The fourth major benefit of belief in God is that it enhances the capacity to research the reality of things. Indeed, those who believe that this world has come into existence by mere chance and follow the concept of random evolution can never be inspired to search the reality of matters and laws of nature with the same zeal and anticipation as those who are believers in God. A believer in God is totally convinced that everything in the world is created by God for a definite purpose. Nothing in the world is pointless, and everything in this universe undertakes the task entrusted to it in order to fulfil the purpose of its creation. Indeed, such a conviction inspires one tremendously to search the reality of this universe, stimulating great intellectual progress. By contrast, one who denies God and believes that this world has come into existence by some chance can never engage in the study of the reality of things with the same enthusiasm and expectation, for he subscribes to the possibility of mere chance and random transformations leading to the creation of things. Even if he does start his research for the sake of increasing his knowledge, he can never pursue it with the same perseverance and commitment of a believer. At every setback, he will be inclined to give up, thinking that there might not be anything worth discovering. A believer, on the other hand, will never waver in his belief that there is specific wisdom and a purpose behind everything and that God did not create anything in vain. He will, therefore, attribute his failures to lack of effort or error in his approach and will never give up.
It is a manifest reality that belief in God strongly motivates one to study the reality of things. One may question that in practice we observe that belief in God does not separate those who are interested in research in scientific matters or not; those who believe in God and those who do not are all interested in scientific research in the same manner. Rather, there are greater numbers of scientific researchers in Europe and America where atheism is more prevalent than in the East. However, this is a basic misconception, for the people in Europe and America are not atheists by religion. Indeed, they believe in God. No matter how weak their faith is, they solemnly affirm that everything has been created by God. Therefore, their superiority in understanding of the reality of things cannot form a basis for criticism. In the absence of relevant figures, one cannot comment on the claim that there are relatively more atheists in the West. It is possible that there are more atheists in the East than in the West but, unless something is established, no claim can be based on it.
Moreover, as Western nations are more advanced in worldly matters, their personal and national views are noticed readily, whereas, because of a lack of education, the personal views of the Eastern nations are barely presented to the world. In concordance with human psychology, it is possible that some Eastern people may not be fully aware of their own deeper views as they are not used to self-reflection because of a lack of education. They may be influenced by atheistic ideology, but may not be fully aware of this. But in Europe and America, the people, being well-educated, are used to self-reflection and can recognise any changes in their ideology. Therefore, it is quite possible that in the West there may be fewer atheists than it appears, and in the East there may be more atheists than we can see. Therefore, unless it is established that the atheists in the West outnumber those in the East, this objection is meaningless. Even if we assume that there are more atheists in the West, there would still be no room for objection, because history tells us that atheistic views originated in the West after the beginning of their progress in the acquisition of knowledge. The most we can infer from this is that this increase in knowledge inclined people to atheism and not that atheism inspired the West to academic progress. We cannot infer that disbelief in God inspires quest for knowledge more than belief in God does. In any case, the objection stands invalid.
Why, one may ask, has academic progress led to atheism? We do not accept that academic progress necessarily leads to or encourages atheism. The truth of the matter is that people have mistakenly drawn an utterly wrong conclusion. The fact is that progress in knowledge brings about awareness and replaces the inertia of ignorance with the energy of life. At such time, some misguided people, and those who are easily influenced by others and are confused, end up on the wrong path; whereas those stuck in ignorance stay put, because they do not have any opportunities to go astray. A poet has aptly put it:
It is only the horsemen who fall in the battlefield;
The baby who crawls on the knees cannot fall
This is not to say that one falls because of riding the horse. It means that a rider is exposed to a greater risk of falling and so, at times, he can fall from the horse. Thus, the greater influence of atheism in Western nations may be a reflection of education that has enlightened their minds. The enhanced curiosity of Western nations had motivated them to explore further; and in this quest some of them may go astray and stumble. Clearly, education is not to blame here, rather the incorrect application of education—an inevitable consequence of any pursuit of knowledge. Conversely, the nations that remain ignorant miss out on the benefits of education, but are also saved from the grave consequences of inappropriate application of this knowledge. That is the state of the East compared to the West. Nonetheless, it is inappropriate to present the state of affairs in the West to counter our argument.
So, to answer the question, ‘Why are some atheists interested in study of the reality of matters?’, well, we never claimed that such interest is created by belief in God only and nothing else. We admit that there are many factors that can create such interest and inclination. Therefore, it would not be objectionable at all if an atheist is motivated to study the universe by other factors. We only claim that belief in God is particularly helpful in the study of the reality of things. Other factors remaining equal, a believer will be more enthusiastic, more eager, more hopeful, more committed, and more spirited than a non-believer in the study of nature. That is because he believes that everything in this world is created with a purpose—something that an atheist does not believe. This is an undeniable truth.