Can you give me a single finding in science that supports divine intervention? Can you give any reason at all why an interprise based on the quest for natural explanations could benefit from starting with the assumption of divine intervention?
Suppose a friend or relative is murdered and the police tell you that they will procede with the scientific investigation just as soon as they rule out the possibility of divine intervention.
Science is predicated on it:
XCIII
The beginning is from God: for the business which is in hand, having the character of good so strongly impressed upon it, appears manifestly to proceed from God, who is the author of good, and the Father of Lights. Now in divine operations even the smallest beginnings lead of a certainty to their end. And as it was said of spiritual things, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation," so is it in all the greater works of Divine Providence; everything glides on smoothly and noiselessly, and the work is fairly going on before men are aware that it has begun. Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten touching the last ages of the world: "Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased"; clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by Divine Providence, to meet in the same age.
Suppose a friend or relative is murdered and the police tell you that they will procede with the scientific investigation just as soon as they rule out the possibility of divine intervention.
If I learned the detective went to church and sincerely prayed for divine guidance to solve the case, I'd actually be comforted. A much, much better analogy, however, related to the current discussion would be the detective telling me that the death was natural despite the bullet holes, smashed-in door and bloody footprints from the scene. An interesting concept-- Dawkins as Fahmy Malek :-)
Do any of the suspects weigh more than a duck?
Note that the "Trial by Ordeal" is based on the idea the innocent will not be allowed to perish. Satirized in Hugo's "Notre Dame de Paris" (mistranslated as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" which in turn was a movie about a football player, starring former President Reagan.)