1.2 Is God in the Details?

People often assume that science and faith don’t mix, that you have to choose between the two. Or someone might say, ‘This faith stuff is interesting… but I’m more of a science person.’ I don’t think it needs to be as black and white as that. As in, I know loads of people that are really passionate about their science but they believe in God. And I also know that having a faith doesn’t mean that you have to ignore science. In fact, many important theories and discoveries about the universe have come from people of faith, take Blaisé Pascal, Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle just to name a few. While people debate the differences between science and faith, most would acknowledge that they attempt to understand the universe. Science can help us to understand the how and the when, while faith can help us to explore the who and the why. The more we delve into science, the more we discover how incredible and how unlikely that life exists at all. Take the English physicist, Paul Davies, he says that ‘The Laws of physics seem to be the product of an exceedingly ingenious design...’ In other words, from the vast solar system that surrounds us to the ridiculously complex cells that make up our bodies, there seems to be this specific design and purpose that keeps what could and should be absolute chaos in working order. Imagine the biggest sound desk you have ever seen, like one you would see at a concert. Or to be more exact, imagine a room packed with sound desks. We’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of dials, buttons and sliders. A universe where the potential of life exists would require every dial, every button and every slider to be in an exact position. Let’s imagine that slider 1 controls the Earth’s distance from the Sun. One nudge closer and the planet would burn up. A nudge further away and the whole planet would freeze. A minimal change in gravity would pull us into the sun or spin us out into darkness. Turn down the oxygen even slightly and life just ceases. The American scientist, Francis Collins, explains that there are 15 constants in the universe, things like gravity, the speed of light and the boiling point of water. Each of these constants has precise values and if one of these constants is out by even .000001%, not only would the universe not be able to sustain human life, but there might not even be stars or planets. The beauty is that our world is sustained by a very delicate balance. Just one change would trigger a catastrophic event, ending all of human life. The theoretical physicist and atheist, Stephen Hawking, once said that... The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous He said it would be difficult to explain why the universe would have begun in just this way except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us. That’s a significant statement from a once in a generation kind of genius. But to be fair to Hawking, although he did recognise God as a possible answer to understanding the complexity of the universe, he did work alongside other incredible scientific minds to offer alternative explanations. But for me, I find myself simply amazed at what it requires for even the universe to just exist. And as I look at the beauty around me, it reminds me of a line in the Bible by the apostle Paul, he said: For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky through everything God made they can clearly see his invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature. (Romans 1:20) Now of course it is possible that our existence is down to chance or probability but it's as unlikely as a monkey typing on a typewriter and eventually producing one of Shakespeare's sonnets. So we have to come to one of two conclusions, either we exist as a result of mind boggling chance or breath-taking design.