Either God had something to do with our existence, or He didn't. It's a matter of faith that He did. It's a matter of faith that He didn't.
For instance, the sun rising. Some of us see this and feel it couldn't just happen by chance. The sun doesn't just exist of its own accord. Neither does the earth. Nor do we exist just by some fluke. Nor are we able to see a sunrise because a bunch of mutations just happened to occur which produced eyes, optic nerves, brain capacity for vision, etc., not to mention the aesthetic capacity to see the beauty in a sunrise, etc.
Others believe otherwise. That's their right to believe that, but it doesn't mean their position is any more scientific. It's just their biased default position as opposed to our biased default position.
We use the term "scientific explanation" a lot, but really all science can do is describe things, not explain them. We haven't the foggiest idea why things work as they do. Drop a rubber ball and it falls to the ground. Gravity, right? Yes, that's the name of it, but why does it exist? Where did it come from?
Many of us feel there's something outside the observable universe. We have faith in God. We aren't wrong simply because you don't share our opinion (and admittedly, vice-versa).
So why does gravity exist and work the way it appears to? Some of us believe God authored it. Others believe it just happens to exist and just happens to work the way it works. But believing the latter isn't an explanation. Try explaining WHY gravity exists. Where did it come from? Why does light exist? Why do you exist? Why are you aware of your own existence? Science can describe some of those things, but it can't explain any of them.
Suggesting that God exists is no less scientific than theorizing the existence of other universes or dimensions, or considering the possibility of life in other galaxies, or, as someone noted, the Greeks theorizing about atoms when they had no possible way of discovering them.
We just look at the world from different perspectives. I respect that. It's why I never preach to you!
These are the same things. Why is it that you cannot see this? Saying "God did it" is just another species of "that's the way it happens to be."
I was looking for a proximate explanation, not a vague feeling that somehow, there's a higher power behind it all. You know, the kind of thing we teach in physics class: rotation of the earth, etc.
Others believe otherwise. That's their right to believe that, but it doesn't mean their position is any more scientific. It's just their biased default position as opposed to our biased default position.
No; the explanation that the sun appears to rise because that point on the earth is for the moment rotating in a direction away from the sun is not an equally valid explanation as a 'feeling this couldn't have happened by chance'. One is direct, immediate and predictive; the other is subjective and irrational.