RELIGION STAGES A COMEBACK
Refuting Mechanical Explanation of the Universe
IF a tree is planted with its roots severed, it will look as green as any other plant to start with, but, on the very next day, its leaves will start drying up, and will go on drying up, and very soon the tree will die. This is exactly what has happened to atheism and disbelief in religion. In the beginning it looked as if atheism was flourishing, religion had become a thing of the past and the world had entered an age of irreligion. But this was a short-lived phenomenon, principally because it was rootless. And now religion has bounced back with renewed vigour.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, there was a strong wave of what was popularly called scientific atheism. But scientific investigations carried out from the beginning of the 20th century started turning the tide against its credibility. Sir James Jeans declared that the universe as discovered by modern science was not compatible with mechanical interpretations. And now that we have entered the 21st century, there is an increasing number of theoretical physicists whose explanation of the world makes the existence of God imperative. Without His Being, no explanation of the world is possible.
In a 200-page book, published in 1988, entitled A Brief History of Time, Stephen W. Hawking, one of the foremost physicists of the modern age, explains the Big Bang Theory, according to which the universe is constantly expanding. After working out the relevant mathematical equations, Hawking concludes that the expansion of the universe is taking place according to a well-calculated scheme.
There are increasing numbers of theoretical physicists whose explanation of the world makes the existence of God imperative. Without His Being, no explanation of the world is possible.
The initial rate of expansion must have been fixed with great accuracy so that it would always be less than the critical rate, i.e. the rate at which the universe would begin to collapse. If the ‘Big Bang’ model is correct, and time itself started with it, the initial universe would have exploded and come to an end a very long time ago. But the universe did not explode. This phenomenon cannot be explained unless it is accepted that the rate of expansion of the universe has been determined with the utmost precision. Stephen Hawking writes:
It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.
One of the most amazing qualities of the universe is that no interpretation of it, other than that which accepts God’s existence, can explain it, despite the best brains in every age having attempted to unravel its mysteries.
It is claimed that the universe has always been in existence in its present form. It is also claimed that it came into being on its own and that it continues to exist on its own. Cause and effect are believed to have created everything, and attempts have also been made to prove the law of evolution to be the originator of the universe.
One of the most amazing qualities of the universe is that no interpretation of it, other than that which accepts God’s existence, can explain it, despite the best brains in every age having attempted to unravel its mysteries.
But all this has been disproved by current knowledge. The more we learn about the universe, the more strange does it seem that something, or someone, other than God Almighty should be the Lord and Master of the universe. Whatever arguments or contrary opinions have been expressed to propagate this theory have been proved erroneous by the knowledge acquired through human research.