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MICHAEL GUILLEN: Science’s fantastic discoveries are making religion more credible
The opinion piece argues that modern science’s discoveries have made religious ideas seem more credible by revealing how much of the universe remains invisible and unexplained. It contrasts the hope that science would displace superstition with evidence that scientists still cannot account for much of the cosmos.
The article focuses on dark matter and dark energy. It recounts Fritz Zwicky’s 1933 finding that galaxy clusters appeared to contain roughly ten times more mass than could be seen, and the 1998 discovery that the universe’s expansion is accelerating. The author says both phenomena remain unexplained, and draws a comparison between these unseen forces and spiritual entities.
In short
- The author says scientific mysteries may strengthen religious belief.
- Dark matter helps explain the speed of galaxies in clusters.
- Dark energy is linked to the universe’s accelerating expansion.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The article’s strongest case is that science has revealed a universe far stranger and less fully understood than earlier materialist expectations allowed. Dark matter and dark energy are inferred from their effects but remain unexplained, which may make some people more open to religious or spiritual interpretations of reality beyond what is directly observable.
The case against
The strongest counterargument is that an unanswered scientific question does not itself support a religious explanation: dark matter and dark energy are proposed to account for observed effects and remain subjects of empirical investigation. Comparing them with spiritual entities risks treating very different kinds of claims as equivalent, and the discoveries may show the limits of current knowledge rather than make religion more credible.
Explained simply
Dark matter is a name for unseen mass that scientists infer from its gravitational effects, including how galaxies move. Dark energy is the name given to whatever may be driving the universe’s expansion to speed up; neither has yet been fully explained.
Astronomer Fritz Zwicky highlighted the gap between visible matter and the mass inferred in galaxy clusters in 1933, and observations in 1998 showed that cosmic expansion is accelerating. Scientists continue to study both findings, which matter because they shape accounts of how the universe is structured and changes over time.
The opinion piece’s author, Michael Guillen, uses these unanswered questions to argue that scientific discoveries can make religious ideas seem more credible. The comparison between cosmic phenomena and spiritual entities is his interpretation, rather than a scientific conclusion.
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