Secular Science Cannot Explain How Order Came from Chaos

Blog Series

Moving from Checkers to Chess

Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective

This week we're continuing our series: "Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective." Unless we have an eternal perspective, viewing life as God does, we are playing checkers in life while God is playing chess. And, if that’s the case, two things are certain: (1) we will consistently make the wrong moves, and (2) we lose in the end. I’d like to help avoid that. Secular scientists and an "anti-supernatural presupposition" Secular scientists have an anti-supernatural presupposition. That is, they presuppose – ahead of time, before even looking at the evidence – that God cannot be the answer to the major scientific questions of life, and commit themselves to an alternate explanation. However, in doing so, there are five major issues that they cannot answer, without first being given "five free miracles" as their starting point. Last week, we looked at the first major issue they have in trying to explain "what is" without the existence of God: 1. Secular scientists cannot explain how something came from nothing. (Last week's post.) Today, we look at their next problem in trying to explain "what is" without the existence of God: 2. Secular scientists cannot explain how order came from chaos. They believe that the universe began 13.5 billion years ago with a Big Bang. According to the Big Bang theory, there was a titanic, unimaginable cosmic explosion, and from it came the universe as we know it. But, as we asked in an earlier blog: Have you ever set off a firecracker? Or seen a stick of dynamite explode? Or watched a television documentary showing bombs dropping? Did any “order” come out of the explosion? Did any design come out of the chaos? Of course not. It was utter destruction. Yet, “miraculously”, the universe we see, post-Big Bang, has settled into a marvelous picture of order and apparent design. This is so remarkable that atheist scientists often admit that the order and apparent design of the universe is the most compelling evidence for the possibility of creation. They don’t admit to a creator, but they admit to the compelling nature of the order of the universe. What is the “fine-tuned” argument for God? In apologetic literature, the fine-tuned argument says that there are certain things about our universe and about our planet that seem to be so perfectly calibrated it is hard to chalk it up to coincidence. In The Tailor-Made Universe, scientist P.C.W. Davies wrote, “Why does it all fit so well? It looks like someone made the universe. I don’t believe it was made, but it sure looks that way.” Carl Sagan, an astronomer from an earlier generation, used to champion the idea that there were two criteria required for life on any given planet. One was having the right kind of sun, and the other was being the right distance from the sun. Given these two criteria, Sagan championed the probability of there being billions of other planets capable of life. Now, with the accumulation of additional scientific knowledge, the criteria for supporting life on earth have shot up dramatically, causing the likelihood of life on other planets to drop precipitously. Some scientists are now quietly admitting that the likelihood of life on other planets seems almost zero. Or, being utterly committed to not allowing God into the equation, some are embracing fantastic and unsupportable theories like the existence of an infinity of universes so that, with a limitless number of options, we accidentally see life on earth in this universe, in spite of the odds against it. Three Evidences for Earth’s fine tuning Eric Metaxas, in his book Is Atheism Dead, mentions three criteria for life on earth that are recently understood.

1. The size of the earth

We have learned that if the earth were even slightly larger or slightly smaller, life on earth could not exist. If the earth were any smaller, our magnetic field would be weaker than it is, and what scientists call “solar wind” would quickly strip almost everything from our atmosphere so that the earth would be lifeless. But, if the earth were any larger, our atmosphere would be so thick we couldn’t breathe.

2. The size of nearby planets

Jupiter and Saturn, large nearby planets with massive gravitational pull, attract incoming meteors and asteroids to hit them, keeping them from hitting the earth. If it were not for those two planets just the right distance away, earth would be regularly pelted by meteors and asteroids of various sizes, making life on earth impossible.

3. The size and proximity of the moon

We now know that if the moon were any larger or smaller or any closer or farther away, life on earth would not be possible. Our moon is extremely large compared to other moons in our solar system. As a result, it has enough gravity to create our ocean tides, which are crucial to the ecosystems of our coasts, which are themselves vital to the rest of life on the planet. Size of the universe In addition to the criteria mentioned in Metaxas' book, others discuss that the size of the universe must be what it is, or life on earth could not have been possible. Scientists themselves say that if the universe’s mass were the tiniest bit smaller, the elements necessary for life – nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon – would never have come into being. Caltech astrophysicist Hugh Ross, in his book Why the Universe Is the Way It Is, writes: “This degree of fine tuning is so great that it’s as if, right after the universe beginning, someone could have destroyed the possibility of life within it by subtracting a single dime’s mass from the whole of the observable universe or adding a single dime’s mass to it.” In addition, in his book A Brief History of Time and Space, physicist Stephen Hawking wrote, “If the overall density of the universe were changed by even 0.00000000000001 percent, no stars or galaxies could be formed. If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have re-collapsed before it reached its present size.” Laws governing the universe There are physical laws governing our universe, including gravity, temperature, centrifugal force, etc. All of these laws have to exist within a very narrow range in order for life on earth to exist. The perfect calibration of these laws by chance is essentially impossible. Scientist Francis Collins writes, as quoted by Timothy Keller, "There are fifteen constants – the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force etc. – that have precise values. If any one of these constants was off by even one part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce; there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets, or people." (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God) Conclusion The odds against the earth and universe being as “fine-tuned” as they are by accident is so remote as to lead all but the most committed unwilling mind to accept a “Great Fine-tuner.” Robert Jastro, an American astronomer and planetary physicist has written, “Far from disproving the existence of God, astronomers may be finding more circumstantial evidence that God exists. Astronomers now find 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. That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact.” (God and the Astronomers) He wraps up his point cleverly: “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.” (God and the Astronomers) So, as we look at the "fine-tuning" apparent in the universe, it further assures us that God exists in spite of the fact that He cannot be proved. Next week, we'll look at the third reason we have for being confident in the existence of God, as we look at the fact that secular science cannot explain how life came from non-life. I hope to see you then. In case you're new here, below are two resources I’ve created for additional help in your Christian discipleship journey: