Info

Astronomer and astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross. Interview at The John Ankerberg
Show, 2009.

https://www.jashow.org/articles/general/what-scientific-evidence-proves-god-
created-and-designed-the-universeprogram-1/

 “As a matter of fact, astronomers are always observing the past. Light
waves, radio waves and all other kinds of electro-magnetic waves may
seem to reach us instantaneously, but they don’t. They seem to because
they travel so fast.”

 How many years ago did the universe actually begin? “13.73 billion
years ago, with an error bar now on the .12 billionth, so we know up to
about 1% precision”.

 Ankerberg: How do you know that? (When did the universe form?)

Ross: Well, the two most accurate methods come from looking at the galaxies in
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and their distribution across the sky. But the most
accurate method of all comes from looking at the temperature ripples in the cosmic
background radiation; they’ll spread out in different ways according to the age of
the universe. So the WMAP Five Year Release is the one that gives us the most
accurate date

 Objection

Many Scientifics have explained the necessity for a beginning to the universe by
the action of God. Objectors have said that, philosophically speaking, it’s
unacceptable to invoke God as an explanation for the origin of the universe unless
we can somehow explain where God came from. Of course for the Christian theist,
this cannot be done, for God is by definition a Being existing outside of space and
time, eternally in the past, present, and future, from all things which were created
have come, who has no origin.
(http://www.ideacenter.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/837)

 Maybe a Rebuttal

Why is the Big Bang scientific proof that God actually brought the universe into
existence?

Ross: Well, my colleagues wouldn’t put it quite that way. They would say the Big
Bang is proof that there’s a causal agent beyond space and time. But I think you
can spot the theological naiveté there; if you’re proving a causal agent beyond
space and time that is creating all the physical reality, is that not God?

Hebrews 11:3 – the universe that we can detect did not come from that which we
can detect.

Why is so important to study de Bible for this? Ross: “Well, it’s important to me
because if a human being was trying to invent some religion, it’s going to show the
limitations of human visualization. When I read the Bible I saw statements in there,
teachings in there that defied the limits of human visualization, which told me this
could not come from a purely human source. Moreover, what it was saying about
the record of nature was always accurate. You know, when people try to write
about what they think the world of nature looks like, they’re going to make
mistakes. I couldn’t find any errors in what the Bible said. Moreover, I found
hundreds of places where it accurately predicted future scientific discoveries.”

Astronomer George Greenstein in his book, The Symbiotic Universe, expressed

these thoughts: “As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that
some supernatural agency must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without
intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme
Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our
benefit?”

And then there are the words of Arno Penzias who shared the Nobel Prize in
physics for the discovery of cosmic background radiation, “Astronomy leads us to a
unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with a very delicate
balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one
which has an underlying, (one might say ‘supernatural’) plan.”

What is the scientific evidence that shows the universe had a beginning
point, that it was brought into existence at a moment in time?

Huge Ross: “Well, the theory of general relativity tells us that the universe must
have a beginning, hence a beginner, and the universe is expanding from that
beginning point. Now, we got observations that demonstrate that, indeed, the
galaxies are moving away from one another exactly as the theory of general
relativity would predict. We can measure the temperature of the radiation from the
cosmic creation event at different points in the past history of the universe that tells
us that, indeed, the universe is continuously expanding from an infinitesimal,
infinitely hot beginning. And we can also see the galaxies moving apart. They were
crunched very closely together when the universe was young, and now that it’s
older, we see that the galaxies have spread apart. So, all this evidence points to a
beginning of matter, energy, space and time and a continuous expansion universe,
very carefully controlled, so that it makes possible existence of the stars and
planets, that would allow life to exist and human life, in particular.”