith. Fact replaced belief. Science replaced religion. And a chilling silence filled laboratories, classrooms, and households alike, as man became the god he had been pursuing for thousands of years.
That’s what Nietzsche meant. And the consequences of this philosophy have become increasingly prevalent ever since.
It’s called positivism.
According to positivism, you can only know that which can be tested or confirmed by science or logic. The world is as old as science tells us it is. You are sick because a virus has infected the cells inside your body, and the appropriate immune response has been initiated. You are depressed because there is a chemical imbalance in your brain. You love because you admire another’s genes and would like for your children to have them. You woke up in the middle of the night unable to move and seeing visions because of a condition called sleep paralysis, which is actually quite common and can be explained physiologically. You believe in God because it helps you deal with death and the meaninglessness of life…
That’s the world according to positivism. There is no supernatural, no heaven, no sin, no karma, no soul, no angels, no miracles, no luck, and certainly no god. There only exists that which can be written in a textbook without offending Stephen Hawking, et al. And although positivism has given rise to a group of predominantly liberal free thinkers, who flaunt their impartiality and give themselves over to the honesty of science, it has stood as an absolute atrocity to epistemology (the study of knowing stuff), since it ignores what might be an entirely separate realm of existence.
God, angels, sin, etc. cannot be tested by science because they exist above the dominion of science. Of course positivism excludes the possibility of a god; it relies entirely on a study that is necessarily separate from the very idea of a god! It can’t prove that there is a god. But it can’t disprove a god either. What can be tested? If a god existed, would that existence not be outside of time, outside of physical barriers, and beyond objective observation (not necessarily phenomenological perception)? But just because you can’t place God inside of a test tube doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist. The two are simply separate, and you will never be able to measure a spiritual being in milliliters, pounds, or atomic structure. Yet, everything that supposedly exists beyond science is held to this standard, which dominates modern thought.
The reason Positivism has taken such a dominant position in modern thought is due in part to the trends in progress. Centuries ago, there existed many phenomena that couldn’t be explained by any sort of scientific discourse. So, naturally, man posited God, spirits, demons, etc. as the cause. When scientific advancements were made, science filled in the gaps, as it were, and proved that there existed an explanation apart from the spiritual realm, an explanation that made sense, could be demonstrated, and didn’t need any sort of god. The most obvious example is evolution, which has been gradually eating away at religious “space-fillers”, used to explain the seemingly unexplainable. This theory (along with many other scientific advancements) has pushed religion aside in a couple areas, and many assume the pattern will continue until religion and any concept of god or spirits is annihilated.
Yet, this is a step too far. Aside from ignoring the problem of causality, science does not rule out the possibility of a god (in fact, I’d argue that science reinforces (not proves) the idea of a god, but that’s a different topic). In order for a process to be caused by a god, it does not necessarily have to happen apart from scientific explanation. This is the underlying fallacy of Positivism. Although it might seem to be the case, science is not gradually decreasing the idea of god; it is merely explaining how what happens happens. And this has stood as such a threat to religion not because it has proven it wrong, but because, for centuries, many had looked to religion to answer scientific questions. But just because science can explain a process does not mean that some sort of spiritual force cannot be involved. It’s possible that the two may even coincide. Some god may or may not be involved. Science will never tell us. Because it can’t.
The unfortunate result of this positivistic shift is the godlike status that has been attributed to science. Now, instead of looking to religion to answer questions that science should address, we are looking to science to answer metaphysical questions. Simply tacking on “scientists agree” to anything adds credibility, even if it has nothing to do with science. Questions of ultimacy (e.g. “what is the meaning of life?”, “is there a god?”, “is there objective morality”, etc.) cannot be answered by science because science only deals with the physical world. Yet, many look to science to answer these pressing questions. Meaning, god, morality, and other metaphysical matters cannot ever be truly addressed by science, and we need to open our minds and realize that science has limitations, and beyond these limitations might be a spiritual realm. And if this is the case, dedication to positivism will cause one to miss an entire sphere of existence.
Science isn’t a bad thing. Technically, I’m a scientist (a biochemist). I love it. Science saves countless lives everyday. You’re using science to read this. Because of science, you have access to infinite information, all crammed into a tiny little glowing rectangle you keep tucked in your pocket. Because of science, I can explain why this cereal I’m eating tastes gross (it’s Vanilla Chex by the way. Don’t buy that. Scientists agree that it tastes bad). Science is a wonderful thing, and intentionally ignoring some of its most factual claims for the sake of religion is both dishonest and unhealthy. Don’t cover your ears. Open them to the beauty of progress and the pure enjoyment of scientific discovery!
Science doesn’t kill God. It never did. God is the creator of science, and it’s truly a tragedy that the two are separated, unnecessarily pit against one another when they really should exist in harmony.
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