The Verdict of Reason
We’ve been looking at worldviews: Which one makes the most sense? The Atheistic Materialists have tell us that ‘Science’ has made God irrelevant. That there is no rational basis for a Creator. But as we’ve seen, ‘Science’ has actually made the case for the opposite. As over the decades of the last century or so, the evidence has accumulated for something scientists call the Big Bang, one thing is becoming more and more certain. The Universe had a beginning. ‘Science’ is making the case for the theologians. And the Materialists are forced to contort their theories using increasingly artificial gymnastics.
BUILDING THE CASE
“My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.” (Isaiah 48:13) (ESV)
The Universe had a beginning! And many men of science did not like it. Even the great Einstein was disturbed by the fact. It absolutely changes everything. By destroying the Steady State Theory that says the Universe always was – it introduced the notion of a Beginning – and that brings with it a Beginner. The Universe had a beginning! The implications of that fact are huge. It rips out the underpinnings of not just Materialism – but also deals a death blow to the Pantheistic worldview found in Eastern religions and much New Age thought. Neither thought system can escape the logic of the argument. The syllogism works like this.
- Everything that has a beginning has a cause.
- The Cosmos had a beginning.
- Therefore the Cosmos had a cause.
Nobel Prize winner Arno Penzias summarized the case thusly: “Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say ‘supernatural’) plan.”[i] So let’s look at some of that accumulated evidence.
First of all there is the expanding universe. It is an observable fact that space is expanding. Before the creation event – what scientists refer to as the Big Bang – there was no space. In fact there was no time and no matter either. It all came into existence all at once. Secondly, this fact is buttressed by the discovery in 1965 of the “afterglow from the Big Bang” – the cosmic background radiation by Arno Penzias and Rober Wilson. Robert Jastrow, quoted earlier, could find “no other explanation” other than the Big Bang for what these researchers found. It had “exactly the pattern of wavelengths expected for the light and heat produced in a great explosion.” His conclusion: “The Big Bang theory has no competitors.” Thirdly, in 1992, NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer satellite found what Stephen Hawking called “the most important discovery of the century.”[ii] It “measured the background radiation temperature left over from the initial Big Bang creation event.” The COBE was able to measure very minute and precise variations in temperature that are believed to be necessary for the fomation of galaxies. This was an astounding confirmation. Scientist in charge, George Smoot stated: “What we have found is evidence for the birth of the universe. It’s like looking at God.”[iii] Then there is Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, proved now to five decimal places.
But to all of this the committed atheist may ask: If you say that the Universe had a cause, God: Then who made God? But this question misstates the logic of the syllogism. The statement requires that Everything that had a beginning have a cause. That is why scientists, especially those that study astronomy and the origin of the universe are coming to the realization that the biblical redering of creation is an accurate redition of the truth. Before the Creation Event; the Big Bang: There was NO Time, NO Matter and NO Energy. There were NO laws of physics – because there was NOTHING physical on which they could operate. So the logical conclusion was that the Agency that served as the First Cause was something or someone outside of space and time. Geislr and Turek draw a picture of just what this Creative Agency must look like. A First Cause must therefore be: 1) Self-Existent, timeless and immaterial. 2) Powerful enough to create the Cosmos. 3) Super-Intelligent to design the Universe. 4) A Personal Being who chose to create something. These happen to be the characteristics ascribed to the God of the Bible.[iv]
Not satisfied that a Universe with a beginning settles the argument some atheists contrive to invent implausible and untestable scenarios to avoid the God conclusion. Richard Deem, host of God and Science.org and and conributing author notes how some “atheistic cosmologists believe that we see only the visible part of a much larger ‘multiverse’ that randomly spews out universes with different physical parameters.” [Stephen Hawking is among those in this camp.] “Since there is no evidence supporting this idea (nor can there be, according to the laws of the universe), it is really just a substitute ‘god’ for atheists. And, since this “god” is non-intelligent by definition, it requires a complex hypothesis, which would be ruled out if we use Occam’s razor, which states that one should use the simplest logical explanation for any phenomenon. Purposeful intelligent design of the universe makes much more sense.”[v]
Looking at all the evidence, prize winning astronomer Alan Sandage, who was considered by many to be the greatest living cosmologist until his death in 2010, concluded: “I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.”[vi] It was Robert Jastrow that stated it even more plainly. “Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements and the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same; the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”[vii] These are astounding admissions, especially coming from Jastrow who is a declared agnostic. Arno Penzias, along with his colleague Robert Wilson, discovered the cosmic background radiation left over from the creation-event commonly referred to as the Big Bang. He laid out the implications of that phenomenon for the New York Times audience in 1978: “The best data we have [concerning the Big Bang] are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the bible as a whole.”[viii]
The problem for many opposed to the implications of the Big Bang – or a Universe with a starting point – is that the science of the thing undercuts their philosophical predispositions. Pantheists, those believing that Universe is god – (and we all part of it) – must realize that their pantheistic god could NOT exist if there was a time before Matter existed. And if the Universe would wind down and come to an end – their pantheistic god would cease to exist. For Materialists who say the Universe always was – and had no beginning the problem is much the same. They cannot posit a Materialist Cause to bring the Universe into being. And Scientists who claim to look to the Laws of Nature to explain the existence of Matter are advancing a self-defeating proposition. There were no Laws of Nature until the Creation Event. The Big Bang is a description and NOT a Cause. The instant of Creation is NOT explained.[ix] So what are we left with? Only Theism or Deism can adequately explain the evidence that science has developed over the last century. The Fairy Tales of Atheism are being put to rest. The Creation Event……the Big Bang if you will, requries a Cause that transcends Space and Time and Matter. But there is more than just the fact that the Universe had a beginning to clue us in to the existence of God. So next time we’ll continue on and look at further evidence of the Divine Presence.
[i]Margenau, H and R.A. Varghese. Cosmos, Bios, and Theos. La Salle, IL, Open Court, 1993 pg 83
[ii]Norman L Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith t6o Be an Atheist, Crossway, 2004, pgs 79-85
[iii] The Greatest Discovery (COBE, 1992), God & Science, http://www.godandscience.org/slideshow/sld002.html,
viewed February 10, 2015
[iv] Norman L Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith t6o Be an Atheist, Crossway, 2004, pg 93
[v] Richard Deem, If God Created Everything, Who Created God?, http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/who_created_god.html Monitored February 11, 2015
[vi] JN Willford, Sizing up the Cosmos: An Astronomers Quest. New York Times, March 12, 1991
[vii] Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, WW Norton, 1978: As quoted by Hyper-Physics,
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/nave-html/faithpathh/jastrow.html, Monitored February 11, 2015
[viii] As quoted by: Michael Egnor, Would Dr. Arno Penzias, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Be Blacklisted at Iowa State?, Evolution News, June 12, 2007. Original article in the NY Times was published in 1978.
[ix] Dr Stephen Meyer, Does God Exist (DVD), True U, Truth Project, Focus on the Family, Part 4
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