This is a question we all are faced with at one point or another. Even though I was taught from birth that God existed and loved me, I eventually had to consider this question and decide for myself.
For me, there are many reasons why I believe in God. Some of these reasons are based on personal experience and faith, and although they are valid reasons to me, they may not be considered reliable in the scientific sense. Therefore, in this post, I will focus on the most convincing ways in which science has confirmed my belief in an infinite, transcendent and unchangeable God.
Cause and Effect
In Physics 101 I learned about Newton's laws of motion and the laws of conservation of mass and energy. When I think about it, these laws are basically describing cause and effect relationships that we can observe throughout nature. With this in mind, I can consider all of the mass and energy in my world and begin to trace them backwards. The energy I am using to type these words came from my body, which produces energy from food. The energy to produce the food is traced back to plants, to the sun, to atoms.... BANG!
Eventually, all matter and energy can be traced back to the Big Bang (Fear not. I will discuss scientific evidence for the Big Bang in a later post). Scientists agree that an infinitely small bundle of infinite density, temperature and pressure began to expand approximately 13.7 billion years ago. According to the laws of physics, all of the mass and energy in today's universe must have been contained within that pre-bang bundle.
But is the Big Bang the true beginning of the universe? Stephen Hawking and George Ellis close their book entitled The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time [1973] by stating that "the actual point of creation, the singularity, is outside the scope of presently known laws of physics". In other words, science cannot explain the origin of the Big Bang's source material because the generation of something from nothing is a direct violation of the laws of conservation of mass/energy. If we use science to follow matter and energy back to the very beginning of the known universe, we will inevitably become stuck with an effect that has no cause.
To me, it is this single and most undeniable proof for the existence of a creator. You cannot trace conservation of mass and energy to a point and then stop. All matter and energy must eventually have a source or "cause". In the case of the Big Bang, the source of our universe is required to have existed beyond the limitations of time, space, and the laws of physics... logically, beyond our universe. This source is best described by an infinite, transcendent, and unchanging creator. A creator that shaped not only the universe, but also the physical laws that govern it.
It's All In Order
This leads me to another way in which science points towards the authorship of a creator. When I first learned calculus, I was in awe of the beauty and elegance of math. When I learned that the equations of points, circles and spheres or the equations for location, velocity and acceleration were all related by calculus, it confirmed a sense of order in the universe.
I recently watched a PBS special on fractals. Since I will fail to explain it properly, Wikipedia defines a fractal as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole". These fractals are seen throughout nature in everything from clouds, to snowflakes, to tree branches, to blood vessels, to mountain ranges. Once again, a sense of order and design was confirmed.As a geologist, I can pick up any rock from anywhere on the earth and it will have a history. A small piece of lava hardens, breaks from parent rock, rolls down a river, is deposited and buried on a beach, hardens as part of a new rock, is uplifted as part of a new mountain, and erodes away again. All according to the laws of nature, and all before the first human spoke a word... but for what purpose?
If there is no God, then the order we observe in nature is a mere chance occurrence. In this case, we simply exist as a grain of sand on the beach, here today and washed away tomorrow. If we are lucky we may make some contribution that is passed down a few generations, or we may become a science experiment for future species to discover, but eventually our lives will end and we will be forgotten.
With God of the Bible there is a design and a purpose to the order we observe in the world around us. But of course, the purpose described within the Bible is beyond the scope of scientific inquiry...
I am... or am I?
Since ancient times, humans have been worshiping some form of divine being. Why is it that we all must decide for ourselves whether or not some form of a god exists? Even the person who denies the existence of a god must first be aware of an idea of what that "god" might or might not be.
As humans, we are all faced with the fact that our knowledge and awareness of the world around us is limited. Even the most knowledgeable, enlightened, and aware human that ever existed did not know all there is to know about the universe. The the more we learn about nature and science, the more we find that there is more to discover. If this is the case, then there must exist some source of ultimate knowledge beyond that of human understanding.
Now, I know this final point is not really a question of science. It is more a question of philosophy. Nevertheless, the fact all humans eventually consider the existence or non-existence of a supreme being seems to imply to me that such a being must exist.
Conclusion
I understand that different people may make different conclusions from the same observations. It may be true that while these evidences are supportive to my belief in the God of the Bible, they may also support another person's belief that there is no supreme being or creator.
I simply hope that the reading of this post and others to follow will help you to reconsider your own place in this world, no matter what your belief or background may be.
