Salty Cracker on Nostr: "The statement that there is any such thing, and the statement that there is no such ...

"The statement that there is any such thing, and the statement that there is no such thing, are neither of them statements that science can make. And real scientists do not usually make them. It is usually the journalists and popular novelists who have picked up a few odds and ends of half-baked science from textbooks who go in for them."
"If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe - no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house."

When you begin your quest of answering the question about the existence of God, it must not solely rely on things which may be put on a scale, tested against, and experimented upon. It must include not only these factors, but also that which we do not and/or cannot explain.

One can reasonably argue from a Naturalist standpoint and explain away many arguments posed by a Deist or Theist. However, a Naturalist has no answer at all for what came prior to existence itself as we know it. These are simply claims that cannot be substantiated by science, and must therefore be faith-based claims, regardless of what conclusion you arrive at. On one hand, you can shrug and say "There was God." On the other hand, one can shrug and say, "It's always been this way" or "Science will tell us one day" or "It doesn't matter."