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Some people tend to assume that Christians are opposed to science. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of the most brilliant scientists in history have been devout Christians. For them, learning about the world is a wonderful way to express their love of God and to learn more about God. Just as a singer may write songs about the beauty of God’s creation, scientists may study the workings of nature as a way to praise the creator.
Christians do not have to choose between accepting the big bang theory and accepting the word of God. Instead, the Bible teaches us that God endowed us with natural intelligence and a profound sense of curiosity. He gave us eyes to see with, ears to hear, hands to sense, and a brain to reason with. It is His will for us to learn more about our world. The more we understand His creation, the more we can understand God himself.
As Christians, we believe that God created everything, even science. When God created the world, He also created the rules that govern the world. That means that God created not only the mountains and the seas but also the laws of gravity and thermodynamics. It also means that God created the Big Bang. Even secular scientists theorize about something they call the “God particle,” the particle that gave all other particles mass at the Big Bang. (The God particle’s formal name is the <.)
The book of Genesis tells us that God created the world we live in from sheer nothingness. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
In the beginning, as the Bible tells us, there was emptiness and formlessness. Doesn’t all that darkness and emptiness sound like what scientists say was there in the beginning, before the big bang? God’s word brought shape, light, and life to the void and created our world.
The Big Bang is the theory that the universe began as a single, microscopic dot which then stretched and expanded until it finally grew into the world we live in today. Scientists believe that the universe is nearly 14 billion years old and that it is still growing. Scientists have a fairly good understanding of how the Big Bang worked, but they can’t really explain why it happened.
What sparked the Big Bang? Why did it eventually lead to the perfect conditions for life to appear? The mathematician Roger Penrose once calculated that the probability of events coming together randomly to create a life-giving universe is incredibly low. In fact, the odds of this happening are almost zero.
Our beautiful, life-giving universe did not come about because of blind chance. The beauty of God’s creation and the intricate perfection of our world all prove that none of this is the result of a random accident. As the psalmist said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” We are living in God’s creation. He created the Big Bang and carefully wrought it so that our world as we know it would come into being.
While we will never fully understand all of God’s workings, the Bible tells us, again and again, that God created the world with a profound love for us. He created a world that was right, in every detail, for human life. As we read in Genesis,
“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper that is right for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God made every animal of the field and every bird of the sky. He brought them to the man to find out what he would call them. And whatever the man called a living thing, that was its name.”
The intricacy of creation is an expression of His care for us.
Christians believe that all of God’s creation, from the earth to the heavens, are a reflection of His glory. In many ways, God’s glory is far beyond our understanding. But by studying our world, we can catch glimpses of it, and we can come to a better appreciation of His greatness.
The more we can understand the work of His hands, the better we can understand our place in His creation.
We as a church exist to help you meet, know and follow Jesus. No matter where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or what’s been done to you, God loves you and you are welcome at Sun Valley.