As college students, many of us have high opinions of our own intellects. We view ourselves as rational creatures and believe there is a scientific explanation for all natural phenomena. Case in point: Many of us believe the universe began some 15 billion years ago with a “big bang,” and human life arose on Earth by the Darwinistic process of evolution.
However, there are limits to the powers of human intellect. People who cite evolution and the big-bang theory as though they were fact, and scoff at those who pursue supernatural explanations for the origins of life and the universe, are hypocrites.
The truth is the big-bang theory and the theory of evolution are every bit as groundless as the idea of divine creation.
The big-bang theory states that at the beginning of time the universe was contained in an infinitesimally small point, which immediately blew up and conglomerated into its present state.
However, the big-bang theory does not explain a darned thing about the origins of the universe. It claims that originally all the matter in the universe was condensed into a single point. But, so what? Where did the point come from? Where did all the matter come from?
Many scientific-types like to pretend the big-bang theory is logically superior to the idea of divine creation. But, really, it is less satisfactory, because it offers no explanation, not even a supernatural one, for the origin of things.
Evolution is another issue on which many rationalistic muckity-mucks like to look down on the spiritually minded. Evolution, as the entire world knows, states life began in the “primordial soup” of early earth, and through natural selection those early cells and amoebas evolved into trees, platypuses and people.
Where did that first cell come from? How did life begin? The answer usually given is, “Uhh, lightning struck the ocean, and that created life.”
But since when does lightning create life? If a woman goes outside in a thunderstorm and is struck by lightning, does she become pregnant? No, she dies. The function of lightning is to electrocute, not impregnate.
Science has never been able to answer the question satisfactorily of how life began. Once one accepts life began, evolution is a fine and completely satisfactory theory. But from whence came the first cell?
The big-bang theory and the theory of evolution are very similar in the way they operate. They begin their explanation immediately after some incomprehensible phenomenon, carry that initial state to the present, and claim to have given the end-all and be-all on a fundamental question.
But they’re cop-outs. They reveal nothing about true beginnings.
If you corner a scientist and ask him where the cosmic point of the big-bang theory came from, or how life originated, he will be forced to admit, “I don’t know.” And if scientists don’t know, all their research and all their great theories are basically nullified. Science must admit the universe and life originated in circumstances we cannot explain; and if they cannot explain how the universe came about, then how is their stance in any way superior to religionists who found their creation-doctrine on God? True, we cannot understand an eternal, omniscient God; but we can’t understand the Big Bang or evolution, either.
The big-bang theory implies that at the moment of creation, the Universe was so dense the current laws of physics had no meaning. I’d like to expand this proposition, and state at the beginning of the universe, the laws of logic had no meaning.
Indeed, it is possible to prove this. There could have been no “beginning of time,” since the notion of “beginning” presupposes time. But if the universe has always existed, then there must have been infinity of time before I was born, and since infinity of time would take forever, I should never have been born at all.
Since the laws of logic don’t apply to creation, there’s no reason to suppose there is any unique truth about universal origins. The scientists are right, and the creationists are right too. These respective sides need to acknowledge the equal validity of their respective positions and leave each other in peace. There’s no point in arguing about something we can’t understand.
E-mail Jeff at [email protected]