I was raised in a church so that affects my worldview. The Christian tradition says that God created the world, both visible and invisible. Our job is to discover how things work so we can be productive. My father oversaw a huge mining operation. He did it with skill and fortitude, developing new machines the company patented. He used ecological methods ahead of his time. While I have a faith-based value system, I ascribe to a scientific worldview. You can do both with integrity; without compromise.
Anytime a scientist takes a stand for truth that cuts across the grain, it is significant. Too many people won't risk their career by saying something against the party line. What Dr. Kaku recently said was not politically correct!
Dr. Michio Kaku is a renowned theoretical physicist, author of Physics of the Impossible. You've likely seen him on television news, commenting on a story that needed an expert's opinion. He's very telegenic, which means he photographs well. Unlike me with my balding head, he has a full head of white hair, lean features, and when he talks, he sounds intelligent. A few weeks ago, he was quoted in Christianity Today magazine. As far as I know, he is not a Christian and doesn't use the Bible as his source for his beliefs. That fact makes what he announced all the more interesting. He made a statement that there is proof of God, and that humans live in a "world made by rules created by an intelligence." Wow!
That quote will be welcomed by theologians who believe in "Intelligent Design." It will alarm academics and scientists who insulate themselves from people of faith or the Bible. It puts him at odds with scientists who twist their ideas like pretzels trying to explain how we got here without a Creator.
Being a Bible-believer, I agree with his statement, since it rings true and it fits what the Bible says. I love science. For decades, columns I've written have said the same thing. But for Dr. Kaku to arrive at this conclusion, with his credentials, is startling and impressive, to say the least.
Dr. Brian Greene, another brilliant scientist, says we live in an "Elegant Universe." That means the unique order and mathematical precision of the elements, atomic bonds, electrical charges, and various forces are precisely balanced. The earth's distance from the sun and the composition of the earth's air and water, and our temperature all seem to be designed to sustain life. This is the mysterious "Anthropic Principle" which even atheist scientists acknowledge. Electrons circle neutrons at just the right distance. The spiral DNA coiled up inside every living cell, with its intricate code to reproduce life, unzips and replicates almost without fail. The order around us keeps chaos at bay so routinely that we take it for granted. Our universe is fine- tuned for life and no one knows why, except us Bible readers!
To say the universe operates based on "rules created by an intelligence" is to acknowledge that there is too much order around us for it to have evolved by chance. We even call some of those forces at work "laws" such as the law of gravity. They are laws that keep order and make things predictable. The world seems to be designed to be inhabited by you and me.
If we are designed, then we have to ask, "Who did it?" Who fine-tuned this world to make it perfect for us and for all the animals, trees, fish, and birds? If our Designer has moral laws, how should we then live?
-- Ron Wood is a writer and minister in Washington County, Ark. Contact him at [email protected] or visit www.touchedbygrace.org. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Religion on 08/25/2016