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The picture above is the “Pale Blue Dot” photograph, taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1990. At the time, Voyager 1 was 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) from Earth and moving away. The camera was about to be shut down to save power, since it was not going to fly close to any planet as it was leaving the solar system. Before shutdown, the mission commander ordered the probe to take 60 images to form a “Family Portrait of the Solar System.” Thirty-four minutes after it took this picture, the camera was shut down forever. In the picture, the Sun is below, and the tiny dot (to the left of the red arrow) you see in a sunbeam is planet Earth. (A better view might be at this Website.)
This year, prominent atheists became upset by Victor Glover's words aboard Artemis 2 during its historic trip around the Moon. Some even expressed concern about the “separation of church and space.” However, when he spoke from space, he seemed to receive approval from the other astronauts, but not from atheists on the ground. We see the contrast between the two views of the universe.
Some of Glover's words that apparently upset atheists include, “You're on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe. You are special. In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe, you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.”
Why should those words distress anyone? Many early scientists explored creation because they believed in an orderly universe created by an intelligent God. Many astronauts have said that being in space gave them a spiritual experience as they realized that Earth reveals design and purpose. I remember watching the Apollo 8 crew read from the book of Genesis on Christmas Day in 1968 as they traveled around the Moon. Our present NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, said that his time in space convinced him that “the heavens declare the glory of God.”
Many leading science popularizers have tried to tell us that science destroys Christian belief. Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Michael Shermer, Lawrence Krauss, and others have written popular books arguing that science makes belief in God unnecessary and implausible. The two views of the universe cannot both be correct. The truth is that scientific discoveries continue to support belief in God and challenge the atheist concept.
What is the strongest evidence for an intelligent Creator? That is an interesting question. Sarah Salviander, an astrophysicist, suggests that biology offers more convincing evidence than her field of astrophysics. She said, “The incredible machinery of a living cell is far more complex than the structure of an entire galaxy of stars.” On the other hand, the late atheist critic Christopher Hitchens once said that atheists find the “fine-tuning” of the universe to be “one of the most intriguing” arguments for intelligent design. I think that biology and cosmology together make a strong case for God's existence.
We must acknowledge that the evidence shows this universe has been fine-tuned from the very beginning to make it possible for life, including human life, to exist and prosper on this “pale blue dot.” Is that fine-tuning the strongest evidence for an intelligent Creator? Since scientists have not been able to explain it, unbelievers advance the unproven and unprovable idea that there are countless universes with different parameters, and we just happen to live in the one that is fine-tuned for life.
However, when we look at the evidence for design in living things, especially in the human body, we are in awe. As Dr. Salviander said, the incredible machinery of a living cell is far more complex than an entire galaxy of stars. Another advantage biology has over cosmology as the strongest evidence for an intelligent Creator is that we can see it in real time. To see the evidence for design in the fine-tuning of the universe, we must look back in time, but evidence for design in life is all around us right now. The information in DNA shows that life could not have happened by chance, since information comes only from an intelligent source.
In addition, we see beauty in living things and in the physical creation. Chance would create chaos rather than beauty. The psalmist David, who did not know about the fine-tuning of the universe, was in awe of the majesty and beauty in the night sky (see Psalm 8 and Psalm 19:1-6). The psalmist was also in awe of his own physical body, realizing that God had created him in his mother's womb. He was awestruck by that, despite having no idea about DNA or the amazing structures within the cells of our bodies (see Psalm 139:14-16). Interestingly, Charles Darwin thought that cells were nothing but globs of protoplasm, and he had no idea of the remarkable machines working within every cell or of the DNA that provides instructions for assembling proteins to do those jobs.
Astronomer Carl Sagan was partially responsible for the picture at the top of this article. He popularized the term “Pale Blue Dot” in his book by the same name. He wrote, “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all its vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” He also said that Earth is such a tiny dot in the universe that it shows we have no privileged position in the cosmos. Victor Glover said that we are not a lonely cosmic accident, but instead, we are loved. Victor Glover and those who believe in Jesus Christ know that Someone did come from elsewhere to save us. Carl Sagan was a brilliant man, but he did not get everything right.
The bottom line is that, regardless of what you think is the strongest evidence for an intelligent Creator, there is massive and growing evidence that we cannot ignore.
— Roland Earnst
Picture credits:
https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/pale-blue-dot-revised.jpg
© argus456/Bigstock.com
© Dundanim/Bigstock.com
© Leonid Tit/Bigstock.com
Scripture links/references are from BibleGateway.com. Unhighlighted scriptures can be looked up at their website.