For the next two weeks I’ll be speaking to a class at church regarding recent scientific discoveries that support the idea of the existence of God. What makes these discoveries interesting is the history of science over the last few centuries. Science grew out of Christianity and was nurtured by early scientists who had no problem combining their religious faith with their exploration of the universe. Then the Enlightenment came in the late 1600s and 1700s, bringing a new attitude – science was going to be done as if no God existed. When Darwin came on the scene and promulgated the idea of evolution, it look like victory for those who did not believe there was a God. But over the last century things have changed. I’d like to cover some of those changes in this and future posts.

Consider the beginning of the universe. When Edwin Hubble realized galaxies were flying away from each other, he and others knew this was the sign that the universe had exploded into existence in the distant past. Those who disliked this theory of the origin of the universe from a single point derisively referred to it as the “Big Bang.” The reaction by some to this new theory was interesting. Take Arthur Eddington, British physicist, mathematician, and astronomer. He said the idea of a beginning to the universe was “repugnant.” Now isn’t that fascinating? Instead of terms like “amazing,” “silly,” “preposterous,” or “significant,” he used the term that suggested he was not happy with the theory because of how it made him feel. This suggests to me that he was more interested in defending a philosophy rather than wherever the science was taking him. After all, if the universe came into existence, something outside the universe had to get it going. This suggested a supernatural cause, a position which gets close to allowing God into the picture.

Then there was Albert Einstein, probably the most famous scientist of all time. He was so disturbed with the idea of a beginning to the universe that he fudged his calculations to suggest that the universe had always been here. Why would well-known people be so uncomfortable with a scientific finding? Because many in the scientific world have come to believe in scientism rather than science. They believe science has all the answers to life. But the Big Bang suggests the need for a big banger to get the universe started.

Recent science discoveries have validated the Big Bang theory for the start of the universe. It may be the best-tested theory in all of science. Scientists who reject the idea of God or the supernatural have had a difficult time wrestling with the concept of getting something from nothing – all matter, space, time, and energy came from nothing. More to follow in future posts.