A Scientific Approach to Past Events

In discussing this topic, I think it is necessary to distinguish between two kinds of science, one dealing with the present world and the other the past. The first is called operation science. It deals with the present and is an empirical science. It's primary principles are observation and repetition. That is, a hypothesis can be tested by measuring it against a recurring pattern of events in nature.

However, there is a scientific approach to the past. It is sometimes called historical science. Archeology and paleontology fit into this category. So does much of astronomy. There is also a discipline known as forensic science. It deals with unobserved and unrepeated events of the past, like a homicide. Since death was unobserved and cannot be repeated, the forensic scientists must reconstruct a comprehensive and consistent picture of it based on the principles of causality and analogy.

This approach to an unrepeated past event is called origin science, as opposed to operation science, which deals with a repeated pattern of events in the present. Since the past, unlike the present, cannot be known by direct observation, it must be inferred by way of the principles of causality and uniformity.


The law of causality simply states that every event has a cause. Nothing can happen without being made to happen by something else. For whatever comes to be, has a cause. There may be events for which we don't know the cause, but we can be sure that there was a cause. The Sound of Music puts it like this..."Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could." Any event that occurs must have a cause.

When the law of causality is applied to the origin of the universe, something interesting happens. It leads to a First Cause, which generally is called God. Consider the following:



Whatever has a beginning is caused.


The universe had a beginning.


Therefore, the universe is caused.


According to modern science, there is plenty of evidence pointing to a beginning of the universe. For example, scientifically, the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in a closed isolated system (such as the whole universe is) the amount of usable energy is decreasing. But if the universe is running down, then it cannot be eternal. It must have had a beginning. So the first principle of origin science, the principle of causality, leads to a First Cause (Creator). By Creator we mean a powerful First Cause of the universe.

But is the "Creator" intelligent or just a Blind Force. Applying the principle of uniformity to the origin of first life provides an answer to our question. For example, we know (from our uniform experience) that coded messages (such as human language) are put together by intelligent beings. But if coded messages need an intelligent cause now, then we can reasonably conclude that they did in the past as well. This is reasoning from analogy, comparing the present with the past. It is called the principle of uniformity (or Analogy). The law of uniformity says that present is the key to understanding the past. If we know how the universe operates now, then we can assume that it has always operated in the same way. If things go up must come down, then it is safe to believe that gravity was also in effect when Gallileo was dropping things from the tower. Lol.

Further, when by analogy with the present it is asked what kind of cause best explains the vast amount of intelligent information (specified complexity) in even a single-cell animal, the answer is: an intelligent Cause. Similarly, when we analyze the great gap between animals and human beings, whose brains contain some 20 million volumes of genetic information (DNA), then it is reasonable to conclude, an intelligent Cause for the first human.




Come let us reason: Norman Gesiler



God bless!