Dark Matter and Dark Energy Make the Universe More Mysterious and Religion More Credible
Source: "MICHAEL GUILLEN: Modern science has made the universe more mysterious, not less | Fox News." November 8, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
The author says science was supposed to explain away mysteries and religion, but it has found that about 95% of the universe is made of dark matter and dark energy that nobody understands. So science has actually made the universe more mysterious, and that, he argues, makes religious belief more believable.
Conclusion
Far from demystifying the universe and discrediting religion, modern science's discoveries have deepened the mystery of reality in ways that make religious belief more credible, not less.
Premises
- Science's history has been one of ever-more-powerful instruments (microscopes, telescopes) revealing previously hidden aspects of the cosmos, and scientists like Carl Sagan have argued that this progress dispels superstition, including religion.
- Since 1933 (Zwicky), observations of galaxy clusters have shown that most of their mass is invisible; this 'dark matter' is gravitational but does not emit or reflect light, and after nearly a century scientists still do not know what it is.
- Since 1998, observations show the universe's expansion is accelerating, implying an invisible repulsive 'dark energy' that remains completely unexplained despite a name and many unsupported proposals.
- Dark matter and dark energy together account for roughly 95% of the observable cosmos, so everything science directly observes and theorizes about concerns only about 5% of what exists.
- Therefore, the whole of science is built on a small fraction of reality, while the vast majority of what exists remains a complete mystery.
Assumptions
- Scientific ignorance about the nature of dark matter and dark energy is relevant to the credibility of religious claims.
- Religion's credibility is partly a function of how much of reality science leaves unexplained.
- The existence of invisible, unexplained entities in physics is analogous to the invisible, spiritual entities posited by religion.
- Because dark matter and dark energy are currently unexplained, their nature will remain mysterious or cannot be explained naturalistically.
- Scientists' claims that science would eliminate religion are representative of science as a whole, not only certain figures like Sagan.
- The 95% figure reflects a fraction of 'reality' in a way that makes science's knowledge base 'measly,' rather than just reflecting the current state of an ongoing inquiry.