It is common to hear statements to the effect that “Faith and Science are fundamentally incompatible”.[1] Put into the language of ‘the man or woman in the street’: No sensible 21st century person, who has any knowledge of science, could possibly believe in God. Science has disproved God.

Any discussion about faith and science requires some careful definition before it can be useful. Both faith and science cover broad fields, and need to have their scope fairly and carefully defined.

This question is one of the oldest in the world. It is typically presented in these terms:

a)    If God exists, he must be all-powerful,

b)   If God were all-powerful, he would not allow pain and suffering to exist;

c)    Pain and suffering do exist; therefore, there must either be no God, or he is not a good God.

C. S. Lewis provides a way of thinking about this that is really worth thinking about: If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. C. S. Lewis

This is an essential starting point, if you really want an answer to this question. We want a real and reliable answer to this question – not just wishful thinking.

What is prayer all about? How does it work? How could we ever be sure it was God that made a certain request come true? Is it all just wishful thinking?

It’s a fair question. Richard Dawkins is well-known for his comments on questions like this one. Here are just two of his comments: “There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can’t prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic about it?”