I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (18 page)

Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias, codiscoverer of the radiation afterglow, put it this way: “Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing and delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life. In the absence of an absurdly-improbable accident, the observations of modern science seem to suggest an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan.”
⁷

Cosmologist Ed Harrison uses the word “proof” when he considers the implications of the Anthropic Principle on the question of God. He writes, “Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God—the design argument of Paley—updated and refurbished. The fine-tuning of the universe provides
prima facie
evidence of deistic design.”
⁸

P
ROOF FOR
G
OD
! H
OW
D
O
A
THEISTS
R
ESPOND
?

How do atheists respond to this “proof for God”? Some atheists admit there’s some kind of Designer out there. Astronomer Fred Hoyle had his atheism shaken by the Anthropic Principle and the complexity he saw in life (which we’ll cover in the next two chapters). Hoyle concluded, “A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.”
⁹
While Hoyle was vague about just who this “super intellect” is, he recognized that the fine-tuning of the universe requires intelligence.

Other atheists admit design but then claim there is no Designer. They say it all happened by chance. But how can they seriously suggest chance when there’s virtually zero probability that all of the 100-plus constants would be as they are in the absence of intelligence? It’s not easy. Atheists have had to resort to wild speculation to give chance more of a chance. Their speculation is called the Multiple Universe Theory.

According to the Multiple Universe Theory, there actually are an infinite number of universes in existence, and we just happen to be lucky enough to be in the universe with the right conditions. Given an infinite number of universes, these atheists say, every set of conditions will occur, including the life-supporting conditions of our universe.

There are multiple problems with this multiple-universe explanation. First, and most significantly,
there’s no evidence for it!
The evidence shows that all of finite reality came into existence with the Big Bang. Finite reality is exactly what we call “the universe.” If other finite realities exist, they’re beyond our ability to detect. No one has ever observed any evidence that such universes may exist. That’s why this multiple universe idea is nothing more than a metaphysical concoction—a fairy tale built on blind faith—as detached from reality as Stephen Hawking’s “imaginary time.”

Second, as we discussed in the last chapter, an infinite number of finite things—whether we’re talking about days, books, bangs, or universes—is an actual impossibility. There can’t be an unlimited number of limited universes.

Third, even if other universes could exist, they would need fine-tuning to get started just as our universe did (recall the extreme precision of the Big Bang we described in the last chapter). So positing multiple universes doesn’t eliminate the need for a Designer—it
multiplies
the need for a Designer!

Fourth, the Multiple Universe Theory is so broad that
any event
can be explained away by it. For example, if we ask, “Why did the planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?” we need not blame Muslim terrorists: the theory lets us say that we just happen to be in
the
universe where those planes—though they appeared to be flown deliberately into the buildings—actually hit the buildings by accident. With the Multiple Universe Theory we can even let Hitler off the hook. Perhaps we just happen to be in
the
universe where the Holocaust appeared to be murder, but actually the Jews secretly conspired with the Germans and sent themselves to the ovens. In fact, the Multiple Universe Theory is so broad that it can even be used to excuse the atheists who made it up. Perhaps we just happen to be in
the
universe where people are irrational enough to suggest that such nonsense is the truth!

In the end, the Multiple Universe Theory is simply a desperate attempt to avoid the implications of design. It doesn’t multiply chances, it multiplies absurdities. It’s akin to the
Apollo 13
astronauts denying the fact that NASA designed and built their spacecraft in favor of the unsupported theory that there are an infinite number of naturally occurring spacecraft out there and the astronauts are just lucky to be on one that happens to support life. Such a theory is, of course, nonsense, and its obvious absurdity reveals how strong the evidence for design really is. Extreme evidence calls for extreme theories to explain it away.

G
OD
? “L
OOK TO THE
H
EAVENS
”

On February 1, 2003, President George W. Bush solemnly peered into a TV camera to address the American people: “My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country. At 9:00 A.M. this morning, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with our Space Shuttle
Columbia
. A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas. The
Columbia
is lost; there are no survivors.”
¹⁰

Traveling at 12,500 miles per hour,
Columbia
disintegrated as it attempted to reenter the earth’s atmosphere. The second great shuttle tragedy left the nation shaken but not deterred. “The cause in which they died will continue,” the president vowed. “Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.”

Yet any human journey into space will penetrate only a tiny fraction of it. There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and the average distance between those stars is 30 trillion miles. (By the way, this distance is another anthropic constant. If the stars were closer together or farther apart, planetary orbits would be affected.)

How far is 30 trillion miles? Let’s put it this way: when the space shuttle is in orbit, it travels at about 17,000 miles an hour—
almost 5
miles per second.
If you could get in the Space Shuttle and speed through space at nearly five miles per second, it would take you 201,450
years
to travel 30 trillion miles! In other words, if you had gotten into the Space Shuttle at the time of Christ and begun traveling from our sun toward another star an average distance away, you would be only
one-hundredth
of the way there right now. Incredible.

Now keep in mind that’s just between
two
of the 100 billion stars in
our galaxy.
How many stars are there in the entire universe?
The number
of stars in the universe is about equal to the number of sand grains
on all the beaches on all the earth.
And at five miles per second it will take you over 200,000 years to go from one grain of sand to another! The heavens are
awesome.

The Bible tells us to “look to the heavens” if we want to get an idea of what God is like. Expressing the Teleological Argument long before Newton and Paley, David wrote in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” A couple of centuries later the prophet Isaiah posed a question from God: “‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One” (40:25). The answer is in the next verse: “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens” (v. 26). Isaiah goes on to say that God knows all of heaven’s stars by name!

Why does God tell us to compare him with the heavens? Because God has no limits, and from our perspective neither do the heavens. God is the unlimited limiter—the uncreated Creator—of all things. He’s the self-existing, infinite Being who created this vast and beautiful universe out of nothing and who holds it all together today. There’s only one entity in our experience that can provide an analogy to the infinity of God. An image intended to depict God won’t do.
¹¹
It merely limits his majesty. Only the heavens scream out infinity.

Infinity is what describes each of God’s attributes including his power, knowledge, justice, and love. This is why the Bible uses the heavens to help us grasp the infinite height of God’s love. Psalm 103:11 says, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who revere him.” How high are the heavens above the earth? When you consider that there are 30 trillion miles between stars as numerous as grains of beach sand, you might as well say, “the heavens are infinitely high.” Indeed, and that’s the height of God’s love.

God’s infinite love is perhaps what led President Bush to quote Isaiah in his tribute to
Columbia’s
crew: “In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.’ The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.”
¹²

C
ONCLUSION

Nearly 2,000 years ago, Paul wrote, near the beginning of his letter to the Romans, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” The evidence for a Designer certainly is clear in creation, but we often take it for granted.

C. S. Lewis, in his classic book
The Screwtape Letters,
provides a great insight into this tendency we have to take for granted the amazing world all around us. The senior demon, Screwtape, writes some advice to his junior demon, Wormwood, on how to keep people from becoming Christians. Screwtape writes, “Keep pressing home on him the
ordinariness
of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defense against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see. There have been sad cases among modern physicists.”
¹³
The “sad cases” are, of course, physicists who have been honest with the evidence they’ve seen and have become Christians.

Lewis has hit on a tendency many of us have. In our fast-paced lives, we rarely stop and observe the world around us and, therefore, tend to consider every amazing facet of this beautiful universe as ordinary. But as we have seen, it is anything but ordinary. Now science is showing us like at no other time in history that this is a universe of incredible design and complexity. It’s giving us a new perspective on a world that we too often take for granted.

Astronauts get a new perspective from their spaceships that helps them realize this universe is anything but ordinary. When the first astronauts passed over the surface of the moon and saw the
earth
rise—something no human being had ever seen before—they reverently read from the book of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” What else would fit the moment? A recitation of the Multiple Universe Theory certainly wouldn’t have expressed the awe the astronauts were experiencing. They witnessed design from an angle no one had ever seen before and were overwhelmed with the realization that the amazing creation requires an amazing Creator. John Glenn echoed their convictions when, at seventy-seven years old, he looked out of the Space Shuttle
Discovery
and remarked, “To look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible.”

The raw impact of their experiences reveals the intuitive nature of the Teleological Argument. You don’t need anyone to tell you that something beautifully designed requires a designer. It’s practically self-evident. Nevertheless, let’s state the argument formally again, with emphasis on what we’ve discovered in this chapter:

1. Every design had a designer.

2. As verified by the Anthropic Principle, we know
beyond a reasonable
doubt
that the universe is designed.

3. Therefore, the universe had a Designer.

There’s no plausible explanation for the Anthropic Principle other than a Cosmic Designer. Atheists must take extreme measures to deny the obvious. When they dream up hypothetical theories that are not supported by any evidence—and in fact are actually impossible—they have left the realm of reason and rationality and entered into the realm of blind faith. Physicist Paul Davies writes, “one may find it easier to believe in an infinite array of universes than in an infinite Deity, but such a belief must rest on faith rather than observation.”
¹⁴

Believing without observation is exactly what atheists accuse “religious” people of doing. But, ironically, it’s the atheists who are pushing a religion of blind faith. Christians have good reasons based on obser- vation (such as the Big Bang and the Anthropic Principle) for believing what they believe. Atheists don’t.
That’s why we don’t have enough faith
to be atheists.

This blind faith of the atheist reveals that the rejection of a Designer is not a
head
problem—it’s not as if we lack evidence or intellectual justification for a Designer. On the contrary, the evidence is impressive. What we have here is a
will
problem—some people, despite the evidence, simply don’t
want
to admit there’s a Designer. In fact, one critic of the Anthropic Principle admitted to the
New York Times
that his real objection was “totally emotional” because “it smells of religion and intelligent design.”
¹⁵
So much for scientific objectivity.