The universe is full of wonders, not the least of which is that we mere humans can aspire to understand it. We create scientific theories to describe, organize, and eventually understand the world we see. By scientific, I mean that they make testable predictions, about either the outcome of experiments or the nature of future discoveries. If evidence is found that contradicts a prediction, then that theory has to be modified or discarded. History is littered with the wreckage of discarded theories, from the Earth as the center of the universe to the four humor theory of disease.
Two of our most powerful scientific ways of understanding the world around us are evolution and the big bang. The evidence for these theories is extensive and compelling, although not complete.
The Hubble Space Telescope can see light from distant galaxies billions of light years away, which means that that light has been travelling for billions of years. The farther galaxies are all moving away from us at high speed like the debris from an explosion. The observed proportions of the lightest elements are exactly explained by the high temperatures of such an explosion. The big bang theory describes in detail how the universe has changed from its start in a fiery explosion about 15 billion years ago to its present state. It does not try to explain what started the explosion.
We know from radioactive elements in the Earth's crust that our world is over 4 billion years old. We have found an orderly progression of fossils buried in the Earth, starting with simple organisms and ending with the creatures we see around us. Due to the difficulty of preserving a skeleton for hundreds of millions of years (fossilizing it), we have found examples of only a few of the animals that have ever lived. However, we have found many examples where species changed gradually from one form to another, for example, from land-based mammals to whales. We now understand how traits are passed from parent to offspring. We also understand the general mechanisms of genetic variation and natural selection -- how it is that children are different from their parents and that some will do better than others. Evolution encompasses and explains all of this data, from molecules to animals. Scientists agree that new species evolve from old ones, although we still argue over the details.
One of these arguments concerns how much time it takes a species to evolve, whether it is a lot (a million years) or a little (only a 100,000 years). These time periods are so long that it is not surprising that we have not actually observed a new species emerge. Chihuahuas and Great Danes have been bred from the same ancestor in only a few thousand years; imagine how different they could be in a million years.
Scientists start with the evidence and try to deduce a theory that explains all of it. The vast majority of scientists throughout the world, including many devout Christians, Jews and those of other faiths, have examined the evidence and wholeheartedly accept evolution and the big bang. These theories are an integral part of modern biology, physics, geology, astronomy, paleontology, anthropology, biochemistry, etc. The US National Academy of Sciences recently reiterated its support for evolution and the big bang. Anti-scientists start with a theory (for example: "evolution is wrong") and use only the evidence that supports it.
It is not clear why some people hate the big bang and evolution. Certainly an omniscient and omnipotent God could use whatever means desired to create humans and the Earth. And certainly the Bible is a religious and moral guide, not a scientific textbook. The ancient Hebrews had no need to know about stellar nucleosynthesis or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Who is man to say that "God could not have used evolution to create me"?
Science does not threaten God and God does not need to hide in the ever-shrinking spaces that science cannot explain. God's role in our lives was not diminished by Galileo, by our understanding of lightning or by quantum mechanics. It is not diminished by the big bang or evolution.
If God created the universe, is it not a form of worship to explore and seek to understand its wonders?
Lawrence Weinstein, Associate Professor of Physics, Old Dominion University; Sebastian Kuhn, Associate Professor of Physics, Old Dominion University; Gary Copeland, Professor of Physics, Old Dominion University; John Adam, Professor of Mathematics, Old Dominion University; Carol Downing, MD
This essay was published in the Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Virginia, 19 Sep 1999, pp J1-J2.