Signs in the Heavens and the Earth

In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day,
there are signs for those who possess intelligence.
(3:190)

A great puzzle facing science today is why there is a universe, why there is something instead of nothing. Calculations show that if exploding power of the Big Bang were only slightly different, the whole thing would have collapsed to nothingness, or it would have expanded so rapidly that no two particles would have had time to coalesce to form atoms, molecules, etc. “Slightly” does not mean one percent, or even a fraction of one percent, but it means so slightly that it is impossible even to imagine. The force had to be fine-tuned, precisely measured to 60 decimal places. Yet disbelievers deny this irrefutable evidence of God’s design by attributing it to chance. Yes, they say, there was only 1 in 10^60 (ten to the power of 60) chance, but somehow it happened. Remember even this tiny chance, as they call it, refers only to a simple lump of matter, not to a beautiful universe of cats, dogs, people, etc. That would have been even infinitely more improbable.

A related puzzle is why we have a universe and not a multi-universe. Why we have a unified whole, all things literally related, all obeying the same comprehensible laws, a most unexpected phenomena in an accidental universe. Scientists admit that this is the most incomprehensible of all, unless of course, one believes in God and God’s design.

We did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them except for a specific purpose. (15:85)

Most of the scientific evidence for design arguments has been discovered in the 20th century. Before that it was really a question of faith. It was believed as taught by the church, for example, that God created the earth and then created the sun as a perfect sphere to shine. So when Galileo turned his telescope toward the sun and saw the dark spots (we call sunspots now), he was immediately condemned by the church because supposedly God had made the sun perfect and there could not be any blemishes on it, no spots, dark or otherwise.

With the progress of science and the realization of the vastness of the cosmos, the idea that the earth and human beings were special lost its credibility. Then beginning with the 20th century and especially in the last 40 to 50 years, the situation has changed. Detailed studies of fundamental constants and laws of nature gave very powerful evidence that not only were they designed but specifically designed for the benefit of man and evolution of life on earth as we know it.

He is the One who designed for you all things on earth, then turned to the sky and perfected the heavens (2:29)

Many of the laws and special features of the universe, from charge of electron to mass of proton to speed of light, and so on, have baffled science and defied explanation not because they have a certain size, speed, or mass but because, in every case, a particular size, speed, or charge happens to be the only one that can produce life as we know it and none other.

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