I was interested to read the Moderator’s views on science and faith in the September edition of Life and Work. Sadly, there are still many Christians who find science incompatible with their faith. I believe that science, and in particular, physics, is what God used in order to design the universe prior, so to speak, to pressing the button for the ‘big bang’.
It is an incredible fact that the universe appears to have been designed for the express purpose of permitting the existence of life. When you realise that there are a considerable number of forces, and other factors involved in the creation process which, had they varied, even fractionally for their existing value, would have damaged, destroyed, or so altered the universe, that life, as we know it, would have been impossible, you can begin to appreciate what a stupendous and awe-inspiring achievement God’s design was.
The forces and other factors which I have mentioned, which are crucial to the existence of our universe, are collectively known as the Anthropic Principle and a number of physicists, some of whom are atheists or agnostics, now accept that our universe was ‘designed’ to promote the existence of life, although nobody knows exactly how the process of evolution began on Earth. There are a number of books available on this subject Of course, there is much more to God than as the designer of the universe; but that as they say, is another story!