The 50 year catalog of landmark scientific discoveries we discussed in our last post involved a range of distances from the limits of our universe (13.73 billion light years away) to the vanishingly small distances involved in quantum physics -- the "Planck length." Our catalog also mentioned discoveries which have occurred in length dimensions familiar to us in every day life: man's solar system journeys in satellites, the cells of our body, and the DNA in our cells. The greatest distances to far away objects at the limits of our universe are nearly incomprehensible, but so are the Planck length distances important to quantum physicists. The protons and neutrons of the atoms we came to know and love in high school chemistry, compared with the Planck lengths of quantum physics, are gigantic by comparison.
What do such new discoveries have to do with our belief in God? Do they weaken it? or do they strengthen it? Atheists and agnostics may feel more empowered and confident with their increasing knowledge of the material world, since they believe the material world is all that exists. But those who embrace belief in God may take comfort in the catalog of discoveries for a different reason. Why? Because our recently acquired knowledge, from macrocosm to microcosm, indicates our universe is a place of order, not chaos. The presence of order is highly significant in helping us formulate our belief system.
"Order implies information." This is a quote from chapter one of a high school biology texbook. That book proceeds to describe the magnificent order found in the biological world in its next 1000 pages. The quote could just as well have introduced subject matter in a cosmology or quantum physics textbook. The universe is a wonder-filled place of order every place we look. Wherever there is order there is information input. On a humorous, mundane level, if I look at my son's bedroom and find order there, it is obvious there was a significant input of information. If you will, instructions were followed! Without the information input from a mind and obedience to that information and its inherent instructions, chaos would reign, whether in a child's bedroom or in our universe. Order in our universe is the identifiable signature of the Creator.
