David’s meditation in Psalm 19 draws our attention to the finely tuned movements of the stars, particularly our own sun as it arcs across the sky: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. …In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.”
The Bible tells us there is precise design and order in God’s universe. Science agrees.
Scientists tell us there are many fundamental regularities and constants of physics—for example, the speed of light, the force of gravity, nuclear forces—all of which have values that must be within an extremely narrow range for life to exist. Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project, explains: “When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants—the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc.—that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by even one part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets or people. That’s a phenomenally surprising observation. It seems almost impossible that we’re here. And that does make you wonder—gosh, who was setting those constants anyway? Scientists have not been able to figure that out.”
Some scientists say there are 50 of these types of features, some say over 100—evidences of fine tuning in creation that give the strong impression that the universe and Planet Earth in particular were designed with human life in mind. Atheist Stephen Hawking was quoted on PBS as saying, “The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are clearly religious implications whenever you start to discuss the origin of the universe. There must be religious overtones.” It’s not conclusive proof of the God of the Bible, but it sure makes it look like someone designed the universe with human beings in mind.
So here are some questions we might ask our non-believing friends: What conclusion do you draw from the fact that the universe appears to be so well suited to human life? Is that an accident? How do you think the universe got so finely tuned?