Here in present day, the impossible has been achieved. Christians and atheists have found something to agree on. Well, something besides that the Nicholas Cage “Left Behind” movie was a dumpster fire. The majority of modern science shows that at some point in time, the universe began to exist, and this is when all space, time, and matter came into existence. This fits right in with the Christian claim that a spaceless, timeless, and immaterial being created the heavens and the Earth from nothing.
Unfortunately the agreement diverges pretty quickly from there. After that singular beginning, we are still left with the question of, “How did we get here?” We might know that the bits and pieces came into existence, but that tells us very little about how. How do we get from the explosive beginning to a five year old child on Earth staring up at the sun, moon, and countless stars? This is a question that has become increasingly difficult to answer for modern scientists. The more we learn, the more we realize just how finely tuned this universe is. The physics that literally hold the universe together stand on a razor’s edge. The smallest of changes results in a universe where life cannot exist. Most skeptics, even those like Paul Davies and Richard Dawkins, will openly admit that, “Everyone agrees that the universe looks as if it was designed for life.” Obviously they would deny that it actually was designed, but they will still concede just how unlikely it is by chance.
But was it chance? How did we actually get here? We’re going to briefly look at the three primary options on the table.
1. Chance
Many who reject the notion of an intelligent designer will simply fall back on the odds. Sure, it might be unlikely that we’re here, but we are still here, so I guess we’re the lucky ones. It’s simple, and certainly possible, but the more we learn about the fine tuning of the universe the more we realize just how unreasonable a view this is.
In the above video, Justin Brierly illustrates the chances for the expansion rate of the universe being correct. This is just one of many factors required for the universe to be able to support life, or even function at all. Others would be topics like the gravitational constant or the distribution of mass and energy, among a number of others. This isn’t even including the factors required for this specific planet we’re on to support life, only fundamental facets of the universe. And yet even that one single factor is so astronomically unlikely that no sane person would ever bet on it. The only option skeptics have is some form of multi-verse theory. The chances of us achieving our just right “Goldilocks Zone” universe is so unlikely that, as Frank Turek likes to say, it takes more faith to be an atheist than to believe God designed it.
2. Physical Necessity
The other option skeptics have is that we are here because we have to be. The view is that the laws of physics inevitably construct a universe with these characteristics and could not do anything differently. But this view has a fatal flaw. Simply put, citation needed. We have no reason to believe that this is the only way the universe could be constructed. It’s quite the opposite really, where the more we learn the less it seems that this idea stands. Without any evidence or support, this idea is nothing more than an assertion. William Lane Craig summarizes this topic in his book On Guard with, “So there’s no evidence that a life-permitting universe is physically necessary. Quite the contrary, all the evidence indicates that life-prohibiting universes are not only possible but far more likely than any life-permitting universe.”
3. Design
This leaves us with only one more option. Something or someone designed this universe. How did we get here? An incredible intelligence capable of managing processes with so much precision that we can barely comprehend it. Once again we are left with no other alternative, but a spaceless, timeless, immaterial designer.
Once again, this does not automatically lead us to the God of the Bible. Several other religions can put forth this case too. However, this is a key way of establishing theism. Once you have a theistic foundation, making the step to Christianity is much easier.
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