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1. What discovery about the origin of the universe caused one
scientist to say "It’s like looking at God"?
What happened on April 24, 1992, that caused the
following statements?
Stephen Hawking, Cambridge University Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics: "It is the discovery of the century, if not all time."1
George Smoot, University of California at Berkeley, astronomer
and project leader for the COBE satellite: "What we have found is
evidence for the birth of the universe." He added, "It’s like
looking at God."2
Michael Turner, Astrophysicist at the University of Chicago in
Fermilab: "Unbelievably important.... The significance of this
cannot be overstated. They have found the holy grail of cosmology."3
Carlos Frenk of Britain’s Durham University: "It’s the most
exciting thing that’s happened in my life as a cosmologist."4
According to Science Historian Frederic B. Burnham,
the community of scientists as a result of breaking events, was
prepared to consider the idea that God created the universe "a more
respectable hypothesis today than at any time in the last hundred
years."5
Even Ted Koppel on ABC’s Nightline in 1992 began his interview
of an astronomer and a physicist by quoting the first two verses of
Genesis. The physicist immediately added verse 3 is also germane to
the discovery.
"Astronomers who do not draw theistic or deistic conclusions are
becoming rare, and even the few dissenters hint that the tide is
against them."6 Geoffrey Burbidge of the University of
California at San Diego complains that his fellow astronomers are
rushing off the join "the first Church of Christ of the Big Bang."7
As Robert Jastrow has written,
"Astronomers now find that they have painted themselves into a
corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the
world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace
the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this
cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened
as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover."8
Scientists have found that,
"...all the data accumulated in the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries tell us that a transcendent Creator must exist. For all
the matter, energy, nine space dimensions, and even time, each
suddenly and simultaneously came into being from some source beyond
itself. It is valid to refer to such a source, entity, or being as
the Creator, for creating is defined as causing something–in this
case everything in the universe–to come into existence. Matter,
energy, space, and time are the effects He caused. Likewise, it is
valid to refer to the Creator as transcendent, for the act of
causing these effects must take place outside or independent of
them."9
2. Is there evidence that the earth is finely-tuned to allow for human
life?
Scientists refer to that beginning moment of the
universe as "the Big Bang." Further, instead of this
explosion-producing chaos, the exact opposite is true. Science has
discovered that the universe has been uniquely fine-tuned so that life
can exist on earth. Today, no physicist or astronomer who has
researched the question denies that the universe, the Milky Way
galaxy, and the solar system possess compelling hallmarks of
intentional design for human life.
Many researchers have commented over the past 20
years that it seems the universe "knew" humans were coming.
Physicist Paul Davies, in the 1980s, concluded:
"[There] is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on
behind it all.... It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s
numbers to make the Universe.... The impression of design is
overwhelming."10
In our nine television programs with Dr. Hugh Ross,
Dr. Fazale Rana and Kenneth Samples, we present some of the scientific
evidence astronomers, biologists, and paleontologists have discovered.
(See our catalog to order.)
3. What criteria must be met for a theory to be considered
"scientific" in the usually accepted sense?
A definition of science given by the Oxford
Dictionary is: "A branch of study which is concerned either with a
connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts
systematically classified and more or less colligated by being brought
under general laws, and which includes trustworthy methods for the
discovery of new truth within its own domain."
"Thus, for a theory to qualify as a scientific theory, it must be
supported by events, processes, or properties which can be observed,
and the theory must be useful in predicting the outcome of future
natural phenomena or laboratory experiments."11
4. What has science discovered about the beginning of the universe?
"Astronomers now find that they have painted themselves into a
corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the
world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace
the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this
cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened
as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover."12
"This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could
only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and
powerful Being. And if the fixed stars are the centers of other like
systems, these, being formed by the likewise counsel, must be all
subject to the dominion of One."13
"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of
reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains
of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls
himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians
who have been sitting there for centuries."14
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