The Reality of God

The Layman's Guide to Scientific Evidence for the Creator

Steven Hemler

• Publisher: Saint Benedict Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781618902214
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion & Science

Does God Exist? Which is true? Evolution, or creation, ... or both? Are we no more than a momentary, meaningless collision of molecules? Or do we owe our existence to a Creator, who has willed us (and everything else) into being, and who has a plan and purpose for our lives? The Reality of God addresses these all-important questions by providing an introductory overview of key scientific evidence, philosophical reasons, and insights drawn from human nature demonstrating God's existence. This scientific and human evidence of God's existence is clearly and concisely presented in plain language. No Ph.D. required! In simple, accessible language—and well-supported by scientific experts—Hemler guides the reader through the most compelling evidence for the existence of God, and shows how natural sciences such as biology, chemistry and physics—far from disproving religious belief— suggest and reveal the existence of a Creator at every turn. Explore the Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God Catholics and others seeking sound reasons, credible science, and faithful theology supporting belief in God will cherish this easy-to-read book. The Reality of God provides: · as an opportunity to address doubts about God's existence · persuasive reasons for belief · the argument that faith and reason are not incompatible · answers on evolution vs. creation In The Reality of God Steven Hemler puts forth in layman's terms how science and natural world point to God's existence. An indispensable guide.

PART I

COSMIC EVIDENCE OF GOD’S EXISTENCE

INTRODUCTION TO PART I

In preparation for the rest of this book, it may be helpful to answer the following questions for yourself.

1. If you or someone you know does not believe in God, what are some of the reasons?

2. If you believe in God, what are some reasons for your belief?

3. Which of these reasons are subjective (based on personal experience) and which are objective (based on science or philosophy)?

Again, while we may have subjective reasons for belief in God, in this book we are primarily concerned with objective evidence of God’s existence. We will start by examining scientific evidence of the existence of God.

But, you may ask, why look to science for evidence of God’s existence? While the answer may be surprising to some, it is because examining the physical world is one way the Bible and the Church teach that God may be known.

For example, Psalm 19:1–2 declares, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge.” Wisdom 13:5 proclaims, “For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.” And, at the beginning of his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes, “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made” (Romans 1:20).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#31) also states,

Created in God’s image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of “converging and convincing arguments,” which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. These “ways” of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world and the human person.

Thus, we will initially look at scientific evidence supporting belief in God found in the physical world. In the first part of this book, we will examine evidence of God’s existence from cosmology (the study of the cosmos), specifically the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. Then, from physics and astronomy we will explore how the laws of nature point to the existence of God and how these laws and our solar system are “finely tuned” in order for life on Earth to be possible.

CHAPTER 1

THE ORIGIN OF
THE BEGINNING

Almost a century ago scientists discovered that galaxies are moving away from each other at fantastic speeds. Because of this, and a great deal of other evidence, scientists now believe that the universe—the very fabric of space-time—is expanding from a cataclysmic explosion that happened about 13.7 billion years ago, which is known as the “Big Bang.” In the currently standard theory of the Big Bang, the universe itself began with that explosion, which was the beginning of matter, energy, space, and time itself.

Most of us have a general understanding of the scientific development of the Big Bang theory. But, let’s review a few key milestones.10

• First, Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity implied that the universe was either expanding or contracting and may have had a beginning. These implications were contrary to the prevailing view from ancient times that the universe was static and eternal. Thus, the implications of his theory that the universe may have had a beginning were not initially accepted, not even by Einstein.

• Then, in 1927 Belgian physicist and Catholic priest Georges Lemaître developed a detailed model based on Einstein’s equations showing that our universe is expanding. Four years later, he proposed that this expansion began suddenly at a definite point in the past. This became known as the Big Bang theory. However, this theory was initially met with skepticism by most scientists. For example, renowned British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington declared in 1931, “Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of nature is repugnant to me . . . I should like to find a genuine loophole.”11

• In 1929, however, American astronomer Edwin Hubble observed galaxy movements using the large telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. His observations supported the idea of a universe expanding from the Big Bang.

• There have been other scientific confirmations of the Big Bang theory since 1929 (e.g., cosmic microwave background radiation), so that virtually all cosmologists now accept it.

• Scientists also realized Einstein’s equations of gravity indicated that at a finite time in the past there was a point where the energy, density, temperature, and curvature of space-time itself were infinite. In the standard Big Bang theory, this point marked the beginning of the universe.

In the standard Big Bang theory, nothing existed before the Big Bang—not even time—so that one should not even talk about “before the Big Bang.” In the standard theory, then, the Big Bang was the beginning of our universe. For example, when scientists use the classical laws of physics to determine how the Big Bang started they encounter what is called a “singularity,” a point where “the laws of physics seem to break down and a transcendent God is theoretically needed to start the universe.”12

However, many speculative variants of the standard theory have been proposed and in some of these theories the universe did exist for a period of time before the Big Bang. Nevertheless, there are strong theoretical arguments that even in such alternative theories the universe must have begun a finite time ago, though maybe at a point earlier than the Big Bang.13 Thus, the weight of scientific evidence and argument is strongly in favor of the universe having had a beginning.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

Therefore, the Big Bang supports a medieval philosophical argument for the existence of God called the Kalam Cosmological Argument.14 The three logical steps of the Kalam Cosmological Argument are deceptively clear and simple in their formulation:

1. Premise One–Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

2. Premise Two–The universe began to exist.

3. Conclusion–Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.

Even renowned skeptic David Hume didn’t deny the first premise that whatever begins to exist has a cause. And, with the Big Bang theory, there is now solid scientific evidence in support of this second premise that the universe had a beginning. The conclusion of the Kalam Cosmological Argument follows inexorably from the first two premises; namely, the universe has a cause of its existence.

Thanks to scientific discoveries of the last century, the traditional Kalam Cosmological Argument for the existence of God has taken on a powerful and persuasive new force. And, atheist Quentin Smith’s contention that “we came from nothing, by nothing, and for nothing” seems absurd.15

William Lane Craig, in his book The Kalam Cosmological Argument, argues that this logical deduction points to a Creator beyond the universe, a transcendent reality beyond space and time and therefore non-physical and immaterial, who created the universe out of nothing and brought it into being.16 In short, as a beginning implies a cause, a cause implies a creator.

The implications of a universe with a beginning, coupled with other discoveries of modern cosmology, have led some scientists to unmistakably theological conclusions. For example:

• British physicist Edmund T. Whitaker wrote, “There is no ground for supposing that matter and energy existed before and were suddenly galvanized into action. It is simpler to postulate creation ex nihilo—Divine will constituting Nature from nothingness.”17

• Allan R. Sandage, one of the world’s leading astronomers, said, “We can’t understand the universe in any clear way without the supernatural.”18

• And, world-renowned astrophysicist Robert Jastrow wrote, “the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same; the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.” He continued, “...