The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
(Psalm 19:1-6)
The ironic thing about starting this blog is that I ended up thinking I would start in a certain place as far as what to write, but ended up in quite another when I actually sat down to write something. Looking back, I am glad that I didn’t try and “force it” – I feel that the things that have been written so far were things that were on my heart at the time and that they were important to write about.
Now, however, I want to turn to a topic that I have a lot of passion for – creationism. This is a topic that is unfortunately very “controversial” in the scientific community; many believe that you have to “check your brain at the door” to believe that the universe came to be through the actions of an all powerful Creator. Christians who believe that God created everything are sneered at for their beliefs. After all, there are scientific explanations for how the universe came to be; we are told we don’t need God to have a universe.
I admit that this is something I struggled with for a very long time. I am a person that tends to look at the world through logic and reason, and often found myself at a crossroads between choosing “faith” or “science” to explain the creation of the universe. I didn’t like being thought of as “stupid” for believing God created everything.
The verses from Psalms at the top of this blog say that God’s glory can be found in His creation. Since science is the lens by which we study all that is known, I began to ask myself if science really pointed to God creating everything or towards natural explanations for the universe. What I found was both surprising and inspiring. Fundamentally, what I discovered was that, for me at least, that it actually takes more faith to believe in naturalistic explanations for the universe than it does to believe that it was created.
If this premise seems far-fetched to you, just hang with me for a while. It actually would be impossible to discuss everything out there in science that points to a Creator for the universe in one blog post, so my intention is to keep things simple for this blog post and just ask three fundamental sets of questions that will start to get you thinking. Over time, I will start to fill in some of the gaps and provide more food for thought that should help you understand how I came to the conclusion I came to.
Ready? Here goes:
Question #1: The field of astronomy tells us that the universe is expanding. This tells us that there was a point in time when the universe was much, much smaller than it is today, and that there was actually a point in time where the universe didn’t exist at all. Scientists call the point at which the universe came into being the “Big Bang”.
Now, here’s the problem. Since the universe did not exist at one point (a point at which we say that “nothing” existed), we are left with the question of where “everything” (matter, scientific laws, etc.) came from. So, the fundamental question is this: how does nothing, which by its very definition cannot produce anything, manage to produce everything?
Question #2: Imagine that the Curiosity rover that is on Mars was driving along and suddenly found a cave full of information. And, not just a little bit of information, but books and books of it. What would you say about how that information got there? Would you say that it got there by accident or that the information self assembled? I think just about everyone would say that “someone put it there”; as a matter of fact, you’d be laughed at if you suggested anything else!
The field of biology tells us that DNA stores information about life on earth in the same way that computers use binary language to store information. The Earth contains an incredibly diverse array of life forms, each with its own characteristics. The fundamental question is this – if information doesn’t create itself out of thin air, then how do we account for the information that is in all life? Would accidental causes account for all of the different life forms we see on earth, or would we expect far fewer species?
Question #3: Even if we had viable explanations for where the information that “programs” all life on earth came from and how atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen (primarily) would have self assembled into the first cell through natural means (we don’t), the problem of consciousness needs to be addressed. In other words, we are beings comprised of organic molecules that make up our physical bodies, but were do our thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. come from?
For example, if I want to go on a walk, what about the laws of chemistry, physics, biology, psychology, etc. can explain this act of my will? Scientists who have studied this are stumped – they can’t point to any MRI or any other medical test that can know where your “soul” is in your body. The fundamental question then becomes this: how do the arrangements of atoms of various chemicals obtain the ability to generate what we call “consciousness” once they are arranged into a human body?
Think about these fundamental questions and read what some of the experts say. See if some of the explanations sound more fantastic than the possibility that there is a Creator. Consider whether or not there are limits to what science can tell us about the universe, and whether or not there might be a lot of truth in the Psalm at the top of this post after all…