GOD IN THE UNIVERSE

 

                                                                                                                       Dr.Robert C. Newman

                                                                                                                                BiblicalSeminary

                                                                                                                        Hatfield,Pennsylvania

 

Introduction

 

            Tendencyto ignore God in media & education

            Psalm19:1-4: universe indicates God's glory to all

            Romans1:18-20: God's existence & power clear enough that all responsible for notbelieving

 

Existence of God seen in Universe running down

 

            Starsshining (burning fuel) wherever we look

            Comparethis to clock running down or campfire burning out

 

Modern Attempts to avoid a Universe with a Beginning

 

            Steady-StateTheory (1948): Proposed by Bondi, Gold, Hoyle

                        Universeis infinitely large, infinitely old

                        Expansionmatches rate at which matter pops into existence (non-supernatural creation)

                        BUTthis theory doesn't fit strong evidence that universe was once more crowdedthan it is now

           

            Big-BangTheories (1930s on): Lemaitre, Gamow, Oepik

                        Universeimmensely crowded at big bang, some 15-20 billion years ago

                        Lemaitre's(no bounce) version: big bang was creation event

                        Gamow's(one bounce) version: no beginning: contracting from eternity past to bigbounce,   now expanding

                        …pik's(multi-bounce) oscillating version: no beginning, bounces every 100 billion yearsor so

                        Problems:

                                    -notenough matter to stop expansion

                                    -noreason to think bounces wouldn't die out eventually

                                    -noknown force to produce bounce

                        Result:only Lemaitre's creation version fits known data

 

            RecentTheories (1980s): Gott, Guth, Hawking

                        Seethat universe began at big bang, but don't want creation, Creator

                        Tryto argue universe began without a cause, or is part of an infinite universe

 

A Tour of the Universe - universe displays God's power, greatness, beauty,goodness

 

            Earth:conditions just right; mankind small, environment fragile

 

            Moon:see value of our atmosphere for breathing, moderating temperature, protectingfrom meteors

            Mars:atmosphere too thin, too cold; no evidence of life

 

            Venus:atmosphere too thick, too hot, too acidic

 

            Outerplanets: neither they nor their moons at all promising for life

 

            Sun:our source of energy: equivalent to 2 billion 50 megaton H-bombs per second

 

            Lifezone: much smaller than once thought, about 5% of earth's orbit

 

            Stars:some are 1000s of times more energetic than our sun, but use up their fuel tooquickly

 

            Supernovas:use up billion years worth of energy in one year

 

            Galaxies:average 10-100 billion stars each; billions of galaxies in our universe

 

Conclusions

 

            Strongevidence from universe for God's existence

 

            God'spower is seen in stars, supernovas, galaxies

 

            God'sgreatness seen in immensity of universe

 

            Wisdom,goodness of God seen in earth's environment, complexity of living things