Does God really exist?
If you’re looking for measured proof that God exists, science has been unable
to find it.
Or has it…
For centuries, science and faith have seemed to be poles apart. Much of this
happened because of how the church in Rome treated a scientist named Galileo
in the early 1700’s. Galileo publicly supported a new theory that the Earth
revolved around the sun. But the church insisted the Bible said otherwise. As
a result, the pope punished Galileo – he even threatened to have Galileo
killed unless he began to teach again that the sun revolved around the Earth.
From that point on, many ‘religious’ people saw scientists as people who
wanted to attack religion; and scientists became anti-religion.
What the people didn’t know was that someday Galileo, who deeply believed in
God, wound be known as one of the greatest scientists of all time. He foresaw
that a new invention, the telescope, would prove the church wrong-as it did.
He wanted to save them from the embarrassment of supporting the wrong theory.
But they wouldn’t listen. Because of this divide, it seems that we today have
two choices. accept God on the merit of faith, choosing to believe what the
Bible says (that God does exist and loves us individually – or believe what
science claims to prove (that there is no God).
However, over the last fifty years, science has admitted that every discovery
leads to more questions than answers. A century ago, many scientists believed
they were on the verge of knowing all the answers regarding how we arrived on
this planet called Earth. Now scientists say that the more they discover, the
more they discover they don’t know. For example, if the force of gravity were
slightly less, the universe would collapse on itself, like a balloon with the
air sucked out of it. If the force of gravity were slightly more, it would
have drifted apart as gases, instead of forming solids. If the force that
held protons and electrons together were the slightest bit weaker, hydrogen
would not exist, and therefore water would not exist, and therefore life
would not exist. At all levels, it seems that coincidence after coincidence
after coincidence has made human life possible in a lonely, cold universe. Yet are they coincidences? Scientists have tried different computer models to
simulate the creation of a universe that could sustain life. They can only
find one model that works – ours, with the incredible adjustments of creation
that truly are difficult to believe as mere coincidence. As a result, many
scientists are led to faith in God because of what they see in the
universe – an amazingly complex interworking of humans, plants, animals, stars,
etc. It can only be the product of careful design by a loving creator. Many
scientists now believe that the fifteen-billion-year construction of the
universe has had one goal. producing human life. Now that should make you
feel special! Science is proving that the odds of human life being produced
by chance are like winning the same ten-million-dollar lottery every week for
the next year. (That’s a big win!) So the next time you hear people complain
that they didn’t win the lottery, tell them they already did.
It’s true that belief in God truly takes a leap of faith – no one can force
you to believe. Yet every year we see further proof that science – and reason
– no longer stand in the way of a belief in God as the creator of this
universe.
What an awesome thought – that a loving God created and sustains the
universe, and cares for you personally!
– excerpt from a book, Mars: Oxygen Level Zero, by Sigmund Brouwer