3 Compelling Reasons that Tie the Big Bang to God and Creation
Science, math, and logic come together
I only believe what science can prove is a popular statement. It is the go-to statement when you want to stop a religious discussion from getting started.
The most effective delivery of this statement, I’ve noticed, has a pattern: The person saying it stops and looks at you straight in the eye and says, “I only believe what science can prove”. Then there is a slight nod still holding eye contact followed by a momentary pause setting the stage for the person who says it, to turn and walk away leaving behind a trail of silence. The method, when done correctly, can be impressive for some spectators.
For those that believe in God, observing the wonders of creation is enough to validate God’s existence. Yet, those of us who see and even have experienced injustice, who have experienced loss and failure, sickness and senseless death can rightfully ask, “Where was God in all this?”
Stephen Hawking
The late Steven Hawking, a theoretical physicist, and cosmologist wrote in his book, Brief Answers to Big Questions, that he made a choice. He said: “Is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can’t understand or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second”.¹
Based on Quantum Mechanics, Hawking wrote that sub-atomic particles appear from unknown sources. Therefore, since the universe was once the size of a sub-atomic particle it is feasible that the universe might have generated itself during the big bang thus, starting time along with it.².
For Hawking, this meant that there is no possibility of a creator since a creator would have to exist before time.³.
Hawking believed that there was not enough scientific evidence in the physical universe within the scope and rules of science to show proof of the existence of a creator.
From a purely scientific perspective based on demonstrable and reproducible data, Hawking was right.
Mathematics can help us transcend science into a fresh perspective
Before Einstein’s theory of relativity, mass was expressed in terms of weight affected by a gravitational field.
Einstein’s mathematical equation from his theory of relativity, E=mc², suggested that mass, when accelerated, becomes energy. This concept provided insight so that scientists could develop, among other things, an atomic bomb.
Math can provide science with important insights. In contrast, science would be hard-pressed to explain a mathematical concept such as Pi (π). For example, you can’t count the number of πs on a petri dish, however, π is an important tool used to describe material objects in science.
Astrophysicist Geraint Lewis and cosmologist Luke Barnes provide an analysis of cosmic coincidences.
Lewis and Barnes discuss Hoyle’s discovery of resonance of exact energy for helium and beryllium collision to produce a carbon nucleus. The resonance has to be precise within 1%. If not, then electrons will repel each other or fall apart. There would be no carbon or any heavier elements anywhere in the universe for life to form.⁴
Another cosmic coincidence is that the universe is remarkably orderly. The universe continues to expand and sustains galaxies full of stars, planets, black holes, and you name it.
Mathematically, the universe should be in a highly disordered state. The odds that the universe is ordered enough to create and sustain the chemistry needed for life on a single planet is 1 in 1010123. These are extremely low odds yet life exists.⁵
Mathematics can provide science with a way to look at things differently.
Logic can help explain what Science and Mathematics can’t
Science can tell us that around 13.7 billion years ago there was a big bang that caused the beginning of time, space, matter, and energy.
Mathematics can help science realize that the odds subsequent to the big band could have failed take place — but they didn’t.
Logic can help explain what caused the big bang and what causes the universe to continue to expand for as long as it has.
Logic makes use of universal statements that are self-evident which means that these statements can stand true. They require no further evidence.
Like science and mathematics, logic is also structured with hard and fast rules and limits.
Logic is not religious. Logic is used by disciplines such as law to make arguments and laws. Logic is used to support philosophical ideas. Religion uses logic to support arguments of faith and reason.
You can try to fake an argument intentionally or by mistake but the rules of logic will prove an argument false if it doesn’t meet its definitions.
Logic can help explain questions like “What caused the big bang?”
Argument for causation
Simply stated, the argument for causation says that without a doubt, that everything that comes into being must have something or someone that caused it to happen. For example, you could not have given birth to yourself. Something caused you to exist — parents, for example.
This universal statement is self-evident that everything that comes into being must have a cause. It indicates that there was something that caused the big bang. The big bang then caused effects that led to the beginning of time, space, matter, and energy, and then life to exists.
Notice that this cause does not rely on any form of religion or any form of science or mathematics. It stands alone and is self-evident that something caused our universe to exist.
Since everything that comes into being must have a cause, whether finite or infinite, there must have been a first cause that started the chain of finite or infinite causes.
This first cause is what is called God.
A step further
There are many questions that can be considered about the first causer: Did it create our universe and then just go away? Is this first cause still with us? Is this first cause intelligent? Does this first cause even know we’re here and, if so, to what extent?
We can observe that 13.7 billion years ago there was an explosion less than the size of a pinhead that could have collapsed and faded away but didn’t.
Also, the resonance of exact energy required for the formation of the basic building blocks of life didn’t have to happen either.
We observe the universe works in a remarkable order even though probability states that the universe should be in chaos.
The perfect conditions needed to form complex DNA that enables humanity to exist didn’t have to happen either.
The argument for contingency
The logical argument for contingency explains that things could be different; things could either exist or not exist.
The argument for contingency states that all things that come into existence could have been different and could easily not have existed.
Why did everything we need to exist happen? How was all of this possible without some outside power to orchestrate this precise balance of elementary particles required for the creation of life?⁶
If we argue that it was millions of years of evolution that caused this to happen. If we argue that it was sheer chance that all these things evolved by probability then the chances are against it.
It would be logical to suggest that, given the probabilities, it is more reasonable that there was intelligence at work and that creation was done with intention.
In this case this first cause, this creator, this what we call a god created the universe and everything in it intentionally and intelligently.
Logic indicates that we have a connection to what we call God
So now we have a first cause, a creator, a god that has been reasoned through logic. It is now possible to use this perspective to observe the chain of events that took place since creation. It is possible to conclude that because of the highly unlikely probability of these things ever happening that this causation was done intentionally and intelligently.
Logic indicates that this intelligent god may continue to interact with the universe and in doing so may be interacting with us.
The priests and thinkers of the earliest biblical times since around 1500 b.c. explained this first cause and its interaction with humanity in the language and style of the time. They did this so that people living at that time could understand.
These priests, called Yahwists and Deuteronomists, wrote about the story of creation done by an intelligent God and that this same God created humanity and that it was good. (Genesis 1:27–31)
They wrote about Moses being called by God in the form of a burning bush (Exodus 3:4)
They and other authors of sacred scripture hundreds of years after them wrote, not about man’s quest for meaning and purpose, but about God’s quest for humanity.
The argument for desire
A 2014 study done by Pew Research found that at some time or another everyone prays. Even atheists said they’ve prayed.⁶
One logical universal statement says that we can’t desire what we don’t already know about. This is called the argument of desire.
We desire God because God desires us.
We reach out and talk to God the best way we know. We seek God in happiness and in sadness, in sickness and in health. We seek God when things go well and when they don’t. We seek God even though we are not religious, even though we can’t see God.
Philosopher and theologian Robert Barron says that it is not so much that we seek God but it is God that is seeking us. He quotes Dominican theologian, Herbert McCabe: “Whatever is valuable in our prayer (when I ask God for something of value) it is always already God praying in me.
Key take away
Science plays a part in revealing God’s existence within its rules and constraints but it takes all three — science, mathematics, and logic to provide the bigger picture of God’s existence.
If you’ve been inspired to connect with God, the good news is that you don’t have to look far because God has already found you. God has already found you.
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Additional Sources:1,2,3. Hawking, Stephen. Brief Answers to the Big Questions (pgs. 34,37-38). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.4,5. Lewis, Geraint and Barnes, Luke. 2016, 2020. A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos. Carbon Resonance and the Strong Force. Pages 115–120. The Low Entropy State of the Universe. Pages 124–126.Kindle Edition6. Verschuuren, Dr. Gerard. A Catholic Scientist Proves God Exists . Sophia Institute Press. Kindle Edition.
