Can Science Prove God Exists or Does Not Exist? -- Did you know? There Is No Such Thing As Gravity

Some people who read me regularly have figured out that I am especially fond of researching common beliefs in order to determine if those beliefs are based in fact, wishful thinking, superstition, or what used to be referred to as ‘old wives tales.’

Just for the fun of it, I thought I would see how many of the scientific facts that I learned in my younger years have been modified or changed because it turned out they were not facts after all.

Records show that from the 6th century B.C. until sometime in the 3rd century B.C., wise men (scientists, philosophers, etc.) all over the world believed the Earth was flat. They were the brilliant knowledgeable men of their time and they were convinced that a flat Earth was FACT.

As recently as the Dark Ages (a period from roughly 476 A.B. to 1500 depending on who you are talking to -- some scholars believe that period ended sooner), people in power were so convinced that the earth was flat that they even killed people back then who disagreed with them!

Indeed, they were the learned men of their time using the most modern scientific information and technology of their day and convinced that they knew all that mattered about the Earth’s shape as a result. My! What a lot of arrogance these people unknowingly had given how backward they were compared to the modern science of today!

Sometime around the 3rd century B.C. some scientists were no longer buying the FACT that the Earth was flat. For many more centuries thereafter the wise men of the time were no longer in agreement, some continuing to believe the Flat Earth Theory, while other wise men had come to believe the Earth was spherical.

Columbus sailed from Spain to the Americas in 1492, but he did not prove the Earth was round. He only proved that there was land on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from Spain.

According to Wikipedia, Spherical Earth, “A practical demonstration of Earth's sphericity was achieved by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano’s expedition's circumnavigation (1519−1521)” So after many, many centuries it seems the question of whether the Earth was flat or spherical was finally settled in 1520 or so.

Despite the most learned men of the time determining that it was a FACT that the Earth was flat way back in the 6th century B.C., had they been alive 2120 years later, they would have had to concede they were WRONG.

Today is different, of course. Times have changed greatly. Today scientists, and people in general, are so much better informed, so much better educated and knowledgeable, and our technology is so much more superior than it was 2120 years ago that we no longer have to worry that we might get something wrong.

We just always get it right these days because our science is far, far superior. It would not be exaggerating to say that we have almost all of the answers about everything on our planet that matters and so we are not far from the time when we can sit back and bask in our great achievements. Would you not agree?

That seems to be what the wise men 6 centuries B.C. believed too, but they were wrong. Of course we are not wrong in our modern times because we are much more advanced and really do know what we are talking about compared to those old guys . . .

For some of my readers, it is probably necessary to explain here, that I am being facetious with the above statements. Facetious is another word for sarcastic or humorous -- not serious.

Do you remember when we learned in elementary science, in the second grade or so, that there are four different tastes? Yes, and they were (are) sweet, bitter, sour, and salty.

Well, according to PBS.org, Need To Know on PBS, scientists determined that “Receptors on the tips of our tongues were supposed to be sensitive to the sweet taste. Salt and sour were on the sides, and bitter was supposed to light up the back. Turns out, that’s all a lie based on a century-old misconception that no one bothered to challenge until 1974. Actually, the entire tongue is sensitive to all of those tastes.”

If that is not enough, it turns out that there are 2 additional tastes we did not learn about in the second grade! The reason we did not learn about those tastes even though we were living in modern enlightened times, is that we did not know about them at that time -- but we knew everything else about our world. The taste buds thing was just a little slip-up from an otherwise impeccably all knowing science. (More facetiousness.)

One taste we did not learn about in our second grade science class is called “Umami” and described as “savory” and it is said to be what makes “bacon and soy sauce so delicious,” and the other taste is that of fat, which is reported by scientists to have a “distinct flavor” of it’s own.

Scientists sure got that one wrong didn’t they? Now it is corrected and all is perfect again in the world of science and we can go back to setting everything scientists tell us in stone. (More facetiousness.)

There is one more thing. Just a small thing really. Again referencing PBS.org, Need To Know on PBS, states, “University of Amsterdam physics professor Erik Verlinde takes issue with gravity as a fundamental force. He’s not the first to do this — Einstein wreaked havoc with Newtonian physics a century ago — but he’s [Erik Verlinde] one of the most recent to provoke heated discussion. Verlinde told a New York Times reporter, ‘“We’ve known for a long time gravity doesn’t exist. It’s time to yell it.”’ In other words, Verlinde says it is time to inform people of this new science FACT that we have known since Einstein’s time [approximately 110 years now]. There is no such thing as gravity.

OK, so that is not such a small thing. What we have all been taught and believed all of our lives about gravity is a big thing. It was and is still wrong -- just one more thing that science is having to change, because science was WRONG. That should take care of the misconceptions science has made, because science rarely gets anything wrong in our modern times. (Yes, more facetiousness.)

National Geographic News reported on May 5, 2011 that 2 of Einstein’s key predictions on his Theory of Relativity (which includes a different explanation of ‘gravity’ than we were taught -- and are still being taught incorrectly) were proven or confirmed by Nasa’s Gravity Probe B Mission that was launched in 2004. That means that we are halfway to proving or confirming that Newton’s theory of gravity was WRONG and that Einstein’s Theory regarding gravity, which is part of his Theory of Relativity, is RIGHT. For more information on this Gravity Probe B, please see the reference section at the end of this article.

The following videos will explain Einstein’s theory on how gravity really works. These videos have visuals that make the explanation far more understandable and less complicated than anything I could possibly write. Viewing these videos will help you to update your knowledge about gravity to what scientists now believe.

This next subject will certainly be the end of all the corrections that science has had to make. Then we can get on with why science is so dependable with FACTS in our modern day and age.

For those too young to remember, many of us learned that what was believed to be our ninth planet, Pluto, was discovered in 1930. Very modern times compared to when the issue of whether Earth is flat or spherical was settled. Well, it seems science has backtracked on that too.

Pluto was demoted back in 2006 to being not a planet, but a plutoid. In addition, 2 more dwarf planets were discovered in 2005 that are both bigger than Pluto! Ceres, and Eres are their names. Did you know about them? Well, that should be about it for science changing their FACTS . . .

I feel so silly telling you that we have uncovered all of the facts that science actually got wrong and has had to change only to discover there is still another one! I’m sure this is the last of the modern science boo-boos. My fingers are crossed here, hoping that this will be the last one.

When I went to school it was a scientific fact that all bats were blind. It was believed that they depended entirely on echolocation to find their way around. Well, during the course of home schooling my daughter when she was about 5 years old (just over 23 years ago), we learned that in FACT, bats -- except for fruit bats, which have poor eyesight -- do in FACT have excellent eyesight! Imagine getting that WRONG.

Turns out the science researcher who came to the conclusion about all bats being blind was sloppy in her methods and so the results were WRONG. Can you believe a scientist was sloppy and got something wrong as a result? I thought scientists never bungled anything or did shoddy work.

I commend those scientists who came forward and admitted that shoddy work by a scientist was what happened in this case. Hopefully most scientists are conscientious and take their work seriously. Even so, it is good every once in a while to know there are scientists who are human and recognize that fact, realizing they are fallible and do not have all the absolute correct answers to everything at this time.

Like George Washington, I cannot tell a lie. The truth is that there are just too many things that science has been WRONG about to list here. It would require a book. Science is always having to change its FACTS and modify its theories and beliefs.

In FACT, a lot of scientists have told me as much. My science professor back in 2010 stated before our class of 150 students that science is not set in stone. New technology, new research, and as a result, new discoveries continually require science to modify and sometimes totally CHANGE what were once believed to be scientific FACTS.

So it really is not surprising that scientific FACTS are continually changing as new information and discoveries are made. In FACT, it would be more peculiar if that were not so. It is the nature of science to constantly change, because as we develop new technologies and learn more about our world, we naturally change what were FACTS before we learned the new information.

Just as the wise men, scientists and philosophers in their time, 6 centuries B.C. did not know that disease is caused by bacteria and viruses because they could not see those tiny creatures because microscopes had not yet been invented, so there are no doubt things in our world that we do not yet know are here. (Germs and viruses discovered and proven to exist in the late 19th century.)

Arrogance does not equal intelligence or education. The smartest, most informed people will always tell you that even with all they know, there are a thousand times more things and more information they do NOT know.

The more a person knows, the more that person realizes they do NOT know. Truly knowledgeable educated people are never so arrogant as to imagine they have all the answers about much of anything.

While science has made some great progress in treating diseases, at the same time science is not perfect. Once we were told that eating eggs was unhealthy. For years many people separated their eggs and only ate the egg whites because science said the egg yolk was unhealthy for our hearts.

For years we were taught that palm oil was the worst thing for us – a heart attack looking for a place to happen. Now we are told it is healthy for us. Science cannot seem to make up its mind. Yes, and recently coffee has been taken off the evil list and is now considered healthful and helpful in fighting off Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia!

While science is an important part of our lives on this planet, sometimes doing amazing things that improve our lives, it also has to backtrack often and modify or change what we were led to believe were FACTS because of new information or discovery that someone did sloppy or deceptive research work that really proved nothing.

There are still many things scientists do not have answers for, among them cures for major diseases like cancer, diabetes, and more. All these things are complicated for our intelligence and intellectual progress, which is why after many years of research we still do not have cures, but they are simple compared to proving whether or not God exists.

Evolution is NOT a FACT. Evolution is a THEORY. Theories are not facts. Theories are better described as ideas or beliefs, which may or may not be proven true at some future point. Showing some mathematical configurations that look great on paper may in fact have little or no relevance in practice.

Any builder knows that what architects using equations and formulas draw on paper, sometimes does not work in practice. Architects often have no hands on experience for actually building anything. They draw their plans entirely by mathematical formulas they have learned.

The theory of gravity that has now been determined to be WRONG, was and is still a theory, and it was based on mathematical configurations that have since been determined to be WRONG. If science can’t get physical things right, like whether or not bats are blind, or how many taste buds we have, how can it hope to be even close to accurate in trying to determine things with mathematics and no physical evidence or proof?

Here are two definitions of “theory” from Diciontary.reference.com

1. a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena: Einstein's theory of relativity. Synonyms: principle, law, doctrine.

2. a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact. Synonyms: idea, notion hypothesis, postulate. Antonyms: practice, verification, corroboration, substantiation.

Since the Newtonian theory of gravity is said to have been proven WRONG, it seems possible that many other theories are WRONG also. With no physical proof, it seems likely that many scientific theories could be wrong if put into practice.

You may remember that just a few paragraphs up I referenced National Geographic News stating that scientists freely admit that Einstein’s Theory about gravity has only had 2 points proven so far, and those were proven recently. Therefore I fail to see where Dictionary.reference.com feels justified in saying Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, which includes his theory about gravity, is proven. It almost seems like Theories are considered FACT and then discredited by the scientific community on a whim since in most cases none have been proven before they are replaced by still another unproven theory!

There is so much about our world that we do not know. So much that we have not yet discovered. Yet so many people arrogantly believe we have reached our pinnacle of knowledge and that we have all the information we now need to know everything worth knowing about our world. The ancient wise men thought that same thing when they insisted that planet Earth was flat. Despite all of our advances, we still do not seem to have learned the lesson of overconfidence and arrogance in the face of ignorance.

Perhaps people are correct in thinking we have reached our pinnacle, but our pinnacle may well be far short of the brain power needed to know all there is to know about our world.

Turns out, scientists were wrong to believe that the Newton theory of gravity was a FACT. Scientists were wrong to believe that all bats are blind because of the careless work of one of their own. Scientists were wrong to believe we knew everything there was to know about our taste buds. Except for the theory of gravity, all these examples are very simple things compared to many other mysteries in our world.

I think blindly accepting the theory of evolution or imagining that we now have reached the pinnacle of our knowledge and can prove positively that God does or does not exist is quite simply poppycock. Arrogance unplugged.

Science is an imperfect study in progress that is continually revising and changing FACTS. Perhaps far into the future we may develop some sort of technology that will allow us to prove that God does in FACT exist.

I think it behooves us to put egg on our faces still again, by accepting as facts, things that may well change in the future as more information is obtained and new discoveries made. The same egg that used to be considered unhealthy because of Scientific FACT, but now is healthy – also due to scientific FACT.

It is far too early in our development (evolution?) to say God cannot exist because our imperfect indecisive science based on imperfect, often flawed human intelligence, cannot prove God exists.

Personally, I plan to continue with the tried and true. God has proven to me that He does in FACT exist. He has proven His existence to my satisfaction, and as you see from this hub, I am not easily convinced of anything.

No, I cannot prove to you why I believe God not only exists, but that Jesus Christ also exists and is alive and in charge today. I know why, and proof has been furnished to me. You can believe me or not. Either way, life goes on. I promise I will lose no sleep if you choose not to believe me. God may furnish you proof one of these days also – or not.

You are welcome to believe what you feel you must believe regarding this issue of whether God exists or not. However, if you are going to attempt to sway my loyalty away from the all powerful God I know personally, you will have to have more to back up your insistence that God does not exist than imperfect science that changes its FACTS continually, almost from one day to the next.

You will need more than some scratch marks on paper that pass as a theory. You will need FACTS. Hard FACTS. Not conjecture, not opinion, and not the ever-changing scientific FACTS.

After researching the subject of how often science has been wrong or had to modify its findings, science has lost a good deal of its credibility with me. I think it is more akin to politics – flip-flopping, if you know what I mean. If I could find so many instances where science has been WRONG in just the last 2 hours, what might I find if I expanded my research to the science library at the university for another 3 days?

Just as in ancient times people did not believe the sun had risen if they could not see it, so atheists do not believe God exists because they cannot see Him. In FACT, the sun rises every morning, but we cannot always see it because clouds obscure it. There was a time when people did not realize that, but today we know that the sun is there and if we could rise above the clouds we would see it. We may well see God one day too, when we are able to see beyond our mental and physical limitations.

In the meantime, I recommend persons who do not believe God exists take responsibility for their beliefs instead of trying to blame science or anything else. Just admit you believe what you believe because you believe it. Yes, circular reasoning, but it makes as much sense as what you already claim to believe -- that a science that has no cure for cancer, diabetes, or a host of other ailments can prove whether or not God exists. The suggestion that a science that must backtrack, modify, or totally change its FACTS continually, has the ability at this time to prove God does or does not exist is simply ludicrous.

PBS.org

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/grade-school-science/2705/

NASA

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/04may_epic/

National Geographic Daily News: Einstein Theories Confirmed by NASA Gravity Probe

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110505-einstein-theories-confirmed-gravity-probe-nasa-space-science/