I’m deeply drawn to the vast and wild beauty of our universe. Studying physics has helped me to appreciate matter and energy of every scale – from the largest galaxies to the smallest particles.
Now, I’m not an astronomer. My studies have leaned more towards Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. But when I point my basic telescope towards the heavens, I can appreciate the processes behind the creation of planets and stars – the mechanical, quantum and electromagnetic dynamics at play, and I am moved by the wonder of it all.
The immensity of the universe is almost incomprehensible, with its hundreds of billions of galaxies – across billions, potentially trillions, of light years across space.
Perhaps you can relate to what King David said in Psalm 8:
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in place, what is humankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
The world’s most powerful telescope, the James Webb Telescope, was launched in December 2021, revealing beauty and mystery beyond what the psalmist could have imagined.
One of the telescope’s debut images was this cosmic landscape painting of the Carina Nebula, located about 7,600 light years from Earth. Lit up and sculpted by the radiation of baby stars, this is one of the most active star-forming regions ever discovered.
Just as a painting declares the essence of the artist, so the universe teaches us about the Creator – a God who is deep, vast, wild and magnificent.
It’s incredible how human ingenuity and creativity are now enabling us to see back in time to some of the earliest stars in our universe. The James Webb Telescope gives us a glimpse into areas of the universe previously unseen. Science is unveiling more of God’s masterpiece every day.
I know one young lad that encountered this idea in his college science class when his teacher was explaining the formation of the elements by nuclear fusion. The teacher was saying how most of the hydrogen and helium in the universe was produced in the Big Bang. Smaller stars like our sun also produce helium, and in their death and expansion they form a denser carbon element, while the nuclear reactions of more massive stars produce a range of elements from oxygen through to iron.
After teaching this fascinating science, the teacher ended the lesson by asking a question to the effect of, “Does knowing where the elements come from leave any reason to believe in God?”
The kids responded with a resounding “no”, and the teacher left it at that!
The young lad felt that the question was intended to be rhetorical, perfectly positioned to make a point – that the more we know about the universe, the less room is left for God.
Oxford University professor John Lennox shows how the idea that scientific knowledge eclipses God is flawed. He uses the analogy of a Ford motor car.
It’s conceivable that someone from a remote part of the world, who was seeing a Ford for the first time and who knew nothing about modern engineering, might imagine that there is a god – Mr Ford – inside the engine, making it go sweetly. He might further imagine that when the engine ran sweetly it was because Mr Ford inside the engine liked him, and when it refused to go it was because Mr Ford was angry with him. Of course if he were subsequently to study some mechanics and take the engine apart, he would discover that there is no Mr Ford inside it, and so Mr Ford was no longer necessary as an explanation of the engine’s working.
So far so good. But if he then decided that his understanding of the principles of how the engine works renders it impossible to believe in the existence of Mr Ford who built the engine, he would be making a logical mistake. This is a common mistake.
Understanding the science behind our universe doesn’t disprove God. If anything, the science supports faith in a creator. In fact, as we unravel the layers upon layers of mystery within the universe, we are finding that it is a profoundly improbable universe. And I find it impossible to address the existence of the universe without also addressing the originator of the universe.
There are many ways in which science affirms faith in God, but I’ll talk about three that stand out to me.
The opening words of the Bible refer to the order of creation as having a beginning:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth… (Gen 1:1)
And in the New Testament, speaking of Christ, Paul affirms:
All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col 1:16-17)
Until relatively recently, most scientists believed that the universe was without a beginning.
Scientist and philosopher Arthur Eddington wrote in 1931, “The notion of a beginning is repugnant to me… I simply do not believe that the present order of things started off with a bang…the expanding universe is preposterous…incredible…it leaves me cold.”
Yet we now have an abundance of evidence. In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding – galaxies are being pulled apart – with the expansion of space itself. Now imagine rewinding that expansion back in time. We would see the galaxies closer together in the past. Rewinding even further, the matter would all be swished together with the atoms packed into a very dense and glowing hot plasma.
Astronomers calculated that this state occurred 13.8 billion years ago, and that the early universe would have blazed with heat.
In 1965, two electrical engineers were puzzled by consistent background noise in their giant radio antenna. After ruling out other sources of noise and even kicking out the pigeons that were roosting there, they realised this wasn’t just noise. They had detected heat radiation from the beginning of the universe – just as astronomers had concluded.
This discovery was monumental, winning them the Nobel Prize and convincing even the more sceptical scientists that the universe had a beginning – affirming what Christians had believed for thousands of years.
One argument posited by atheists is that the universe has become increasingly ordered over time. How? Through blind physical forces and mathematical necessity.
According to this line of thought, as we go back in time, we will see that the order we have today emerged out some initial disorder – and if we go back far enough, we’ll find a state in which there was no order at all.
By way of analogy, if we take a box with some marbles rolling around the bottom, the marbles tend to have some rather random distribution and roll around aimlessly. But if we tilt the box slightly, all the marbles will roll into one corner and we will see a pattern emerge. The pattern that will emerge is called the “hexagonal closest packing” pattern. It’s the same pattern we see in a honeycomb..
In this example, physical forces (gravity) and mathematical necessity (the closest way to pack spheres) combine to produce an elegant pattern. This would appear to justify the atheist’s claim that order happens “spontaneously” and “necessarily” from disorder by unconscious laws.
If this is true, the teacher’s implicit suggestion that nuclear fusion replaces a need for God wouldn’t be far wrong – that gravitation made the swirling dust after the Big Bang condense into stars and planets, and these stars generating new elements and chemicals which clumped together under the electromagnetic forces until we eventually arrived at molecules that could replicate themselves: life.
However, although this history of the cosmos may be correct, the conclusion that the universe became ordered out of disorder is based on a superficial view of science. It is a view that leaves out one of the most important things that science has taught us about the world. The overlooked point is this: when examined carefully, scientific accounts of natural processes are never really about order emerging from mere chaos, or form emerging from formlessness.
When we see situations that appear haphazard, spontaneously arranging themselves into orderly patterns, we find in every case, that what appeared to be haphazard actually had a great deal of order already built into it.
The reason our marbles form a neat pattern is not just because of physical forces or mathematical necessity. If you took a bunch of odd-shaped items, put them in this box and tilted it, you wouldn’t get this sophisticated pattern, but a jumbled mess. The reason we get an orderly pattern with the marbles is because of the way they are created – all in same size and in a perfectly symmetrical spherical shape.
To say that their pattern is only due to blind physical forces and mathematical necessity is to make a mistake about nature. It takes for granted the characteristics of the marbles, as if their arrangement in the box is the only thing that calls for an explanation. But it is their fundamental structure ensuring they will respond to physical forces and mathematical necessity.
The picture that has been emerging from modern physics and cosmology is incredible. We’ve been discovering that our universe’s fundamental forces are intricately and delicately balanced, or “fine-tuned”, to the specifications that are needed to sustain life. Many of the fundamental constants of nature have just the right values for life to exist. Change any of them by a tiny amount, and it would be impossible for there to be life.
Let’s go back to the teacher’s question: “Does knowing where the elements come from leave any reason to believe in God?”
Of course, the teacher is right to say that the nuclear processes in stars explain where the elements come from. But why are there stars in the first place? Both large and small stars are necessary for life: the large ones produce elements in their thermonuclear furnaces, and it’s only the small ones that burn long enough to sustain a planet with life. To have both large and small stars requires a fine tuning of the electromagnetic force constant to the gravitational force constant to an incredibly accurate degree – to 1 part in 1040 (yes, that’s a one with forty zeros).
Even the eminent mathematician and astronomer, Sir Fred Hoyle, conceded that his atheism had been shaken by his discovery that the nuclear ground state of energy levels have to be fine tuned to no more than one percent for carbon, the basic building block of life, to be formed. He ventured to say that “a common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics.”
God created an underlying order enabling the entire system, the laws of physics and nature, to assemble into a planet filled with a wide variety of plants and animals in a complex web of ecosystems.
God is not absent. I believe that God sustaining it every moment. His order is an amazing display of his ingenuity. God didn’t need to tweak the system again and again to make it work, but purposed it from the beginning to unfold over time in the way he intended. Even today, God is still at work, involved in sustaining the laws moment by moment, while continuing to create – new stars, new planets, new life and new people.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
I’m deeply drawn to the vast and wild beauty of our universe. Studying physics has helped me to appreciate matter and energy of every scale – from the largest galaxies to the smallest particles.
Now, I’m not an astronomer. My studies have leaned more towards Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. But when I point my basic telescope towards the heavens, I can appreciate the processes behind the creation of planets and stars – the mechanical, quantum and electromagnetic dynamics at play, and I am moved by the wonder of it all.
The immensity of the universe is almost incomprehensible, with its hundreds of billions of galaxies – across billions, potentially trillions, of light years across space.
Perhaps you can relate to what King David said in Psalm 8:
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in place, what is humankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
The world’s most powerful telescope, the James Webb Telescope, was launched in December 2021, revealing beauty and mystery beyond what the psalmist could have imagined.
One of the telescope’s debut images was this cosmic landscape painting of the Carina Nebula, located about 7,600 light years from Earth. Lit up and sculpted by the radiation of baby stars, this is one of the most active star-forming regions ever discovered.
Just as a painting declares the essence of the artist, so the universe teaches us about the Creator – a God who is deep, vast, wild and magnificent.
It’s incredible how human ingenuity and creativity are now enabling us to see back in time to some of the earliest stars in our universe. The James Webb Telescope gives us a glimpse into areas of the universe previously unseen. Science is unveiling more of God’s masterpiece every day.
I know one young lad that encountered this idea in his college science class when his teacher was explaining the formation of the elements by nuclear fusion. The teacher was saying how most of the hydrogen and helium in the universe was produced in the Big Bang. Smaller stars like our sun also produce helium, and in their death and expansion they form a denser carbon element, while the nuclear reactions of more massive stars produce a range of elements from oxygen through to iron.
After teaching this fascinating science, the teacher ended the lesson by asking a question to the effect of, “Does knowing where the elements come from leave any reason to believe in God?”
The kids responded with a resounding “no”, and the teacher left it at that!
The young lad felt that the question was intended to be rhetorical, perfectly positioned to make a point – that the more we know about the universe, the less room is left for God.
Oxford University professor John Lennox shows how the idea that scientific knowledge eclipses God is flawed. He uses the analogy of a Ford motor car.
It’s conceivable that someone from a remote part of the world, who was seeing a Ford for the first time and who knew nothing about modern engineering, might imagine that there is a god – Mr Ford – inside the engine, making it go sweetly. He might further imagine that when the engine ran sweetly it was because Mr Ford inside the engine liked him, and when it refused to go it was because Mr Ford was angry with him. Of course if he were subsequently to study some mechanics and take the engine apart, he would discover that there is no Mr Ford inside it, and so Mr Ford was no longer necessary as an explanation of the engine’s working.
So far so good. But if he then decided that his understanding of the principles of how the engine works renders it impossible to believe in the existence of Mr Ford who built the engine, he would be making a logical mistake. This is a common mistake.
Understanding the science behind our universe doesn’t disprove God. If anything, the science supports faith in a creator. In fact, as we unravel the layers upon layers of mystery within the universe, we are finding that it is a profoundly improbable universe. And I find it impossible to address the existence of the universe without also addressing the originator of the universe.
There are many ways in which science affirms faith in God, but I’ll talk about three that stand out to me.
The opening words of the Bible refer to the order of creation as having a beginning:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth… (Gen 1:1)
And in the New Testament, speaking of Christ, Paul affirms:
All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col 1:16-17)
Until relatively recently, most scientists believed that the universe was without a beginning.
Scientist and philosopher Arthur Eddington wrote in 1931, “The notion of a beginning is repugnant to me… I simply do not believe that the present order of things started off with a bang…the expanding universe is preposterous…incredible…it leaves me cold.”
Yet we now have an abundance of evidence. In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding – galaxies are being pulled apart – with the expansion of space itself. Now imagine rewinding that expansion back in time. We would see the galaxies closer together in the past. Rewinding even further, the matter would all be swished together with the atoms packed into a very dense and glowing hot plasma.
Astronomers calculated that this state occurred 13.8 billion years ago, and that the early universe would have blazed with heat.
In 1965, two electrical engineers were puzzled by consistent background noise in their giant radio antenna. After ruling out other sources of noise and even kicking out the pigeons that were roosting there, they realised this wasn’t just noise. They had detected heat radiation from the beginning of the universe – just as astronomers had concluded.
This discovery was monumental, winning them the Nobel Prize and convincing even the more sceptical scientists that the universe had a beginning – affirming what Christians had believed for thousands of years.
One argument posited by atheists is that the universe has become increasingly ordered over time. How? Through blind physical forces and mathematical necessity.
According to this line of thought, as we go back in time, we will see that the order we have today emerged out some initial disorder – and if we go back far enough, we’ll find a state in which there was no order at all.
By way of analogy, if we take a box with some marbles rolling around the bottom, the marbles tend to have some rather random distribution and roll around aimlessly. But if we tilt the box slightly, all the marbles will roll into one corner and we will see a pattern emerge. The pattern that will emerge is called the “hexagonal closest packing” pattern. It’s the same pattern we see in a honeycomb..
In this example, physical forces (gravity) and mathematical necessity (the closest way to pack spheres) combine to produce an elegant pattern. This would appear to justify the atheist’s claim that order happens “spontaneously” and “necessarily” from disorder by unconscious laws.
If this is true, the teacher’s implicit suggestion that nuclear fusion replaces a need for God wouldn’t be far wrong – that gravitation made the swirling dust after the Big Bang condense into stars and planets, and these stars generating new elements and chemicals which clumped together under the electromagnetic forces until we eventually arrived at molecules that could replicate themselves: life.
However, although this history of the cosmos may be correct, the conclusion that the universe became ordered out of disorder is based on a superficial view of science. It is a view that leaves out one of the most important things that science has taught us about the world. The overlooked point is this: when examined carefully, scientific accounts of natural processes are never really about order emerging from mere chaos, or form emerging from formlessness.
When we see situations that appear haphazard, spontaneously arranging themselves into orderly patterns, we find in every case, that what appeared to be haphazard actually had a great deal of order already built into it.
The reason our marbles form a neat pattern is not just because of physical forces or mathematical necessity. If you took a bunch of odd-shaped items, put them in this box and tilted it, you wouldn’t get this sophisticated pattern, but a jumbled mess. The reason we get an orderly pattern with the marbles is because of the way they are created – all in same size and in a perfectly symmetrical spherical shape.
To say that their pattern is only due to blind physical forces and mathematical necessity is to make a mistake about nature. It takes for granted the characteristics of the marbles, as if their arrangement in the box is the only thing that calls for an explanation. But it is their fundamental structure ensuring they will respond to physical forces and mathematical necessity.
The picture that has been emerging from modern physics and cosmology is incredible. We’ve been discovering that our universe’s fundamental forces are intricately and delicately balanced, or “fine-tuned”, to the specifications that are needed to sustain life. Many of the fundamental constants of nature have just the right values for life to exist. Change any of them by a tiny amount, and it would be impossible for there to be life.
Let’s go back to the teacher’s question: “Does knowing where the elements come from leave any reason to believe in God?”
Of course, the teacher is right to say that the nuclear processes in stars explain where the elements come from. But why are there stars in the first place? Both large and small stars are necessary for life: the large ones produce elements in their thermonuclear furnaces, and it’s only the small ones that burn long enough to sustain a planet with life. To have both large and small stars requires a fine tuning of the electromagnetic force constant to the gravitational force constant to an incredibly accurate degree – to 1 part in 1040 (yes, that’s a one with forty zeros).
Even the eminent mathematician and astronomer, Sir Fred Hoyle, conceded that his atheism had been shaken by his discovery that the nuclear ground state of energy levels have to be fine tuned to no more than one percent for carbon, the basic building block of life, to be formed. He ventured to say that “a common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics.”
God created an underlying order enabling the entire system, the laws of physics and nature, to assemble into a planet filled with a wide variety of plants and animals in a complex web of ecosystems.
God is not absent. I believe that God sustaining it every moment. His order is an amazing display of his ingenuity. God didn’t need to tweak the system again and again to make it work, but purposed it from the beginning to unfold over time in the way he intended. Even today, God is still at work, involved in sustaining the laws moment by moment, while continuing to create – new stars, new planets, new life and new people.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
