God and the Cosmos

Does such a universe as ours require a master Creator? Astronomer Hugh Ross explains that there have been many nay-sayers:

• In the days before the telescopes, when an observer could count a few thousand stars in the night sky, many considered the universe too small and unimpressive to be the work of an almighty, all-knowing Creator.

However, now with our monster telescopes and the knowledge of fifty billion trillion stars alone, the atheists now complain that a Creator God would never have been so wasteful. Victor Stegner writes,

• If God created the universe as a special place for humanity, he seems to have wasted an awfully large amount of space. (God: The Failed Hypothesis)

Stephen Hawking agrees about the wastefulness:

• Our solar system certainly is a prerequisite for our existence…But there does not seem to be any need for all these other galaxies. (A Brief History of Time)

Consequently, if the universe is small, there can’t be a God. If it’s huge, there can’t be a God. Heads I win; tails you loose! In opposition to the “wastefulness” hypothesis, Ross argues that every last spoonful of matter is vital to the life-supporting nature of our universe:

• The mass of the universe must be fine-tuned to produce the just-right abundance and diversity of elements essential for life…the mass density must be precisely fixed to allow for the just-right rates of expansion throughout cosmic history so that the just-right kinds of stars and planets will form at the just-right times and in the just-right locations for life. The combination of these astronomical improbabilities clearly defies any explanation other than transcendent intentionality. (Salvo Magazine, Issue 20, 48)

Ross’ conclusions depend upon the acceptance of Big-Bang cosmology, accepted by perhaps 98% of astronomers. If these conclusions are so certain, then there shouldn’t be atheists but just a God. They inescapably reflect “transcendent intentionality”- intelligent design. These conclusions require that a Super-intelligence both created and now maintains this glorious universe.

If this is the case, then nothing has changed for three thousand years since the Psalmist proclaimed:

• The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psalm 19:1)

The heavens still make the same declaration, but now with statistics and formulae. Ross understandably concludes:

• This degree of cosmic fine-tuning also declares the worth of human beings. It tells us that the Creator of the universe considered humans to be of such value that he willingly and meticulously crafted a universe of fifty billion trillion stars, and a hundred times more mass besides, just to produce an appropriate planet to be their home.

Do you feel loved? I do!