- Included in the Stephen Hawking Posts List.
- So, let’s review: In Part II of these Stephen Hawking posts, I established that science has proved that God could have created the Universe.
(Part VIII)
So, let’s review:
In Part II of these Stephen Hawking posts, I established that science has proved that God could have created the Universe; viz.:
“Anyway, the concept of virtual particles has been expanded more recently – and not only in Brief Answers to the Big Questions; I read the same thing in Discover magazine many years ago – to the rather outrageous idea that the Universe might have spontaneously come into existence all by itself. As Stephen Hawking expresses the idea: ‘The universe is the ultimate free lunch.’ I would submit instead that this property of quantum mechanics should be viewed as establishing scientifically that God COULD have created the Universe. The astronomical odds of an entire universe popping into existence is completely ridiculous to me, not least because the existence of even a single virtual particle has not been proved.”
Now, in Part VII, I showed that Hubble’s Law and his other discoveries about galaxies proves that God DID create the Universe:
“Therefore, looking at Hubble’s Law and his other discoveries with fresh eyes, this is the inescapable conclusion to me: Science has proved that God created the Universe out of nothing. As far as I know, no scientist has ever looked at it that way, nor has much of anyone else. But what is the alternative? The Universe popped into existence all on its own – and not just our Universe, but all of the other universes in the multiverse as well? That is really more believable than God? Seriously?”
I also talked in Part II about what evidence for God would look like:
“So, to return to the topic of God . . . Evidence of the existence of God, or evidence of the existence of an afterlife – what would that look like exactly? Warriors fighting dramatically with swirling, lighted swords, along with impressive parlor tricks like levitation and astral projection and throwing lightning bolts, plus cryptic pronouncements about The Force – would that do it? Or flows of light along the roots of enormous trees that have illuminated fruit and a globally interconnected ecosystem, along with animated thistledown plus a mysterious deity called Eywa – how about that?
“As I see it, the enduring appeal of science-fiction epics like the Star Wars franchise and the Avatar franchise is due in no small part to those worlds having a greater connection to the spiritual realm than we seem to experience directly here on Earth. That kind of connection seems to me to be a basic human need. Among the myriad human communities that have existed on Earth over the millennia, all or virtually all of them believed in God; and a Supreme Being or Beings was typically at the heart of their belief system. Even these days, many if not most still at least pay lip service to the existence of God.”
So, if we want to take the multiverse seriously – I keep it uncapitalized, since I am not sure myself whether I believe in the multiverse – then all of those other universes could certainly include Heaven. Right?
Now, in writing all of this, I am not saying that the God Who created the Universe is necessarily the same as the God Who is described in the Bible. St. Paul addressed the uncertainty of what we know of God: “For now we see through a glass [mirror], darkly [dimly]; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (I. Cor. 13:12).
I addressed this topic as well in my first post along these lines, “Scientific Proof of the Existence of God“. The “scientific proof” is that, like many other aspects of the Universe, dark energy is also finely tuned to allow for life as we know it – only in this case, dark energy is more than half of the Universe as we understand it today. From 2009:
“Far be it from me to tell you how you should react to this information. I am a Catholic convert, and that works for me. However, if you think that the wonders of modern science have somehow made the idea of God obsolete, you should realize that precisely the opposite is true.”
Many scientists and non-scientists wonder why God would create the Universe and all of us and then disappear without leaving any shred of evidence as to God’s existence. Well, I say that you just have to look around – the startling beauty and majesty of everything around us is evidence enough of God for me.
But if that doesn’t do it for you, we still have quantum mechanics and Hubble’s Law and the concept of the multiverse providing evidence of God. Now, you don’t have to interpret it that way; most scientists certainly do not. But to maintain these days that there is no evidence for the existence of God is nearly untenable.
In summary, I guess what I am trying to do here is to talk about God from a left-brain perspective. Religion is primarily a right-brain thing: emotional, conceptual, frankly vague at times. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can get to a belief in God from a logical, analytical, and sort of fact-based approach.
One of the most effective faith-based films that I have seen also takes a left-brained stance. The Case for Christ (2017) is based on a book of the same name by Christian author Lee Strobel and follows an atheist journalist who looks to disprove his wife’s Christian faith. Highly recommended.
By the way, as long as I am on the subject of left-vs.-right, you don’t have to be a right-wing Republican to be a Christian; although you might be forgiven for concluding otherwise these days. Evangelical Christianity was once staunchly non-political; and IMHO, the rise of the Religious Right has done great harm both to Christianity and to the conservative movement.