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Friday, July 12, 2013

In the Beginning God...

In the Beginning God...
                                       
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The Beginning

1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Since my time in college, when thinking about Genesis 1:1 and the first time I learned that the universe was seemingly expanding from one point in space, the Big Bang idea made sense.

Over the years, from those college years and beyond, with my understanding of physics, chemistry, astronomy, and other physical sciences, with maturity in the Gospel, reverent belief in the Bible as the word of God, I truly came to believe that the universe started from one point and with the ideas presented by learned scientist, I truly embraced the idea of the "Big Bang": God said it- and Bang! it happened!  

From that the thought it came to mind, if God did it, He is in control of it. 

For a long time, my idea of the Big Bang was the end of the discussion, as it was based on belief in God, that He was in control, and in that belief, He made a universe for us to discover.  But- no longer do I have to go strictly on belief!  The evidence for the beginning of space, time, all matter- electrons, protons, and neutrons, all starting from one initial, precisely controlled, and hightly directed explosion is confirmed and well documented by astronomy.  And the modern day definition of the "Big Bang" is, for the most part, without argument in many elements of the scientific community and for many hightly trained and learned scientists is within the generalized expressions of Biblical Scripture!  The idea of "In the Beginning God..." supports the evidence of the scientifically documented Big Bang and it gets better.

According to famed astronomer and Christian believer Dr. Hugh Ross the evidence of the Big Bang absolutely provides unwavering support that there is "a preponderance of physical evidence pointing to humanity as the central theme of the cosmos (universe)" (*1)

Under a concept called "the finely-tuned universe", in the last fifty years many different scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, and other fields have discovered there are highly precise and finely-tuned "constants" required that make human physical life possible on this rock we call Earth.  Some of these constants exist in the universe, others are unique to the Earth.

By 1961, astronomers had discovered only two of these constants that pointed to a universe "finely tuned".  It seems where ever you go in the universe there is the same constant for "gravitation" force based on mass, and a constant for "electromagnetic" force and for a given spot (planet or star) in the universe, when you divide the gravitation force by the electromagnetic force, you ALWAYS get the same number!  In addition, scientist know that if you varied that number by just one part in ten thousand trillion trillion trillion life on this earth would be impossible! (*1)

Today, as expressed in a video documented below there are over 230 constants found in the universe that if anyone of them varied even slightly, then life on earth would never have happened and in a very quick time life would cease to exist.  But, even more extraordinary is the belief by most scientist involved in researching the universe is that life on this planet we call Earth, may very well be the only place in the universe for living biological cells. (*2)

God has allowed us to discover over 230 constants that He put in place to make this Earth inhabitable.  For over 13 billion years the earth developed precisely according to these constants to be at just the right place in the universe to allow for life on our planet.

The probability they just accidently happened is so very  remote, perhaps only one chance in a trillion trillion trillion...17 times... trillion.  This is the same probability as there being another Earth similar to ours in the universe (*4).

These constants are clearly an indication that God truly is in Control.  Why would God go to all this trouble to very likely and precisely create life in only this very small place in the universe if He did not love us and have a plan for us.  With changing just one of those constants a most tiny bit, we would be gone, dead, kaput.  Each day we live in Trust that He will not do that.  We get up from our sleep, go to work, create our families, and a thousand other things trusting we can do it again tomorrow.

Out of this evidence, we know of other evidence that God loves us. He sent us His Son to teach us how to live.  In the words and behavior of Jesus we are told many Truths on how to live our lives and we can trust what Jesus told us because of one reason.  God raised Jesus from the dead.  In that, He verified, sanctified, and Made True for our belief the Life and Teachings of Jesus.  Based on just that evidence alone we must Trust God.  

And the evidence of a fine-tuned universe- it is just gravy to satisfy our curiosity God put in us to begin with.

Thanks be to God!

lonnie




Additional evidence of the finely tuned universe:

Another of those constants is presented in the book, "The Case for a Creator" by Lee Stroble. In Chapter 6, in a discussion with Dr. Robin Collins, Dr. Collins mentions two simple constants that you may be familiar with.  One is has to do with the center of every atom... in the universe.  If the mass of neutrons changed in stars by just 1/700th of its current mass, activity in our sun would stop and the sun would die.   Dr. Collins also mentions a constant in the universe called the "Phase-space volume" constant.  I have no idea what that is but understanding these constants exist and life will cease if they change is all we need to know.  This "phase-space volume" constant is so precise in insuring life that if it changed by one part in 10 billion billion billion...123 billion times the universe would not exist! (*3)

Another piece of evidence:  close to home:

Our solar system is unique.  All the planets in our solar system are on the same plane as we have seen so much in our science books and as the picture herein.  What scientist have discovered- no other solar system has ever been discovered where all the planets are on the same plane as ours.  This configuration contributes to our existence and without it the way it is, we would not exist.  The four outer massive planets, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus act as a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up debris such as comets and the like, keeping the debris from hitting and destroying the earth!  Those planets also help the Earth stay exactly in the orbit around the sun as it has to be.  Not too close and not too far away from the sun, but just the right distance for us to survive.  All this, unlike any other place in the universe.

Over and over in "The Case for a Creator", the case for and "intelligent designer" aka-God as the creator for the universe, the case is sufficiently made for the universe to come into being pretty much as described in Genesis 1.  However, we cannot allow our concept of a 'day' to be confused with that of God.

In chapter 5 of Strobel's book, Dr. William Lane Craig, PHD, THD, made a moving comment:

In referring to the scientist and people in our current times:

"It is the atheist who has to maintain, by faith, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that the universe did not have a beginning a finite time ago but is in some inexplicable way external after all.  So, the shoe is on the other foot.  The Christian can stand confidently within Biblical truth knowing it's in line with mainstream astrophysics and cosmology.  It's the atheist who feels very uncomfortable and marginalized today."






(*1) "The Anthropic Principle: A precise Plan for Humanity", Dr. Hugh Ross, 1-1-2001, 
http://www.reasons.org/articles/anthropic-principle-a-precise-plan-for-humanity

(*2)  "The Big Bang", The John Ankerberg Show, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ5BzpBdyN4

(*3)  Lee Strobel, "The Case for a Creator", Zondervan, 2004, see mentioned chapters

(*4)  This probability of another Earth in the universe is very arguable and very much up to debate. 
The probabilites vary with various authors and range from one chance in
10 to the 100th power to one chance in 10 to the 200th power.





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© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.

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lonnie


Introduction:
"In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth....." The Big Bang- God said it, and Bang IT happened. In seems in the last 50 years scientist have learned much about how God, The 'Intelligent Designer', created this universe in a very precise manner just so we can truly understand just how awesome our God truly is. In discovering and continue to do so, the precision of how our universe came into being, more and more atheist scientist turn to belief in God and then turn to Jesus Christ. Click below for the first of several writings, perhaps many on:

1 comment:

  1. Awesome!!!!!! I always believed in the Big Bang theory too for just those reasons. Thank you for writing them down! I did not no about the "constants" and can't wait to share with everybody, God fearing or not. I did always believe that there must be other life on other planets. And I remebering hearing that the age of the dinasours was somehow related to satan and that the craters on the moon were from great war between angels when God cast out Lucifer and he took 1/3 of the angels with him. Did you ever hear that? Janel

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