For many of us, the “scientific” jostling that has characterized the masking debate has been, quite ironically, a veritable unmasking of…science. We were raised to think of chemistry and physics as “neutral”, objective. The men and women in their lily white lab coats were our modern monks–if not saints–conducting their experiments with devotion and unbiased rigor. We were led to believe their sacrifices were all for our benefit! Who would have thought so many of their cloaks are lined with corruption and greed?

Well, the curtain has been ripped open in Oz-like fashion, unveiling a feverish flurry of button-pushing and lever-yanking going on backstage. Enough with the shenanigans! The ruse has faced its comeuppance. The game ends now.

Obviously not all science is like this. But it turns out “gain of function”, virus manipulating experiments, are not the only 21st century Frankensteins that have been conjured up. In truth, an active “virus” with its innumerable mutations and variants has been infecting the academic and science community for many years. To avoid this virulent contagion, we need an injection of truth serum. Ask Eric Metaxas.

On Christmas, 2014, Eric penned the unofficial “most popular article in Wall Street Journal’s history”, entitled Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God.* In it, he reveals a masking that has been going on very much in spite of, even contradicting, “the science”. Briefly, in it he writes: “Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart…The odds against life in the universe are simply astonishing. Yet here we are, not only existing, but talking about existing.” The reaction to this article inspired Eric to begin a seminal work on this subject which has recently been published. It’s called Is Atheism Dead? I have just finished the book and offer some of my takeaways here.

First of all, the title Eric chose may have a familiar ring to it since it is a direct challenge to the audacious title, “Is God Dead?” on Time magazine’s April 8, 1966 cover. This was a convoluted attempt by a consortium of scientists and journalists to squelch all the God “fairy tales” that stubbornly wouldn’t evaporate despite their heated claims of “undeniable proofs” to the contrary.

Only now are we discovering that “fake science” has been running neck and neck with “fake news” in the Deception Derby.

Eric points out that the hounds on the loose in 1966 have lost their scent. They’ve been outfoxed by the evidence, yet continue to stubbornly point to a faint Darwinian whiff somewhere back at the Genesis of the hunt. The trail has uncovered uncomfortable facts, and the evolution of the quest has led to an embarrassing discovery: the beagles have converged on a forest clearing where sits an ancient cross-crowned chapel. God was still breathing afterall!

With dogged tenacity, Metaxas follows the science into the fields of physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, and archeology. He discusses the vastness and complexity of the universe but also quotes from Dr. James Tour, the world’s premier nanoscientist, about the universe-like characteristics being studied in a single cell. He quotes from famed debater Christopher Hitchens that the most troublesome subject for atheists is what is formally called the “fine-tuned argument”. And precisely because of science, their ability to refute the facts and math of the intelligent design features of our earth and the universe have left them swimming in a shark-infested sea of contradictions.

Take for example this quote from Stephen Hawking: If the overall density of the universe were changed by even 0.0000000000001 percent, no stars or galaxies could be formed (p. 56). Or how about astrophysicist Hugh Ross’s quote: the entire mass of the universe could not deviate by the mass of a single dime? (p.60) But Eric points out that “density” and “mass” factors are only two of a whole string of math-boggling aspects of our fine-tuned universe.

Then he extrapolates this to the long list of immovable conditions about earth that are calibrated just right for life to exist. For instance, there are at least twenty-two elements (oxygen, hydrogen, iron, etc) that are needed for life to be possible. We “just happen” to have all of them, and in the exact amounts and proportions needed in order to sustain life. Life would also be impossible if the earth was even minutely smaller or slightly larger, nor could we survive without the moon being exactly as it is in terms of size, distance from us, etc. How fascinating to learn as well that we’d be doomed–demolished by asteroids–if Jupiter was not exactly as (and where) it is, too.

Then Metaxas digs into the arguments from archeology, where “the Bible is confirmed by every turn of the spade” (p.120). Catastrophically disconcerting for naysayers, the evidence from virtually every archeological site has conclusively supported the Biblical account; so much so that James Agresti, who set out to disprove the Bible, was soundly persuaded instead. The nail in the proverbial coffin for him was the enormous mound of evidence unearthed by the gravediggers. He confessed: “I have yet to encounter archeological evidence that shows any part of the Bible to be inaccurate” (p.120). The chapter (18) on the details of the excavation of the 3,700 year old city of Sodom, including shards of pottery that had been glazed at a temperature of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, was the most compelling for me.

I will close with the words of yet another agnostic scientist, Robert Jastrow, who surrendered to a tsunami of evidence for a Creator that has been amassed since Time’s ill-timed Is God Dead? article. He writes: “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries” (p.34).

An honest editor would recant and offer profuse apologies for his ill-fated 1966 article. Again, if honesty prevailed, what a delight it would be to see Eric Metaxas book title, Is Athiesm Dead? now iconically gracing Time’s cover. 

* https://inters.org/files/metaxas-science-increasingly.pdf