What a question! The best way to ponder this question is to look at it from a couple different angles, meaning, scientifically and historically. I believe God has designed everything and we can certainly see his fingerprints on it. In fact, in Romans 1:19-20 it states, “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” God’s desire is for us to have a personal relationship with him so he has taken many extreme steps to make himself visible and God has covered all the bases. If you do not believe in God I’ll ask you to please take a moment to think about why you don’t. Is it because science conflicts with the idea of God? Is it because you’ve seen too many bad things happen that you can’t believe there could be a God? Is it because you haven’t seen enough evidence that points to God throughout the world? Is it because there are too many religions? How do you know what the right one is?
I study apologetics so I know that using ONLY the bible as
an answer to such a question as this does almost nothing for those who don’t
believe in the truth of the bible. Therefore, because this would be a rather
LONG post, I have split this question into four posts examining resources
OUTSIDE of the bible as well as the bible for evidence of God. These posts have
been split up in the following ways – Scientific, historical, psychological,
and spiritual. Together, I believe the Case for Christ is very strong and I’m hoping
that I can show anyone who is reading this not only that there is a God but also
that God wants to know you personally
as well.
The blast that takes out the big bang
Science has been able to tell us many things - the Earth is
in fact NOT flat, the sun does NOT rotate around the Earth, the atom is NOT the
smallest particle, we can finally understand what causes floods, earthquakes,
tsunamis, etc. and so on and so forth. These were all things within the last
few hundred years, science was able to answer. As wonderful and exciting as
studying science and the world around us is it cannot answer the question of
how the universe came to be – how in the world did we get here? That is a fair
question and one that I think most people at some point or another will seek
the answer to. My hope is that you do ponder this question.
The scientific community believes wholeheartedly that,
although the big bang theory is in fact a theory, they tend to view it as fact.
However, on deeper examination of the big bang theory is it easy to point out a
lot of gaps, holes, and quite honestly, flaws in that theory, hence the term
theory. The big bang theory in essence boils
down to the belief that something could come from nothing which in and of
itself defies a fundamental scientific law. We understand this great universe
has a set of laws that continuously are proven to be true so the idea that zero
plus zero could amount to something above zero seems in many ways nonsensical.
Also for that theory to be truth a person would have to believe that for an
infinite amount of time there was some inorganic, compressed material that
somehow at some random point in time changed. That theory is completely lacking
scientific and mathematical intellectual thought process.
Questionable Evolution
Then we have to understand that even if one believed in the
truth of the big bang theory one cannot explain how humans have evolved so
differently than any other particle and cell. If the big bang theory were truth
and out of complete chaos some inexplicable occurrence happened and caused some
sort of order in the universe then why is it that of all living creatures we
now are the only species with a moral compass or the intellectual design that
is unlike any other? Some researchers say this is a pure case of survival of
the fittest and natural selection over time, meaning, humans adapted to the
environment to survive but if that were the case then why, if we were created
from the same blast that created a tree, have we become what the human race is while
the tree became what IT is today? That tree has still survived yet it has no morality
whatsoever. What a difference, seeing as we came from the same infinitely compressed
inorganic matter!
The pattern of a designer
Then we have to consider the order in which the universe
operates. There is a fine and perfect pattern to the world around us. We have
laws of nature that repeatedly do not fail. This would point to the
fingerprints of a designer. Also think about the intricate human body. Each body
consists of some 100 TRILLION cells that have been perfectly arranged to carry
out the processes of life. The human body is so detailed, balanced, and so
unlike any other life form that it’s hard to believe it spawned randomly.
The flaws in Carbon Dating
Carbon Dating to some in the scientific community has been a
miracle in and of itself. For those that are unfamiliar with how Carbon dating
works here is a quick rundown. Scientists are using the measures of carbon and
radioactive carbon in different materials to figure out the date of that materials
death thereby getting an idea of how old that material is. Radioactive carbon
is absorbed by living organisms throughout their entire life. When the organism
dies that absorption stops and the radioactive carbon begins to break down.
Because this break down occurs at a known rate it is theoretically possible to
compare the amount of regular carbon and the amount of radioactive carbon and
estimate just how long an organism has been dead. This sounds like some pretty
great science but there are definitely some flaws in this process.
First, we don’t know how much Carbon was in the organism in
the first place so we have no idea what the ratio was and therefore our date
will not line up. Also if scientists want to date an organism they have to take
into consideration that there is a possibility of contamination, meaning,
another material has contributed to the amount (or lack thereof) of Carbon in a
specific material. The older the object is the greater the possibility of
contamination, so we have some serious limits as to how far back we can even
accurately date a material assuming the data being used is 100% accurate. There
have also been a large number of objects that have been carbon dated resulting
in a certain death date that were tested again with a result showing a much
different year, some of which were thousands of years off. A recent study even
showed a tusk of a walrus that had been known to have died 30 years ago, when
dated, came up that tusk having a death date at 12,000 years. So the
reliability of carbon dating is very questionable yet this is a method that the
scientific community relies on heavily for its historical data.
I believe science not only has the ability to inform us
about the world around us but it also has the ability to show us a lot about
who God is. This world is a beautiful and intricate place and it takes a strong
leap of faith, knowing what we know about science, to believe that there was
NOT intelligent design behind it, just as strong if not more so then the belief
in an all-powerful and eternal creator.
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