Bank of Holly Springs

Science can never disprove God

Wyatt’s World

There was no deathbed conversion for famous physicist Stephen Hawking.

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,” Hawking said before his death.

In his 2010 book, The Grand Design, Hawking asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe.

Hawking is dead. May he rest in peace. In 2,000 years, no one will know his name. His life, as King Solomon predicted in Ecclesiastes, will be meaningless vanity. But Jesus Christ, a poor carpenter from a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, will still be King of the universe.

I doubt Hawking ever read the Bible. He was probably too busy trying to solve the equations of the universe. He made some great discoveries and advanced our worldly knowledge an infinitesimal amount.

Hawking deluded himself that he understood the nature of the universe. We know practically nothing. Just enough to scratch out our human existence.

Hawking was smart, no doubt, but he was not wise. King Solomon was wise, a gift he received from God. King Solomon knew his place in the world.

“I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing of the wind.

“Whatever exists is far off and most profound – who can discover it?

“As you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”

For Hawking to claim that his tiny bit of knowledge could explain the universe without God is not just unwise, it is patently stupid. Science is useful for our livelihood, but it cannot answer the larger philosophical and theological questions of human existence.

Fortunately, we have the Bible, the Word of God. It will tell us as much as we need to know about the bigger issues of life. Here’s a basic lesson: There is a God and we’re not him.

Like Hawking, we want to be God and know everything. Eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge was the first mistake of man, setting down a road of sin, frustration and futility.

We have learned quite a few things, but it has not changed the nature of mankind one iota. We are still helpless sinners, here only by the mercy and grace of God.

Thanks to Hawking and his fellow astrophysicists, we know that 95 percent of the universe is composed of “dark matter” and “dark energy.” Just what that weird stuff is, we have no idea.

We know quantum mechanics works and now we have GPS and Google Maps. We just have no idea how it works or why. The more we look into the mystery box, the more questions emerge. And it will always be so.

Hawking had no more standing to proclaim there is no God, than I do to proclaim there is a God. This is a matter of faith and faith alone. Science cannot resolve the issue of faith.

When Jesus Christ rode a donkey into Jerusalem the crowd cried out “Hosanna!” They were shouting in Hebrew, “Save us.” They wanted to be saved from the Romans, but Jesus had a higher purpose.

The Merriam Webster definition of “save” is to “stop something from failing or ending; to keep something from being lost or wasted.”

Applying Hawking’s analogy that our minds are just computers, we “save” files and photos all the time. We delete bad photos.

Atheist computer geeks are fascinated by the idea that life is some sort of simulated computer game created by an advanced society. But then mention God in that context and religion becomes a silly fairytale.

God can save us by his grace, forever, with all our loved ones intact, in a way we can never comprehend. Or he can delete us forever. It’s his world and he rules. That’s why a wise person should fear God.

Likewise, God can rewrite the program anyway he wants. He can run it backwards, forwards, skip ahead, stop the sun, part a river, annihilate an army and choose a virgin to give birth. He can even raise the dead.

There is a reason those who study the Bible end up believers. How could prophets living hundreds of years before the birth of Christ predict he would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey? Or not be pierced? Or have billions from every corner of the earth one day proclaim him King?

Astronomer and mathematician Peter Stoner, in his book “Science Speaks,” offers a mathematical analysis showing that it is impossible that the precise statements about the One to come could be fulfilled in a single person by mere coincidence.

“The chance of only eight of these dozens of prophecies being fulfilled in the life of one man has been estimated at 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That would be one chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000,” he writes.

As Hawking said, “We are each free to believe what we want and it is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

Even Hawking acknowledges that the universe is fine-tuned to a degree almost impossible to comprehend. If gravity, electromagnetism or the nuclear forces were altered even slightly, the universe could not exist. How slightly? That would be one in a number followed by thousands of zeros.

Hawking’s answer to this? Anthropism. No matter how small the odds, we wouldn’t be here to calculate them unless they came to be.

No, the simplest explanation is there is an all-powerful creator God and it ain’t us. He created the universe from nothing (which Hawking acknowledges)! Science is practical but the Bible explains the bigger picture in a simple way that we humans can digest, if we apply ourselves. Jesus is the most influential person who ever lived because he performed miracle after miracle and ultimately rose from the dead. That got our attention!

Before the resurrection, life was meaningless vanity. But all that is now changed for those who believe.

Despite witnessing dozens of miracles, disciple Thomas still didn’t believe. “Until I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

So Jesus took Thomas’ hand and put it into his gaping wound. “My Lord and God” was all Thomas could say.

Jesus responded: “Because you have seen you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe.”

Hope your Easter was happy!

Wyatt Emmerich is publisher of The Northside Sun in Jackson and owner of Emmerich Newspapers.

Holly Springs South Reporter

P.O. Box 278
Holly Springs, MS 38635
PH: (662) 252-4261
FAX: (662) 252-3388
www.southreporter.com