“The [Very] Most Astonishing Fact!”

“Lift up your eyes on high and see; who created these?” (Isaiah 40:26)

Dr. Tyson, you did not go far enough in your video.  More specifically you did not go far enough back in time to the very beginning of all things.  Everything you did say in your justifiably famous video, “The Most Astonishing Fact,” is factually true.  It is universally recognized by the scientific community that virtually the entire history of the cosmos can be measured and viewed with scientific instruments.  These observations reveal that 1) the billions of galaxy clusters are flying away from one another, 2) that this expansion immediately began to slow down, 3) that galaxies are farther apart now than they were in the past, 4) and that the universe is cooling down.  5) We are even able to observe the afterglow, called “cosmic background radiation,” from the initial blast of the Big Bang.   

Dr. Tyson, you are also correct in stating that there were fewer elements (those pure substances found in the periodic table) back in the past than there are today.  This fact can be documented by comparing the light spectrums from galaxies at varying distances which give tell-tale signs of the elements they each contain.  Galaxies of different ages contain different elements (the most distant and therefore the oldest having the fewest).  It is also true that every naturally occurring element was manufactured by means of thermo-nuclear reactions inside of galaxies, supernovas, etc.  And it is also true that we human beings are made of “star dust,” to use Carl Sagan’s term.  We are of course much more than that.  “The LORD God [who] formed Adam from the dust of the ground” also “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7).  Sadly, however, the uncovering of the bare truth that we are formed from star dust is where your sense of wonder, Dr. Tyson, has apparently ended.  I reply that this is where the sense of wonder ought actually to begin!  There are at least two miracles behind the origin of this so-called “stardust” that we all live with today.

The lesser of the two additional miracles is that we have the array of elements that we actually do.  Every material thing we experience is composed of atoms.  Put as simply as possible for our purposes, atoms are composed of positively charged protons within the nucleus (center) of the atom.  The nucleus also has neutrons which (obviously) have no charge at all.  And thirdly, the atom has an equal number of negatively charged electrons “orbiting” the nucleus.  Now positive-charged particles do NOT stick together.  Quite the opposite, they strongly repel each other.  This means that it is impossible for more than one proton to exist inside the nucleus EXCEPT for the existence of the strong nuclear force.  This force overcomes the naturally repulsive force of positive-on-positive so as to allow the entire range of atoms all the way to Uranium, and even beyond.  This “strong nuclear force” must be very precise.  It must be strong enough to hold, for example 56 protons together within the nucleus of a Lead atom, while also allowing Hydrogen (which has but 1 proton) to exist too.  If this force were any weaker only Hydrogen would exist; any stronger, only the very heavy elements would exist.  Surely there is an intelligent Designer who so fashioned the atom that life as we know it is possible.  As Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.”

The very most amazing fact, however, is existence at all.  Not merely existence as we know it.  But existence period!  Material existence (all of space, time, matter, and energy) has not always existed.  The discovery of the host of scientific facts supporting the Big Bang, in the first half of the 20^th Century, overthrew the previously-held belief of the scientific community that the cosmos had always existed.  We now understand, as the entire array of relevant scientific evidence affirms, that the entire cosmos came into existence out of nothing.  Science cannot address this question, even in principle.  The beginning of the universe can only be explained as an intentional act of the God of the Bible, which itself begins with the declaration, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).