HA! That’s great!! Ya know what - if Science leads us to that conclusion with empirical, provable evidence, I’ll concede the point! Unfortunately for your proposition, there is no current scientific proof that points to the existence of God. The scientists you refer to are HUMAN, and as such, have a very human fear of death. Many delude themselves with religion in order to give meaning to their lives. Also, don’t forget how impressionable children are; their parents probably introduced them to religion and their love and respect for their parents causes them to continue in that behavior. Furthermore, I believe that a little bit of our childhood psychology remains with us when we become adults. That feeling for wanting someone to watch over us, protect us, guide us and love us unconditionally never completely goes away. It is the desire for all these things that causes otherwise rational adults to believe in religion. If that makes them feel better, no problem, as long as it doesn’t ruin their work as scientists. I cannot lie to myself, so that is why I do not believe.
This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It addresses knowledge:
1 Corinthians 13
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The King James Version uses the famous phrase “through a mirror darkly” . . . but the end result remains. Imperfect knowledge, always, without God, and knowledge as inferior, in fact worth nothing, without love.
The atheists you refer to are HUMAN, and as such, have a very human fear of judgment from a Holy God and delude themselves with atheism in order to sin without fear.
The believer’s fear is quite tame in comparison.