Thursday, January 25, 2007

Probability and God

I’ve been thinking about the probability of belief in God. Not for any random reason (as it were), but because of a class I taught last night on science and faith with special reference to Richard Dawkins’s book The God Delusion.

Dawkins makes the claim that God is “almost certainly” does not exist—that God’s existence is improbable. Naturally I don’t agree, and I’m tempted to say that scientific discoveries like the Anthropic Principle offer reasons that it’s likely God exists. And yet at the same time, I don’t want to fall prey to proving God’s existence through its probability. On the other hand, I’m convinced that we can see the fingerprints of God (older theologians, talked about God’s footprints) through the amazing intricacy and complexity of creation.

So what do you think? Is probability a good ground for belief or not?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I could be wrong, but I don't think Dawkins would care about the Anthropic Principle. it's untestable and, therefore, not scientific.

I'm not sure I care whether or not god is 'probable'...i may even agree that the existence of 'god' is improbable. Does that change what I believe and how I go about attempting to understand the mystery of this existence? I don't believe so. Why should it? It still doesn't answer the questions of this existence.