Why Science is a Belief System (and No One Admits It)

One day while I was in the shower, I had a random thought: why do atheists say they believe in science when science is constantly changing? That realization made me stop and think. If science is supposed to be based on facts, then why has it gone back on its own conclusions so many times? Pluto was a planet, then it wasn’t. The steady-state model of the universe was widely accepted, then the Big Bang theory replaced it. Even Newtonian physics, once thought to be absolute, had to be refined by Einstein. Science isn’t a final truth; it’s just the current best guess based on limited human knowledge. So why do atheists act like science is this flawless, unshakable truth?

That question led me to do more research, and I stumbled upon an article titled "New Atheists and the 'Conflict' between Science and Religion" on BioLogos. In it, I found a common claim made by atheists:

"Science is about facts. Faith is about myths. Science is constantly questioning. Faith is unquestioning belief."

This statement is an Appeal to Science as an Absolute Authority fallacy because it assumes that science is the only reliable source of truth while ignoring its constant revisions. Science is based on limited human understanding, and as new discoveries emerge, it updates itself. But if something keeps changing, it means it was never absolute in the first place. The irony is that many atheists criticize religious belief while putting blind faith in science—despite the fact that science admits it can be wrong.

This is what I find so silly about it. Science is literally the conclusions of man. One day, we say we’ve discovered something, and we classify it. Years later, we say, "Science has evolved," and our conclusion changes. People defend this by saying science is "self-correcting," but all that really means is that it was wrong before. So how can anyone put blind faith in something that is constantly wrong? If you believe in science alone, then you believe in an ever-changing system of human errors. That’s why it makes no sense to say, "I only believe in science."

And yet, this realization only makes me more firm in my faith. Allah commands us in the Quran to reflect on His message:

"Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had been from any other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction." (Quran 4:82)

This is what amazes me. God actually tells us to reflect on His words, and when we do, we find no contradictions. In over 1400 years, the Quran hasn’t been wrong about a single thing, yet we question science all the time, and science has been proven wrong on a multitude of things. If science were truly the highest source of knowledge, then it shouldn’t have so many errors, revisions, and contradictions. But the Quran? It has remained unchanged and correct from the beginning.

Atheists often shift the goalpost by saying, "Science will eventually figure it out," but that’s just another way of delaying the discussion rather than admitting its limitations. A stronger argument would be to acknowledge that while science is useful, it doesn’t have all the answers. True understanding comes from recognizing the limits of human knowledge and looking beyond just what we can see and measure.