"Why Do You Believe In God, When Science Contradicts Him?"
Why Every Scientific Experiment Depends on the God of the Bible
Picture this. You're standing on the street, munching on tacos, and a guy with a master's in environmental science from Johns Hopkins starts grilling you about God. "Which God do you believe in?" he asks. Without hesitation, you say, "The Triune God of Scripture. The Lord. Yahweh. The God of the Bible."
"Do you believe in Him?"
He hesitates. He deflects. He wants to know what you mean by "real." And more importantly, what evidence you have for this God.
I’m going to walk you through exactly what I said next, because it’s what every Christian needs to understand when it comes to science, evidence, and the authority of God’s Word. If you're a Christian man wanting to defend your faith and lead your family well in a skeptical world, this one's for you.
The Ground Beneath Your Feet
"God is really there." That’s not just a religious statement. It’s a worldview claim. The Bible says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). That’s not just a poetic idea—it’s the ultimate explanation for everything that exists. He is not a figment of our imagination. We are figments of His creation.
But here's where the conversation takes a turn: I don’t start by offering up evidence for God as if He's a hypothesis to be tested in a lab. No, the real starting point is that without God, the very concept of evidence is meaningless.
Evidence only makes sense in a universe that’s intelligible, logical, and consistent. That’s a Christian universe. The God of the Bible has revealed Himself in the world, in our conscience, and supremely in Scripture. And Scripture is not just true; it is the necessary foundation for making sense of anything at all.
Literal Bible, Literal God
Naturally, the follow-up question comes: "Do you take the Bible literally?"
Now, when someone asks that, I always clarify what they mean. If you mean, "Do I take it as the authors intended it to be understood?" Then yes, 100%. The Bible is 66 books written by about 40 authors in different genres, languages, and settings—but behind all of them is one Author: God. "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (2 Timothy 3:16).
So when it comes to Noah’s flood? Yes, I believe it literally happened. Six to ten thousand years ago? That’s a reasonable biblical estimate. And when the skeptic says, "There’s literally a zillion pieces of evidence against that," I push back. Because "zillion" isn’t a number. It's rhetoric. And we need to be clear: evidence isn’t neutral. It’s interpreted through the lens of your worldview.
Fossils, Fish Tanks, and Floods
Let’s talk fossils. Because this guy, like many skeptics, brought up geology and dinosaurs to refute the Bible.
I pointed out that fossils are actually better explained by a global flood than by millions of years of slow layering. Fossils form through rapid burial. If you’ve ever had a fish tank, you know what happens when a fish dies—it floats to the top, and you fish it out. In nature, dead fish get eaten. They don't fossilize. So why do we have fish fossils? Because something massive buried them fast. That something is the global deluge described in Genesis.
Same with dinosaur graveyards. Same with massive fossil beds. The flood is not a problem for biblical history. It’s the best explanation for what we actually see.
Now, did that explanation convince him? Of course not. And that’s precisely the point. It’s not about evidence alone. It’s about presuppositions.
What Science Presupposes
I turned the conversation to the scientific method. Because the real issue isn’t geology or biology—it’s epistemology. It's about how we know what we know.
"Why do you trust the scientific method?" I asked.
He talked about repeatable experiments, observable phenomena, the law of superposition, and so on. All well and good. But then I hit him with this:
"The scientific method requires two things: the uniformity of nature and the validity of inductive reasoning. You need to believe that the future will be like the past, and that patterns you observe today will continue tomorrow. Why do you believe that—as an atheist?"
Induction Needs a Foundation
You see, you can drop a coffee cup a trillion times, and it will fall every time. But that tells you only about the past. It doesn’t guarantee that drop number 1,000,001 will behave the same. You’re assuming the future will be like the past. That’s the principle of induction.
But here’s the thing: you have no direct access to the future. You can't test it in a lab. You must believe, before any experiment, that nature is uniform.
For the Christian, that’s no problem. Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus "upholds the universe by the word of His power." Colossians 1:17 says, "In Him all things hold together." The reason coffee cups fall, and gravity works, and the laws of physics remain consistent is because Jesus Christ is faithful. He holds it all together.
But for the atheist? The best they can do is say, "Well, it’s always worked before, so it probably will again."
That’s blind faith. That’s building your worldview on sand.
Borrowed Capital
When an atheist does science, he has to borrow from the Christian worldview. He assumes order, logic, causality, and uniformity—all of which make sense in a world governed by a rational, faithful God. But he denies that God.
He wants the fruits of Christianity without the root.
So I pressed him. "You believe you can do an experiment today and get the same result next week. Why? What’s keeping the universe consistent?"
He didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t. Because atheism has no explanation for order, only chaos. No foundation for uniformity, only randomness.
So I told him, "You’re standing above the void, admiring the fact that I’ve got solid ground under my feet—and calling that a problem."
Christianity vs. Atheism (Not Science vs. Faith)
Let me be absolutely clear: I love science. I believe in science. I do not believe in scientism—the belief that science is the only way to know truth. But I believe in science because I believe in the God who makes science possible.
Christianity isn’t anti-science. Christianity gave birth to science. The scientific method arose in the Christian West because our worldview provided the philosophical soil for it to grow. Pre-Christian and non-Christian societies never developed the scientific method. God-fearing men did.
So this debate isn’t science vs. faith. It’s atheism vs. faith.
And atheism can’t even get science off the ground.
So What?
If you’re a Christian, especially a husband, father, or leader in your church, you need to know this: the next time someone tries to challenge your faith by appealing to "science," ask them the foundational questions:
Why does science work in the first place?
What makes the universe consistent?
Why can we trust our minds to think logically and our senses to observe truthfully?
The answer is not evolution. It’s not natural selection. It’s not the law of superposition. It’s the God who "declares the end from the beginning" (Isaiah 46:10) and "does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:17).
Final Challenge
If you’re reading this and you’re not a Christian, I challenge you to examine the assumptions you make every day. You believe your coffee will fall if you drop it. You believe tomorrow’s sunrise will follow today’s sunset. You trust in scientific laws. But you’ve got no ultimate reason for trusting those things.
You’re standing on nothing, borrowing capital from a worldview you reject.
But there’s good news. The God who makes science possible is also the God who sent His Son to save sinners. That same Jesus who holds the universe together also holds out forgiveness to you.
Repent. Believe the gospel. And suddenly, the whole universe will start to make sense.
Watch the full debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QakizukNjbA
Invite Joel to your church: Want your church to be equipped with confident, biblical answers? Book a Defend Your Faith Weekend with Joel Settecase and The Think Institute. Reach out now at https://thethink.institute/booking.
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