The more we study nature, the more we find evidence for the accuracy of the Bible.
If there seems to be disagreement between science and what we find in scripture, we just have to wait until we do more science; the historical trendline shows that what the Bible teaches is what science eventually discovers. In an ironic “God of the Gaps” situation, science is filling in the so-called gaps, but instead of disproving God and making Christianity less reasonable, what we find increasingly points us toward an intelligent creator whose characteristics match that of the God of the Bible.
One of the most tested, and confirmed, scientific theories of our time is that all matter, energy, and time had a beginning. Creation out of nothing is one of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Jews and Christians have held this view for thousands of years, despite the fact that scientists taught otherwise. The Aristotelian view of the universe as eternal was the standard scientific model for 2000 years prior to the mid to late 20thcentury when we started to discover that the universe actually had a beginning!The Bible has always maintained that the universe had a beginning. Science took until about 50 years ago to confirm that it does.
Genesis 1 describes the creation of light as God separating the light from the darkness.[1]Haya, the Hebrew verb used in Genesis 1:3 is translated as “Let there be” and implies that the creation of light came about by allowing nature to run its supernaturally directed course. This verb is typically not used when referring to something coming into existence for the first time.[2] This agrees with current scientific theory because the light was able to separate from the darkness as the universe went through its natural course of expanding and cooling.
When the universe first came into existence, it was so hot that photons could not travel through the plasma without interacting with the other particles (electrons and baryons) in the plasma. This resulted in an opaque universe until about 380,000 years after creation. As the universe expanded and cooled, electrons were able to bind to nuclei, allowing photons to finally pass freely through the universe without being scattered; which could be described as “light separating from the darkness.” While the Bible has always taught this, we didn’t discover this first appearance of light until Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias detected the microwave background radiation in 1964.
Relativity theory provides another example of recent science confirming what the Bible has always taught.
It is, in fact, one of the inevitable conclusions of relativity theory that the whole of space-time must have a real and continuing existence – regardless of our perception of time as being divided into past, present and future. If you doubt my word, physicist Brian Greene sets out detailed arguments to prove this and concludes: ‘Just as we envision all of space as really being out there, as really existing, we should also envision all of time as really being out there, as really exiting too.’ The biblical idea that God surveys all of time is therefore predictive of what has only recently become apparent to science.[3]
Biology is providing some of the best evidence for a Creator; ironically in an area that originally was touted as the best proof against the God of the Bible.
At one time, many researchers viewed shared junk DNA sequences as the most compelling evidence for common descent and, hence, biological evolution. This made shared junk DNA sequences one of the most significant scientific challenges to the biblical creation model. Yet, over the last decade, numerous studies have demonstrated that practically every class of junk DNA displays function.[4]
DNA design is elegant, ingenious, and optimally designed for its role in the cell as a molecular-scale information storage system. Biochemists believe that DNA approaches the theoretical maximum in terms of its digital storage capacity.[5]There are several key structural features of DNA that are responsible for its optimal data storage properties. Emerging data indicates the components which make up the nucleotides appear to have been chosen carefully with every detail of DNA’s structure critically factored into this molecule information-storage role. The components must give the DNA maximum stability while still allowing for protein binding to occur.[6]
One kilogram of DNA can store all the digital data that currently exists. This exquisite optimization of DNA’s structure indicates that it is not the outworking of a historically contingent evolutionary process; instead extreme optimization points to a creator. Computer scientists and molecular biologists have come to realize that the cells machinery, which manipulates DNA, literally functions like a computer system at its most basic level of operation. DNA is a code, as well as a language; the only source of which is a mind. When DNA was discovered in the 1950’s, science confirmed what the Bible had always taught – that a mind created life.
…the fact that all physical life consists essentially of language – coded information that is in turn constructed, stored, communicated, interpreted and acted upon. What else would we expect of a Creator who “speaks” all things into existence?[7]
Investigation into the origin of life itself is providing more evidence for a Creator. The excitement created by the Miller-Urey Experiment in the 1950’s and the thought that life could occur naturally in a “warm little pond” has gradually waned in the last 30 years as we find that natural mechanisms are inadequate to explain the first life. We have found no evidence for pre-biotic chemicals on early earth and definitely not in the concentrations needed to produce life. We have also discovered that Earth was not habitable until 3.9 to 3.8 billion years ago, but yet all kinds of bacteria, including the very advanced Cyanobacteria, were present on earth almost immediately after conditions became habitable. Origin of life investigations are showing that life appeared suddenly, very early in history and in a biologically complex state; exactly what we would expect if life were created.
Staying in biology, evolutionary studies are finding that many of the mutations that occur are not random with respect to survival needs, rather they are under some kind of algorithmic control; there exists some kind of preprogrammed adaptive capacity built into organisms that allow them to respond to various kinds of environmental stressors. So instead of random mutations causing a change that can give an organism a survival advantage, science is discovering a “God-given” ability to adapt to changes.
Since God created the universe and tells us several times in scripture to look at nature to learn about Him, we should expect that the more we study nature, the more we will find evidence for God and the accuracy of the Bible.[8]The trendline has been very clear over the last 50 years in every area of science: The more we study nature, the more proof we have for the God of the Bible.
[1]Genesis 1:3-4 ESV
[2]The Bigger Picture on Creation, Krista Kay Bontrager, Reasons to Believe, 2008
[3]Edgar Andrews, Who Made God? Searching For A Theory of Everything, EP Books, 2009, page 113
[4]https://www.reasons.org/explore/publications/tnrtb/read/tnrtb/2015/12/17/three-(more)-reasons-why-junk-dna-is-no-longer-evidence-for-evolution
[5]The Inspirational Design of DNA, by Fazale R. Rana, PhD, published in Chapter 3 of Building Bridges, 2018 by Reasons to Believe.
[6]ibid
[7]Edgar Andrews, Who Made God? Searching For A Theory of Everything, EP Books, 2009, page 194
[8]https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2018/07/doing-science-teaches-us-about-god.html
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