It would be simple to suggest that the discoveries of modern science have disproven the existence of God. As time progresses, mankind continues to discover more about the universe and where we came from. The discovery of the big bang, the evidence for evolution, and the multitudes of modern findings from fields like archaeology, anthropology, biology, and astronomy have all eliminated the need for the crutch that is religion.
The Age of Enlightenment, coming in the 18th century, was the savior we had really been waiting for. Men like David Hume, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau guided us out of the religious fog and away from our archaic, superstitious beliefs, and led us into a new realm of philosophy, based on reason, evidence, and observation. It just goes to say that you don’t need faith when you can simply have the facts.
What are some of the faith defeating facts?
Well, for one we know that the universe had a definite beginning. It’s logical that the universe had a beginning because if it did not have a beginning, then it would have to be an infinitely existing universe. An infinitely existing universe is illogical because it would mean that we would have never arrived at today. In other words, there would have had to have been an infinite amount of days before today in order to arrive at today.
Even Stephen Hawking has admitted that “Almost everyone now believes that the universe and time itself had a beginning at the big bang.” Alexander Vilenkin, a renowned cosmologist, has also said, “All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning.”
The fact that our universe was birthed at the big bang is fundamentally irrefutable. Our universe had a beginning.
Science has also revealed to us that everything that has a beginning has a cause. This is also referred to as the Law of Causality. Since our universe had a beginning, it also had a cause; something caused our universe to have a beginning.
What caused our universe to exist?
Stephen Hawking has proposed that “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.”
So, we have gravity to thank for the spontaneous creation of the universe. We have gravity and spontaneity to thank for the infinite expanse of the cosmos and the infinitesimal infinite; atoms, quarks, neutrinos, etc., and all that’s in between: the vast diversity of plant and animal life, mankind, and how it all fits together.
It is because of spontaneity that we now have a universe full of fine-tuning. It is because of chaos that we now have a world full of order; human DNA spelled out in 3.5 billion letters, all in the correct sequential order, the water cycle and the carbon cycle, working together in unison and harmony, the earth’s axial tilt, rotational period, and correct ozone layers. It is because of unconscious minerals that we now have 7.5 billion humans full of consciousness and intellect. It is because of non-life and accidental explosions that we now have the miracle of life.
Gravity, as impersonal and unintelligent as it may seem, has found a way to create a world full of personality, consciousness, order, and intellect.
The only question now is, “Did gravity have a beginning?”
The origin of gravity.
What must be understood about gravity is that it is a law of nature. Gravity, being a law of nature, does not exist without nature. Gravity needs a platform like space and time to operate within before it can have a reason to exist. It would appear Hawking has thrown us into a bit of a pickle.
This is a prime definition of catch-22.
Gravity cannot be the cause of the universe because it is the by-product of the universe.
I’m sorry but Hawking was wrong on this one point. The universe can’t create itself out of nothing, especially when gravity is something. And you can’t have the cause of the universe be something that is caused by the existence of the universe.
Laws of nature do not create anything. Laws of nature exist because nature exists. Therefore, the cause of nature cannot be something found within nature. It must be something outside of nature; it must be supernatural.
What is the supernatural cause of the universe?
Our universe is comprised of space, time, and matter. Therefore, whatever is supernatural would be outside of space, time, and matter.
Whatever created our universe would have to be space less, timeless, and immaterial.
Our universe is also infinitely expansive, meaning that whatever created it would have had to have been powerful enough to set all the universe’s energy into motion.
Our universe is also the host of a multitude of fine-tuned variables. Oxygen, for example, comprises 21 percent of the earth’s atmosphere. If oxygen were 25 percent, the earth would be too flammable to support life; if it were 15 percent, we would suffocate. Carbon dioxide, another atmospheric variable, is so finely tuned to support life that if it’s too low, no photosynthesis; if it’s too high, we all burn. Gravity, although already mentioned, is so finely tuned to support life that if its force were adjusted by 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent, we wouldn’t have a sun.
And these are only three of over thirty different physical and cosmological parameters that allow for life. But it just goes to say, whatever created our universe would have had to have been extremely intelligent.
Our universe is also full of personality. The minds that exist within every human are a bit of an anomaly, and an albatross for most scientists. The amalgamation of fizzing chemicals and firing synapses summon the existence of our mind. The mind brings forth our personality, but the mind is also supernatural in and of itself. Consciousness can be neither seen nor touched, in fact, we can’t even prove that it exists. We’re stuck having to simply infer from the evidence.
Whatever created our universe would have had to have been personal enough to create the mind of man.
When you use science. When you use reason, observation, and evidence. You arrive at this conclusion:
Whatever created our universe must have to be space less, timeless, immaterial, powerful, intelligent, and personal.
I can’t help but think that these attributes are beginning to sound like the characteristics of a theistic God. But these are the facts. The facts that extinguish the faith required to believe “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing…”
It’s hard to listen to Hawking when all of creation is shouting the existence of a Creator.