Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Declared Through The Universe...

A friend of mine who considers himself as a free-thinker once asked me, "How do you know that there is a God?"

This question is actually sensitive to most people. Yet, there a lot of people who like to debate about this topic. Is there a God? Is He real? In my faith and experience, I would definitely say YES to both questions. In fact, I can give my testimony and experience about God but you will never realize and understand my subjective experience.

So just let me share some facts that would surely give an impression that God exists even before you and I were born in this world.

Firstly, God is declared through the universe. Look at the night sky. Astronomers estimate that there are more than one hundred billions stars in our galaxy and that there may be billions of galaxies in the universe. Each star we see represents a solar system in the universe. Our own solar system has the sun as it's center, and it has nine planets revolving around it in a clock-like precision. The earth as one of the planets, speeds through space at 67,000 miles an hour and takes 365 days to circle the sun. Just imagine a train traveling at 1/1000 of this speed will many times miss it's schedule. But the rotation and revolution is at a very consistent and constant pace without a single miss.

The distances between the sun, the moon, and the earth provide a marvelous environment for life to exist. If the earth were to come 10% closer or farther away from the sun, all living beings on earth would be either scorched to death or frozen. If the moon were 50,000 miles from earth instead of 230,000 miles, all the ocean on earth would be sucked by the moon and land mass would be submerged. These are but a tiny fraction of the movement of the universe but all this precise distances and circulations tell us of a wonderful design that is in place.

The law of cause and effect tells us that for every phenomenon, there must be a cause. If a watch keeps time accurately, there must be a watchmaker who made it. If a house stands magnificently on a hill or cliff, there must be a builder who built it. If a garden is well-trimmed, then there must be a gardener who takes care of it. In the same way, the obvious design behind the universe speaks of a Creator who has caused these things to appear the way they are.

In physics, there is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that any physical system left to itself will decay and become disorderly. Yet the whole universe and particularly on earth, remain highly organized. There is order and design in everything that we see. A former head of the nuclear physics department in the Institute of Physics in Kiev, Dr. Boris P. Dotsenko, who was taught in atheism, wrote in relation of the Second Law: "As I thought about all of that, it suddenly dawned on me that there must be a very powerful organizing force counteracting this disorganizing tendency within nature, keeping the universe controlled and in order. This force must not be material; otherwise, it too would become disordered. I concluded that this power must be both omnipotent and omniscient. There must be a God -- one God -- controlling everthing!"

Throughout history some people have at times opposed the idea of God. The very fact that they have opposed it means that God is there. The fact that some rebellious sons disown their fathers means that they do have a father. The fact that some people try to tear dow the family means that the family is a reality. The law of inference tells us that opposition to anything presupposes that the thing itself exists.

Consider what the universe tells us about God. Psalm 19:1 says that "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands." The universe speaks of God's glory and wisdom. The God who created the universe is powerful, glorious, and wise.

Likewise, if you wish to know the universe, you must know God. This is because the universe displays and declares "both his eternal and divine characteristics"(Rom 1:20). So how do I know that God exists? Because the universe exists to declare God!



Thoughts and fact taken from Crystallization Study of the Gospel of God, The Ministry of the Word Vol. 13, No. 7. July 2009, and There is God booklet, LSM

3 comments:

Kat said...

i agree, neil. and another proof is the human body and all other living things for that matter.

The human body is such a perfect creation that all organs work in sync with each other. From each strand of hair, each bone, each muscle, to the tiniest cell... surely, things just don't exist for no reason, and to exist in such an organized manner, it's incomprehensible.

Sir Qamelot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sir Qamelot said...

Yes Kat, the very existence of man speaks of God's existence. Even just taking the human heart which pumps 72x a minute, 40 million times a year, while one is sleeping or awake. Every day an adult heart pumps blood through 100,000 miles of blood vessels enough to travel around the world 4 times. Who could have designed such a wondrous organ within man? it's really immense and amazing.