Order in the Universe
Since the universe has order and is
governed by the ‘laws of science’, we should question how this order came
about. The most effective way to answer this question is to reason to the best
conclusion. Take your mobile phone for exam-ple, your phone is made of glass,
plastic and metal. Glass comes from sand, plastic comes from oil and metal is
ex-tracted from the ground. Imagine you were walking in a desert (where there
is lots of oil, sand and metals in the ground), and you found a mobile phone
lying around. Would you believe that it came together by itself? That the Sun
shone, the wind blew, lightning struck, the oil bubbled This observation is
shared by the vast majority of scientists.
1 Antony Flew, There Is
a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
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to the surface and mixed with the sand and
metal, and over millions of years the mobile came together by chance? No one
would believe such an explanation. A mobile phone is clearly something that was
put together in an orga-nized way, so it would be rational to believe that it
must have an organizer. In the same way, when we see the order in the universe,
isn’t it rational to say that the universe also has been organized in an
amazing way by some being? This organization is best explained by the existence
of God. God is the one who brought about the order in the un-iverse.
Beginning of the Universe
If something has always existed it doesn’t
need a creator. In the first part of the 20th century some physicists held the
view that the universe had always existed. If the universe had always existed
it wouldn’t need a creator.
However, according to Cosmology the
universe had a be-ginning some 14 billion years ago with a cosmic event
commonly known as the ‘Big Bang’2
Imagine you heard a loud bang, and you
asked ‘where did that sound come from?’ Would you be satisfied with the an-swer
that it came from ‘nothing’ and it ‘just happened?’ Of course not! You would
say ‘what was the cause of that loud bang?’ In the same way, rationally the ‘Big
Bang’ must also have a cause that bought it about. Now we can ask since the ‘Big
Bang’ has a cause, what was the cause of that cause? Then we can ask, what was
the cause of that cause? And so .
2 Derek Raine, An
Introduction to Science of Cosmology (Astronomy & Astrophysics)
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on and so on. But this can’t go on forever
and must end with a first cause, because of the following example: Imagine a
sniper who has just found his target and calls back to base to get permission
to shoot. The person at the base tells the sniper to hold on while they seek
permission from someone else higher up. So the guy higher up seeks permission
from the guy even higher up and so on and so on. If this goes on forever, will
the sniper ever get to shoot the target? The obvious answer is that he wouldn’t
be able to shoot. The only way the sniper can shoot is if someone gives
per-mission without asking for anyone else’s permission. That person would be
the first cause of the sniper shooting. In the same way, the Big Bang must have
a first cause. We can conclude that this first cause must be powerful as it
brought the whole universe into existence, and it must be intelligent as it
caused the ‘laws of science’ which govern the universe. Also, this first cause
must be timeless, space-less and immaterial, because time, space and matter began
at the ‘Big Bang’. Finally, since it is uncaused it must have always existed.
All of these attributes of the first cause make up the basic concept of God.
God is the uncreated first cause of the un-iverse.
Human Nature
Throughout the history of the world, the
majority of people have believed in God. There seems to be something built in
the human mind that makes us want to believe.
Over the last decade some really startling
facts have been found that show that children have an innate belief in God. Dr
Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Ox-
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ford Centre for Anthropology and Mind,
states “The prepon-derance of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so
has shown that a lot more seems to be built into the natural de-velopment of children’s
minds than we once thought, includ-ing a predisposition to see the natural
world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is
behind that purpose…” He adds that “If we threw a handful [of children] on an
island and they raised themselves…they would believe in God”3. To put it simply, his
answer as to why anyone would believe in God is that, our minds are de-signed
to do so. Disbelief in God is something which is un-natural to the human being.
Oxford University development psychologist Dr Olivera Petrovich, who is an
expert in the Psychology of Religion states that, belief in God develops
naturally and that “atheism is definitely an acquired posi-tion”4
So where did this natural belief in a
creator come from? We can’t say it is taught by society as this belief is
innate, and studies show that it is independent of societal pressures and is
cross-cultural.
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The best explanation for this belief is
that God has in-stilled it into humanity.You have just read three independent
reasons why it makes sense to believe in God. Belief in God is not only
rational but it’s also part of human nature. There are many questions raised by
the existence of God, such as why is there evil and suffering in the world?
Doesn’t evolu-.
3 Justin L. Barrett, Why
Would Anyone Believe in God? 4 Dr Olivera Petrovich, Childs Theory of World 5
Justin L. Barrett, Jonathan A. Lanman, The Science of Religious Be-liefs
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tion
disprove God? Do we have a purpose in life? All these issues and more will be
answered in future articles.
Source: islamhouse.com/
Source: islamhouse.com/
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