THE UNIVERSE ‘SPEAKS’ ABOUT GOD

Scientific discoveries indicate that God’s existence is an undeniable reality.

The Christian Mission of Kerala has published a booklet titled “Nature and Science Speak about God.” This 28-page booklet, the size of a newspaper, makes it clear through scientific discoveries about the universe that the existence of God is a fact and cannot be denied in any way.

There are many creatures like scorpions and spiders and many other aquatic and terrestrial creatures that fend off enemies or subdue prey by stinging. There is a very tiny hole at the tip of their sting, through which they inject a kind of poison into the body of their enemy. If this hole were at the very end of the sting, it would close up when the sting was jabbed. In addition, the sting would not work as well in stinging itself. That’s why the hole in the tip of the sting is always slightly off-centre, just like in a doctor’s syringe. This is just a small example. In everything we see, an exceedingly intelligent design is apparent. The universe is not a haphazard pile of rubbish. Instead, it is characterized by great purposefulness and order. Could this have been possible without conscious planning by a Supreme Mind?

Consider an example from the world of insects to appreciate this issue. Termites can live in wood, inside which they carve out their homes. Termites build a home that is several hundred times their height. If humans were to make a house in the same proportion, we would need to build a more than one-mile-tall structure!

Studying the life of termites reveals numerous amazing facts. Take just one example: termites eat wood. After stone, wood is possibly the most indigestible thing. But eating wood is no difficult task for termites. For this purpose, they have special jaws that, besides working as a saw, also grind. What accounts for this phenomenon?

Now, no matter how much one grinds wood, it remains wood, and going inside the stomach, one might expect that it would only create indigestion instead of fulfilling the need for food. Then what is it that assists termites here? For this purpose, tiny, microscopic insects are present in the termites’ entrails. These insects, engaging in a particular process on the swallowed-up wood, produce such changes that it becomes digestible and a part of the termites’ body. Now, who has arranged for this fantastic feature? The only sensible explanation is that this feature reflects a Creator’s planning and loving care.

Let us take another example: A hen’s egg. Every such egg contains several unique features, each so important that if even one is absent, the egg cannot form. Let us understand this better.

The shell or outer hard covering of the egg comprises calcium, magnesium carbonate and calcium phosphate. It contains thousands of pores that allow carbon dioxide and moisture to escape and air to enter. The shell gives shape to the egg and holds the inner contents. The shell is covered by a cuticle membrane or bloom, which acts as a protective covering, blocking the pores and preventing moisture loss and bacterial contamination.

The egg white consists of three parts—the outer thin albumen, the middle thick albumin and the inner thin albumen.

The egg yolk is the unfertilized embryo in the egg, yellow in colour. The vitelline membrane separates the yolk from the white, which prevents the mixing of the yolk and the white. In a fertilized egg, the yoke supplies the nutrients and the albumin or white supplies the water necessary for the embryo’s development.

The chalazae, the two twisted membranous strips joining the yolk to the ends of the shell, help maintain the embryo’s orientation within the egg.

If even one of these is separated from the egg, the egg cannot remain a place for nourishing a chick. Now, is it that these various components came together merely by chance, as atheists might argue? ‘Chance’ most definitely cannot explain the simultaneous presence of these things found in the egg and precisely the necessary and appropriate proportions.

Think of the human brain. There are around 1000 million nerve cells in it. From every cell, very fine fibres spread out through the body. These fibres are characterised by a system of receiving messages and sending commands that function at the speed of around 70 miles an hour. What made this possible? Man did not design this himself, and it is also impossible to have come into being independently.

Consider the human heart. It is 4 inches long and 2.5 inches wide on average, and its weight is perhaps not more than 8 ounces. But this little pumping organ functions day and night for as long as a person lives. It beats around 100,000 times a day. Every 13 seconds, it sends approximately one gallon of blood into the entire body. This amazing phenomenon could only have been possible through some non-human power.

These are only some instances that are silently speaking about the existence of God.

Not by ‘Mere Chance’

There are innumerable such unique phenomena in the universe, and to only make a list of them would require an entire library. Man’s knowledge of the realities of the universe is almost nothing at all. There is far more that man has not seen than what he has seen.

The fantastic craftsmanship, the perfect planning, and the brilliant intelligence are clearly visible in the universe. Did all of this come about by chance, as atheists might say? Undoubtedly, on some occasions, through chance, a phenomenon can come into being. For example, a whiff of air could cause pollen from a red rose to land on a neighbouring cream-coloured rose, resulting in a yellow flower blossoming. But this sort of chance can produce only partial and very minor changes. It can only explain the unique colour of a particular rose but cannot be the cause of the entire existence of the rose. ‘Mere chance’ can never explain how the amazing system of the universe continues to function for billions of years and with exceptional efficiency and accuracy. ‘Mere chance’ does not explain why regularity and order are found in the universe.

The process of ‘mere chance’ cannot operate uniformly. It is not possible that whatever happened today by ‘mere chance’ will also be brought about by ‘mere chance’ every day that follows. That being so, the fact that everything in the physical universe is characterized by fantastic precision, predictability, regularity, and uniformity—such as, for instance, the speed at which the Earth rotates around its axis or revolves around the Sun—cannot be the result of ‘mere chance.’ Then what accounts for these remarkable features of the physical universe? The only reasonable explanation is to attribute them to the Almighty Designer, Creator, Master, and Sustainer of the universe, God Almighty.

If you take some bits of plastic shaped in the form of the letters of the alphabet and throw them up in the air, is it possible that by ‘mere chance,’ they will fall on the ground in the form of complete sentences and paragraphs? Obviously not! If such a small thing cannot happen by ‘mere chance,’ why is it posited that such a vast universe, with its unique features, came into being by ‘mere chance’? What evidence exists to accept intellectually a theory that cannot be proven in any laboratory?

Another purported explanation of phenomena that atheists depend on is the laws of Nature. Why do chicks emerge from a hen’s egg in 21 days and an ostrich’s egg in 45 days? There are innumerable questions like these whose answer, according to atheists, is that these are simply a result of the laws of Nature. Ostensibly, this is an explanation, but in fact, this answer only states an event. Using the phrase ‘The Laws of Nature,’ we only acknowledge the universe’s order, precision, and regularity. But this phrase does not explain why and how this order, precision, and regularity came about and how they prevailed. It only tells us that certain things always come into being by certain determined and specific principles and will always come into being in this same way. However, from this, one does not learn why whatever is happening is happening. This phrase does not tell us the ultimate cause of events but only presents a picture of those events.

Science Brings Man Closer to God

Consider the following hypothetical conversation.

If you ask a doctor why blood is red, he might reply that the reason is that there are tiny, red-coloured components in the blood, or what are called red blood corpuscles.

“True, Doctor, but why are these particles red?”

“This is because these particles contain a special substance called ‘haemoglobin,’ which turns red when the lungs absorb oxygen.”

“That’s fine, doctor, but where did the red blood corpuscles come from?”

“They are produced in your spleen.”

“Doctor, whatever you have said is strange, but please tell me why the red blood corpuscles, the spleen and thousands of other things are so finely interconnected inside the single unit of the human body. How are they able to function so accurately, in such a way that I can breathe, I can walk, I can run, I can speak, I am alive?”

“That is because of the laws of Nature.”

“But what is that which you call ‘the laws of Nature’?”

“Hmmm, well, I suppose by this, I mean the blind interplay of physical and chemical forces.”

“But what is the reason why these supposedly blind forces always function in one particular direction, which takes them towards a determined end? How do they organise their activities so that a bird can fly, a fish can swim, and a human being can come into existence with all his many special abilities? Can all this result from some ‘blind’ interplay of physical forces?”

“My friend, please don’t ask me all this! A scientist can only narrate how what is happening is happening. He does not know why whatever is happening is happening.”

This hypothetical conversation makes clear the reality of the scope of present-day science. Undoubtedly, science has told us many new things. But whatever it has told us is some features of events and phenomena in the universe. It does not have the answers to why those events happen and why those phenomena are as they are. For instance, no doubt, science has told us a lot about how the delicate parts of a fly work, but what is that Mind that knew that a fly would require these delicate parts and bestowed them on it? Only religion can provide an answer to this question. Suggesting, as atheists might, that this is an outcome of the working of this or that law of Nature is hardly convincing, for the laws of Nature are a phenomenon of the universe, not an explanation of the universe. They are phenomena that themselves require to be explained. Nature does not explain—it needs explanation.

For even the smallest part of the human body to come into being, hundreds of thousands of items must go together in a particular and unique arrangement and design. Blind forces can certainly not manifest this sort of purposefulness. They cannot produce meaningfulness and harmony in events and phenomena regularly and uniformly. This means that for meaningfulness in something, there is clear evidence that some Mind is at work behind it. The same is true for the universe as a whole.

A sperm produced in a man’s body is similar to other cells in the body in some ways, but it has very different properties from other cells. It can fuse with an ova cell from a female body to bring into being a completely new person. What has made it possible that two cells, each of which is produced in two different bodies, harmoniously unite to function in such a manner as to bring about such a miraculous result? Can this be explained without accepting the functioning of a creative Mind behind it?

To believe in the existence of a creative Mind, whom we call ‘God,’ behind the universe is not to believe in some mere baseless dogma. Innumerable facts compel us to accept the functioning of a Supreme Mind behind the universe whom we cannot physically see, in the same way as the sounds coming out of radio to compel us to accept the existence of radio waves even though we cannot see them.

If you put some sugar in a glass of water, in a short while, it will dissolve. The sugar particles will not be visible. But on tasting the mixture, you can discern the presence of sugar in the water. In the same way, our eyes cannot see God, but when we study the world around us, our intuition calls out that undoubtedly there is a God present here, for without Him, the universe could not have come into being, and it could not possess any of its many unique features.

The growth of scientific knowledge of the universe has not distanced man from God, as atheists might aver and hope. Instead, it has potentially brought man closer to God.  This being the case, doubting God’s existence is only a declaration of ignorance. Newton was true when he remarked, “A smattering of knowledge turns people away from God–but much of it brings them back to Him.”