How Science Discovered God - Part 1
HOW DID THE UNIVERSE BEGIN? HOW long will it last? It appears fine-tuned specifi- cally to support life such as we have on earth. Why? How did that come to be?
The revolutionary advancement in cos- mology and the most advanced theories now being explored
and tested demand answers to these questions; and world- renowned experts in cosmology, quantum physics, and global general relativity are currently engaged in a serious and vigorous quest for answers. Without such answers, the entire scheme of knowledge about reality and about our segment of the universe would fail to satisfy the rigorous demands of logic.
In search of answers, scientists have been forced by their own theories to consider seriously the theological implica- tions of quantum cosmology1 and the anthropic cosmologi- cal principles2 concerning a Creator-God. In the early stages of development of quantum cosmology, scientists did consid- er the teachings of non-Christian (polytheistic) religions. But after much debate and study, they’ve come to the shock- ing conclusion that the traditional claims of Judeo-Christian theology concerning God and the origin of our universe best fit the implications of quantum cosmology and the anthropic cosmological principles.
In his recent book on the physics of immortality, Frank J. Tipler makes the following confession: “When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a con- vinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the
laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics.”
In June 1998 the world’s leading experts in the field of cosmology and astronomy, including such giants as Stephen Hawking, attended a conference of scientists, theologians, and others at the University of California at Berkeley. The subject of the conference was the conflict and convergence between science and religion. Two questions attracted con- siderable attention among participants: 1. Is there enough evidence to warrant belief in God? 2. Is there something
to the claims of anthropic cosmological principles that warrants an in-depth study? The answer to both questions was yes.
Writer W. Wayt Gibbs, reporting on the conference, posed this question: “Is there sufficient evidence to support a belief in a Judeo-Christian God?” Then he writes as follows: “Although many scientists working in the U.S. would doubtless agree with Sandage that ‘you have to answer the question of what is “sufficient” for yourself,’ recent polls sug- gest that most of them would nonetheless answer no. But the program for this conference . . . [included] some two dozen scientists, nearly all of them at the top of their fields, who have arrived at a different conclusion.”
By employing the most rigorous logic and the most advanced, sophisticated methods and experiments, cosmolo- gists and astronomers are now painting an astonishingly inter- esting picture of God, a picture that stands in stark contrast with the limited picture of the Creator-God presented by some Christian theologians, religious publications, clergy, and lay Christians. Professor Tipler, currently one of the mostvocal supporters of Judeo-Christian the- ology (but who is not himself a church- going person), is genuinely concerned about the future of theology, so much so that he is publicly advocating its inclusion into physics. In his recent book he contends that “it is time scientists reconsider the God hypothesis.” “I hope in this book to persuade them to do so,” he says. “The time has come to absorb theology into physics, to make Heaven as real as an electron.”
Throughout the book Professor Tipler asserts again and again that religion is now part of science and that theology is physics. What prompted such a shocking change of mind concerning the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology?
For more of this text: www.adventisti-toronto.org/upload/article/indefense.pdf
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