THE AGNOSTIC stands between the theist and the atheist. He believes that it is not possible to know whether God exists or not.
I have been wondering how famous agnostics view God in relation to the awesome “creations” in the universe as amplified by the Bible verse: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).
Learned atheists view order in the universe as product of the “big bang” theory — resulting from chance, akin to winning the lottery despite the odds. In fact, they admit that for human life to be possible from a big bang defies the laws of probability. One astronomer calculates the odds at less than 1 chance in a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion.
“It would be far easier for a blind-folded person,” he said, “to discover one specially marked grain of sand out of all the beaches of the world.”
You must have seen the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, a quadriplegic agnostic, speak on TV: “The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.”
How did the “big bang” produce the first life?
We God believers can only reason out that all of the above scenarios are impossible — unless it was fixed by the omnipotent Someone behind the scenes.
Scientists who believe in God may have expected such fine-tuning, but atheists and agnostics are unable to explain the remarkable “coincidences.”
In his book The Symbiotic Universe, agnostic astronomer George Greenstein asked, “Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon the scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being?”
In another book, God and the Astronomers, agnostic astronomer Robert Jastrow postulated why some scientists are reluctant to accept a transcendent Creator: “Science is the religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the universe. When it is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, the scientist has lost control. He would be traumatized.”
Greenstein and Hawking cannot accept a God-made universe because, being speculative, it could not be verified in the realm of science – in other words, beyond the reach of either the microscope or the biggest telescope.
Although Hawking continues to explore purely scientific explanations for our origins, other scientists have acknowledged what appears to be overwhelming evidence for a Creator.
British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle wrote, “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.”
Albert Einstein wasn’t religious, but he called the genius behind the universe “an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”
The late atheist Christopher Hitchens, who had spent much of his life writing and debating against God, was forced to admit that life couldn’t exist if things were different by just “one degree or one hair.”
Ilonggo lawyer Edwin Catacutan, who is an ardent Bible student, told this writer that he does not doubt the creation of the heavens and the earth because “they could not have always been there.”
He quoted famous physicists, including Paul Davies, who wrote that “the essential hypothesis – that there was some sort of creation – seems, from the scientific point of view, compelling.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
