Does Science Point to God?
For most of my young life, I treated God like a genie. Even into my adult years, God seemed far off and unconcerned with my everyday life. Eventually, enough pain and bad circumstances led me to start questioning if He was even real.
A recent study done by the Barna Group revealed that “almost half [of Americans] (49%) are not fully confident that God truly exists.”4 I get it. I’ve always wrestled with God’s existence. Is Jesus a myth, fairy tale, or crutch for those who aren’t as smart or reasonable as others? And hasn’t science proven God doesn’t exist? When I was a youth pastor, those were the questions I was asking and my students were asking. It didn’t help that I was taught to believe that faith is blind and that science and faith are not compatible.
Although I used to think God was a myth, a fairy tale, for “dumb people,” or something science had disproven, I now believe there’s more evidence proving God’s existence than there is disproving it. I’m also convinced it takes more faith to not believe in God than it does to believe in Him.
Often, we believe something somebody told us without really considering the truth for ourselves. Doubt is normal. I still doubt to this day. But just because we have questions that cause skepticism, doesn’t mean our doubt is true. When I discovered the overwhelming evidence for God’s existence, it gave me a foundation that I could always lean on in the midst of my uncertainty.
Einstein Was Irritated
Einstein was “irritated” when he discovered that general relativity, his theory, proved the universe had a beginning.5 General relativity basically states that there has to be a beginning to the universe. Einstein’s theory was validated by Edwin Hubble when Hubble, looking through his telescope, revealed that the universe is expanding from a single point in the past.
That means there’s an origin to the universe. There’s a single point where it all started. Scientists before Einstein believed the universe was simply eternal. But now, virtually every scientist agrees that the universe had a starting point.
This is a game changer. It means something or someone must have created the universe, because something cannot be created from nothing. It needs a cause.
The second law of thermodynamics confirms the universe had a beginning because it states that the universe is running out of energy. For example, I used to always forget to turn off my Game Boy. It ran on batteries, and if I left it on, it would eventually die. One night I was playing it before bed and left it on all night. In the morning, it was dead. Why? Because the batteries had used up their energy.
The universe is like a Game Boy that is dying. It has only so much usable energy left until it dies. Since the universe still has some battery life left, it can’t be eternal (the universe isn’t dead yet). It must have had a beginning, for if it were eternal, the battery (usable energy) would have already died.6 This is why virtually every scientist believes the universe had a beginning.7
But science can only get us so far. Many scientists explain the creation of the universe by the big bang theory. And it doesn’t really explain how the universe was created; it’s simply a scientific label saying the universe had a beginning. Even the big bang, when first revealed to the scientific community, was rejected because it seemed to point to the idea that a supernatural being created everything. I definitely think when God said, “Let there be light,” there was probably a “big bang” at the beginning. But the question is this: Is there a who—and if not, what caused the universe to exist?
Back to Edwin Hubble for a moment. His telescope’s discovery not only confirms the universe had a starting point but also provides evidence that God was the One who created the universe. Here’s how: If the universe had a starting point in history, then obviously it began to exist (meaning it’s not eternal). If it began to exist, then it must have had a cause for its existence. Things don’t just begin to exist without a cause. Put simply, nothing cannot create something.
Science itself operates on the principle that all events need a cause. This is called the law of causality. Without the law of causality, science is really impossible. Scientists essentially do one thing—they attempt to discover what caused what. So, based on the law of causality, the second law of thermodynamics, and general relativity, you either believe that God created the universe or, as some atheists do, you ignore those laws and say the universe was created out of nothing.
Since the universe cannot cause itself, the logical conclusion is that the cause is beyond our space-time universe. The cause of the universe must be powerful, uncaused, spaceless, timeless, and immaterial. Which is the Bible’s definition of God.
Some of the top scientific atheists and philosophers in the world, when asked about the origin of the universe, say it happened by “magic” or “luck,” or use theories based on “imaginary time.”8 Stephen Hawking attempted to explain the beginning of the universe with the theory of imaginary time, but later admitted that his theory is “just a [metaphysical] proposal” that cannot explain what happened in real time. “In real time,” he conceded, “the universe has a beginning.”9
So, which is more reasonable—belief in a creator God or belief in magic, luck, or imaginary time?
This is why Dr. Frank Turek thinks it takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a Christian (and I agree). Science cannot prove that God doesn’t exist. It’s an act of faith to be confident that God doesn’t exist. One option to not believing in God is to choose to believe in magic, luck, or imaginary time, which takes more faith than believing in what science and reason point to—a Creator. Ultimately, to not believe in God is to reject science and reason.
Then why aren’t all scientists believers? It’s not because of the facts; it’s because of the will. Everyone believes in something, and when that belief is challenged—even by science and facts—we will do everything we can to disprove or talk our way around it.There are plenty of smart people who can articulate a belief, but it doesn’t mean they’re right.
There’s plenty of evidence and science revealing that the earth is round, but you’d be surprised at how many people believe the earth is flat. Even more terrifying is that there are people who deny that the Holocaust happened.
So what if God—an uncaused, eternal, timeless, spaceless, immaterial, personal Being—created the universe? Since God is all of these things, the law of causality does not apply to Him. As Frank Turek says, “The Law of Causality does not say that everything needs a cause. It says that everything that comes to be needs a cause. God did not come to be. No one made God. He is unmade. As an eternal being, God did not have a beginning, so he didn’t need a cause.”10
Put simply, everything that is created has a cause, but since God is not a created being, He doesn’t need a cause.
What’s more, there’s a second piece of evidence that gives even greater clarity and evidence for the existence of God.
Coincidence or Fine Tuning?
Try throwing all the parts of an iPhone down a hill and see if they form exactly the way you want them to on only one try. Odds are, they won’t. When you come upon an iPhone or any phone, it is reasonable to think that somebody made it with the intention of making a phone. It didn’t just happen by luck or magic. It actually takes over four hundred specific steps to assemble an iPhone.11
In the same way, when we look at the universe, with all of its fine-tuned properties that “happened” to perfectly align for the creation of life, it’s reasonable to assume that some Being (God) created the universe for the purpose of fostering life.
Chance or designer. Those are really our only two options. When I would come home from elementary school, and my bed was made, clothes were folded, and a snack and juice were on the table ready for me, the reasonable conclusion was my mother did all that. I knew that those things didn’t just happen by chance. When we look at how finely tuned our planet is for life, we can either believe it happened by chance or that there was an intelligent designer behind it all.
There are over 122 fine details or constants that make life on Earth possible and provide some of the strongest arguments for God’s existence. Geisler and Turek, the authors of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, list some of these as examples12:
Is this merely a coincidence, or does this point to some common sense—there was a divine designer behind all of what we know as the earth and universe? This is why scientists of all kinds say there is zero chance that another planet could have the same life-giving conditions we have unless there was an intelligent designer behind it.14
I haven’t even scratched the surface on the evidence for God’s existence. There are books upon books from leadings scientists and philosophers who believe in God about how the eye, math, and your mind point to the existence of God. This is why some of the leading thinkers of history and of today believe in God. If we were to put God on trial, the evidence would be clear: He’s real.
For example, did you know that your DNA is like a code or a long word that contains over 3 billion characters? Your DNA is a message that has information in it that makes you survive. It is ordered specifically in order to serve a purpose. Do you think that merely happened by accident? That would be like ten thousand books coming into existence because of an explosion at a printing shop. A message requires a messenger. And our DNA points to a designer—God.
Faith is obviously still important for believers, but faith is not blind or dumb. It still takes faith to believe in God, but our faith is not rooted in a fairy tale, but evidence. It’s perfectly normal to be faithless. God predicted you would be at times. But He promises that even when you are faithless, He remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). God is faithful to constantly point you to truth.
I struggle with insecurity. And one of the things I doubt is whether or not my wife really loves me or if she just settled with me. Sometimes I even wonder if she wants to be married to me. It’s not because of something she does. Grace is amazing at constantly reminding me and showing me her relentless love and care for me. But one thing that helps me when I get those thoughts is the wedding ring on my finger. It reminds me of the promise she made to me. The scientific truth of God’s existence is a lot like my wedding ring.
That is faith. Walking by faith means walking by facts, not feelings. It means we set our minds on the truth and the evidence about God and what He says about us, not on what we feel moment to moment.
A recent study done by the Barna Group revealed that “almost half [of Americans] (49%) are not fully confident that God truly exists.”4 I get it. I’ve always wrestled with God’s existence. Is Jesus a myth, fairy tale, or crutch for those who aren’t as smart or reasonable as others? And hasn’t science proven God doesn’t exist? When I was a youth pastor, those were the questions I was asking and my students were asking. It didn’t help that I was taught to believe that faith is blind and that science and faith are not compatible.
Although I used to think God was a myth, a fairy tale, for “dumb people,” or something science had disproven, I now believe there’s more evidence proving God’s existence than there is disproving it. I’m also convinced it takes more faith to not believe in God than it does to believe in Him.
Often, we believe something somebody told us without really considering the truth for ourselves. Doubt is normal. I still doubt to this day. But just because we have questions that cause skepticism, doesn’t mean our doubt is true. When I discovered the overwhelming evidence for God’s existence, it gave me a foundation that I could always lean on in the midst of my uncertainty.
Einstein Was Irritated
Einstein was “irritated” when he discovered that general relativity, his theory, proved the universe had a beginning.5 General relativity basically states that there has to be a beginning to the universe. Einstein’s theory was validated by Edwin Hubble when Hubble, looking through his telescope, revealed that the universe is expanding from a single point in the past.
That means there’s an origin to the universe. There’s a single point where it all started. Scientists before Einstein believed the universe was simply eternal. But now, virtually every scientist agrees that the universe had a starting point.
This is a game changer. It means something or someone must have created the universe, because something cannot be created from nothing. It needs a cause.
The second law of thermodynamics confirms the universe had a beginning because it states that the universe is running out of energy. For example, I used to always forget to turn off my Game Boy. It ran on batteries, and if I left it on, it would eventually die. One night I was playing it before bed and left it on all night. In the morning, it was dead. Why? Because the batteries had used up their energy.
The universe is like a Game Boy that is dying. It has only so much usable energy left until it dies. Since the universe still has some battery life left, it can’t be eternal (the universe isn’t dead yet). It must have had a beginning, for if it were eternal, the battery (usable energy) would have already died.6 This is why virtually every scientist believes the universe had a beginning.7
But science can only get us so far. Many scientists explain the creation of the universe by the big bang theory. And it doesn’t really explain how the universe was created; it’s simply a scientific label saying the universe had a beginning. Even the big bang, when first revealed to the scientific community, was rejected because it seemed to point to the idea that a supernatural being created everything. I definitely think when God said, “Let there be light,” there was probably a “big bang” at the beginning. But the question is this: Is there a who—and if not, what caused the universe to exist?
Back to Edwin Hubble for a moment. His telescope’s discovery not only confirms the universe had a starting point but also provides evidence that God was the One who created the universe. Here’s how: If the universe had a starting point in history, then obviously it began to exist (meaning it’s not eternal). If it began to exist, then it must have had a cause for its existence. Things don’t just begin to exist without a cause. Put simply, nothing cannot create something.
Science itself operates on the principle that all events need a cause. This is called the law of causality. Without the law of causality, science is really impossible. Scientists essentially do one thing—they attempt to discover what caused what. So, based on the law of causality, the second law of thermodynamics, and general relativity, you either believe that God created the universe or, as some atheists do, you ignore those laws and say the universe was created out of nothing.
Since the universe cannot cause itself, the logical conclusion is that the cause is beyond our space-time universe. The cause of the universe must be powerful, uncaused, spaceless, timeless, and immaterial. Which is the Bible’s definition of God.
Some of the top scientific atheists and philosophers in the world, when asked about the origin of the universe, say it happened by “magic” or “luck,” or use theories based on “imaginary time.”8 Stephen Hawking attempted to explain the beginning of the universe with the theory of imaginary time, but later admitted that his theory is “just a [metaphysical] proposal” that cannot explain what happened in real time. “In real time,” he conceded, “the universe has a beginning.”9
So, which is more reasonable—belief in a creator God or belief in magic, luck, or imaginary time?
This is why Dr. Frank Turek thinks it takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a Christian (and I agree). Science cannot prove that God doesn’t exist. It’s an act of faith to be confident that God doesn’t exist. One option to not believing in God is to choose to believe in magic, luck, or imaginary time, which takes more faith than believing in what science and reason point to—a Creator. Ultimately, to not believe in God is to reject science and reason.
Then why aren’t all scientists believers? It’s not because of the facts; it’s because of the will. Everyone believes in something, and when that belief is challenged—even by science and facts—we will do everything we can to disprove or talk our way around it.There are plenty of smart people who can articulate a belief, but it doesn’t mean they’re right.
There’s plenty of evidence and science revealing that the earth is round, but you’d be surprised at how many people believe the earth is flat. Even more terrifying is that there are people who deny that the Holocaust happened.
So what if God—an uncaused, eternal, timeless, spaceless, immaterial, personal Being—created the universe? Since God is all of these things, the law of causality does not apply to Him. As Frank Turek says, “The Law of Causality does not say that everything needs a cause. It says that everything that comes to be needs a cause. God did not come to be. No one made God. He is unmade. As an eternal being, God did not have a beginning, so he didn’t need a cause.”10
Put simply, everything that is created has a cause, but since God is not a created being, He doesn’t need a cause.
What’s more, there’s a second piece of evidence that gives even greater clarity and evidence for the existence of God.
Coincidence or Fine Tuning?
Try throwing all the parts of an iPhone down a hill and see if they form exactly the way you want them to on only one try. Odds are, they won’t. When you come upon an iPhone or any phone, it is reasonable to think that somebody made it with the intention of making a phone. It didn’t just happen by luck or magic. It actually takes over four hundred specific steps to assemble an iPhone.11
In the same way, when we look at the universe, with all of its fine-tuned properties that “happened” to perfectly align for the creation of life, it’s reasonable to assume that some Being (God) created the universe for the purpose of fostering life.
Chance or designer. Those are really our only two options. When I would come home from elementary school, and my bed was made, clothes were folded, and a snack and juice were on the table ready for me, the reasonable conclusion was my mother did all that. I knew that those things didn’t just happen by chance. When we look at how finely tuned our planet is for life, we can either believe it happened by chance or that there was an intelligent designer behind it all.
There are over 122 fine details or constants that make life on Earth possible and provide some of the strongest arguments for God’s existence. Geisler and Turek, the authors of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, list some of these as examples12:
- Oxygen comprises 21 percent of the earth’s atmosphere. That precise figure is an anthropic constant that makes life on Earth possible. If oxygen were 25 percent, fires would erupt spontaneously; if it were 15 percent, human beings would suffocate.
- If the CO2 level were higher than it is now, we’d all burn up. If the level were lower than it is now, we’d all suffocate.
- If gravity on Earth was altered by 0.00000000000000000000000 000000000000001 percent, our sun would not exist, and neither would we.
- If the earth were any farther away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the earth’s position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible.
Is this merely a coincidence, or does this point to some common sense—there was a divine designer behind all of what we know as the earth and universe? This is why scientists of all kinds say there is zero chance that another planet could have the same life-giving conditions we have unless there was an intelligent designer behind it.14
I haven’t even scratched the surface on the evidence for God’s existence. There are books upon books from leadings scientists and philosophers who believe in God about how the eye, math, and your mind point to the existence of God. This is why some of the leading thinkers of history and of today believe in God. If we were to put God on trial, the evidence would be clear: He’s real.
For example, did you know that your DNA is like a code or a long word that contains over 3 billion characters? Your DNA is a message that has information in it that makes you survive. It is ordered specifically in order to serve a purpose. Do you think that merely happened by accident? That would be like ten thousand books coming into existence because of an explosion at a printing shop. A message requires a messenger. And our DNA points to a designer—God.
Faith is obviously still important for believers, but faith is not blind or dumb. It still takes faith to believe in God, but our faith is not rooted in a fairy tale, but evidence. It’s perfectly normal to be faithless. God predicted you would be at times. But He promises that even when you are faithless, He remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). God is faithful to constantly point you to truth.
I struggle with insecurity. And one of the things I doubt is whether or not my wife really loves me or if she just settled with me. Sometimes I even wonder if she wants to be married to me. It’s not because of something she does. Grace is amazing at constantly reminding me and showing me her relentless love and care for me. But one thing that helps me when I get those thoughts is the wedding ring on my finger. It reminds me of the promise she made to me. The scientific truth of God’s existence is a lot like my wedding ring.
That is faith. Walking by faith means walking by facts, not feelings. It means we set our minds on the truth and the evidence about God and what He says about us, not on what we feel moment to moment.
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