Evidence in favor of God

The noted physicist, Stephen Hawkings, declared,

“We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburbs of one of a hundred billion galaxies. So it is difficult to believe in a God that could care about us or even notice our existence.”

Let’s enter into Hawkings’ reasoning. According to his thinking, if the prosaic or the “average” argues against the existence of God, then the special or the unlikely should constitute evidence in favor of God! And this is just what we find! Henry Schaefer writes,

“In their recent writings, Hugh Ross and Guillermo Gonzalez have demonstrated that our solar system, and in particular the sun and planet earth, are in fact quite extraordinary in many respects.” (Science and Christianity, 66)

Indeed, we could point to our moon as a stabilizing influence, the distance, size, and specific emissions of our sun, and many salutary aspects of the earth, including plate tectonics, magnetism, carbon-oxygen cycle, etc. We call this confluence of all the right features as the “fine-tuning.” Paul Davies writes,

“There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all…It seems as though somebody has fine tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe. The impression of design is overwhelming.” (Science and Christianity, 63)

If it is so “overwhelming,” why doesn’t everyone see this? Why does Hawkings call the earth a “minor planet” and the sun “an average star?” How is it that so many remain skeptical in light of the evidence?

Perhaps Hawkings’ main concern regards our smallness in the midst of such a colossal universe? However, should this fact rule against “…a God that could care about us?” As a child, I would always choose the biggest and heaviest gift out of the grab-bag, believing that I’d get the best gift this way. But as adults, we also learn to value tiny things like diamonds, even intangible thoughts. Would Hawkings more easily believe in God if the universe were only a hundredth its size? I think not! Perhaps this glorious universe is one of God’s ways of demonstrating His unfathomable love for us? This was David’s thought:

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

It’s the vastness of the universe that highlights the glory of God’s love for each one of us specks. Is this too much to expect of God—that He could love a speck like me and along with everyone else? Even the unthinking universe is coerced into saying “no.” Wherever I go in this universe, gravity finds me with its force of attraction. If a blind, unknowing force like gravity can exert such reach, why not the Creator Himself! So what of Hawkings’ objection? Bias or baloney?

Daniel Mann