Science can’t address God’s existence and spirituality can’t prove it – how then can science and spirituality be reconciled?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
How can we reconcile science and spirituality with respect to the existence of God Science cannot address the question of God’s existence Spirituality can’t prove God’s existence Good question Actually the term used today in most operational purposes it is search for natural explanation for natural phenomena that means natural means material Science looks for material explanations for material phenomena Science casts a net at nature to catch knowledge about nature Suppose somebody goes for fishing and they have a fishing net of say 1 inch by 1 inch Now if there are any aquatics smaller than 1 inch by 1 inch no matter how long the fishing net is cast those aquatics will never be caught Similarly science casts a net at nature to acquire knowledge about nature The net of knowledge that science casts it looks for material explanations and that’s why anything that is non-material will slip out of the net of science As you rightly said science cannot make any statement about the existence or the non-existence of God Because God by definition is non-material So now while we say that science cannot directly prove the way mathematical theories are proved science cannot prove the existence of God but still there are valid inferences that are possible So if we consider that there is no God then the question of origin where did everything come from Now we may use big big complex terms to explain the atheistic origin of the universe the atheistic origin but essentially what does it boil down to nothing existed because of nothing nothing exploded because of nothing and nothing gave rise to everything This is the atheistic story about the origin of the universe nothing existed because of nothing nothing exploded because of nothing and nothing gave rise to everything This is very rational, isn’t it? So actually there is no rationality at all On the other hand if you consider that we see in nature nothing ever comes from nothing. Everything comes from something.
So then if everything comes from something then each thing comes from something else. So where does this causal chain stop? Now wherever that causal chain stops, that starting point should have the potential to manifest everything, what we see over here. So in the observed reality we see material things and we see conscious beings.
So the source of everything should have consciousness, should have matter as the potentiality also needs to have consciousness and that source of everything is what is called as God. So if we start we consider God as some image that we see in a temple or as some character that we see in some TV depictions then we say how can this person, I don’t believe this person is God. Actually if we want to start in a philosophical way we need to start with definition not with depiction.
Start with the definition. The definition of God is the cause of all causes. Sarva Karana Karana.
And the cause of all causes that what the cause of all causes is that is there is no explanation in the atheistic version of the universe. Atheistic version of the origin of the universe. But from the theistic perspective the explanation that the origin is conscious and the origin has potential to manifest everything.
This actually turns out to be a much more rational explanation. So the conflict between science and religion comes only when some people especially atheists they misappropriate science for pursuing their own atheistic agendas and they say the existence of God is unscientific. But now God is not a material object whose existence can be either proven or disproven by material science.
God is a non-material reality and therefore science itself cannot make any direct statements about it. And if we understand the scope of the two that science looks for material explanations for material phenomena and God is the ultimate non-material reality that sources all the reality that exists. Then there is no contradiction between science and spirituality about the subject of the existence of God.
Does this answer your question? Thank you. Any other questions? Yes please.