Can belief in God coexist with nihilism? Exploring religion, science, and the origins of humanity
Yesterday, I had my second session with my psychologist. Somehow, our conversation turned to my belief in God alongside my belief in nihilism. I told him that I believed in both, and he laughed a little, saying that it sounded like an oxymoron.
I come from a Jewish background, so my conception of God is that of a single, omnipotent spiritual being, rather than a human-like figure.
I left the session feeling like an investigator. I suddenly wanted to explore, scientifically, religiously, and philosophically, how belief in God and nihilism might conflict or coexist.
- Believing in God while believing life has no objective meaning
I believe that God exists, but I am not convinced that human life has one objective purpose that applies to everyone.
One person might find meaning in having children, while another finds it in music, philosophy, cinema, science, or simply experiencing the world. Why should one of these paths necessarily be the objectively correct purpose of human existence?
Could God exist without having assigned humanity a single, universal purpose? Or does the existence of a creator necessarily imply that creation has a predetermined purpose?
- The conflict between religious chronology and science
According to the traditional Jewish calendar, we are currently in the year 5787. However, scientific evidence indicates that Homo sapiens has existed for approximately 300,000 years, and life on Earth is billions of years old.
These timelines seem to contradict one another if the Jewish calendar is interpreted as dating the creation of the entire universe and the first human beings.
Yet I wonder whether there are other possible interpretations. What if the biblical account is not intended to describe the entire history of the universe? What if the creation of humanity described in Genesis refers to a particular stage in human history rather than the first appearance of humans or human-like creatures on Earth?
Could religious chronology and scientific evidence be addressing different questions?
- If humans created science, how can we know that science is correct?
This question led me somewhere else.
Human beings developed mathematics, measurement, scientific methods, and the tools we use to investigate the past. But if these systems were created by humans, how can we trust that they accurately describe reality?
We have discovered ancient skulls, fossils, and other archaeological remains. Scientists use these findings, alongside genetics, radiometric dating, and other methods, to reconstruct the history of life.
I understand that these methods provide evidence, but I wonder about the philosophical question behind them: how can we know that our methods reveal reality as it actually is, rather than merely providing the best explanations available to human minds?
Perhaps the answer is that scientific knowledge is continually tested against independent evidence, rather than simply accepted because humans developed it. Still, the limits of human knowledge interest me.
- What if there were previous universes or previous creations?
I began wondering about possibilities that are difficult to test.
What if God created other universes before the one we inhabit? What if previous worlds existed and were eventually destroyed? What if the creation described in religious texts refers to a particular world or stage of creation rather than the absolute beginning of everything?
Could there have been earlier forms of humanity, or civilizations that existed before recorded history and disappeared?
I recognize that these are speculative questions, not established scientific facts. Nevertheless, they make me wonder how much of reality might lie beyond our current understanding.
- Are human beings capable of understanding a reality beyond themselves?
Perhaps one of the greatest limitations of human thought is that we understand unfamiliar things by comparing them with things we already know.
When we imagine God, spiritual beings, extraterrestrial life, or other universes, we often use concepts derived from our own physical world.
But what if a reality beyond our experience operates according to principles that we cannot adequately imagine?
Does the inability to understand something mean that it does not exist? Obviously, not necessarily. But neither does the fact that something is imaginable establish that it exists.
This distinction is part of what makes these questions so difficult.
- What about people born without religion?
If humans were created to serve God, what about those born into cultures where they never learn about Him? Does this purpose apply to everyone, or only to certain religious groups, such as Jews who received the Torah? Would it be fair to judge people for not following beliefs they were never taught? I have so many questions about this.
What I would like to understand
I am not necessarily trying to prove religion or disprove science. I want to understand where the boundaries of each one of them.
- Can belief in God coexist philosophically with nihilism?
- Does the existence of a creator necessarily imply an objective purpose for human life?
- How should we interpret religious creation narratives in light of scientific evidence about human origins?
- How can we justify trusting scientific methods while acknowledging that human knowledge is fallible?
- And how much can we reasonably speculate about realities beyond our current ability to observe or understand them?
I am interested in scientific, philosophical, and religious perspectives, including arguments that challenge my assumptions.