richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

THE GOD HYPOTHESIS 59
unequivocally a scientific question, even if it is not in practice - or
not yet - a decided one. So also is the truth or falsehood of every
one of the miracle stories that religions rely upon to impress multitudes
of the faithful.
Did Jesus have a human father, or was his mother a virgin at the
time of his birth? Whether or not there is enough surviving evidence
to decide it, this is still a strictly scientific question with a definite
answer in principle: yes or no. Did Jesus raise Lazarus from the
dead? Did he himself come alive again, three days after being
crucified? There is an answer to every such question, whether or
not we can discover it in practice, and it is a strictly scientific
answer. The methods we should use to settle the matter, in the
unlikely event that relevant evidence ever became available, would
be purely and entirely scientific methods. To dramatize the point,
imagine, by some remarkable set of circumstances, that forensic
archaeologists unearthed DNA evidence to show that Jesus really
did lack a biological father. Can you imagine religious apologists
shrugging their shoulders and saying anything remotely like the
following? 'Who cares? Scientific evidence is completely irrelevant
to theological questions. Wrong magisterium! We're concerned
only with ultimate questions and with moral values. Neither DNA
nor any other scientific evidence could ever have any bearing on the
matter, one way or the other.'
The very idea is a joke. You can bet your boots that the scientific
evidence, if any were to turn up, would be seized upon and
trumpeted to the skies. NOMA is popular only because there is no
evidence to favour the God Hypothesis. The moment there was the
smallest suggestion of any evidence in favour of religious belief,
religious apologists would lose no time in throwing NOMA out of
the window. Sophisticated theologians aside (and even they are
happy to tell miracle stories to the unsophisticated in order to
swell congregations), I suspect that alleged miracles provide the
strongest reason many believers have for their faith; and miracles,
by definition, violate the principles of science.
The Roman Catholic Church on the one hand seems sometimes
to aspire to NOMA, but on the other hand lays down the
performance of miracles as an essential qualification for elevation
to sainthood. The late King of the Belgians is a candidate for