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Message From Space Points Scientists to Creator
by Rod Robison
As we enter the third millennium, it seems we humans have become enamored by the question, "Are we alone in the Universe?" A few years ago thousands of the hopeful, the faithful, and the just plain curious descended on Roswell, New Mexico for the fiftieth anniversary of the so-called "Roswell Incident." It is alleged that in 1947 an alien spacecraft crashed near this desert city, leaving it's passengers stranded on our planet. According to true Roswell believers, for the past five decades the U.S. government has been covering up the incident along with the alien bodies.
Movie producers are discovering profits of cosmic proportions in films exploring the subject of alien visitations. "Men in Black," "Mars Attacks," "Independence Day," and "Contact" have, in the past few years or so, each spun their own scenario of what effect such a visitation might have on our world.
Perhaps most people don't take such extraterrestrial tales too seriously. But most of us have had the experience of gazing into the vast expanse of space on a clear summer night and, at least for a moment, entertained the possibility that we humans might not be alone.
What has escaped the notice of the average occupant of Earth, however, is that serious scientists have, for years, been gathering evidence from space of an intelligence beyond our planetary borders. The past century especially has yielded vast quantities of such evidence. And it has left many of the world's leading scientists challenged to re-think their non-theistic positions.
There was a time, as recently as early in the twentieth century, when the prevailing view among astronomers was that the Universe had always existed. It had no beginning and, therefore, had no need for a Creator. This idea, called the Steady State theory, had such a strong hold on the scientific community that it was almost never questioned. Until later in the twentieth century, that is. In the past seventy years or so, as technological advances have allowed for quantum leaps in our knowledge of how the Universe works, discovery after discovery has pointed toward not only a beginning of the Universe, but the fact that Someone of unimaginable intelligence designed it all.
Robert Jastrow is one of the world's foremost astronomers. He is the founder of NASA's Goddard Institute and is now head of the Mount Wilson Observatory. Although Jastrow is an agnostic, he wrote a book called God and the Astronomers which explores the reaction of leading scientists around the world to the mounting evidence for a Creator. He states, "Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same...."
Albert Einstein, for years a leading advocate of the Steady State theory, strongly opposed those holding to a beginning for the Universe. Finally, faced with overwhelming evidence for a beginning, Einstein wrote of his desire "to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon....I want to know His thought, the rest are details."
Robert Wilson, one of the discoverers of the microwave radiation still emanating from the moment of creation, stated in an interview with Fred Heeren in his book Show Me God, "Certainly there was something that set it all off. Certainly, if you are religious, I can't think of a better theory of the origin of the universe to match with Genesis."
British theorist, Edward Milne, stated in his mathematical treatise on relativity, "As to the first cause of the Universe...our picture is incomplete without Him."
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who is considered by many to be the "Einstein" of the latter half of the twentieth century, offers no allegiance to a personal God. Yet he states, "The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron....The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life."
One of the greatest astrophysicists of this century, Sir Fred Hoyle, is one of the rare holdouts for the Steady State theory. Even he admits, "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."
In his book, The Philosophical Scientists, David Foster says, "I have found few, from Einstein to Schrodinger, who at some stage or another did not have to introduce God."
Astronomer Hugh Ross, in his book The Fingerprint of God, affirms, "The Bible is the only religious text that teaches a cosmology in full agreement with the latest astrophysical discoveries."
Not all astronomers and other scientists who have come to the conclusion that the Universe had a beginning and a Creator have embraced the God of the Bible. But in the twentieth century, and especially in the past few decades, there has been a remarkable shift among those who study the heavens away from an atheistic cosmology and toward the unmistakable evidence for a divine Creator who looks suspiciously like the God of Genesis.
Robert Jastrow concludes his book God and the Astronomers with this poignant statement: "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."
If I may add to Jastrow's illustration, perhaps those theologians would then quote to that scientist the words of Isaiah: "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these....Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator." (Isaiah 40:26a, 28b)
Show Me God
by Fred Heeren
Reviewed by Rod Robison
For years Albert Einstein held to a theory of the Universe that left no room for a Creator. But faced with mounting evidence for a beginning and Someone who began it all, he altered his views to make room for, "an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."
In his book, Show Me God: What the Message From Space is Telling Us About God, Fred Heeren explores the theories and evidences that shifted the thinking of a whole generation of scientists and continues to point today's scientists toward the God of the Bible.
Interviewing modern day astronomers and theoretical physicists, Heeren brings the mysteries of the Universe discovered by these great thinkers down to earth for us mortals. And whoever thought that quantum mechanics and astrophysics could be funny? Heeren even interweaves his wonderful sense of humor throughout the book. Some sections of the book are pretty weighty for the scientifically-challenged; i.e. most of us. But at the "on ramps" of these sections he displays a warning signal to divert those who would rather stick with the layman's version, thank you.
This volume ranks among the top, if not at the number one position, for Christian apologetic books aimed at the seeking skeptic and the Christian wanting to expand his or her worldview. It's perfect for parents looking for a greater understanding of how the discoveries of science point to the God of the Bible so they can pass this priceless information on to their children. The reading will be challenging for most younger teens, but not too difficult for most adults.
Do yourself and those non-Christians you come in contact with a favor by reading Show Me God.
The above article was posted on this website May 26, 2000.
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