This morning I would like to discuss the question, ‘Does science prove God?’ Before addressing this question, let us see what we mean by science. Science is a way of knowing about the natural world, based on reproducible observations and experiments. There are many ways of knowing. Knowledge comes through different means, through religion, through philosophy, through history etc, but the knowledge that comes through science is based on reproducible observations, controlled experiments, and theoretical reasoning:
Scientific method investigates the tangible aspects of the physical world. Everything you can touch and feel comes under scientific purview. Science has grown into so many branches today,
physics, the study of matter in motion,
chemistry, the study of atomic interactions,
biology, the study of life and living organisms,
geology, the study of the earth etc.
Science investigates the reproducible events in all these areas of research. All these branches of science operate on reason. We use reason in all scientific investigations.
Now, the question is, ‘Does Science disprove God?’ You might ask, what do you mean by God? There are many conceptions of God but in Judeo-Christian theology, God is the infinite Supernatural being who is self-sufficient within Himself. He is infinite, so the question, ‘who made God?’ is meaningless. Let me introduce one term that may be unfamiliar to you: Aseity: ASEITY. It means Self-contained, self-dependent, self-explanatory; not contingent in any way on anything external. Contingent means that which is circumstantial or accidental, depending on external factors. Everything we see is a contingent thing or being. God is a non-contingent being, He is not dependent on anything external to Him.
The scope of science is every tangible thing in this universe. For that reason, I would like to take universe as a whole as I address this question, ‘Does science disprove God?’ Before asking, ‘what is the universe, what is its origin, what is its structure’, we should ask on basic question, ‘Why the universe?’
The Existence of the Universe: Why the universe?
Gottfried Leibniz (1646 -1716) was one of the greatest scientists ever lived. He invented calculus independently of Newton. He invented binary system, the foundation of virtually all modern computer architectures. He also made contributions in biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics, philology, philosophy, law, history, information science.
Leibniz invoked many fundamental philosophical principles, one of which is the Principle of sufficient reason, which states, ‘there must be a sufficient reason (often known only to God) for anything to exist, for any event to occur, for any truth to obtain”.
Please note carefully. There are 3 things in the Principle of Sufficient Reason.
- There must be a Reason for anything to exist
- There must be a Reason for any event to occur
- There must be a Reason for truth to obtain
We should use reason in all three areas. 1. Why something exist in the first place? 2. How does it exist? 3. How can we correctly interpret its existence?
This principle is the foundation for all scientific activity. But the problem is, most scientists, do not even ask the first question. Why does universe exist? Before we travail about how the universe works, we should contemplate on why the universe exists. This applies even to the components of the universe. Take for example, the physical laws embedded into the universe. Before we try to discover physical laws, we should ask why the physical laws.
Imagine that I was introduced to a refrigerator for the first time, I don’t know where it came from, I don’t know its components, I don’t know how it works. At that point I wanted to know about the refrigerator. I started with my first question, ‘How does this refrigerator work?’ ‘What methods can I use to correctly understand the way the refrigerator works?’ I disassembled the refrigerator part by part and I understood everything about the refrigerator, its structure and its functions. Then, I asked the first question, why the refrigerator? Who put this magnificent machine here? Who made it? What is his purpose in making this machine? Remember that is the first part of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, There must be a reason for anything to exist in the first place.
Why the refrigerator? Leibniz asked, ‘Why the universe?’ it is not about how the universe is made up of, or how the universe works, but ‘Why the universe?’
‘Why there is something rather than nothing?’
‘Why is there universe rather than nothing?’
Atheists might say, ‘wait for a while, we will find a scientific answer’. He might say, ‘universe probably came from another universe’. Then that another universe needs an explanation. An Einstein like scientist might devise a grand physical law and say, this physical law brought the universe into existence, then that physical law needs an explanation. Why the universe? You see, you will never be able to find a scientific answer to that question because it not a scientific question, it is a metaphysical question.
I believe that universe is here because God made it for a purpose, just like you see a purpose in the refrigerator. Atheist would say, ‘that is God of the gaps, you brought your belief system into this puzzle’. I would say, ‘what is your explanation then’. He would say, ‘universe is here. Its not due to God, there must be a process, which we need to know. Some other universe brought this universe into existence, or may be this universe is eternally here with no beginning, or this universe is just here with no external agent at all’
You see, I agree that I brought a belief system to answer the metaphysical question, ‘why the universe’. The atheist offered his own explanations to this question, but all his explanations are only belief systems. There is no evidence that this current universe came from a different universe. There is no evidence that universe is eternal, quite contrary, which I will discuss in a few minutes, there is no evidence that universe is here without any external agent. To summarize, atheist calls us, ‘you made a God out of the Gaps’, I say, ‘you made atheism out of the Gaps’. You see, ladies and gentlemen, when we answer metaphysical questions, we are all believers, every one of us in this world. Both theists and atheists become believers when they answer metaphysical questions. Everybody, that means, both theist and atheist, making a leap of faith when it comes to this foundational question about the existence of the universe. But atheist denies, he fold his hands and say only he is the Aristotle while the rest of us are superstitious religious nuts.
The question ‘why the universe’ points us to God, you can have other explanations for that question, but every other explanation you come up for that question is another belief system, it won’t be a scientifically verifiable fact, but is still within the scrutiny of logic. Logic dictates that every effect needs a cause. If universe is the effect, God is the cause.
- Beginning of the Universe: How is started?
For thousands of years, people in the West believed that universe had a beginning. People thought because God made the universe with a purpose, universe must have had a beginning. When modern science started in 15th century, every scientist believed that universe had a beginning. Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer who is considered a founder of modern science. When Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe died in the year 1601, Kepler inherited his extensive collection of astronomical data calculated the beginning of the universe to April 27, 4977 BC. The fact that universe had a beginning became unpalatable to many atheists and skeptics because it reminded people that there was a First Cause or Unmoved Mover, or God. Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776), challenged the idea that universe had a beginning. He introduced the concept of ‘the Eternal basic element, the world is always like that. Following Hume, many atheists argued for the eternal existence of the universe without any need to ponder about the existence of God. For much of 19th century, God was removed from academic discussions because universe always existed, it had no beginning.
Early in 20th century, the redshifts of galaxies became a conundrum to cosmologists because redshifts implied that galaxies are moving away from us. Belgian Catholic priest, Georges Lemaitre (1894 – 1966) was the first scientist to propose a cosmology with an initial ‘creation-like’ event featuring an expanding universe. When atheistic English astronomer Fred Hoyle (1915 – 2001) heard about Lemaitre’s theory, he became so livid, he disparagingly called it ‘Big Bang’, rejected it adamantly, and held on to his steady state theory of the universe. What was his fear? He found the idea that the universe had a beginning to be troubling, because beginning implies a cause and thus a Creator. Atheist Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976) never allowed Big Bang theory to be taught in Chinese schools because he understood what message that theory implies about the universe.
Even Einstein was troubled with Lemaitre’s theory that universe had a beginning. As Einstein was working on his general theory of relativity, his own equations showed that universe should be expanding. That means it had an origin at a finite time in the past. Einstein could not believe what his own equations revealed about the universe. He did not want to accept the idea that universe is expanding, because the idea of expansion of the universe implied that it had a beginning, which was against the common belief of secular scientists. So, he wanted to counteract that revelation by introducing ‘cosmological constant’. Using that ‘fudge factor’ to correct the ‘problem’ and he restored the universe back to the ‘steady state’.
All was well until Hubble came along. Edwin Hubble (1889 -1953) was an American astronomer who profoundly changed our understanding of the universe. He began doing measurements of the light from distant galaxies with a powerful new telescope atop Mount Wilson in California. He noticed that the farther they were, the faster they seem to be moving. Hubble’s startling conclusion was that the galaxies must have all started from the same point at a finite time in the past.
After Hubble’s discovery was published, Einstein said that changing his equations was “the biggest blunder of [his] life. Einstein quickly and he publicly endorsed Lemaître’s Big Bang theory. He admitted in the last edition of his book ‘The Meaning of Relativity’, he would have never introduced the ‘cosmological constant’ if Hubble’s expansion had been discovered at the time of the creation of his theory. You see, even Einstein went under the influence of ‘eternal universe’ illusion due to the misconception that clasped the atheistic imagination, from Hume down to Hoyle.
In the following years after Hubble, more evidence came in the favor of the idea that universe had a beginning. The evidence is raining down on you as you read this book. It’s called the Cosmic Microwave Background. In 1964, Arno Penzias (b. 1933) and Robert Wilson, two American physicists accidentally discovered Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) while working at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey. Both were awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978. Penzias realized the significance of his discovery. He said “…(T)he best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted, had I had nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole… (T)he creation of the universe is supported by all the observable data astronomy has produced so far.” Note his words, ladies and gentlemen, the Bible told us that universe had a beginning, long before we built Observatories, telescopes and radiometers.
Today we are studying the nature All matter is annihilated by the antimatter. You see, matter and energy are only the positive side of reality. There is an equal and opposite negative side that resides in gravitational fields. Together they sum to zero, implying that universe came from nothing. That is, Creation Ex Nihilo, God created the universe out of nothing.
You can also consider the laws of Thermodynamics. The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy and matter can neither be created nor destroyed. The Second Law of Thermodynamics requires that entropy or disorder in the universe tends toward a maximum. The contents of the universe are becoming less ordered, and as the universe becomes more disorganized, less of its energy is available to perform work. Because the universe is running down, we can conclude, it must have had a beginning. You see, the second law of thermodynamics is so unique. It is the only physical law that tells us about the direction of time: The time has a beginning and it has a direction. The universe could not be dissipating from infinity, or it would have run down by now. In the light of the observed process of dissipation, the Second Law of Thermodynamics requires a beginning, and a very highly ordered beginning, one with low entropy. If the universe had a beginning, it has a cause of its coming into existence, because nothing comes from nothing.
You see, why the universe? What was before the universe? For both questions, Both atheist and Christian can offer explanations based on faith. But only a theistic explanation is consistent with reason because our universe could not have made out of an irrational force, but brought into existence by a Rational Being.
- Structure of the Universe: What is it made up of?
‘Why the universe’ is not just the one metaphysical question that we need to answer. There are other metaphysical questions that we need to address, for which we can use reason.
Why does that something have the particular members and order that it has?
Why does this particular kind of universe exist?
Why the universe is inherently mathematical?
How can you explain the existence of the laws of nature?
How can you explain the fine-tuning in the astrophysics of the universe that allows for conscious life?
How can you explain the existence of information in the first place?
Why does the universe have an order that makes it intelligible?
Why is there Order?
Our ancestors saw the cyclical nature of the seasons, and they saw order in it
Astronomers like Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler saw order in the heavenly objects
Scientists like Benjamin Thompson, Lavoisier saw order in thermodynamics
Scientists like Benjamin Franklin, Volta, Oested, Michael Faraday, James Clark Maxwell saw order in Electricity
Scientists like Bernoulli, J.J.Thompson, Rutherford, Niels Bohr saw order in atomic structure
Scientists like Chadwick, Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie saw order in radioactivity
Scientists like Robert Hooke, Matthais Schleiden, Theodor Schwann saw order in biological cells
Scientists like Gregor Mendel, Hugo de Vries, T.H.Morgan saw order in Genetics
Scientists like Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick saw order in structures of nucleic acids.
Scientists like Carl Linnaeus saw order in the plants
There is order in everything, there are physical laws which govern that order. Every scientists start with the faith that the system she is going to explore is governed by the set of immutable laws. She believes the laws she discovered will be the same when she repeats that experiment a year from now. It is like a religious faith, she is sure that she will discover intelligent laws in the systems she explores. Now, the question we need to ask now is this:
Why are there laws in the nature? Where do they come from? Why are they intelligible? Why are they inherently mathematical? Why are seemingly different branches of science connected with same physical laws? How can our brain, supposedly arose by blind mutations, understand the mathematical structure of the universe through analytical thinking? Stephen Hawking asked: “Where do the laws of physics come from? What is it that breathed fire into the equations and made a universe for us to describe?”
Today many scientists would say, ‘there are just there’. Go back a few decades in time,Einstein said it in more mysterious terms, ‘the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is it is comprehensible’ But go back a few centuries before Einstein. As Paul Davies writes in one of his articles on science in New York Times, ‘the very notion of physical law is a theological one in the first place, a fact that makes many scientists squirm. Isaac Newton first got the idea of absolute, universal, perfect, immutable laws from the Christian doctrine that God created the world and ordered it in a rational way’.
Now listen to this, “He (God) is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from eternity to eternity; his presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not duration or space, but he endures and is present. He endures forever, and is everywhere present; and, by existing always and everywhere, he constitutes duration and space. Since every particle of space is always, and every indivisible moment of duration is everywhere, certainly the Maker and Lord of all things cannot be never and nowhere. Every soul that has perception is, though in different times and in different organs of sense and motion, still the same indivisible person. There are given successive parts in duration, coexistent parts in space, but neither the one nor the other in the person of a man, or his thinking principle; and much less can they be found in the thinking substance of God. Every man, so far as he is a thing that has perception, is one and the same man during his whole life, in all and each of his organs of sense. God is the same God, always and everywhere. He is omnipresent not virtually only, but also substantially; for virtue cannot subsist without substance. In him** are all things contained and moved; yet neither affects the other: God suffers nothing from the motion of bodies; bodies find no resistance from the omnipresence of God. It is allowed by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily; and by the same necessity he exists always and everywhere”
You are you quoting, Paul? Where did you get these words?
From Spurgeon? No
From Darby? No
From Whitfield? No
From John Wesley? No
I quoted Isaac Newton, the most brilliant scientist ever lived in the history of mankind. Where did he write these words?
In his personal diary? No or in his memoirs? No, in General Scholium, a part of his famous book, Principia, which is considered one of the foundational textbooks of science. Newton is saying, the laws of gravity I discovered, the laws of motion I discovered, they are universal, because they are put in place by a God who is universal, omnipotent and omniscient.
If any scientist writes these kind of theological words in a scientific paper, he will lose his academic position because godless secularists have taken over our academic institutions, universities and museums.
Father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus (1707 -1778) was a swedish botanist. Philosopher Rousseau once sent him the message, ‘Tell him I know no greater man on earth’. Linnaeus wrote Systemae Naturae, one of the foundational texts of modern biology. He based his work on natural theology, the idea that God had created order in the universe and man could understand that Divine Order by studying the creation. He wrote in the preface to Systema Naturae, “The Earth’s creation is the glory of God, as seen from the works of Nature by Man alone’
Average scientist in our age and time cannot even dream of writing such a passage in his science textbook, because like every field of our contemporary society, science has been secularized.
What a tragedy! Ladies and gentlemen, science has been secularized.
The gardeners of this great plant, called science, plucked it from its roots, its Christian roots. But that is not how it began. English mathematician and philosopher of science, Alfred North Whitehead once said, ‘the modern science emerged in the Christian West due to the belief in a single, law-observing Creator of the universe’.
That is plain and simple. Francis Bacon started inductive method because he believed that God made the external world with a set of physical laws which we can explore with empirical observation. Rene Descartes started deductive method because God made human mind with inherent mathematical reasoning that can decipher the mathematical laws that were inscribed in the nature.
In Inductive method, there is a presupposition that there are intelligent laws which can be abstracted from the concrete experience. In the deductive method, there is a presupposition that we are in built by God in a way to explore what is in external reality. Both, induction and deduction presupposes that God created both nature and human beings in such a way that human beings can explore nature through reason.
Understanding the Universe with Mathematics and Symmetry
One of the most powerful tools particle physicists use now a days is the principle of symmetry. It has both practical and aesthetic uses. During my recent trip to India, I went to Agra and visited the Taj Mahal. It is the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s beauty comes from its symmetry. Not just Taj Mahal, look at the other most beautiful buildings in the world. Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, or US Capitol Building in Washington DC, or Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Among other things, the architect gives beauty to his structure by giving it symmetry. Symmetrical things are beautiful to look at.
What is symmetry? For example, if you look at a snowflake, it has six fold symmetry. If you rotate it sixth of a turn, it looks the same. If you turn your head by sixty, it still looks the same. There is left, right symmetry in human body. You look at the double helix of DNA, you see the symmetry in the complementary strands of DNA particle.
Do you know, that kind of symmetry exists in the mathematical theories underlying the universe? It is a powerful guiding principle in physics. If it is not symmetric, probably you are not doing it right. If you are not seeing symmetry, probably you are not looking right. Every scientist keeps symmetry in his mind as he or she explores to unravel the mysteries of nature.
When I saw the Taj Mahal from a distance, I saw a symmetry in its pillars. After a few minutes, when I went close to the building and examined the pillars, I saw beautiful limestones and when I compared them, there is a corresponding symmetry between the stones of the pillars. In other words, from a distance I saw macroscopic symmetry and when I went close, I discovered microscopic symmetry. Let me tell you in other way, if you see macroscopic symmetry, you can suppose microscopic symmetry. Think of the snowflake again. As you see the macroscopic symmetry in the snowflake, you can presuppose the microscopic symmetry in the crystals that made up the snow flake. Physicists are applying this great principle to study the structure of subatomic particles.
Now think about the universe. The beauty of the universe comes from its symmetry. Now, don’t ask me to define the beauty, the best philosophers and the best physicists among us could not come up with a definition of beauty. Steven Weinberg (born May 3, 1933) is an American physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. In his book, Dreams of a Final Theory, he wrote, “I will not try to define beauty, any more than I would try to define love or fear. You do not define these things; you know them when you feel them”
The structure of the universe is symmetrical and the physical laws that govern its structure are symmetrical. Richard Feynman was an American physicist who was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics. In his book, The Character of Physical Law, Feynman wrote, “Symmetry seems to be absolutely fascinating to the human mind. We like to look at symmetrical things in nature, such as perfectly symmetrical spheres like planets and the sun, or symmetrical crystals like snowflakes, or flowers which are nearly symmetrical. However, it is not the symmetry of the objects in nature that I want to discuss here; it is rather the symmetry of the physical laws themselves” You see, it’s not just the universe which is symmetrical, but also the physical laws on which this universe is built upon.
Now as I try to bring all things together, let me talk about a remarkable woman of science called Emmy Noether. Albert Einstein called her, ‘the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began’. In the science classes I took in high school or college, no teacher told me about Emmy Noether. Emmy Noether was a Jewish mathematician who was born in Erlangen, Germany in the year 1882. She developed enormous interest in mathematics but the problem was she lived in a system that was heavily biased against women in academia. But, despite odds, she was able to attend classes unofficially, met many challenges along the way and finally got her Ph. D in Mathematics at University of Gottingen. When Hitler became the German Reichskanzler in January 1933, she was expelled from the university due to her Jewishness and she later came to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
Now, what is so great about Emmy Noether? She developed a theorem called Noether Theorem which connected symmetry to conservation laws. It argues, if we have a specific symmetry, then we are guaranteed to have a conservation law associated with that system.
What is conservation law? For example you started with 1000 calories of energy. You used it in different ways, some of it changed to heat, some of it changed to electricity, some of it changed to kinetic energy, some of it changed to chemical energy, some of it changed to electromagnetic energy, whatever form it takes, but by the end of it, you will still have 1000 calories in your hands. It is called conservation of energy. Noether’s theorem states that every symmetry of nature has an associated conservation law. So, every symmetry has a corresponding conservation law. You can’t guess what will be conserved, but you can use the theorem to derive it. In other words, if it looks beautiful to your eyes, if you are seeing symmetry in it, go ahead, use Noether’s theorem, do the math, you will find a physical law under the surface, you will discover a majestic law of conservation that is binding the universe.
In other words, if you see beauty, explore it, and you are guaranteed to find an exquisitely splendid physical law.
Now, let me drill this concept deep into you through a few examples. You did an experiment in Germany, recorded the results. Then you packed up, went to England, did the experiment again, recorded the results. Then you packed up, went to America, did the experiment again, recorded the results. Then you went to Cape Canaveral, took a space shuttle and went to Andromeda galaxy and did the experiment again, recorded the results. Then you packed and went beyond it, go as far as you can. Did the experiment there again, recorded the results. Then you took time to analyze the results of all experiments you did at various places, you found one amazing truth: The experiment yields the same results, whether you do it in America or England or Germany or anywhere in the universe. This is called Translational Symmetry. Now what is conserved in translational symmetry? Apply Noether’s theorem, do the math, you discover the Law of conservation of momentum. What a beautiful concept it is!
Another example: three hundred years ago, Newton did experiment and got some results. Two hundred years ago, Michael Faraday did the same experiment and got some results, hundred years ago, William Thompson did the same experiment and got some results, today do the same experiment, you got some results, then compare the results with the results obtained from the experiments done by Newton, Faraday and Thompson. You found another amazing truth: No matter when the experiment was done, it yielded the same results. This is called Time Translation Symmetry, which states at different times, the laws of physics are the same. Which law of conservation do we learn from this? Apply Noether’s theorem, do the math, you discover the Law of conservation of energy. All across the ages science is yielding us the same results because energy is conserved. Similarly, there is Gauge symmetry in the laws of electromagnetism. Apply Noether’s theorem, you discover the law of conservation of electric charge. This gauge symmetry has yielded magnificent results in Quantum Electrodynamics.
Now let me tell you a very interesting aspect of symmetry. When scientists like Feynman, Schwinger, Tomonaga were developing Quantum Electrodynamics, they already knew that their quantum theory must obey the law of gauge symmetry. As they started to use gauge symmetry, they made amazing predictions like the existence of new particles. They predicted the existence of particles like photons and their properties. Remember the earlier picture, it’s like, from the distance if you see symmetry in a building, you can presuppose the arrangement of the components of the building. Murray Gell-Mann in 1962 predicted the existence of gluon as the carrier of strong force in quantum chromodynamics based on gauge symmetry. The particle was discovered in 1979. Similarly, scientists used gauge symmetry to predict the existence of the carrier of the weak force. Within a few years, W and Z particles were discovered at CERN exactly as predicted. Higg’s boson was predicted in the same lines. Leon Lederman was an American experimental physicist who was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988, and he titled his book on Higg’s boson, ‘The God Particle. If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question?’ Many physicists with atheistic leanings are not happy with that title.
You see, how Noether’s theorem helped unravel the most amazing secrets about the nature. There is beauty in the symmetry and the search for that symmetry leads us to discover the astonishing secrets of the microscopic world.
Albert Einstein loved Noether’s theorem and he used it in his general theory of relativity to understand the deep symmetries of space and time. Emmy Noether lived only two years in the United States. At the age of 53, she was diagnosed with a pelvic tumor, had operation but could not survive the complications of surgery.
Albert Einstein in a tribute to Noether in the New York Times on May 5, 1935, wrote: “In the realm of algebra, in which the most gifted mathematicians have been busy for centuries, she discovered methods which have proved of enormous importance….Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas….In this effort toward logical beauty, spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for deeper penetration into the laws of nature”
Please listen carefully to what Einstein wrote:
Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas….In this effort toward logical beauty, spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for deeper penetration into the laws of nature”
Now atheists insist that poetry of logical ideas we seen in everything around us just came as an accident without the mind of an Intelligent Being.
Mathematics is the poetry of logical ideas. Physicist Eugene Wigner (1902-1995) recognized this miraculous nature of mathematics that he entitled an article he published in 1960, ‘The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences’. French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was one of the most brilliant people ever lived. He once said, ‘The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence’.
Mathematics help us discovering the physical laws of the universe. But remember what Newton said, physical laws have no substance. They exist, but they are immaterial. The physical laws are information, that information is immaterial.
You see the mysterious nature of information. Information is immaterial. You might say, stop. I see the letters on my book. Yes, book has information, but the information is not made up of substance. Let me give you a better illustration than that. You want to download a song from the internet. You download strings of millions of numbers from the internet into the hard drive of your computer. That is true with everything, if you download my sermon, you get a string of numbers 0,1,0,1s. Arranging those two numbers in strings gives you music, movies, documents, e-mails, and pictures. The same is true with genetic information. Four alphabets A, T, G, C. Arrange the strings of genetic information with just those 4 letters, you get human beings, dinosaurs, blue whales, orangutans, bacteria, viruses, protons, prions, rose gardens, sequoia tress, everything living thing in the world. Isn’t it so marvelous that all living things made up of genetic information out of those 4 nucleobases! That genetic information moves from generation to generation. Genetic information is immaterial. The same is true with the information in the physical laws. It is real but immaterial. E=mc2, use it wherever you want in the universe, the law is true, but you don’t find it written anywhere, on any atom. The information in any database in this world, whether it is digital, genetic or physical, it is immaterial. Evolutionists believe that substance precedes information, but the truth is information precedes substance. That is what we observe in the world around us. The immaterial information precedes the material substance. Please remember that fact, that concept undermines evolutionary theory and the Big Bang without a Creator with Intelligent Mind.
Information in Physical Laws needs Explanation
What is universe is standing upon? On the immaterial laws of physics. But, they do not explain their own existence. They do not explain their mathematical characteristics. They do not explain why the world is intelligible to us. They are mere equations and do not explain why a physical world exists at all. They do not explain the fine tuning of the universe that allows for the development of conscious life. In Big Bang theory, they also appear to not exist prior to Planck time (an extremely small fraction of the first second of the initial event of the universe). Hence, they appear to be infinite and consequently contingent and not necessary.
Laws of physics are merely contingent components of the universe; their contingent characteristics do not allow them to serve as the necessary sustaining source of the universe. Laws of physics are real, intelligent, universal. They are virtual but not substantial. Who is both virtual and substantial? Remember what Newton wrote in General Scholium, ‘God is the same God, always and everywhere. He is omnipresent not virtually only, but also substantially; for virtue cannot subsist without substance. In him** are all things contained and moved; yet neither affects the other: God suffers nothing from the motion of bodies; bodies find no resistance from the omnipresence of God. It is allowed by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily; and by the same necessity he exists always and everywhere”
So, what Newton is telling us is this, the physical laws are virtual but not substantial. Their existence can only be explained by God, who is both virtual and substantial. In that way, scientific laws point us to God.
When you look at the laws of physics, and take them to their logical conclusion, you discover that God necessarily exists. Laws of the nature are universal but not substantial, as Newton said, only God is both universal and substantial. When you study the laws of nature and their interrelationship, you conclude, that universe is an amazing place.
Look around: you would see millions of biological organisms, a fly, a human being, a hippopotamus, a blue whale, a mango tree, a cypress garden… seemingly different organisms, but they all have a DNA made up of 4 nucleotides.
Look around all physical things, in fact, all physical and biological things….a book, a water bottle, a computer, a shirt, a bag, a newspaper, an aeroplane, a star, a galaxy…seemingly different entities, but they all are made up of atoms, which are built on 6 subatomic particles.
Look at magnetism and electricity. Common sense is that they are not related. But we can see that magnetic field produces electricity. Then apply symmetry, and see how electricity produces magnetic field. Then, do the math, you will find out that magnetism and electricity are related to each other through amazing set of physical laws. We are living in a universe that has external complexity with internal unity. That internal unity became possible because universe is built upon very precise mathematical laws.
One of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, Hermann Weyl said, ‘God exists, since Mathematics is consistent’. One of the greatest Indian mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887 – 1920) lived a short life. With almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions to the analytical theory of numbers and fractions. “An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God”. James Joule (1818 – 1889) was an English physicist who studied the nature of heat and discovered its relationship to mechanical work. This led to the theory of conservation of energy, which led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. Thus, Joule was the first scientist to show the first law of thermodynamics in action. For Joule, the First law of Thermodynamics is not simply a law about heat, for him, it carried a profound significance about the symmetry and the beauty of nature. He developed a philosophical worldview around the first law of thermodynamics. Please listen to what he says,
“Nothing is destroyed, nothing is everlost but the entire machinery, complicated as it is, works smoothly and harmoniously everything may appear complicated in apparent confusion, intricacy and almost endless variety of causes, effects, conversions, arrangements, yet it is the most perfect regularity perserved, the whole being governed by the sovereign will of God”
For Joule, the first law of thermodynamics is nothing less than a proof of the beneficence of the Creator.
We have Fermi lab in the United States that is landmark particle accelerator which the site for groundbreaking discoveries in particle physics. If you to Chicago, please try to visit that place. Take a close look at the main building. Robert Wilson, its first director, designed that building after St. Pierre’s Cathedral in Beauvais, France. It was not accidental. The message is, our forefathers built grand cathedrals to meditate upon the goodness of God, while in 21st century, as we labor in the particle accelerators and understand the amazing designs inserted by the Creator in subatomic world, let us take a pause and mediate upon wisdom of God who created the universe.
Information preceded the physical matter. In the beginning was the Word. We read in Hebrews chapter 11, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
‘Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the work of Chance. Atheist puts his faith in Chance. In order words, atheism is also a religion and it works on faith.
It takes a great leap of faith to be an atheist than be a Christian
Consider a presupposition stated by former Cornell University astronomer Carl Sagan that the physical universe is all there is, all there was, and all there ever will be. Sagan’s statement is a leap of faith, because he did not know with any certainty that his statement was true.
I agree God talk is metaphysical supernaturalism. But recognize one thing. Atheist talk is metaphysical naturalism, a religion of its own. Don’t call it science.
Does Science Disprove God? No. In fact, it points us to a Creator who designed this universe with intelligence and understandability.
Pascal said, ‘There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus’.
The Creator God who built this universe came to this world in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless, perfect and holy life and died on the cross of Calvary to give you and me the eternal life. Come to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is our hope and salvation.
Paul Kattupalli MD