by Bill Nugent
Article #219
The true story is told of an astronomer who began a new direction in life when he observed a total eclipse of the sun. He became fascinated with the fact that the moon perfectly covered the sun during the eclipse so that the sun’s corona could be studied apart from the glare of full sunlight. The moon fits perfectly over the sun because the moon is 1/400th the diameter of the sun and the moon is also 1/400th the sun’s distance away from the earth. This astronomer became convinced that this happy coincidence was not a coincidence at all but was designed by God to allow humanity to study the sun. The astronomer began a search for God that ultimately led him to faith in the God of the Bible.
The moon fitting perfectly over the sun in an eclipse is just one of hundreds of parameters that are fine tuned to an uncanny precision. The book, The Privileged Planet, by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards details how these astronomical measures are balanced and precisely calibrated to allow for life. Even the fact that the earth is tilted at 23 degrees is crucial. The fact that the moon is just the right distance away from the earth and just the right size to cause the tides in the oceans on earth also is vital for the earth’s ecosystems. If the moon were much closer the tides would sweep over the continents, if it were much further away the tides would be so insignificant they would not flush out the tidal estuaries that are so vital as fish breeding areas.
Richard Swenson M. D., in his book More Than Meets the Eye, states that the gravitational force and the electromagnetic force are so precisely balanced that if this balance deviated by one part in 10 to the 40th power it would be catastrophic not only for life but even for the existence of stars (p. 116).
Many astronomers have noticed these facts for decades and many astronomers have turned to Christ to receive forgiveness of sins. Yet other astronomers have clung to an atheistic worldview and have gone to great lengths to try to explain them away as happenstance.
I’m sure most of you have seen the astronomy specials on The History Channel and the BBC that present astronomers discussing the existence of eleven dimensions and the possibility of multiple universes. The astronomers, astrophysicists and planetary geophysicists are making some very subjective assumptions in formulating their hypotheses. They can’t show you eleven dimensions of physics in a test tube.
Even the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe is fraught with problems. Astrophysicists are very clever at theorizing their way around the Big Bang’s problems. One problem is that there is not enough visible matter in the universe to account for the fact that the universe is expanding. The scientists simply theorize that 90% of the matter in the universe is not visible and they call itDark Matter. Problem solved. But is that really science? It really seems more like artistic imagination. There is no scientific experiment that can definitively confirm or falsify the Big Bang.
I have great respect for science. There is no conflict between the Bible and true science. In fact, all of the founders of modern science were bible believers. Men like Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal and Robert Boyle founded experimental science because of the Bible’s teachings on God and nature. Newton wrote more about the Bible than he did about science!
The theories the secular astronomers offer are for the most part not testable as experimental science. If they hit a roadblock they just make up a new dimension or a new universe parallel to our own. They make the claim that our universe is just one universe among many. Some go so far as to say that there are an infinite number of universes that have all sorts of strange matter and physical laws that differ from our own.
In one sense their claim that there are eleven dimensions in physics doesn’t detract from the God of the Bible. God could easily have created eleven dimensions. In fact we can say that God did create dimensions we don’t see. How does an angel minister to us yet remain invisible? The angel operates in another dimension which is the dimension of spirit. God could have created more than one universe. So why am I disquieted by astronomers who make wild claims?
The claims of parallel universes and multiverses seems to be a subtle way of undermining the teleological proof of the existence of God. The teleological proof of the existence of God is proof based on design. For instance if you walk along a beach and find a watch you know from its complexity and function that it is not a random product of the churning of the waves and grinding of the sand. The watch had to have an intelligent designer. In the same way we observe the fine tuned complexity and interdependency of everything from the smallest living cell to the solar system and conclude that there has to be an extreme intelligence behind it all.
Astronomers do acknowledge that the earth, the solar system and the universe are exquisitely balanced and calibrated for life. The materialist astronomers claim that there are an infinite number of universes which to them means that all types of universes exist including one fine tuned for life. Hence, they claim that there is no intelligent designer but just an infinite number of universes where all sorts of coincidences are possible. Of course they can’t prove that other universes exist so they just believe it by faith. So again it comes down to a conflict of faiths: the Christian faith versus the secular faith. The secular faith, however, gets public funding and is indoctrinated into students in the public schools.
The Christian faith is far superior because it is confirmed by fulfilled prophecies and miracles. Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament Bible prophecies. No other person in all of world history can make anything like that claim!
William Demski and many other scientists in the Intelligent Design Movement have formulated ways of discerning design in nature. Microbiology has long been a source of highly complex and irreducibly complex systems that could not have formed by random collisions of atoms. It should not surprise us that the macro realm of the universe also shows immense complexity and fine tuning.
I have to laugh (or cry) when I think of the secular materialists who reject the mountain of evidence that points to the necessity of a Creator. They must sweat through it. They must tremble as they contemplate their future and the damnation that awaits them. No wonder they want to retreat to a different universe!
Experiments have shown that life’s chemical building blocks don’t randomly assemble from simplicity to complexity. Experiments seeking to verify affinity theory have shown that the building blocks of life don’t have an affinity or attraction to each other. Water won’t run uphill. Chemicals don’t aggregate to form living cells.
With advances in physics, biology, chemistry and mathematical probability analysis we can now calculate the probability of the simplest one celled organism forming by random collisions of atoms by any imaginable step by step process. The plain fact is that a living cell could not form in a trillion years if the whole universe consisted of primordial soup! What is the reaction of the scientific community? Some repent and turn to God. Some cling to atheistic materialism and hope that there are parallel universes with different physical laws.
Darwin thought that life was so simple it could form in a “warm little pond.” By the 1930s the budding field of microbiology driven by the invention of the electron microscope showed that life was mind bogglingly complex. Each generation of scientists has shown life to be evermore irreducibly complex. Even the atom is more complex than we ever dreamed. We’ve discovered over 100 subatomic particles. The sun and solar system are complex and fine tuned. The whole universe is fine tuned and gives evidence of design and gives glory to God!