Gods

All the works of nature indicate intelligence

Human beings have always sensed a power greater than themselves. In ancient times they believed there was a god or gods ‘up there’ looking down on them and a place below ground where they went after death. Because they didn’t understand very much about the natural world, they reasoned it was under the control of these gods. If the gods were happy, they showed it by arranging bumper harvests and victory over their enemies. If they were unhappy, all manner of hardships and disasters befell their mortal subjects. When it was shown that the Earth is a globe spinning around the Sun, the religious authorities felt threatened. They condemned the scientists and astronomers and banned publication of their work. In time, the Middle Age gave way to the Age of Reason. Scientists showed that the material world behaved according to proven ‘laws’ which could not be reconciled with miracles, heaven, hell and an after life.

In the twentieth century, men flew to the Moon, bringing back photographs of the small blue-tinged sphere we call home. They looked beneath the ground and found nothing other than rocks and a molten core. There was no sign of gods living above the clouds or the walking dead below ground. ‘Proof,’ said the scientists. ‘There is no God. We’ve been sold a lie.’

Or have we?

Where Do the Laws of Nature Come From?

There’s a passionate debate going on in the USA about how this world was made and how we came to be on it. On one side are the Evolutionists. They follow Charles Darwin’s view that life evolved from tiny microbes in the sea. Those best suited to their environment thrived, multiplied and gradually became fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and finally us. Leading proponents of this view argue that we are the result of DNA reproducing and perpetuating itself. They believe they are supported by the scientific evidence. On the other side are the Creationists, who believe the Bible is literally true, that the earth was made in six days and all this happened a mere

six thousand years ago. Carbon dating techniques which show the earth to be much older than this are misleading, they say, because the Creator deliberately made it seem older. Some schools run by Christian fundamentalists teach only this view. However, there is another group who support a third idea – intelligent design. They don’t dismiss evolution, but argue that it’s not just down to adaptation and the survival of the fittest, but that some organizing intelligence is overseeing the process. If this is correct, what is this ‘organizing intelligence’? Is it just another name for God? Let’s examine this question.

Science and Creation

Today, many scientists believe that we cannot dismiss the notion that there is but one source of everything. For example, in December 2004, a professor of astrophysics from Cambridge University, a man who has spent a lifetime studying the origins of the universe, made this astonishing statement on television:

We cannot discount the possibility that the universe and everything in it was created entirely for our benefit. Is it possible that the next great scientific discovery will be proof that everything was brought into being by an all-pervading intelligence which maintains balance and harmony in the universe? Some leading scientists already believe so. For example, when asked about his religion, Professor Albert Einstein replied:

I do not believe in a God who maliciously or arbitrarily interferes in the personal affairs of mankind. My religion consists of a humble admiration for the vast power which manifests itself in that small part of the universe which our poor, weak minds can grasp.

All Visible Things Come From the Invisible and Depend on the Unseen for Their Existence

Before Einstein, the world was thought to be a collection of atoms behaving according to fixed and observable ‘laws’, and space was exactly that – empty space. This explanation seemed to fit the data in Newton’s day, but it changed with the advent of quantum physics. We now know that matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. Break an atom down to its ultimate components, and we find microscopic particles spinning at great speed around a central core. What appears solid is actually more than 99.99% empty space: billions of tiny particles flying in formation, held together by an invisible force field. Everything in the universe is made up of energy. Even space is not really empty: it is a ‘presence’, an inexhaustible ‘potential’ that manifests in places as matter. Moreover, when particles are studied in detail, they don’t actually exist! Rather, they are tendencies to exist. They appear and disappear millions of times a second and move at inestimable speeds. We can’t even assume they exist when they are not being observed. Quarks – subatomic particles – change according to who’s observing them and the nature of the observer. For instance, if the observer is angry, he creates irritation in what is being observed!

Everything, including you, came out of an invisible energy field which, when investigated, is shown to have nothing in it! How does it feel to know that everything you see, hear, smell, taste and touch is made up of particles that don’t actually exist?