Is God a Fantasy?

For millennia, men and women have looked up at the night sky and asked themselves: Is there really a Creator God out there, or is that just fantasy? And for millennia, the conventional wisdom has been that logic or science cannot answer that question. Given what science has discovered in the last century, is the conventional wisdom still correct? Information on this website may help you answer that question. This information is organized in response to five questions and a conclusion:

You may wish to read all six sections or only those that interest you.

There are only two realistic possibilities for who or what created our universe. The creator was either the random interaction of natural forces and materials (aka Mother Nature) or an intelligent, powerful being (aka God the Father).

Has science identified which of those two possibilities is more likely the ultimate Creator? Let’s consider where the evidence points.

If Mother Nature created our universe, it likely would have gradually evolved into existence over millions of years. But our universe did not slowly evolve into existence. It exploded into existence in a millisecond. We call that explosion the “Big Bang.” It was like a powerful being said, “Let there be a universe” and instantly, there existed enough matter to form a huge universe.

The Big Bang was a unique event. In a millisecond, it created enough matter to form what eventually became an estimated 200 billion to two trillion galaxies each containing an estimated 100 billion stars. The Big Bang explosion carried every piece of matter away from every other at speeds greater than the speed of light, which Einstein said was not possible. The Big Bang heated the entire universe to a temperature at least a million times hotter than the temperature at the center of our sun. And it started an expansion of the universe that continues to this day. So far as we know, nothing like that has happened since the Big Bang.

Based on the laws of physics, we know with reasonable certainty that matter cannot create itself, that energy cannot create itself and that a universe cannot create itself. Therefore, someone or something had to exist prior to the Big Bang to supply the enormous amount of intense energy the Big Bang required. There is no plausible scientific explanation for how random forces (Mother Nature) could create such energy. If you eliminate Mother Nature as the supplier of that energy, what or who is the only remaining realistic source?

Perhaps more amazing than the Big Bang is what it created: A universe that resembles a huge precision instrument in which the constants are all fine-tuned (i.e., ordered and exact) to ensure the universe’s stability. If Mother Nature created our universe, it likely would be full of randomness, a chaotic collection of forces and materials working independently of each other, something resembling a food fight among unruly youngsters.

But that’s not our universe. Here are a few examples showing the extent to which the constants in our universe are fine-tuned:

A complete list of the universe’s fine-tuned constants would go on for many more pages.

Is our whole universe fine-tuned? Most scientists/astrophysicists say that it is. That list includes:

Mother Nature’s track record for creating complex items is also instructive. Our universe came into existence about 13.8 billion years ago; Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. If Mother Nature was able to create something as complex as our universe, she surely would have created many complex items on Earth since its creation such as clocks, computers, electric motors, flashlights, cameras, and items humans will invent in the future. Mother Nature has never created any of those items on Earth. So far as we know, the most complex item Mother Nature has ever created on her own on earth is a snowflake.

Please don’t misunderstand: If Mother Nature is given a complex item by an outside source (like God) and given billions of years to tinker with it, she will often improve the item using a process resembling trial and error. But the evidence suggests that Mother Nature, by herself, does not create complex items, certainly nothing as complex as our universe.

To sum up, the one-of-a-kind explosion that created our universe in a millisecond, the fine-tuned universe almost completely devoid of randomness the Big Bang created, and Mother Nature’s failure to create any complex items on Earth in 4.5 billion years all say Mother Nature did not create our universe.

As with the universe, there are only two realistic possible creators of Earth’s first life: an intelligent being (God) or random natural forces (Mother Nature). Charles Darwin believed Earth’s first living being was a simple creature formed by natural forces. In a letter to a friend, he wrote that life on Earth may have started when lightning struck pond water containing the right mix of chemicals.

On that score, Darwin could not have been more wrong. Earth’s first living being, probably a microscopic single-celled organism likely a bacteria or similar prokaryote, was a highly complex creature. We know that from the complex functions it had to perform to survive and multiply. For example, it had to:

Reproduction is a particularly complicated process, during which a cell duplicates its internal contents including its little brain (DNA or RNA) and then divides into two daughter cells, each capable of performing the functions needed to survive and reproduce.

To perform these functions, earth’s first life needed lots of how-to-do-it information (e.g., how to turn food into nourishment, how to reproduce itself). From what source could it have obtained that information? From inanimate elements in the primordial soup or chemicals dissolved in pond water? Are we supposed to believe that inanimate elements possess complex, highly technical information that can be transferred to living beings. Isn’t it obvious that the most likely source of the instructions the first life needed to survive had to be another intelligent living being.

Earth’s first life also needed to know how to store information chemically in its little brain so the information could be called up when needed. Storing information chemically is a highly complex process, at least as complex as the process computers employ to store information. Researchers are now studying how to store information chemically in the DNA of microbes. That research has revealed challenging questions. Whoever or whatever created Earth’s first life solved those challenges about four billion years ago.

For those who still have doubts about the complexity of all living beings including the first living being, consider the views of Bill Gates set forth in his book The Road Ahead:

Biologists tell us living cells are made up of proteins formed by long strings of amino acids joined together in a precise sequence by a particular type of peptide bond. What is the probability of building by chance one of several known and functional proteins? Some biologists say that number might be as high as one chance in 10 to the 63rd power or even higher. What does the number 10 to the 63rd power look like? It’s a 1 followed by 63 zeros. Could Mother Nature pull off a 1/10000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000 long shot?

The complex functions the first living being had to perform to survive and multiply, the mystery surrounding the source of the how-to-do-it instructions it needed to perform those functions, the mystery surrounding how the first life learned how to store information so it would be available when needed, and the odds against random forces creating functional proteins, all point away from Mother Nature and toward a powerful living being as the creator of earth’s first life

Is it Ra, whom the ancient Egyptians believed caused the sun to rise each day; Thor, whom the Vikings revered as the protector of humanity; the Greek god Zeus; the Roman god Mars; or the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Where does the evidence point?

Consider the words spoken by God’s son, Jesus

These statements reflect values and a divine perspective that are beyond anything human.

Also, consider the testimony of Jesus’s disciples. They were eyewitnesses to Jesus calming rough seas, bringing the dead back to life, restoring sight to the blind, walking on water, feeding a large crowd with a small amount of food, and performing other acts that are beyond the ability of human beings. Are the disciples credible witnesses? Before ascending into heaven, Jesus sent ten of His disciples to foreign lands to promote His teachings. That was a dangerous mission likely to get them killed. Citizens of foreign lands and their religious leaders would not take kindly to being told their religion was a fantasy. All ten disciples went to foreign lands where they testified to Jesus’s divinity. As expected, all ten were put to death, some cruelly, for promoting Jesus’s teachings. The fact that all ten went on these missions, notwithstanding the obvious dangers, is powerful evidence that His disciples believed Jesus was who He said He was: the Son of the living God.

From all accounts, Jesus was a charismatic person. Is it possible that His disciples were taken in by His charisma to the extent that they lost their grip on reality? Given this possibility, is there independent evidence apart from Jesus’s own words and the testimony of His disciples that would confirm His divinity? Yes, there is.

On and immediately after the first Easter, Jesus appeared to over 500 people in and around Jerusalem. As a result, Jerusalem must have been abuzz with rumors that Jesus had risen from the dead. A quick way to end those rumors and the beginning of the Christian religion would be to find Jesus’s dead body and publicly display it. The Jewish authorities surely searched, but they never found the body, evidence that Jesus had, in fact, risen from the dead.

Josephus, the First Century Jewish historian appointed to that position by Roman emperors, wrote that Jesus performed “surprising deeds” and that He “won over many Jews and many of the Greeks.” Jesus, the son of a carpenter, was a poor laborer from a backwoods area of ancient Palestine known as Galilee. He had no special education or standing in the religious community. Why would He attract a large following? Could it be that what Josephus called “surprising deeds” were what Christians call Jesus’s miracles? Performing superhuman deeds would attract attention and a following. Nothing else that we know about Jesus seems likely to do so.

Paul of Tarsus, a Jewish intellectual later known as St Paul, and the Roman Emperor Constantine both claimed Jesus communicated with them. As a result, both men adopted the Christian faith and helped Christianity expand in the Roman world. Both men were smart, pragmatic and not likely to be caught up in fantasy. Both are credible witnesses to Jesus’s divinity with no reason to lie.

Taken as a whole, the evidence points to Jesus as divine. That evidence is credible and persuasive. If Jesus is the Son of God, His testimony to the existence of the Father and the Holy Spirit is also persuasive.

Unlike other religions that require followers to perform various deeds (pray several time a day, obey a long list of arcane rules, visit a shrine) the Triune God asks only that His followers love and trust Him, that they put Him above everything else in their lives, and that they believe He will respond to their love and trust by granting them eternal life in paradise.

How can humans show their trust in the Triune God? Through worship and prayer, and by establishing and maintaining a personal relationship with Jesus and by following His teachings as best they are able. What are Jesus’s more obvious teachings: (1) love and care for one’s neighbors, especially those in need, (2) forgive and pray for those who have harmed them, (3) acknowledge their sins and ask for forgiveness (4) do their best to live a life that reflects God’s love for them and (5) help build God’s kingdom here on Earth by sharing with others the good news that God will grant eternal life in paradise to those who put their trust in Him.

How should humans deal with adversity? By recognizing that they live in a sinful world in which suffering and hardships are inevitable. In dealing with adversity, it helps to put earthly life in perspective: Compared with eternity, life on earth is a split second. Trading the pleasures of a sinful life on earth for an unpleasant eternal life makes no sense.

Humans need to understand that they cannot earn their way into heaven by doing good deeds. Contributing large amounts of money to church causes won’t get them there, nor will giving food or clothing to the poor, visiting church shrines, fasting, or saying certain words or phrases over and over again. Salvation is a gift of grace which the Father grants to those who place their trust in Him.

Finally, humans need not be anxious over whether everything they do is pleasing to God. The Triune God does not play gotcha. Jesus promised paradise to the thief who was crucified with Him based on the thief’s recognition of and belief in Jesus as God. Jesus saved the crucified malefactor. He will also save humans who recognize Him as God.

Secular/atheists have and will continue to fabricate arguments to claim there is no god. Consider, for example, Richard Dawkins, who retired from teaching evolutionary biology at The University of Oxford. Dawkins, a noted atheist, has acquired a small fortune writing books arguing:

Based on the evidence described earlier in this presentation, you know that Dawkin’s statement is a gross misstatement of the facts.

In your lifetime, you will come across many similar false statements. When you do, carefully consider all the available evidence and then decide which claims you find persuasive. Take your time. What you conclude may be the most important decision you make in your lifetime.

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