The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel [79]
“Of course,” he continued, “the fine-tuning by itself can’t tell us whether God is personal or not. We have to find out in other ways. But it does help us conclude that he exists, that he created the world, and that therefore the universe has a purpose. He made it very carefully and quite precisely as a habitat for intelligent life.”
“How do you assess the persuasiveness of the anthropic evidence?” I asked.
“It’s not conclusive in the sense that mathematics tells us two plus two equals four,” he said. “Instead, it’s a cumulative argument. The extraordinary fine-tuning of the laws and constants of nature, their beauty, their discoverability, their intelligibility—all of this combines to make the God hypothesis the most reasonable choice we have. All other theories fall short.”
I picked up a newspaper clipping from the conference table, then said to Collins: “The New York Times recently published that famous quote by physicist Freeman Dyson, who looked at the evidence for fine-tuning and said: ‘The universe in some sense must have known that we were coming.’ But then the author added: ‘This notion horrifies some physicists, who feel it is their mission to find a mathematical explanation of nature that leaves nothing to chance or the whim of the Creator.’ Obviously, that’s not how you see the mission of physics, is it?” 53
“No, not at all,” he said. “That attitude reflects an antitheistic bias. I don’t mind scientists trying to find naturalistic explanations, but I wouldn’t say it’s the mission of physics to explain everything naturalistically. The mission of physics is to pursue a naturalistic explanation as far as we can; but since physics can only explain one set of laws by invoking a more fundamental set of laws, it can never itself explain the most fundamental laws. Explaining these laws is where one moves from physics to metaphysics. Though invoking God may not be strictly part of science, it is in the spirit of science to follow the evidence and its implications wherever they lead us. We shouldn’t shrink back from the God hypothesis if that’s what the facts fit.”
He wasn’t alone in that perspective. Said Harvard’s Gingerich: “I believe that . . . the Book of Nature, with its astounding details—the blade of grass, the Conus cedonulli, or the resonance levels of the carbon atom—suggests a God of purpose and a God of design. And I think my belief makes me no less of a scientist.” 54
With that, one last question came to mind. “As you dig deeper and deeper into physics,” I said to Collins, “do you have a sense of wonder and awe at what you find?”
“I really do,” he said, a grin breaking on his face. “Not just with the fine-tuning but in lots of areas, like quantum mechanics and the ability of our minds to understand the world. The deeper we dig, we see that God is more subtle and more ingenious and more creative than we ever thought possible. And I think that’s the way God created the universe for us—to be full of surprises.”
HEADS OR TAILS
Whichever way I looked, the inference of design seemed inescapable. If ours is the only universe in existence, which is a logical conclusion based on the evidence, then its highly sophisticated fine-tuning cries out for a designer. On the other hand, if the esoteric theories of physicists turn out to be true and our universe is one of many others, then the need for a universe-generating mechanism also would demand a designer.
Heads or tails, the Creator wins.
As Vera Kistiakowski, professor of physics emerita at the Massachusetts