The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20, ESV)
Walking toward the green, we spot a ball mark a few feet from the hole. We know what caused it: our 7-iron landed just as intended. Then we watch another ball start left and dive into the bunker guarding the green. We infer that the clubface was closed at impact.
What is true on a small scale is also true about life’s biggest questions: Why are we here? Why is the universe arranged so that human life is possible?
If we are right to say, “Nothing comes from nothing,” and right to reason that “Every effect has a cause,” then we are right to ask what caused this vast, complex, expanding, carefully ordered universe.
We do not need to be Nobel Prize-winning physicists to understand cause and effect. If something begins to exist, something or someone brought it about.
Think of Royal County Down in Northern Ireland. Long before Old Tom Morris arrived in 1890, the towering dunes, native gorse, Irish Sea, and Mourne Mountains were already there. But Royal County Down was not.
If Old Tom and the people who dreamed of building it had never acted, the wind would still have blown, and the waves would still have crashed. But there would have been no world-class golf course. The existence of RCD requires an explanation beyond dunes, gorse, sea, and mountains. Someone had to design it and bring it into being.
We should respond to our own existence in the same way, but at a far deeper level. We open our eyes and see stars, mountains, oceans, sunrises, and sunsets. We are meant to inquire. The universe cannot explain itself any more than the dunes at Royal County Down can explain why eighteen holes crisscross by the sea.
When we pay attention to our environment and follow the clues to their ultimate cause, we arrive where Scripture has pointed us from the beginning.
The universe is not self-existent. It is not the spawn of aliens or blind chance. It is the handiwork of the eternal God who stands behind it all: uncreated, self-existent, and the source of everything that exists.
Of course, Old Tom had materials with which to work. God did not. He created time, space, and matter, then shaped them into a living environment where human beings could flourish.
Golfers also understand the importance of precise club specifications. Imagine Rory arrives on the first tee on the final day of a major and discovers that someone has replaced his driver with one built for a golfer swinging seventy miles per hour.
The shaft flex is nearly a fly rod, the shaft weighs forty grams, and the kick point sits near the ferrule. Rory has not changed. The equipment has. The shaft, loft, and weight are not fitted to his swing. A finely tuned swing requires equipment precisely matched to it.
Scientists have discovered something far more remarkable about our universe. The physical constants of nature, such as gravity and the universe’s rate of expansion, fall within extraordinarily narrow life-permitting ranges. Change them slightly, and there would be no stars, no planets, no chemistry capable of sustaining life, and therefore no us.
When we see Rory’s driver fitted to his exact specifications, we know someone designed and built it for him. If fine-tuning in golf equipment points to a fitter, what should we make of the far greater fine-tuning of the universe? We should follow the clues all the way home to God.
This is where many natural explanations fall short. They assume only two players: humanity and nature. But rightly understood, there are three players: God, nature, and humanity.
God is not passive. Minute by minute, he actively speaks through creation and conscience, calling his creatures to honor him as Maker.
Prayer: Lord! Grant us grace to rightly interpret the cosmic signals calling us through the universe.