Without God, the World Wouldn’t Work

(Psalm 104)

Kirk Bertsche

Grace Bible Chapel

January 9, 2011

Stephen Hawking (1942-)Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist

Professor Emeritus, Cambridge University

Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. … It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going. -- The Guardian, 02 Sept. 2010

Stephen Hawking (1942-)Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist

Professor Emeritus, Cambridge University

These [natural] laws may have originally been decreed by God, but it appears that he has since left the universe to evolve according to them and does not now intervene in it. -- A Brief History of Time

Without God, the World Wouldn’t Be Here

but even more

Without God, the World Wouldn’t Work

Days of Genesis 1

Original Condition (v.2):

FORMING FILLING

Day 1 Light (Day/Night)

Day 4 Luminaries (sun, moon, stars)

Day 2 Firmament (Water/Sky)

Day 5 Water & Sky creatures

Day 3 Dry Land (Land/Sea) Plants

Day 6 Land animals Man

FORMLESS EMPTY

God’s Work (v.3 ff):

Based on Charles Hummel, Creation or Evolution? (IVP, 1989)

William Paley (1743-1805)British Theologian & Philosopher

In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; … But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there. -- Natural Theology (1802)

William Paley (1743-1805)British Theologian & Philosopher

Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation. -- Natural Theology (1802)

New Testament

TThe Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, -- Heb. 1:3

He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him. -- Col. 1:17

Stephen Hawking (1942-)Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist

Professor Emeritus, Cambridge University

Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. … It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going. -- The Guardian, 02 Sept. 2010

John LennoxProfessor of Mathematics, Oxford

University

… Hawking’s claim is misguided. He asks us to choose between God and the laws of physics, as if they were necessarily in mutual conflict.

But contrary to what Hawking claims, physical laws can never provide a complete explanation of the universe. Laws themselves do not create anything, they are merely a description of what happens under certain conditions. -- Daily Mail Online, 03 Sept. 2010

John LennoxProfessor of Mathematics, Oxford

University

What Hawking appears to have done is to confuse law with agency. His call on us to choose between God and physics is a bit like someone demanding that we choose between aeronautical engineer Sir Frank Whittle and the laws of physics to explain the jet engine.

That is a confusion of category. … -- Daily Mail Online, 03 Sept. 2010

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)Professor of English, Oxford University

[after a conversation with friend who claimed that a young man had survived WW2 “simply due to the laws of Nature” rather than due to his mother’s prayers]

But I was still not quite clear about the physical side of this picture. I had been thinking (vaguely enough) that the bullet’s flight was caused by the laws of Nature. But is this really so? -- “The Laws of Nature” from God in the Dock

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)Professor of English, Oxford University

The dazzlingly obvious conclusion now arose in my mind: in the whole history of the universe the laws of Nature have never produced a single event. They are the pattern to which every event must conform, provided only that it can be induced to happen. -- “The Laws of Nature” from God in the Dock

Donald M. MacKay (1922-1987)

Professor of Neuroscience, Keele University

... the continuing existence of our world is not something to be taken for granted. Rather it hangs moment by moment on the continuance of the upholding word of power of its creator. -- -- The Open Mind

Donald M. MacKay (1922-1987)

Professor of Neuroscience, Keele University

Scientific laws do not prescribe what must happen; they describe what has happened. The earth does not go round the sun because Newton's (or Einstein's) law makes it, or tells it to. The earth goes its own way, and the scientific laws are our generalized way of describing how it goes. All that they prescribe are our expectations. -- The Clockwork Image

Robert Boyle (1627-1691)Father of Modern Chemistry

… when with bold telescopes I survey the old and newly discovered stars and planets, … and when with excellent microscopes I discern, in otherwise invisible objects, the inimitable subtlety of nature’s curious workmanship; and when, in a word, by the help of anatomical knaves, and the light of chymical furnaces, I study the book of nature … I find myself oftentimes reduced to explain with the Psalmist, How manifold are Thy works, O Lord! in wisdom hast Thou made them all! (Ps. 104:24). -- Works 1.433–434.

Without God, the World Wouldn’t Work

Psalm 104