Does Science Make God Unnecessary? Alex Carter vs Zachary Ardern hosted by Andy Kind

Unbelievable?

Premier Unbelievable?

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

In today's Unbelievable? school debate, Zachary Ardern, a christian biologist, and Alex Carter, an atheist scientist, face off on whether scientific progress has made belief in God obsolete. Hosted by Andy Kind, the discussion dives into the biggest questions of all: Can science explain everything, or does it point beyond itself?Is faith irrational in the age of reason?What counts as evidence for God?Are morality and meaning possible without a creator?From the fine-tuning of the universe to the limits of human understanding, Zach and Alex debate whether God remains the best explanation, or whether naturalism is more than enough to disprove the existence of a God. What do you think? Dr Zachary Ardern is an Evolutionary Biologist exploring the patterns and purpose of life’s Complexity, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge. Dr Alex Carter is the Academic Director for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Cambridge, Institute of Continuing Education. SOCIAL LINKS Twitter: https://twitter.com/unbelievablefe Facebook: / https://facebook.com/premierunbelievable Instagram: / https://instagram.com/premierunbelievable Tik Tok: / https://tiktok.com/@premier.unbelievable 👉 Get bonus content, updates, fascinating articles, and early access to new episodes—absolutely free! Join now at www.premierunbelievable.com 🎉📢 • Subscribe to the Unbelievable? podcast: https://www.premier.plus/unbelievable • More shows, free eBook & newsletter: https://premierunbelievable.com • For live events: http://www.unbelievable.live • For online learning: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/training • Support us: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/geolink/donate

Transcript

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0:28.9	Hello, welcome to Unbelievable. We're back for a new term of schools debates. We are in Coventry. I am your host
0:38.5	Andy Kind. And today we are asking the question is faith rational? Is it reasonable? Is it rational?
0:46.0	I've been joined by two very clever people. To my right is Dr. Zachary Arden, who is a research fellow
0:53.3	in Cambridge. And to my left, Dr. Alexden, who is a research fellow in Cambridge.
0:54.8	And to my left, Dr. Alex Carter, who is a professor of philosophy at Cambridge University.
1:01.7	Welcome to you both.
1:04.1	Hello?
1:04.9	Hello.
1:05.4	Thank you.
1:05.9	Hello.
1:06.4	Yeah.
1:06.6	Hi, Alex.
1:07.6	Nice to be friendly, isn't it?
1:09.1	So we're talking about faith. Is it reasonable? Is it
1:12.2	rational? Alex, I'll start with you because it would really nice to explain to some of the people here,
1:18.2	some of the people watching the difference between reasonable and rational. I think most people
1:24.1	would assume they're just interchangeable, but they're not quite, are they? So I think, so I'm a philosopher, I make things difficult. I don't give simple answers.
	...

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