Is God Necessary in the Modern World?

Once upon a time, humanity needed God. In ancient eras, when people lacked scientific understanding of the natural world, God served as an explanation for the unknown. Today, however, with the immense progress of modern science, many ask whether God is still necessary. Can science explain everything, or are there limits to what human knowledge can achieve?

The Wisdom of Knowing What We Do Not Know

Recognizing the limits of knowledge is actually a mark of intellectual maturity. Unlike early humans, who believed they fully understood their world, modern scientists are more aware of how much remains unknown. It is likely that future generations will look back at today’s scientists as still living within significant ignorance. Just as ancient people did not see themselves as primitive, modern thinkers often assume they are enlightened simply because they know more than those who came before them. Yet they too remain unaware of what they do not yet know.

Rethinking Ancient Belief

The assumption that early humans invented God because they were ignorant of natural laws is simplistic. Ancient people believed they understood their world as completely as possible, just as modern scientists believe they grasp the laws of the universe today. The difference lies not in certainty, but in perspective. Every era feels knowledgeable until time reveals its blind spots.

Science Fiction and the Limits of Imagination

One field that often wrestles with the boundaries of knowledge is science fiction. Writers such as Jules Verne and Isaac Asimov made impressive predictions about the future. Yet their works sometimes unintentionally reveal how limited contemporary imagination can be. In Asimov’s The Stars, Like Dust, for example, an advanced galactic empire relies on chemical energy, a concept that feels outdated to us. Today, we imagine energy sources far beyond nuclear power, even though we cannot yet conceive of them clearly. This highlights how future generations may view many current scientific theories as outdated or naive.

How Science Explains, and What It Cannot

Science excels at explaining how events occur by tracing them to preceding natural causes. However, it struggles to explain why the universe exists at all. Philosophers such as David Hume acknowledged the need for a fundamental cause, often referred to as God, even while debating the nature of such a cause. Immanuel Kant similarly argued that the existence of a supreme being is necessary.

Ancient philosophers like Aristotle believed the universe was eternal, but this idea does not resolve the problem. Whether the universe had a beginning or always existed, its existence still contradicts the natural law that everything requires a prior cause.

The Question of the First Cause

Modern science proposes that the universe began with the Big Bang. Yet this explanation raises another question: what triggered that initial burst of energy? Even leading physicists admit that this remains unanswered. The search for an initial cause inevitably leads to the concept of something that exists beyond space, time, and material limitations.

God Beyond Nature

Such a reality points to a force outside the natural world, a power that transcends physical laws. This is what is meant by God, an idea reflected in Jewish teachings through Abraham’s recognition that a greater reality directs creation. God, in this understanding, is not bound by the causal chains that govern the material universe.

Addressing Objections to God

Critics such as Richard Dawkins argue that if God exists, then God must also have a creator. This objection misunderstands the concept of a transcendent God. A non material, eternal being is not subject to the same rules of cause and effect that apply within the universe.

Life, Consciousness, and Meaning

Beyond cosmology, philosophers continue to debate questions of life, consciousness, and free will. While science has made remarkable discoveries, it has not explained how life began or how consciousness arises purely from physical and chemical processes. These mysteries remain unresolved within a strictly material framework.

Beyond the Reach of Science

Whether science may one day address some of these questions is unknown. What is clear is that the discussion about God extends beyond scientific explanation. It invites reflection on whether an all powerful, purposeful force not only initiated the universe but continues to shape it.