God and… or… Vs… Science

For some reason, we have the idea that it has to be either God - OR - science, as if one contradicts the other, as if one disproves the other, as if they are two opposing forces at battle. But if there is a God (and I believe there is) and God is Truth (and God would have to be, or else He wouldn’t be much of a God), then Truth could never contradict science, and if anything, science should lead us to God, never away.

The Fine-Tuned Universe

No matter where you stand, the idea of the “fine-tuned universe” is utterly fascinating. The basic FACT is this, in order for there to be - any universe - (or any life in the universe), a number of conditions from the very beginning have to be perfectly, super-calculatedly, precise. If any ONE of these condition were off, in some cases by the slimmest, slightest, tiniest degree, the universe would have burned out long ago. But don’t take my word for it, look it up:

Here is a much better, much more thorough video on fine-tuning (Youtube) HERE

To remain objective, here is another video from a modern leading physicist (YouTube) HERE

The greatest resource online about God and science from a methodical scientific stand point can found here - Magis Center

Objections to the fine-tuned Universe:

Isn’t it arrogant to think that the entire, vast, massive universe is made just for Us?

If you don’t believe in God, then, we are all just meat and electricity on some rock in the middle of nowhere, and arrogance really has nothing to do with it.

But if you do believe in God, then look at it this way: If you are/were a loving parent… wouldn’t you give the entire universe (and much more) for your child?

Isn’t it a waste? All that space and time, just for us?

First, see Obj. one above.

Second, God is beyond, outside and above space and time, so therefore, no matter how big or small, long or short the universe is - is irrelevant to God. To God, the universe can be as tiny and simple as a single atom, and whether the universe lasts for one second or one trillion (x123) millennium… it makes no difference to God.

What about other planets? more life out there?

There could very well be. And I would bet the shirt off my back, that if there were - intelligent life - out there, they would also have some notion of the one God.

Quotes from the scientific community on God and Science

“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing and delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life. In the absence of an absurdly-improbable accident, the observations of modern science seem to suggest an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan.”

-Arno Penzias (Nobel prize in physics)

"I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.”

-Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy)

"When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics.”

-Frank Tipler (Professor of Mathematical Physics):

"I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.”

- Wernher von Braun (Pioneer rocket engineer)

On DNA…

“As regards the origin of life, our uniform experience is that it takes an intelligent agent to generate information, codes, messages. As a result, it is reasonable to infer there was an intelligent cause of the original DNA code. DNA and written language both exhibit the property of specified complexity. Since we know an intelligent cause produces written language, it is legitimate to posit an intelligent cause as the source of DNA.”

- Charles B. Thaxton, Ph.D.

“...The capacity of DNA to store information vastly exceeds that of any other known system: it is so efficient that all the information needed to specify an organism as complex as man weighs less than a few thousand millionths of a gram. The information necessary to specify the design of all the species of organisms which have ever existed on the planet…could be held in a teaspoon and there would still be room left for all the information in every book ever written…”

- Dr. Michael Denton (Australian microbiologist)
 

“The DNA molecule is literally encoding information into alphabetic or digital form. And that’s a hugely significant discovery, because what we know from experience is that information always comes from an intelligence, whether we’re talking about hieroglyphic inscription or a paragraph in a book or a headline in a newspaper. If we trace information back to its source, we always come to a mind, not a material process. So the discovery that DNA codes information in a digital form points decisively back to a prior intelligence.”

- Stephen Meyer (director of Science and Culture, Discovery Institute).

Quotes from the Catholic Church on Evolution, Big Bang

"The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experiences in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.” 

-Pope Pius XII Humani Generis 1950

“Today, almost half a century after publication of the encyclical, new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis.  It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge.  The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.”

-St. John Paul II, 1996

"... there are so many scientific proofs in favor of evolution which appears to be a reality... which enriches our knowledge of life ... But on the other, the doctrine of evolution does not answer every query.

-Pope Benedict XVI, 2007

“The Big Bang theory, which is proposed today as the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of a divine creator, but depends on it. Evolution in nature does not conflict with the notion of creation because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.”

-Pope Francis, 2014

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