Joe Carter takes on an intriguing argument:
Would evidence for God mean the end of atheism and Christianity? Yes, says Matt J. Rossano, a professor and department head of psychology at Southeastern Louisiana University. In a peculiar article at The Huffington Post, Rossano argues that scientific evidence for the existence of God is fatal to both the faith of the atheist and the believer.
via Would Evidence for God Mean the End of Atheism and Christianity? » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog.
Rossano reasons that indisputable proof of God would violate free will, which is necessary to Christianity. Joe shows, on behalf of Reformation theologians everywhere, that this notion of free will is NOT essential to Christianity. Rossano would do better to argue that scientific certainty would eliminate faith, which IS essential to Christianity.
Joe does anticipate that line of thought. He argues that faith is NOT believing without evidence, that, in fact, there is an abundance of evidence for God’s existence. It is true that for Christians and even non-Christians in the past, the question of God’s existence was not even an issue. Even doubt was not about whether God exists, but whether God is gracious to me and whether I can trust Him to keep His promises.
But given that faith is not just “belief in whether something exists,” does faith still require the hiddenness of God (to use a Reformation concept)? Would knowing God as we know other scientifically verified facts involve walking by sight and not by faith? If faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen, that would connote a kind of certainty, but would faith be undermined if everything were seen?
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