Conclusion
All monotheistic religions view the study of nature as an attempt to see the works of God. This outlook was prevalent during the medieval period. The metaphysical framework accommodating the science of that era could provide a theistic interpretation of the universe. The founders of modern science shared this view.
But, with the rise of the mechanistic interpretation of the universe and the prevalence of the empiricistic philosophy, science divorced itself from metaphysics and played the role of a dominant ideology. The first half of this century witnessed the peak of the eclipse of metaphysics in the West.
Modern science, as it is fashioned now, does not need to hypothesize God. Its normal enterprise is to explain natural phenomena without any appeal to supra-natural causes. Even many believing scientists ignore supra-sensible realities in their study of nature. It is assumed that normal science is sufficient for the explanation of all natural phenomena. Science, however, can lead one to God, if it is recognized that:
Science acquaints us with the character of some dimensions of the universe and not its totality.
Science cannot answer our ultimate questions: Where did the universe come from? What do we do here, etc.
Science needs a metaphysical framework which can justify its success and can give meaning to the world, and which admits supra-sensible realities.
Empirical science, by its very nature, cannot directly lead one to God, and whatever can be described by science cannot be God.
If these considerations are taken into account, then, science can fortify one’s belief in God and in a purposeful universe created by an Omniscient, Omnipotent God.
In the words of Pope John Paul:
To desire a scientific proof of God would be equivalent to lowering God to the level of the beings of our world, and we would therefore be mistaken methodologically in regard to what God is. Science must recognize its limits and its inability to reach the existence of God: it can neither affirm nor deny his existence.
From this, however, we must not draw the conclusion that scientists in their scientific studies are unable to find valid reasons for admitting the existence of God. If science as such cannot reach God, the scientist who has an intelligence the object of which is not limited to things of sense perception, can discover in the world reasons for affirming a Being which surpasses it. Many scientists have made and are making this discovery.
He who reflects with an open mind on what is implied in the existence of the universe, cannot help but pose the question of the problem of the origin.
Instinctively, when we witness certain happenings, we ask ourselves what caused them. How can we not but ask the same question in regard to the sum total of beings and phenomena which we discover in the world14
If the empirical science is augmented by an underlying metaphysical framework that can accommodate all levels of knowledge and all domains of human experience, then, we can expect the science to become a ladder that can elevate one to the frontier of physical and metaphysical, where one can reach the state described by the Holy Qur’an:
In the creation of the heaven and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are signs for the people of sense; those that remember Allah when standing, setting, and lying down, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth [saying]: ‘Lord, You have not created these in vain. Glory be to You; … (3:190-191)