Part Three - Has science disproven God? A Brief History of Modern Science: Design

The Fine-Tuning

Expanding on the idea of the cause of the universe being supremely powerful and supremely intelligent (described in Part 2), I could point to the fact that physicists over the last 50 years have acknowledged that there are features of the universe that are fine-tuned for permitting life.  If the values of these features were modified, life could not exist. For example, if the force of gravity were stronger, the Big Bang would not have expanded out as it has, but if it were weaker, stars and galaxies would not have formed. Furthermore, the Earth happens to be situated in what has been called “the Goldilocks Zone” (or habitable zone), because several features are “just right” for life. An important example of this is the abundance of liquid water, which is fundamental for all life on Earth. Further out in the solar system, the lower temperatures would result in more solid water, while further in, the higher temperatures would produce more water in a gaseous state. It is these and other features that have led scientists to ask why the universe is fine-tuned for life.

Again, the Christian is in the advantageous position of already believing in an intelligent Designer, who created the universe to be full of life. As Isaiah 45:18 puts it,

“For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
    (he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
    (he established it;
he did not create it empty,
    he formed it to be inhabited!):
‘I am the Lord, and there is no other.’”

For those who don’t believe in a cosmic Designer, the most common atheistic explanation for the fine-tuning is to propose the existence of what has been called the multiverse. According to this theory, the precise values of the features of our own universe can be explained by the fact that there are innumerable other universes with different values and laws of nature. After all, if there were a vast number of universes, surely one of them would have the features necessary to support life, right? Well, one of the problems with the multiverse is that it is unobservable. In theory, there could be a countless multitude of other universes, but there could also be only one besides our own, or even no others. There could also be other universes, but with the exact same features and laws of nature instead of different ones. Since there is no independent evidence for the multiverse, it seems as if it is just an attempt to explain away the need for a cosmic Designer. Even this attempt backfires, however, because if one universe requires explanation, surely a multiplicity of universes would require explanation. So, instead of the multiverse solving the problem for atheists, it actually multiplies it. In fact, the supremely powerful and supremely intelligent cause of this universe would also fit well as the Creator of the multiverse. Ironically, the theory that is an attempt to explain away God is not actually inconsistent with His existence.

Evolution

Speaking of theories that are not actually inconsistent with God’s existence, the aforementioned evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin and his successors certainly set out to explain away design, but how successful has that attempt been? Well, it is worth noting that a large amount of design is already evident before the first life, and thus evolution, could even have started.  There are the two lines of evidence already mentioned (the Big Bang and the Fine-Tuning), which point to the existence of a Designer. Even more than that, though, the beginning of life from non-living material was not something Darwin explained, and his successors have not done any better. Contained in the cells of all organisms is something called DNA, which is billions and billions of lines of code that give instructions on the building blocks of life. From the simplest life to the most complex, all living things have this code, but there is nothing remotely like it in the non-living world.

Even after life gets going, however, the difficulties remain for Darwinism. The incompleteness of current evolutionary theory is evident in the fact that scientists are exploring other mechanisms besides natural selection and genetic mutation to explain life as we know it. After all, if the theory explained everything, what need would there be to seek other mechanisms for understanding the diversity of life? Furthermore, in the absence of God, evolutionary theory carries with it some generally unwanted implications. Darwin himself wondered whether the convictions of the human mind, which according to his theory would have developed from lower animals, could be trustworthy. To take that notion a little further, if it is true that we are just biological machines, what does it even mean to say that we have minds, or consciousness, or free will? For the atheist, these immaterial concepts must either arise from material processes, whatever that would look like, or be considered illusions, though everyone’s personal experience would be against that. It is these and other difficulties that have led some scientists to return to the idea of a cosmic Designer, not merely on theological grounds, but on scientific grounds. One such book that documents this is Four Views On Creation, Evolution, And Intelligent Design, which presents the perspectives of four different Christian contributors on why the universe is the way it is and includes responses to the other contributors. What may surprise some Christians, and maybe even some atheists, is that one of the contributors argues for God having initiated evolution. As the Four Views book demonstrates, Christians do disagree on this issue, but it is certainly not the case that evolution and God are logically incompatible. So, even if evolutionary theory is correct, it does not by definition rule out God’s existence, even though it is often presented that way.

Far from science having disproven God, I believe the existence of God is fundamental for a correct understanding of science. Modern science arose within an environment of belief in God and it was foundational for their scientific exploration. Modern theories such as the Big Bang and the Fine-Tuning make a lot more sense given the existence of God than in His absence, and even evolutionary theory can be understood as God-initiated, if a person considers it to be the best explanation scientifically. Science and faith are not enemies, but rather, life-long friends whose relationship is too often misunderstood.