Is Christianity true? (Science versus faith in God - Part 5)
This blog is part of my series titled “Is Christianity true?” The series addresses four common objections to the truthfulness of the Christian worldview, namely concerns about: (1) the trustworthiness of the Bible; (2) the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection; (3) the compatibility of faith in God with modern science; and (4) the incompatibility of Christian truth claims with those of other worldviews.
DO THE FINDINGS OF SCIENCE INCREASINGLY POINT TO GOD?
“They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them…Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities…So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
Does the foregoing assertion penned by Paul almost twenty centuries ago still hold true today? After all, science has unearthed knowledge about the physical realm that was completely unknown to Paul or the people of his day. Do the massive strides in scientific discovery make less or more probable the hypothesis that God is the ultimate explanation behind everything (“the God hypothesis”)?
EVIDENCE FROM COSMOLOGY
Cosmology is the science of the origin and development of the universe. As previously noted, until quite recently the consensus of those not holding a Christian worldview was that the universe has always existed. If one has an eternal landscape upon which to paint hypotheses, it is possible to develop many theories that are difficult to dispute. After all, eternity is a long, long time, and who can possibly know what might have happened in the infinite past?
However, the eternal-universe bubble burst in the early twentieth century as scientists found more and more compelling evidence that the universe came into existence in the finite past. Today, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that the universe sprang into existence billions of years ago from nothing. While some scientists have twisted themselves in knots attempting to show that something can come from nothing, they inevitably propose “nothings” such as quantum vacuums that are, in fact, “somethings.”
Moreover, astrophysicists have determined that the initial conditions governing the four fundamental forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the “weak” and “strong” nuclear forces—were determined less than one-millionth of a second after the big bang and were fine-tuned in such a way that if the ratio among them were off by even an infinitesimal amount, stars could not have formed and there would have been no universe at all!
Scientists have now determined there are more than two hundred parameters fine-tuned to permit the existence of life.
Scientists have now determined there are more than two hundred parameters fine-tuned to permit the existence of life. If any one of them were altered by even one iota, life could not exist. Such fine-tuning defies any explanations that are based on pure chance. Fine-tuning points to purpose, whereas chance is random and does not operate with an end in mind. The only explanation behind purposeful design is a mind— intelligence—because it is our common experience that design implies a designer.
Based on this evidence alone, it would appear that humankind today has less excuse than people had back in Paul’s day when he declared that God’s power and divine nature were clearly evident to everyone.
Next week, we will consider evidence from biology that supports “the God hypothesis.”
Photo by Hans Reniers on Unsplash
