Yesterday I told you about a recent discovery supporting the big bang theory of the origin of the universe. The universe has not existed from eternity, as scientists once thought. It had a definite beginning–just as Genesis says.
It seems that the further science progresses, the more it supports the biblical view of the world.
Let me give you some other examples. Many scientists have noted that the universe is remarkably well suited for life. Everywhere science is uncovering what one physicist called “cosmic coincidences.”
For a familiar example, take water. When water freezes, unlike most other substances, it expands and floats. If water didn’t have this unique property, then in cold weather, lakes and rivers would freeze down to the bottom, and all fish would be killed.
Or think about the position of the earth. If the earth were only slightly closer to the sun, it would be too hot for life. But if the earth were farther away from the sun, it would be too cold to support life.
Isn’t is a marvelous coincidence that the earth is just where it is in the solar system?
Another cosmic coincidence is the strength of gravity. Assuming that the universe began with a big-bang explosion, if the force of gravity were just slightly stronger, that extra tug would long ago have pulled the cosmos together and caused it to collapse in on itself.
On the other hand, if the force of gravity were just the tiniest bit weaker, then it wouldn’t have been strong enough to condense the original gas cloud into stars and galaxies.
The fact that gravity is just the force needed to create the universe is,
It’s the same with electrical force. Every tree, every blade of grass is made of atoms, which contain electrons and protons. The electron has an electrical charge that balances exactly the charge of the proton.
What would happen if they weren’t precisely balanced? If, say, the electron carried more charge than the proton, every atom in the universe would be negatively charged. Since like charges repel, the atoms would repel each other, and the universe would explode apart.
In a previous century coincidences like these were seen as evidence of God’s design. If the universe appears to be tailor-made for life, people said, that’s because it is tailor-made for life.
God created the universe to be a suitable home for His creatures.
But today many scientists shy away from any suggestion of the supernatural. So they’ve come up with an alternative. They call it the Anthropic Principle, and it says that in some strange way these cosmic coincidences didn’t just happen. They were meant to be. The universe somehow has its own purposes.
As one famous physicist put it, the universe “must have known we were coming.”
This is strange language for a physicist–to speak as though the universe itself were a quasi-intelligent being that could foresee the future and plan ahead.
It just shows that those who reject Christian truth often come up with explanations that require even more faith than the Bible does.
