Tom Magnuson - My Worldview
Who is the Designer ??
Let's Just Suppose...
for the sake of discussion, that you are
convinced of the compelling evidence for Intelligent Design of the universe and life.
This Intelligent Designer could either be the "Susan Smith" Being, or a personal, interested, caring God.
Remember Susan Smith. She is the mother who told police that her two children were missing. Not long after, it was discovered that her children had been drowned in a lake in her car. Shortly thereafter, the evidence for the crime pointed directly at Susan Smith. She had killed her children because they were in the way of the relationship between herself and her boyfriend.
A God who created the universe, life, and mankind, and disappeared back into His transcendent existence, not giving a rip for what He created, would be like a Susan Smith. He would be abandoning us in our pitiful state. While this kind of God is certainly possible, given the normal character of the beings He created (loving and nuturing), this kind of God is certainly not plausible.
From my years of studying the intricacy and precision of the design of the universe and of living creatures, it is not a stretch to conclude that this Being must be personal, caring, and interested in us.
All Religions are Basically the Same. . . Right ?Considering all the world's major Faiths: Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Marxism, New Age Movement, Secularism, Shinto, and Taoism; only three have a personal Being that would qualify to be the caring Intelligent Designer of the universe: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. For a beginning point in studying some of the world's major Faiths, click HERE .
Two of those Faiths have a highly accurate description of the beginning of the universe and chronology of events on earth: Christianity and Judaism. They share the Old Testament writings.
I have come to the conclusion that there is very strong evidence that this universe was created by an Intelligent Designer, and that Designer has revealed Himself through the Jewish and Christian Holy Books. Let's dig in a little further.
No doubt you know of the book of Genesis, and may even be familiar with the 1st and 2nd chapters and their description of the beginning of things. Perhaps like no other portion of the Jewish and Christian Holy Book, this passage has been ridiculed by agnostics, atheists, and members of other world Faiths. The reasons are varied, but the basic problem, as I see it, is a misinterpretation of the text. If you sit down and do a careful study of what is said, you may be surprised that Genesis 1 and 2 not only implies the "Big Bang" (Creation Event), but also gets the details, in the correct order, of Progressive Creation on earth.
Let me be clear, I am NOT a believer in what is known in the culture today as Creationism (a young, 10,000 year old universe, with no Big Bang, that was created in six, 24-hour days).
Regarding earth, Genesis gives a picture of the Creator preparing, shaping, and creating progressively over, what seems like, a long period of time.
I Did It My Way...
Although God COULD have, apparently He did NOT create everything in situ at once, in a moment of time. The book of Genesis speaks of a progression of creation. From the scientific evidence, apparently this process took a very long period of time. I am a Progressive Creationist, believing that a personal God "took His time" in crafting our universe and Earth. In a nutshell, the following is Progressive Creationism:
God is a transcendent Being, outside this universe in an incomprehensible existence. He created this universe, not because He needed to create it, but because He wanted to create it. Genesis describes, in summary, the crafting of the universe for man's benefit. God spoke our universe into existence (verses 1-2). There was a beginning. Science claims, and I believe, the universe started as an unimaginable singularity, what could easily be called "nothing", and expanded outward in an unfathomable burst of energy. God introduced the "just right" initial conditions so that the universe would develop into a place where life would be possible. Space "unraveled" as the universe expanded, and with the relaxation of space curvature, energy occurred, and, as the universe cooled from near infinite temperature, matter inevitably condensed out from the energy. The universe continued to expand and cool. Galaxies and stars formed. About 10 billion years after the universe leaped in existence, from something "outside" our existence, our solar system was born. Earth was crafted by God to be able to sustain the advanced life He would create upon it. The first chapter of Genesis describes this Progressive Creation (progressive supernatural intervention) by God.
On the other hand, our Moon
is the same distance from the Sun as Earth, and yet, because it is smaller, it cannot even hold an appreciable atmosphere. Something miraculous had to occur to transform our thick, opaque atmosphere to a very thin, transparent atmosphere, suitable for advanced life.
He slowly and carefully crafted this universe and this earth, to allow mankind to exist and develop over the course of a few tens of thousands of years.
How can we be sure it was an Intelligent Designer that did all this?
One astrophysicist who has devoted years of study to the subject of "Origins" is Dr. Hugh Ross. Of all the creation "stories" of mankind, he concludes that the Genesis account is the only one that comes even close to describing what science has discovered. He has written many books on the subject of "Origins" which are available through his organization's web site, Reasons to Believe.
Dr. Ross has put together a brief summary of his years of research. Click HERE for more information. The one-to-one fit (as outlined above) of the scientific evidence and Genesis is remarkable. Of course, many others scientists have arrived at the same conclusion, but their organizations are not as focused on this issue, or as well known as Dr. Ross's.
The Young and the
RestlessOld...Here are a few of the salient facts. Again, Genesis does NOT make the claim that the universe and earth are only a few thousand years old, as young universe creationists say. The old universe - young universe discussion is an in-house debate amongst Christians. One of the chief problems the young earth creationists have with billions of years of life is that they believe there could be no physical death before the "Fall of Man". In the book of Romans, it says that,
"sin entered the world through one man, and DEATH through sin, and in this way DEATH came to all men, because all sinned" (5:12)
Progressive Creationists believe this passage refers to spiritual death (separation from God), or, perhaps the physical death every man. When God was progressively creating, He often said, "it was GOOD", or "it was VERY GOOD." In a sense, the creation before man was "Perfect", because everything was perfectly thought out, in proper relationship with each other, and created to accomplish God's purpose in this present universe, the conquest of evil. Struggle and physical death of plants and animals, a part of that Plan, existed before the "Fall of Man".
The physical death of animals and plants was, and is, a necessary part of a universe that operates under the second law of thermodynamics. Even if you believed in a universe created in six days, at a minimum, some plants would have to die to sustain the animals. An elephant probably stepped on an ant. The idea that physical death did not exist before man is untenable.
A great success of evolutionists is framing the debate as one between the facts of science and subjective beliefs (the faith, or myth of religion). They point to many of the arguments of young universe creationists based on faulty research, and resulting faulty conclusions. I would have to agree with the evolutionists here.
For a look at some of the evidence brought forth for a young universe and arguments against that "evidence", go the Reasons to Believe web site by clicking HERE, OR go HERE OR go HERE. A study of the biblical text shows the allowance for billions of years of history, which harmonizes with the scientifically discovered ancient Creation Event (Big Bang, if you will). The description of the creation and preparation of earth for life, and eventually human beings, is in agreement with
the scientific evidence. Recent discoveries in the fields of fossil evidence and genetics point to the Genesis scenario, rather than Darwinism. Again, I would strongly encourage you to take some time to listen to the "New, Testable Creation Model", and look through several of my favorite web sites.
He Knew it All Along...
The Bible is certainly not a scientific textbook, but when it does speak on the universe and earth, it does so with uncanny accuracy. In the Book of Job, 26:7,
"over empty SPACE, he suspends the earth over nothing." In Isaiah 40:22,
"He sits enthroned above the CIRCLE of the earth."
These are descriptions given thousands of years ago of a round earth surrounded by space. Incidentally, this is one of the tests to see if a writing is inspired by God: correct knowledge of nature that was not known at that time in history.
Today, there is nearly irrefutable evidence for a Creation Event in the remote past. The term of derision given it by
Sir Frederick Hoyle is the "Big Bang".
The following are several little known quotes from atheistic and agnostic scientists regarding the "Big Bang", or Creation Event:Sir Frederick Hoyle said,
"The big bang theory requires a recent origin of the universe that openly invites the concept of creation."
Sir Arthur Eddington, an atheist, said,
"Religion first became possible for a
reasonable man of science in the year 1927."
(when it was widely accepted that Einstein's theory of general relativity showed the universe had a beginning)What he was implying was that a beginning of the universe and time matches what the Christian Bible laid out in Genesis.
Robert Jastrow, an agnostic, said,
"The essential element in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis is the same: the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply, at a finite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy...the Hubble Law (describes the expansion of the universe) is one of the great discoveries in science: it is one of the main supports of the scientific story of Genesis."
George Smoot, astrophysicist, said,
"The question of 'the beginning' is as inescapable for cosmologists as it is for theologians...there is no doubt that a parallel exists between the big bang as an event and the Christian notion of creation from nothing."
Arno Penzias
(head of AT&T Bell Laboratories) and Robert Wilson won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978 for their discovery of the cosmic background radiation of the "Big Bang". Here's what they have to say about the Creation Event:Arno Penzias said,
"The easiest way to fit the observations with the least number of parameters was one in which the universe was created out of nothing, in an instant, and continues to expand."
Sounds suspiciously like Genesis.
Robert Wilson said,
"Certainly, if you are religious, I can't think of a better theory of the origin of the universe to match with Genesis."
The most recent evidence speaks of a universe of 10 space-time dimensions (only 4 being manifest large enough for us to see) springing out of nothing (ex nihilo), exactly as Genesis describes, several billion years ago. The universe's space-time continuum is rapidly expanding into "something" that we cannot even imagine beyond our universe.
Time as we know it began at the Creation Event. It's interesting to note that the rest of the world's Faiths speak of the past eternity of the universe, or reality as an illusion; the Christian Faith speaks of a definite beginning of our space-time universe.
Genesis begins by summarizing the Creation Event and subsequent forming of the universe by saying,
"In the BEGINNING God created the heavens and the earth." The rest of chapter one fills in the details concerning planet Earth.
St. John's gospel begins with the words,
"In the BEGINNING was the WORD (the Wisdom or Intelligence which spoke the universe into existence). The WORD was with God, and the WORD was God."
Is This a Stretch ???...There are several references in the Jewish and Christian Holy Books to the spreading, or stretching out of the heavens. Would it be "stretching it" to say the following could be referring to the Creation Event (Big Bang) ?? NO...the Hebrew word "raquia" expresses "motion of different parts of the same thing, at the same time, one part the one way, and the other the other way, with force." The Hebrew noun "raquia" has been defined as "expanse" or "an expanse", and the verb "raqa" has been defined as "to spread out or over", or "to pound", or "to expand".
My right hand spread out the heavens (This speaks on the transcendence of God. He was "outside" of this universe when He spoke it into being. The awesome amount of pure energy that became our present universe, some of which has "gelled" into matter, was originally "outside" of the universe and invisible to us).
- Isaiah 48:13He alone stretches out the heavens
- Job 9:8He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in
- Isaiah 40:22He spreads out the northern skies
- Job 26:7He stretched out the heavens by His understanding
- Jeremiah 51:15He who created the heavens and stretched them out
- Isaiah 42:5I am the Lord, who has made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens
- Isaiah 44:24My own hands stretched out the heavens
- Isaiah 45:12The LORD, who stretched out the heavens, who laid the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man
- Zechariah 12:1By 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
A fine, engaging book on the subject of an Intelligent Designer and the universe is
"Show Me God" by Fred Heeren.
I cannot praise this book enough!! For more information on the book on the Daystar web site,
click HERE.
One of the Big Ones...
The inevitable question that gets asked by nearly everyone, from the youngest child to the most brilliant professor IS:
OK, God made the universe, but
WHO made God ??I do NOT have a big problem with saying, "I don't know." For, you see, any Being that transcends this space-time universe will necessarily be incomprehensible, but NOT unknowable (if He chooses to reveal Himself). In our present "cause and effect" universe, every effect has always had a cause. But, in order to beat the problem of infinite regress, there ultimately must be an eternal agent, and uncaused causer.
It is a known fact the man cannot fully understand reality that exists in dimensions of space and time that he cannot personally experience. While we can mathematically describe many multiple dimensions of space, we cannot comprehend what a fourth dimension of space would personally mean for us. Likewise, we cannot comprehend a full dimension of time, because our universe really only operates on a half dimension of time; only forward moving.
The Creator, outside of this universe (yet able to enter into it at will), likely operates in incomprehensible dimensions of both space and time, or "something" completely different. How could even the most brilliant human mind, even begin to understand that?
Just because our puny brains cannot comprehend something, doesn't mean it isn't so. The Christian Holy Book sums this up very succinctly when it says,
"Now we see...a poor reflection as in a mirror
of ultimate reality; a fogged-up mirror (3 1/2 space-time dimensions),
then
(after we die)
we shall see face to face. Now I know in part;
then(in the next reality, after my personal death)
I shall know fully, even as I am fully known
(by God)"
- I Corinthians 13:12.The above is THE description of the human condition in a limiting universe. God is incomprehensible, but partially knowable, because He chose to reveal Himself to mankind. We owe Him our very existence. He is interested in us. He knows the "human condition" in which we exist. And He has done something about our condition and our relationship with Him. Before we get to the special revelation, in the next section we'll explore some "problems" that cause doubts or cause people to not believe in a Personal Designer.
Click HERE to go to the next section.
