Many whom we have considered great thinkers have realized the magnitude of what the laws of the universe reveal:
“Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”
~~Albert Einstein
“…the fact that there are rules at all to be checked is a kind of miracle; that it is possible to find a rule, like the inverse square law of gravitation, is some sort of miracle. It is not understood at all, but it leads to the possibility of prediction–that means it tells you what you would expect to happen in an experiment you have not yet done.”
~~ Richard Feynman, The Meaning Of It All
“I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence – why there is something rather than nothing.”
~~Allan Sandage, (regarded as the father of modern astronomy, discoverer of quasars, and winner of the Crafoord prize)
However, from time to time pride seems to get the best of some and they veer off course:
“Because there is a law of gravity, the universe can will create itself out of nothing.”
~~Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design
Nevertheless, let us not forget that God in His boundless love for us, prepared us for such pride:
“They produce no events: they state the pattern to which every event – if only it can be induced to happen – must conform, just as the rules of arithmetic state the pattern to which all transactions with money must conform – if only you can get hold of any money. Thus in one sense the laws of Nature cover the whole field of space and time; in another , what they leave out is precisely the whole real universe – the incessant torrent of actual events which makes up true history. That must come from somewhere else. To think the laws can produce it is like thinking that you can create real money by simply doing sums. For every law, in the last resort, says: ‘If you have A, then you will get B.’ But first catch your A: the laws won’t do it for you.
Laws give us only a universe of ‘Ifs and Ands’.: not this universe which actually exists. What we know through laws and general principles is a series of connections. But, in order for there to be a real universe, the connections must be given something to connect; a torrent of opaque actualities must be fed into the pattern. If God created the world then He is precisely the source of this torrent, and it alone gives our truest principles anything to be true about. But if God is the ultimate source of all concrete, individual things and events, then God Himself must be concrete, and individual in the highest degree. Unless the origin of all other things were itself concrete and individual, nothing else could be so; for there is no conceivable means whereby what is abstract or general could itself produce concrete reality. Book-keeping continued to all eternity could never produce one farthing.”
~~C.S. Lewis [regarding the laws of Nature], Miracles
And He has been preparing us for a very long time.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
I stop struck with admiration at this thought. What shall I first say? Where shall I begin my story? Shall I show forth the vanity of the Gentiles? Shall I exalt the truth of our faith. The philosophers of Greece have made much ado to explain nature, and not one of their systems has remained firm and unshaken, each being overturned by its successor. It is vain to refute them; they are sufficient in themselves to destroy one another. Those who were too ignorant to rise to a knowledge of a God, could not allow that an intelligent cause presided at the birth of the Universe; a primary error that involved them in sad consequences. Some had recourse to material principles and attributed the origin of the Universe to the elements of the world. Others imagined that atoms, and indivisible bodies, molecules and ducts, form, by their union, the nature of the visible world. Atoms reuniting or separating, produce births and deaths and the most durable bodies only owe their consistency to the strength of their mutual adhesion: a true spider’s web woven by these writers who give to heaven, to earth, and to sea so weak an origin and so little consistency! It is because they knew not how to say “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Deceived by their inherent atheism it appeared to them that nothing governed or ruled the universe, and that was all was given up to chance.
To guard us against this error the writer on the creation, from the very first words, enlightens our understanding with the name of God; “In the beginning God created.” What a glorious order! He first establishes a beginning, so that it might not be supposed that the world never had a beginning. Then he adds “Created” to show that which was made was a very small part of the power of the Creator. In the same way that the potter, after having made with equal pains a great number of vessels, has not exhausted either his art or his talent; thus the Maker of the Universe, whose creative power, far from being bounded by one world, could extend to the infinite, needed only the impulse of His will to bring the immensities of the visible world into being. If then the world has a beginning, and if it has been created, enquire who gave it this beginning, and who was the Creator: or rather, in the fear that human reasonings may make you wander from the truth, Moses has anticipated enquiry by engraving in our hearts, as a seal and a safeguard, the awful name of God: “In the beginning God created”—It is He, beneficent Nature, Goodness without measure, a worthy object of love for all beings endowed with reason, the beauty the most to be desired, the origin of all that exists, the source of life, intellectual light, impenetrable wisdom, it is He who “in the beginning created heaven and earth.”
~~St. Basil the Great, Hexæmeron (dated around 370 AD)
For someone who has no science education to rant about Hawking having pride standing in the way is quite silly. Science will never take a creator into the hypothesis, simply because it is not testable. Science says nothing about the existence of a creator, and as soon as you bring it in as the explaining factor you have left science. My advice to you is to be humble when you talk about subjects or people you are completely clueless about.
First, thanks for the comment.
I have to point out that science has, and I imagine will, take on hypotheses that are not testable. The Big Bang is certainly not testable, and has been accepted by the scientific world. Most certainly in astro physics.
Some in science have plenty to say about the existence of a Creator, Intellect, or Cause. Nowadays many of their colleagues try and shut them out of the discussion if not shut them up altogether. Ironically, it’s very similar to what happened to the God-fearing scientist Galileo Galilei.
Despite what some may want, the subject or field of science cannot speak for itself. It is and has been driven by opinion (among other things). The opinion of men. Those men decide what “science says”. You follow the crowd of men who say science says nothing on the subject; I side with the crowd that says follow the evidence where it leads.
I certainly am no expert in science, but completely clueless? That’s a rather insulting way to disagree with someone who pretty much simply quoted some of the brilliant minds in the world of science, including, of course, the queen of sciences (IMHO), theology. The overwhelming majority of my post is quotes. And I’m pretty certain they are within context as well.
It seems to me you’ve taken issue with my criticism of Stephen Hawking quote from the Grand Design. You do realize that he has stepped out of his field of expertise and into the world of philosophy with his comment, right? And in his doing so he made C.S. Lewis seem prophetic in the quote I supplied from his book “Miracles” which was originally published in 1947.
Lastly, while I’m certainly not beneath acquiring a bit more humility, you may want to consider not insulting the folks you recommend be humble. It tends to clash.