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Science tries to answer the ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ for every question there is about the universe. But the one vital question many in the science world totally ignore is “WHO?” If only scientists would start with the question of ‘Who?”, there would be far more answers to the other questions that make sense.

Basic science teaches us that all matter is either a solid, liquid or a gas (or a plasma if enough energy is applied). We also know from science that everything is made of atoms. For basic early high school science, atoms are the building blocks from which everything in the universe is made.

We were taught in former school years that atoms are the smallest elements and are so small that even the most powerful optical microscope is not able to reveal them. The periodic table lists 118 elements, listed in order of their mass. The largest atom is almost 300 times as heavy as the lightest element (hydrogen – atomic weight 1.008; and oganesson – atomic weight 294).

More advanced science recognises that atoms are not the smallest elements. Atoms are made up of several other even smaller items called ‘sub-atomic particles’.

The more science delves into the mysteries of the atom and the sub-atomic ‘particles’, the more questions arise, including the realisation that even the quarks, leptons and bosons are simply an expression of energy. So, what gives them their form, and how do they group together to form protons or neutrons? Then, how do the protons and neutrons bond together to form the nucleus of an atom?

If all the elements that make up the nucleus have a positive electrical charge, how do they hold together, and why don’t they fly apart? Electrons have a negative charge, so why don’t they simply fly into the positively charged nucleus where they are attracted, and stay there?

Fundamental Query

Science seeks to find answers to every question that mankind has about the physical universe. So, scientists try to answer the ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ for every question they have about the universe. But the one vital question they totally ignore is “WHO?”

If only scientists would start with the question of ‘Who?” and find the answer is God, there would be far more answers to each of the other questions that make sense.

Science has no answer about the spiritual dimension, as there is no scientific test that can be done to prove or disprove the existence of the spiritual dimension. But the Bible answers the matter very clearly.

For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)

God created the physical universe which science can test and verify, and the spiritual dimension which science cannot test in a laboratory or verify with physical evidence. God also created the laws that sustain and maintain the physical universe.

The fundamental laws that govern the existence of the universe are so finely tuned that if they were varied by a fraction of a percent, the universe would not exist as we know it. Science cannot give a logical explanation for this phenomenon. But as a believer, I know that God is the answer. He has made it just the way He wants it to be: originally perfect.

Despite sin entering His world and marring His perfect creation, He has not destroyed or abandoned it. He maintains and sustains His created order as an expression of His majesty and glory. Psalm 19:1-2 tells us that:

The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night utters knowledge.

For the person of faith, science is not an essential in order to know answers to the big questions of life. Considering the universe and the world around us, there are many verses in the Bible that give amazing details on the created order.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command,
so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

Scripture also encourages us to observe what God has made and to learn from His created order.

Proverbs 6:6 ~ Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise.

Proverbs 25:2 ~ It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings to search out a matter.

Ecclesiastes 1:13 ~ And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.

Ecclesiastes 7:25 ~ I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things,

But as God is infinite, and we are His creation, limited in our power and understanding, we can never understand all of what He has done, and we have very little power to modify what He has created.

Job 38:31 ~ “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion?

Job 11:7 ~ “Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?

There are many scientists, both past and present, who we can identify as Christians. These people usually have a very different perspective on the created world than scientists who do not have a faith in God. They ask the question of ‘who’ before looking for the answer to any other question. They also face the ridicule and criticism of the secular science world because they dare to give answers that demonstrate God’s involvement in His created order.

Some people of faith who looked through the lens of God being the Creator of all things, and whose names may be familiar, include Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Blaise Pascal, Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), Samuel Morse, Michael Faraday, and many others.

Creation Ex Nihilo

The science world finds many things that cannot be explained by any of the laws of physics that we know. For example, it is widely accepted in the science world that the so-called ‘Big Bang’ occurred sometime in the past (presumed to be around 17,000,000,000 years ago). But no scientist can say how it could have happened.

Credit: NASA

The concept of the ‘Big Bang’ breaks the laws of physics. The first of Newton’s laws states, “An object will stay in its current state unless acted upon by an external force.” No scientist can explain what infinitely powerful external force in the universe catapulted the whole universe into existence.

The ‘Big Bang’ cannot explain why there is so much order in the universe. Nor can it explain how the nine planets (yes, I include Pluto) are in very neat orbits around the sun and have not been flung off into space to fly freely through the universe, or crashed into the sun and burned up.

Science, and particularly the biological sciences, cannot explain how the Bombardier beetle exists.

“The beetle produces temperatures of over 100°C in the gland, which acts as a specialised, reinforced explosion chamber. Up to 80 explosions may be produced over a four-minute period.”

How can a beetle evolve a chemical lab that uses four different chemicals that result in a series of explosions, without blowing up the beetle? This beetle has a couple of mixing/storage chambers for the first two chemicals of hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone.

Then, when the beetle is threatened, it squirts the mix through tiny, hinged doors that allow the two mixed chemicals to enter the explosion chamber, where there is a mixture of peroxidase and catalase that react with the mixture to destabilise it. When these chemicals are mixed, the explosion occurs. This can be repeated many times in short bursts. Did this evolve? No explanation is given as to how it could.

Science has no plausible explanation for how DNA exists. It is a code that is so complicated it took a team of scientists almost a decade to read and record it. Yet they would have everyone believe that DNA (the building block of all life on earth) evolved by itself, simply by chance. Would a computer program write itself?

Science cannot explain why there is a burst of light at fertilisation, which occurs the instant new life begins when a sperm enters an ovum. There is no evolutionary reason for this phenomenon to have evolved, and it suits no evolutionary purpose. But it is a testament to the life-giving power of God as He gives the “light of life” to all.

Science has never been able to answer the question: “How did life begin?”

The Flying Duck orchid is a unique flower. The name gives a clear description of its appearance. There is certainly no evolutionary reason for such a flower to have come into existence. However, when we consider that God has made all that we see, we are caused to marvel at His creation and recognise the greatness of the Creator. We can sing praises to Him and be humbled by His majesty. On one occasion, Jesus spoke to the crowds, saying, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Luke 12:27)

Enigmas

Science has difficulty explaining many other things in this universe that we live in. One of the more puzzling problems that scientists have spent billions of dollars researching is the whole area of quantum physics. The Large Hadron Collider was built to research the quantum world.

The more science delves into the quantum realm, the more puzzling it becomes. There are more questions than answers. The sub-atomic world does not fit the known laws of nature.

The question: “Is light made of photon particles or photon waves?” The answer: “Both a wave, and a particle, and neither.” Light is shown to be waves in some conditions and particles in other conditions. Yet, it is far more complex than that.

Quantum entanglement – where change in one quantum particle has an instant effect on another particle that it is “entangled” with even though they are separated by thousands of kilometres – is a phenomenon that is not easily explained. Science still does not have a full understanding of how or why this occurs. It defies all logic and macro science’s theory of General Relativity, such as how the information can instantly travel across space without being limited to the speed of light which restricts the rest of the physical universe.

Then we come to String Theory. This proposes that the quantum elemental particles are not particles, but energy “strings” in the form of vibrations that give the appearance of the quantum elements we observe. Seventeen elements have been identified, the most recent being the Higgs Boson. String theory is commonly called “The Theory of Everything.”

“String theory claims to make that dream a reality. In simple terms, it does this by reimagining what reality is made of. Instead of treating subatomic particles as the fundamental building blocks of matter, string theory says that everything is made of unbelievably tiny strings, whose vibrations produce effects that we interpret as atoms, electrons and quarks.”

If string theory is true, where is the source of all the required ongoing energy that keeps the ‘strings’ vibrating at the correct frequency to produce the variety of sub-atomic ‘particles’ from which the atoms are formed? Science has no answer. But the Word of God makes it clear that God is the source of all the energy required for this to happen. He is the One who keeps everything functioning.

 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17)

All these contentious science issues make a lot more sense when you first ask and answer the question of ‘Who?’. When that question is answered, all the difficult questions fall into place. Even when there is no obvious answer, faith in God says that I don’t need to know the when, where, what, why, or how, because I know Who the Creator is.

But when it comes to what Stephen Hawkins called “The Theory of Everything”, the theory that is meant to answer all the questions (except ‘who’), science will never be able to find the answer, because they ignore or reject the answer of who it is that is responsible for everything we can see and cannot see around us.

When God is in the equation, everything else adds up. While science cannot find a definitive answer about the beginnings of the universe, or how life began, those questions are easily answered when we know God – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

So, when there is a contentious issue in the science world, the resolution is to come to God first. God has given us reason and logic, and many matters can be resolved through reason and logic. But there are many more matters that defy logic and reason. That is where faith comes in to shine brightly in the murky darkness of the unknown.

The idea that everything is simply an expression of energy, bothers many people. If String Theory is correct, then there is no such thing as matter. Matter is simply an expression of the energy vibrations which produce what we observe as the sub-atomic elements, which are themselves just energy.

These sub-atomic elements, which are purely energy, make up the atoms that make up the ‘solid’ objects that we see with our eyes and touch with our hands. So, what we see is just energy in a visual form. The Scripture that talks about the universe disappearing at the end of time makes more sense when we identify that everything that exists is pure energy.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. (2 Peter 3:10-12)

When God stops sustaining the universe He created, it will simply disappear. Then, as He says in Revelation, He will “make a new heaven and a new earth.”

 Now I saw a newheaven and a newearth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (Revelation 1:1)

God is the Creator of all things both physical (space and time) and spiritual (the unseen realm). There is a time when the physical universe will disappear. But God will remain.

Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. (Psalm 102:25-27)

Knowing God means we don’t have to have all the answers to every question. It is enough to know God, as He is the One who created all things, who sustains all things, and who will one day put an end to all things. He is our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Lord, and our friend. He is everything we need. As it says in Acts 17:28 — “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”

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Image courtesy of Adobe.