Why I Believe
Hill Roberts, 2000
I am a scientist; a physicist, to be precise. How can I be both a Christian and a scientist? This is the “dilemma” many believe I should feel, but I don’t. Scientists are suspicious of believers in things other than science, and people of faith are suspicious of anyone who asks for hard evidence. Instead, I have found the two callings to be wonderfully supportive.
Being a scientist, I have learned to trust in physical reality. Atoms never lie. I am awed by the majesty of the design rampant in the physical world as scientists peel back layer after layer of complexity in the underlying designs, only to expose more. Being a Christian scientist, I also seek satisfying answers to the larger questions that transcend physical reality, such as:
Where did I ultimately come from?
Why am I here? What is the point?
How shall I live? Who cares?
What is my future? What do I get out of it?
Science is woefully inadequate to answer such questions. The worldview of naturalism dominates my scientific community. This worldview – which is a philosophy, not science – offers its answers to such questions, but the answers are singularly unsatisfying intellectually. Naturalism suggests only the most naïve answers for these hardest questions.
Where do I
come from? “Just chances of physics and chemistry.”
Why am I here? “No reason, no purpose, just molecular assemblages.”
How shall I live? “However pleases. Life is nothing special.”
What is the future? “Bleak. Hopeless. Nothingness. The End.”
What are the answers I’ve found as a Christian?
Where do I come from? “The transcendent Creator of the whole universe.”
Why am I here? “To be loved by the Creator, and likewise to love.”
How shall I live? “As the Creator intended: holy, redeemed.”
What is the future? “Blessed in Christ, now and eternally.”
I stand in awe and wonder at the physical world. It defies all physical explanation of ultimate cause. The more we discover by way of explaining the connection of physical cause and effect, the more such explanations fail to answer questions of primary cause. The intricate and interwoven design of all nature leads its observers to ask the question, “Why is there anything, instead of just nothing?”
There are allowed only two possible answers from materialistic scientism.
Either it “just happened” by chance. Or, it has always been this way, it “just is.”
The first possibility fails in face of the overwhelming evidence that this universe is finely tuned to support the existence of a long-lived yet dynamic universe, even one capable of supporting intelligent life. Even physicist-skeptics such as Paul Davies and Stephen Hawking readily acknowledge the fine-tuned nature of the universe. Both have tried and both have failed to offer workable naturalistic explanations of beginnings that result in a fine-tuned universe. Mathematician William Demski and other scientists such as Michael Behe have countered with mathematical descriptions of the design complexity (drawing from information theory) which point to intelligent sources for observed design. It is the same principle being used by the SETI program to search for signs of intelligent life in radio signals received from nearby star systems. (By the way, no such messages – other than from humans – have been found.) Complex information must come from sufficiently intelligent sources whether it is a radio message, the fundamental laws of nature, or the DNA language of life.
The second common naturalistic explanation falls flat on its
face right out of the gate: the physical universe has no physical cause, it “just
is.” Naturalism stole this idea wholesale from the theists. Theists have long
held that the Creator has no physical cause, He just is. So naturalists assumed
they could appropriate the same reasoning and simply eliminate the need for a creator
at all. The problem is that the universe is undeniably physical,
it is an “effect.” All physical effects have physical causes. This is the fundamental
premise of naturalistic science; that physical effects have physical causes. Therefore,
the assumption that the set of all physical
effects – the universe – is without cause violates the basic premise of naturalistic
science which stands behind the very question at hand. “No cause” is precisely
no answer. Rather, the universe is manifestly an effect; therefore it must have
a cause. However, that cause CANNOT itself be contained as a sub-element within
the universal effect. The Cause of all physical effects must lie outside
the set of all physical effects. In religious language it must be a transcendent cause. It must be
non-physical, and unbounded by the limits of physical reality. Ergo, what is
impossible for the physical universe is not only sufficient but necessary for a
Cause that is unbounded by physical limitations. While the physical universe
cannot “just be” without cause, a Creator that transcends the physical universe
reasonably could just “be.” Indeed, must be. What name did Moses say the
Creator told him to use? “I Am.” (Exodus
Score a big one for the Christian worldview, right out of the gate.
Furthermore, the transcendent cause must be sufficiently wise and powerful to bring about such an effect as the universe. That includes big bangs, time, energy, mass, matter, atoms, stars, galaxies, molecules, physics and chemistry. Beyond such stupefying effects of power, the universe obviously includes as one of its “effects” the existence of intelligent personal beings able to ask meaningful questions such as “Why?” Therefore, the transcendent creator must be able to create intelligent personages. Since the cause must transcend the effect, the creator must be of a type which includes the capacity for the “fathering” of intelligence, of persons. The transcendent creator must be a personal Creator, capable of transcendent power and wisdom, transcending the wisdom manifest in the designs of physical reality. He would thus be the very “Father” of life and person. Going one step further, the unique ability we have as persons to go beyond mere physical existence into the realm of abstract thought with a desire to communicate those thoughts via language implies a Creator with capabilities that at least includes similar thoughts and desires for communication – possibly even with His creatures, if they share some such similarities with the Creator. It is not unreasonable to expect such a Creator to communicate with us. That raises the challenge of how shall a transcendent Creator communicate with creatures which only at best carry an image of His nature?
Scientists have learned how bees communicate. Scout bees bring back to the hive information about where to go get nectar. They do so by performing a dance on the honeycomb. Using specific motions in the dance, they communicate the direction, distance and quality of nectar to be found at some specific location. Scientists discovered that they communicated by observing the dance. But to learn how the dance worked they had to become a bee. They did this by building a robot bee they could control. By mimicking the dance observed, and incorporating specific motions, scientists were able to learn that the orientation of the dance path indicated direction, the speed of the dance indicated distance, and the intensity of the wagging during the dance indicated the quality. Once they had this information, they could direct the hive to any source they wished. They could speak “bee.” They had to become one of the bees to be able to communicate with bees. Surely you see the relevance concerning God communicating with us.
Since we cannot exit our realm, He must enter into ours, if He is to communicate with us. Our world is a world of time, a world in which stuff happens to things, a physical world of history. History is our dance. If He is going to communicate with us, it will likely be by interacting with us through physical space-time in a series of events – natural history. Hence, the creation itself is by design the primary stage for a transcendent creator communicating His very existence to us through the events of natural history. The physical universe testifies to us of God’s power and His transcendent – divine – nature.
“because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” ( The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:19-20) Hmm…
Long before Paul’s day, David expressed a similar idea in the opening of the 19th Psalm.
The heavens are
telling of the glory of God;
And
their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And
night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there
words;
Their
voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all
the earth,
And
their utterances to the end of the world.
In them He has
placed a tent for the sun,
Which is as
a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices as a
strong man to run his course.
Its rising is from one end of the
heavens,
And
its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is
nothing hidden from its heat.
But what does God want of me?
What is my purpose?
For answers to such questions I will need more than the testimony of natural history. I am the bee and need directions. I need some straight talk. I am like Job who just needed to ask God some questions about the ubiquitous problems of life. Job asked his questions, but God didn’t answer them by Job’s rules. Instead God revealed Himself to Job in a physical whirlwind then chose to ask Job some questions. “Were you there when I created nature? Can you control nature? How would you go about creating justice? Do you understand the forces of evil you are up against?” Job realized that instead of asking the questions, he had better just trust God to handle such things which are so far beyond our understanding. So he did, and God rewarded his trust, his faith.
In the 19th Psalm introduced above, David went on to connect God’s revelation of Himself via the physical realm with His special revelation to man: God’s “Law.” The Law of which David spoke is a part of what we now call the Bible.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
restoring the soul;
The
testimony of the LORD
is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The
commandment of the LORD
is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring
forever;
The
judgments of the LORD
are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold,
yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter
also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them Your
servant is warned;
In keeping them
there is great reward.
David then closes this poem by addressing man’s dependence upon God grace.
Who can discern his errors? Acquit me
of hidden faults.
Also keep back Your
servant from presumptuous sins;
Let them not rule
over me;
Then I will be blameless,
And I shall be
acquitted of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart
Be
acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my
Redeemer.
Throughout the history of man, God has revealed Himself to
us.
Mankind in general was in a mess and wasn’t quite sure why,
or what to do about it. So, God stepped in to clarify the situation for us. He
explained to us through the Israelites about how things had been when He first
created us. He explained how, right off, we had chosen to go our own way, and
in so doing went from bad, to worse, to terrible. He explained how He even had
to hit the reset button once with a flood so that mankind could start over
again. But alas, man was still determined to ‘do it my way.’ Eventually, God found in Abraham someone who
trusted Him. In reward for his faith, God made some specific promises to Abraham.
He was told God would bless the whole world through his descendents, that they
would become a nation of themselves, and have their own land to live in. This promise is recorded in
The rest of the Old Testament is the historical outworking
of these promises coming to pass in the history of the Israelites. This history
is recorded in the annals of the Old Testament, and also in the remnants of the
cultures involved. These were real
people, real places and real events. The Israelites did become a
people, a nation, and they did receive the promised land.
However, keeping that land was conditional on their faithfulness to God. They
weren’t faithful, and they lost the land, just as promised. They were broken
apart as a national people by a string of conquering powers beginning with the
Assyrian empire, followed by the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian and Roman
empires.
One of the themes the prophets frequently spoke of was the
coming of a servant Messiah (the Savior or Redeemer) to recapture the throne of
David in the
The religious leaders of Jesus’ world had a vision of their future which didn’t include a Messiah like Jesus. So, they had him killed, thinking this would ensure their powerful positions. Too late they learned they had killed God’s Son. God demonstrated that Jesus was who He claimed to be by raising Him from the dead and bringing him back to rule from God’s throne in Heaven. This whole story is briefly told by Peter on the day of Pentecost after Jesus’ death, as recorded in Acts 2. It was an event in history, not a philosophy lesson. People believed it either because they had seen the events themselves, or because they believed the testimony of those who had. Many of those who had been with Jesus obtained the ability to perform miracles to further confirm their stories. There was plenty of corroborating historical evidence. In fact, without the resurrection of Jesus, history from then to now does not make sense.
That’s why I believe.
The resurrection of Jesus proved His claims and fulfilled all the prophets, proving they also spoke for God. Jesus claimed the Spirit would empower His Apostles to receive the revelation of God through the Spirit, just as the prophets of old had spoken for God. The Apostles demonstrated that power in the miracles they performed. They wrote down the words of the Spirit as they recalled Jesus’ life and teachings, and they wrote down the teachings Jesus gave them by revelation. We have those writings in the New Testament. The New Testament confirms that Jesus accepted the Old Testament writings as the word of God. The Old Testament explains the history that produced Jesus in the first place. It all hangs on the resurrection.
I believe the resurrection happened on the basis of the
historical evidence for it. I believe in the resurrection in spite of the
problem raised by the seventeenth century philosopher David Hume: “Dead men
don’t rise.” I believe the historical evidence
is overwhelming that Jesus did rise. Nothing else offers an adequate
explanation for the changed lives of the disciples, the successful advent of
the Christian community in the middle of
Hume also complained that extraordinary claims (such as being the Son of God) require extraordinary proof. Jesus provides that extraordinary proof in the resurrection. But what extraordinary proof is there of the resurrection? The whole of human history! Before Jesus all of history points toward our need for Him. After Jesus, all of history follows from the resurrection. There is no greater proof possible! The proof is not just an event, but the sum, the set, of all events. Nothing in all of human history is so well attested as the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What about suffering? Yes, the resurrection also resolves the problem of suffering.
Suffering, even horrible and evil suffering, is temporary, leading to a greater reward which makes the suffering seem of no account. Indeed, suffering helps us realize that this life is not all that desirable as an ultimate end. Suffering causes us to seek God, instead of the evil forces which bring on suffering. But it takes God’s perspective to be able to see that good end from the beginning.
Without the resurrection, nothing else makes sense.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable
in Your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.