Creation Vs. Accident

“Look at creation alone, the idea of this world coming into creation from nothing, that this world was brought into being and is actually there in its beauty, in its energy, in its specified complexity, as John Polkinghorn (professor of quantum theory at Cambridge) under whom I had the privilege of taking a couple of courses. John Polkinghorne in one of his books makes this comment ‘if you examine the early relationship between expansion and contraction forces in the early pico seconds of the universe, you will see that the exactitude was so precise that the margin of error and the precision required would be like taking aim at a one square inch object twenty billion light-years away (on the other end of the universe) and hitting that bulls eye.’ Can you, do you know what a pico second is? A pico second is the time it takes something traveling at the speed of light to cross the distance of a hair’s breadth. We can’t even think of that, it’s just there in theory. But the specific complexity. Now listen to this paragraph that was spoken by a non-theist his name is Chundra Viccgrammasinger. He’s professor of applied mathematics at the University of Cardath in Wales. He’s a Sri Lankan and a Buddhist. Buddhists are non-theists, not atheists. And he was a colleague of Sir Fredrick Hoyle, the great astronomer. Now, you may not know what ten to the forty-thousandth power is, let me explain it. All of the atoms in the entire universe are only ten to the eightieth power, the possibility of the enzymes coming together are one in ten to the forty-thousandth power; which means less probable than all of the numbers of all of the atoms of all of the known galaxies of the universe. That’s only the enzyme, that then builds the gene and that then builds the cell. Chundra Viccgrammasinger speaking to the judge at the Arkansas trial on design or accident here’s what he says: ‘Random trial is only one part in then to the forty-thousandth power, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup. If one is not prejudiced either by social beliefs or by a scientific training into the conviction that life originated on the earth, this simple calculation wipes the idea entirely out of court. The enormous information contact of even the simplest living cell cannot in argue be generated by what are often called natural processes. For life to have originated on the earth it would be necessary that quite explicit instructions should have been provided for its assembly. There is no way in which we can expect to avoid the need for information, no way in which we can simply get by with a bigger and better organic soup as we ourselves hope might be possible a year or two ago.’ Now after something like this do you know what the ACLU lawyer stood up and said, fascinating. He says this: ‘But judge, anything would look like design after the fact. For example, sixty thousand people may come and show up at a football game, no body would ever expected that type of assembly of people for a particular football game.’ Chundra Viccgrammasinger couldn’t help laughing. He said: ‘Judge, I don’t think this man understands probability. The first thing I want to say to you is that the example he just used actually proves design and not accident. Number one, they knew there was a football game going on, number two, they bought tickets for it. Had they every football game they attended accidentally sat sixty thousand in alphabetical order every time, then he might have a case and point.’ That’s the problem, now here’s the real crux. Chundra Viccgrammasinger then is asked ‘If you say mathematically, this would is impossible by accident, how do you believe it came to be if you are a non-theist yourself?’ You know what he said, ‘Some spaceship, from another planet, must have brought spores to seed the earth. And that’s how it came into being.’ Who is having faith now?” – Ravi Zacharias PhD

Robert Jastrow's quotes

"Now we see how the astronomical evidence supports the biblical view of the origin of the world....the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same. Consider the enormousness of the problem : Science has proved that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks: 'What cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter or energy into the universe?' And science cannot answer these questions.

"The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same...

There is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always believed the word of the Bible. But we scientists did not expect to find evidence for an abrupt beginning because we have had, until recently, such extraordinary success in tracing the chain of cause and effect backward in time...

At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

"There is a strange ring of feeling and emotion in these reactions [of scientists to evidence that the universe had a sudden beginning]. They come from the heart whereas you would expect the judgements to come from the brain. Why? I think part of the answer is that scientists cannot bear the thought of a natural phenomenon which cannot be explained, even with unlimited time and money. There is a kind of religion in science, it is the religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the universe, and every effect must have its cause, there is no first cause...

"This religious faith of the scientist is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover. When that happens, the scientist has lost control...