The more I learn more about science, the more I am convinced that there is a creator
As a person of faith living in the West, I often encounter people with brilliant scientific minds who choose to not believe in God. I’ll be honest, as a science major, I seemed to have an assumption that faith and science can not go hand in hand.
I thought that believing in a higher power somehow disqualified you from being a true student of science. After all, science is rooted in empirical evidence, and the existence of a supreme being, by definition, cannot be proven by scientific methods.
Science makes me believe in a creator
Would you believe me if I told you that the more I learn about science, the more I find myself believing in God?
When I study the intricate details of the human DNA – how millions of tiny proteins flutter around its double helix structure to create copies of it and translate the information it carries with such beautiful coordination that if even a single molecule were to deviate from its function, the genetic code could change – I wonder that this is too specific to have randomly evolved.
The same is my fascination when I look at the human anatomy and see how every ridge and groove on a bone is perfectly shaped for the attachment of a muscle or the human fingerprint which is unique to every human to exist or have ever existed.
Just think about that for a moment, out of the 7 billion people alive today and the estimated 100 billion who came before us, no two fingerprints have ever been identical. Not a single one. What are the odds of this happening all by itself?
To borrow a quote from one of my favourite TV shows, Young Sheldon, “The precision of the universe at least makes it logical to conclude that there is a creator.”
This humbling realisation of the things ‘we don’t know’ is where the world of science meets the world of faith. It creates a fascinating dilemma for someone like me.” – Maliha Jabeen Khan, student, U of R
Science meets faith
Over the last two summers, I was working in a microbiology research lab. By conducting hands-on experiments, I watched bacterial cells change in real-time. I often walked out of the lab confused about my experimental results, having more questions than I did earlier.
I either did not have sufficient background knowledge to understand what was going on or I simply needed to take a step back and think critically about my work. That experience taught me that the more we learn, the more we realize how little we actually know.
And this is not just a personal feeling. It’s the reality of scientific research and discovery. Scientists have successfully mapped the human genome, yet they don’t fully understand what approximately 98 per cent of our DNA actually does. Similarly, humans have only discovered 10-30 per cent of marine species in the world. The remaining 80 per cent remain unexplored!
Even when we look at space, we see the existence of black holes that defy all the laws of physics. No one really knows what lies beyond it.
This humbling realisation of the things that we just don’t know is where the world of science meets the world of faith, for me. It creates a fascinating dilemma for someone like me. While the scientist in me wants to figure out all the answers, the faith in me wants to revel in admiration and awe of the creator.
It’s true that religion and science haven’t gotten along in the past. But the world is changing. My best friend is an atheist and an aspiring scientist and we co-exist in a near-perfect harmony. Perhaps that goes to say that religion and science can co-exist if we just have enough tolerance to respect one another.
Looking at the world strictly through the lens of evidence and data can sometimes stop us from seeing the bigger picture. Science gives us the logic and reason behind a phenomena. But for me, faith explains its purpose, its beauty, and its intent.
So, can science and religion coexist? I think they can. Because the more we understand the wonders of creation through science, the more we can appreciate the creator.
