Return of the God Hypothesis: Breakthroughs in Physics, Cosmology, and Biology Seeking Evidence for the Existence of God

by Stephen C. Meyer

Intellectual historians and historians of science typically identify the shift away from the theistic foundations of modern science with three major developments in Western intellectual history: first, the Enlightenment idea that human reason could replace and function autonomously from religious belief;1 second, the increasing skepticism about the existence of God, or at least about the soundness of arguments for God’s existence, among many Enlightenment philosophers; and third, the rise of scientific materialism and with it both new norms of scientific practice and a worldview allegedly based on science that affirms matter and energy, rather than God, as the fundamental reality from which everything else comes.

Why did science shift away from theistic foundations?