The very existence of anything at all (which is everything
there is!) is a sheer miracle that lies outside the possibility of scientific
explanation. I encourage your review of
my previous blog posted November 15, 2012, where the scientific case for a transcendent Creator of the universe is
laid out (“transcendent” means to stand outside
of any arrangement that is under consideration). For fuller treatment of this theme I recommend
to you that book which has most influenced me, The Creator and the Cosmos
by astronomer Hugh Ross (NavPress, 2001).
Dr. Ross also founded the think tank, Reasons to Believe, which harmonizes mainstream scientific
discovery with the inerrant Word of God, the Holy Bible. Their website is found at www.reasons.org.
Yet the mystery of our cosmos does not stop at that
beginning, but continues from its unfolding all the way into the present. Many people imagine that the Big Bang was a
chaotic explosion whose results were much like the destructive effects of a
nuclear bomb. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. Consider today the single
matter of “cosmic background radiation” (see my posting cited above). One of the characteristics of this radiation
from the glow of the initial blast is (was) that it is absolutely smooth…well,
almost. Its smoothness stands as one of
many facts which point inescapably to the absolute beginning of the universe by
an extremely hot Big Bang. But at the
same time, it is such a smooth glow
that, when it was first discovered, the scientific community thought this
characteristic stood against any notion that the Big Bang had potential to
produce substances like galaxies with stars.
Only after further refinement of their instruments did they begin to
detect the existence of extremely tiny ripples which are now understood to be
the stuff (matter) that forms the beautiful points of light we see on a starry
night. Indeed, it is the same stuff that
forms our own planet on which we firmly plant our feet with eyes fixed upward.
Please bear with me for a moment. Have you wondered why the two words
“cosmology” and “cosmetology” are so similar?
It is because they both come from the same Greek word, cosmos, which
means, “orderly arrangement.” The
outcome people expect to receive when going to their hair stylist is similar to
what the ancients perceived when they looked up into the heavens; that some Intelligence
is responsible for making it beautiful.
In the next few postings I will frequently refer to the word
“contingent.” The word means that
something is not logically or empirically required (“It doesn’t have to be exactly this way”). In the context of our cosmos, it is
universally recognized that it was not required that our cosmos have the exact
properties that it actually does. On
countless levels our cosmos could have been far different than it actually was
when it began. One of those factors that
could have been different (and only slightly so would have made all the
difference) is the characteristics of today’s central theme, “cosmic background
radiation.” In order for anyone to be
present at all (that is, exist), the characteristics of the initial cosmic
radiation had to be well-nigh exactly as they actually are. Had the ripples been either greater or
smaller than 1 in 10 to the 60th power, that is, one in ten followed
by 60 zeros,[1]
there would be no galaxies, no stars, no planets, and no “us” to discuss the
matter.
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