Are atheist speculations about the origin of the universe, nothing but “pseudoscience”? Lawrence Krauss, a respected physicist, believes he has provided an atheistic explanation of the origin of the universe in his book, A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing. Other scientists, however, do not agree with his conclusion. For example, George Ellis is a world-renowned scientist, expert on the Big Bang theory, and a devout Christian. He argues that much of what Krauss presents as a “scientific theory” is in fact untestable philosophy.
[Krauss] gives no experimental or observational process whereby we could test these vivid speculations of the supposed universe-generation mechanism. How indeed can you test what existed before the universe existed? You can’t. Thus what he is presenting is not tested science. It’s a philosophical speculation, which he apparently believes is so compelling he does not have to give any specification of evidence that would confirm it is true… It’s very ironic when he says philosophy is bunk and then himself engages in this kind of attempt at philosophy.
The irony behind this is the fact that many atheists (who accept Krauss’ view) reject other theories simply because they are “untestable” and therefore “nothing but pseudoscience.” For example, Intelligent Design, which has strong theistic implications, is often rejected on this basis. However, given George Ellis’ observation, it is difficult to avoid concluding that atheists are happy to accept “pseudoscience” when it supports atheism but reject it when it works against them.
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Reference
John Horgan, “Physicist George Ellis Knocks Physicists for Knocking Philosophy, Falsification, Free Will,” Scientific American Blog Network, July 22, 2014, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/physicist-george-ellis-knocks-physicists-for-knocking-philosophy-falsification-free-will/.
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