Given the primitive level of 19th-century science, materialists of the time strongly defended the idea that the universe had been in existence forever—in other words, that it was not created; that there was no design, plan or purpose in the universe and that everything in it was the result of chance. Eventually, however, these claims collapsed in the face of scientific discoveries made in the 20th century.
The fact of the expanding universe, revealed in 1929 by the American astronomer Edwin Hubble, gave birth to a new model of the universe. Since the universe was expanding, then the further back in time one went, the smaller the universe must have been. And if one went back far enough, then the universe must have occupied a single point. Calculations showed that this single point, despite its containing all the matter in the universe, would have had zero volume because of its enormous gravitational pull.
The universe came into being when this single point with zero volume exploded. This explosion was given the nickname of the Big Bang, and the theory came to be known by that same name.
The Big Bang revealed one very important fact: Zero volume meant that the universe had come into being out of nothing. This in turn meant that the universe had a beginning, thus repudiating the materialist hypothesis that the universe had existed forever. Information about the structure of the universe obtained since the 1920s has proved that the universe came into being at a specific time through the Big Bang. In other words, the universe is not eternal, but was created from nothing by God.
But this fact was highly displeasing to many materialist scientists. For instance the British materialist physicist, H.S. Lipson, “reluctantly” admits that creation is a scientific fact:
I think, however, that we must ... admit that the only acceptable explanation is creation. I know that this is anathema to physicists, as indeed it is to me, but we must not reject a theory that we do not like if the experimental evidence supports it.53
Another important aspect of the Big Bang stems from the order that emerged in the wake of the explosion. When we examine the universe, we see that everything in it—such as its density; its rate of expansion; its gravitational pull, orbits, movements, speed and matter contained by the galaxies; and countless other such details—is constructed with the finest calculations and most delicate balances. Similarly, the way that our Earth and the atmosphere that surrounds it have the ideal structure for supporting life, is another example of this extraordinary design. The slightest deviation in these calculations and balances would have an irrevocably destructive impact on the universe and the Earth.
We know that rather than producing order, explosions give rise to disorder, chaos and destruction. Since the Big Bang was an explosion, one would expect it to have distributed matter randomly throughout space. But following it, no such random distribution occurred. Matter accumulated at particular points in the universe to form galaxies, stars, constellations, the Sun, the Earth and later, all the plants, animals and human beings on it. There is only one explanation for this: Only a conscious intervention directing every moment of the event can give rise to such order in the wake of an explosion on the order of the Big Bang. That is the flawless creation of God, Who created the universe out of nothing and keeps it under His control and dominion at every moment.
53 H. S. Lipson, “A Physicist Looks at Evolution”, Physics Bulletin, vol. 138, 1980, p. 138.
