Science can indeed answer “why” questions

“Science can answer ‘how’ questions, but religion answers ‘why’ questions”   has become a cliche, oft-quoted by those believing in a proper role for religion even in today’s scientific world. Rarely is this claim argued for, rather it is usually stated as though it were obviously true, a knock-down argument that refutes scientism. The claim is that, while science can tell us how the natural world works, only religion can tell us how the universe came to be and why it was created. Too much emphasis on science is seen as leaving the narrow-minded advocate of scientism as lacking any appreciation of the world of values and emotions and desires and everything that makes life worth living.

The advocate of scientism rejects any such suggestion, considering that values and desires are just as much a property of the natural world as anything else, being the products of highly evolved but entirely natural animals, and thus just as much within the proper domain of science as anything else.

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A fine-tuned universe argues for atheism

A favourite and fashionable argument for God is the argument from a fine-tuned universe. The argument is that, were it not for many aspects of our universe being “just right” for us to exist, then we wouldn’t be here, therefore [and that “therefore” is the big leap] the universe must have been fine-tuned to produce us.

Such an argument is advanced by theologians such as Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig, while Francis Collins has even gone so far as to claim that Richard Dawkins has admitted that he is troubled by the argument (this led to a witty response by Dawkins).

However, this argument is not just flawed, it actually contains six major flaws. The argument is one of those that is so unconvincing that it never leads anyone to believe in God, it only bolsters the faith of those who already believe, in which state their credulity renders them unable to examine the argument objectively.