Scientist's creation scepticism collapsed

Retired biochemist Dr Sy Garte, formerly a staunch atheist raised in a three-generation atheist and communist household, has capped a decades-long intellectual journey by embracing Christianity in his sixties and becoming an influential voice in the discourse between science and faith.

For much of his life, Dr Garte embraced this materialistic worldview. He earned a PhD in biochemistry, taught at institutions such as New York University, Rutgers and University of Pittsburgh, and served in a senior administrative role at the National Institutes of Health. Rising through the ranks, he published over 200 peer-reviewed works and garnered a strong scientific reputation.

But in graduate school, Garte encountered a profound sense of spiritual longing. He describes a moment studying protein synthesis in cells – that “tremendous amount of biomolecules interacting… I remember feeling like a chill going down my spine… ‘This is amazing. How did this get here?’”

Science, he realised, couldn’t easily explain such deep complexity through materialism alone.

His sceptical views began to unravel, especially regarding abiogenesis – the origin of life. Garte cites leading researchers who admit that “not a lot of progress has been made… the numbers of problems just keep expanding.”

He explains that chemical evolution lacks replication, mutation or selection – all essential for life – and that accurate self-replication “cannot have evolved” by chance. The sheer sophistication of living cells, he realised, defies simplistic reductionist explanations.

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