When we reflect upon the nature of our
world, we see order everywhere from the water cycle to the movement of
the earth around the sun. Commenting on the order found in the universe,
the physicist Stephen Hawking explains that the overwhelming impression
‘is one of order, the more we discover about the universe, the more we
find that it is governed by rational laws.”[1]. This observation is
shared by the vast majority of scientists.
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 example, your phone is made of glass, plastic and
metal. Glass comes from sand, plastic comes from oil and metal is
extracted 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 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
organised way, so it would be rational to believe that it must have an
organiser. In the same way, when we see the order in the universe, isn’t
it rational to say that the universe has an organiser?
This ‘organiser’ is best explained by the existence of God. God is the one who bought about the order in the universe.
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 beginning 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
answer 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 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
permission 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 bought 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, spaceless 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 universe.
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 Oxford Centre for Anthropology and Mind, states ‘œThe preponderance
of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown that a lot
more seems to be built into the natural development of children’s minds
than we once thought, including 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 ‘œIf 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 designed to do so [4]. Disbelief in God is
something which is unnatural 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 position’ [5].
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 [6].
The best explanation for this belief is
that God has put this 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 evolution disprove God? Do we have a purpose in
life? For answers to these and other such questions please click on the
other articles in this section.
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