A common objection to the message of Christianity is the alleged lack of scientific evidence supporting the Bible's claims. Indeed, many people have boldly claimed that they cannot, or will not, believe what the Bible teaches because of the scientific impossibility of miracles. Some even go so far as to claim that modern science has definitively disproved the existence of miracles altogether. Therefore, no reasonable person should believe in man-made myths or legends about supernatural events. Much less God.
But what of the individual who is open to the possibility that a "higher power" might exist, but needs more proof before they are willing to believe in the God of the Bible? Is it wrong for them to ask for scientific evidence of God's existence? Not at all! However, something that one must realize is that science is limited to explaining the material universe in naturalistic terms alone. Within the mechanism of the scientific method, the material universe is all that exists and everything has a natural explanation. This philosophical presupposition automatically denies the existence of miracles and the supernatural as being fundamentally false. But how does one committed to the naturalistic explanations of the universe know this to be true? Is there any scientific evidence that the material universe is all that exists? This is obviously a claim of absolute truth that falls far beyond the reach of empirical evidence—ie. evidence visible to observation by the senses—and thus cannot be scientifically verified. The philosophical naturalist must therefore concede that their belief in natural explanation is a statement of faith—an unwavering devotion to a belief in the absolute truth that the supernatural does not exist.
The dilemma one faces in asking science to prove the existence of God is that science assumes that God does not exist from the onset. If the scientific method can only offer natural explanations to those questions that pertain to the material universe, it therefore cannot have any bearing on the supernatural. Thus science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. To demand scientific proof for the existence of God is to ask a material methodology to explain the existence of an immaterial being. Which is something that science simply cannot do. To ask science to prove the existence of God beyond a shadow of a doubt is like asking an orange tree to produce apples before you will believe that apples exist!
This is not to say that there is no scientific evidence pointing to the existence of God. The fine-tuned nature of the universe and life itself points to the existence of God. The existence of immaterial consciousness, thought and transcendent, objective moral truths point to the existence of God. Even history itself points to the existence of God by validating the authenticity of the Bible and its devine claims.
Before one can be objective in their evaluation of the evidence of God's existence, one must first open their mind to the possibility that the supernatural exists. If one does not recognize the bias of philosophical naturalism within science then one will never be able to see the evidence of God's existence, even though God Himself has made such evidence plainly visible.
"For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." ~Romans 1:20 New Living Translation (NLT)
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