This is the second in a series of six essays by St. Cloud freethinker Joel Bartos.
In 400 years of science, no legitimate scientist or scientific instrument has ever detected anything other than matter, energy and space. No legitimate scientific instrument has ever detected anything supernatural. No scientific instrument can detect a God particle. How can there be something where there is nothing?
In 400 years of science, nothing has defied the theories and Laws of science. No miracle has taken place that has defied any of those theories or Laws. All throughout the Universe the Laws of Nature (science) are the same. The Laws of Science do not allow for a God.
Randomness. In our world and in the Universe, almost everything is random. Particle motions and collisions are random. Car accidents are random. Animals eating each other is random. When people die or get sick is random as a whole. The galaxies in the universe collide on random. The list goes on. There is no rhyme or reason. One can try to make sense of things by making up rules, but there will always be things that do not make sense. But...as soon as one sees that it is all random, then most things make sense. There is no room for a God in the randomness of the Universe.
The Universe is a harsh environment, with gamma ray bursts and supernovas that can destroy all life on a planet occurring regularly in galaxies.
One does not need a God to explain anything. One does not need God to explain the Big Bang. One does not need a God to explain where humans came from (evolution). Etc. Even the God of the Gaps is disappearing as we discover new things.
Our Universe began with the Big Bang. In our Universe there are around 36 constants: the weight of an electron, a proton, a neutron, etc.; the strength of gravity, electromagnetism, etc. One can tweak these constants a little bit and still get our Universe, but if one tweaks them too much, things like stars or atoms cannot form. If there were only our Universe, it would be astronomically rare that all 36 constants would be right on. But, it there were many Universes, a Multivese, the chances of having one with all correct 36 numbers would be very possible. A one in a trillion chance becomes a one in one chance if there are a trillion Universes. So there were probably many Big Bangs, and there are probable many Universes, a Multiverse.
Now, before the very first Big Bang, if there even was a firist Big Bang, there was absolutely nothing but space everywhere. Going backwards in time forever in that space, into backwards eternity, it is much easier to imagine nothing as always existing than it is to think of a God as always existing. And if there is a God, Who created Him?
Life as we know it usually has cells, nerves, blood vessels, a brain, heart and other organs, especially intelligent life, contained in a globular-like creature in which various bodily areas communicate with other bodily areas. If a God were all around us, He would be too diffuse to be one entity. Of all we know of intelligent life, it evolves from more primitive life forms and has a brain. No other creature that we know of is as intelligent as humans, and the only intelligent life we know of (so far) exists on planet earth, not out there in space encompassing the universe.
One gives up the idea of Santa Claus existing, but not God. There is not a magical Creature Who hears the thoughts and prayers of billions of people, does miracles, etc. Believing in God in fanciful thinking.