INTRODUCTION

The question of Origins is the most foundational issue facing mankind
today. The reason is that if random events are responsible for human
existence, then the following three things are true:

1. We have no purpose beyond this life
2. We are accountable to no authority higher than ourselves
3. We can do anything we want without eternal consequences

Conversely if man is the Creation of a loving, personal God, then:

1. There is purpose to our life
2. We are accountable to our Creator
3. Eternal consequences attend all of our words and deeds

The first invites unbridled self-expression. The second demands
surrendered self-control. Part 1 of TWO WORLD VIEWS highlights these
views as Materialism and Theism, whereas Parts 3, 4 and 5 present
empirical evidence that originated within, and that is accepted by
the scientific community. The evidence is shown to be consistent with
Biblical Revelation, and to point to the following conclusion:
All that we see, and all that we are originated from a Supreme
Intelligence of unfathomable domain and dimension.

This evidence falls into the following three categories:

1. OUR WORLD'S ADVENT
2. EXISTENCE OF LIFE
3. CENTRALITY OF MAN

OUR WORLD'S ADVENT

The evidence applicable to the advent of our universe comes from the
fields of Cosmology, Astrophysics and Astronomy, and is embodied in
conclusions that were forced by the measurements obtained in these
disciplines. These measurements were guided by a theory popularly
known as "The Big Bang"-- a term that arose from the sarcastic remark
of Sir Fred Hoyle. At the time Hoyle was an atheist who knew full
well the theological implications if the universe had a beginning.

Ironically many Christians regard Big Bang with disdain, either
because they do not understand it, or because they read more than it
says into it. In this sense Big Bang is like an airplane. It can be
used to drop bombs or medicine. Sadly, many Christians use it to drop
bombs. Why do I say sadly? For two reasons: First, because an
abundant amount of empirical evidence indicates that Big Bang is
true. Secondly, because when properly understood, Big Bang
underscores the veracity of Genesis 1, and it also affirms the
existence of God.

BIG BANG ACCEPTANCE

Big Bang is accepted by virtually all astrophysicists and
cosmologists. Moreover, the last two decades have seen a significant
increase in both the quality and the quantity of data, and it has
served to raise our confidence in this conclusion.

This is not to say that all our questions have have been answered.
Two of the most pressing questions surround the genesis of galaxies,
and the nature of dark matter. But even so, answers are emerging.

Nor is it to suggest that all scientists accept Big Bang. But the
unanswered questions that remain do not falsify the many otherwise
successful outcomes from the theory. Science often works through
consensus, and the vast majority of scientists believe that Big Bang
is true. Indeed, among those who work in the field, this acceptance
is almost unanimous. This does not mean that Big Bang is true. But it
does mean that there is a near unanimous belief that the available
evidence points in this direction.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Why do so many astrophysicists and cosmologists believe that Big Bang
is true? The answer goes back to 1927 when Edwin Hubble observed that
the galaxies were moving away from one another at a speed that was
proportional to the distance between them. To explain what he saw, he
postulated that our world had exploded into existence at some point
in the past. This was a radical departure from what had been a common
understanding among scientists that the universe was "steady-state"
i.e., that it had always existed eternally.

The basis for this older belief rested in the First Law of Science
(thermodynamics), which asserts that a natural process cannot bring
into existence something from nothing. Since something was in
existence (our universe), and since a natural process could not have
created it from nothing, the only conclusion possible from natural
law was that our universe had no beginning. Therefore it was believed
to be eternally existing.

EVIDENCE OF AGE

But Hubble's postulate was a radical departure from steady-state, and
soon scientists began to ask, "If the universe had a beginning, how
long ago did it happen?" This question has been asked many times
over, and from at least five vantage points. These are (1) Globular
Clusters, (2) White Dwarf Cooling, (3) Doppler Redshift, (4) Speed of
Light, and (5) Radio Isotopes. Let me give a brief description of
each, and then explain why I have chosen to do so.

GLOBULAR CLUSTERS is a name given to collections of stars whose
brightness and surface temperature, when plotted, "cluster" along a
line called a "main sequence". Their point of departure from the line
is a measure of the age of the stars.

WHITE DWARF COOLING measures age by applying thermodynamic laws to
the rates at which "white dwarf" stars are observed to cool. These
laws govern the rate at which radiation leaves these thermal bodies,
and therefore the time period over which they can cool.

DOPPLER REDSHIFT is the change in color of the electromagnetic
radiation from stars and galaxies. These objects are "pinned" to the
expanding fabric of "space-time." The expansion creates a shift in
wavelength toward the red end of the spectrum that is used to measure
age.

The SPEED OF LIGHT in vacuum is accepted as a universal constant.
Triangulation is used to estimate distances which, in conjunction
with the speed of light are used to measure age. Some have tried to
suggest that light moved faster in the past. But at least three
reasons argue against this: (1) Large experimental errors attended
the earlier measurements, and the effect disappeared as the errors
vanished; (2) Light's invariant speed produced Special Relativity
and, with it, atomic bombs that explode; (3) Age measurements
obtained by this method agree with the other age measurements.

RADIO ISOTOPES consist of naturally occurring radioactive elements
such as Uranium, Potassium and Thorium. Their decay rates can be
described mathematically and used to measure their age. Tens of
thousands of measurements made over nearly one-hundred years show
that the method works, and that is a reliable tool.

Each of these measurements rests upon assumptions, and these have
been carefully examined and weighed by the scientific community.
Errors attend all measurements, and these "nucleochronometers" are no
exception. But-- and here's the important but: Any one of these age
estimates is independent of the other four, yet ALL give an age for
our universe that lies between about 12 and 18 billion years.

There are two important points to consider:

(1) Each of five independent measurements indicate that
our universe came into existence billions of years ago
(not thousands or millions)

(2) The age measurement is for our universe, NOT man,
NOT planet Earth, and NOT the life it contains

EVIDENCE OF BIG BANG - Einstein's Relativity

These age measurements enabled scientists to calculate a hypothetical
point from which the "space-time" expansion appears to have
originated. Conceptually, this "point" agrees with a mathematical
curiosity (called a "singularity") that appears in Einstein's
equations.

Einstein published Special Relativity in 1905 and General Relativity
in 1916. The former predicted atom bombs, and the latter the bending
of starlight by gravity-- first measured by Arthur Eddington during a
total solar eclipse in 1919, and recently by scientists tracking the
changing positions of quasars near the edge of the visible universe.

Special Relativity also predicted time dilation-- confirmed when
physicists measured minute emission variations of both radioactive
iron nuclei between ground and on top a tall tower, and also between
twin Cesium 137 atomic clocks, one that was kept at an airport, while
the other flew around the world in an airliner.

Einstein's General Relativity provides the theoretical framework for
Big Bang. For example, it predicted matter condensed into 25%
Hydrogen and Helium immediately after Big Bang-- confirmed by later
studies of gas clouds and old stars. It also predicted photon
radiation would cool to about 3 degrees Kelvin. Arno Penzas and Bob
Wilson later measured both the cosmic background radiation from Big
Bang (1965) and the predicted temperature. Its existence convinced
virtually all skeptics that Big Bang was true.

EVIDENCE OF BIG BANG -NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE)

Since then we've had over 30 years of temperature measurements-
virtually all of which have confirmed the predictions. For example,
NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) itself made tens of
millions of temperature measurements. Using a Far-infrared Absolute
Spectrophotometer with unprecedented precision the Big Bang background
temperature was shown to be 2.726 +/- .01 degrees Kelvin. Moreover,
these thirty years of measurements embraced wavelengths from 0.04 to
70 cm-- and virtually all were consistent with the COBE measurements.

But all of the temperatures measured had almost the same value. The
enigma was that Big Bang did not predict so smooth a cosmos. The
temperatures varied by a mere 30 millionths of a degree Kelvin.
Causal processes in Big Bang did not explain the millions of minute
thermal fluctuations revealed by the COBE measurements. Instead, and
as was later realized, the small ripples were the result of density
perturbations that had attended the birth of our universe. These in
turn were found to arise from "quantum fluctuations" that are
described in a modified "inflationary" form of Big Bang proposed by
Alan Guth in 1981.

Guth suggested that in the very early moments of Creation (less than
a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second)
our universe underwent a rapid "inflation". Guth's "New Inflationary
Theory of the Universe" explained the observed thermal smoothness,
and it also predicted that quantum fluctuations (and therefore
density perturbations) would occur during this early inflation.

When COBE's Differential Microwave Radiometer confirmed 0.01%
smoothness and Cosmic Background Radiation fluctuations of thirty
millionths of a degree Kelvin, Big Bang's acceptance was virtually
unanimous. Moreover, the existence of the thermal inhomogeneities
that seeded primeval structure in the early universe was established.

EVIDENCE OF BIG BANG - Additional Data

Big Bang also predicted the existence of a nucleon / photon
"Concordance Interval" that experimental data now shows lies between
3 and 4 ten-billionths. Big Bang also predicted primordial
"nucleosynthesis" that is now confirmed by numerous measurements, and
inferred the measured primordial abundances of Hydrogen, Helium and
Lithium isotopes (D, 3He, 4He and 7Li). But before leaving this, let
me share one other fact (among many) that give us assurance that Big
Bang is on solid footing.

In April, 1994 Antoinette Songaila and Lennox Cowie of the University
of Hawaii, and Craig Hogan and Martin Rogers of the Washington
University used the world's largest single mirror (ten meter) Keck
telescope on Mauna Kea to measure the absorption of quasar light
through a primordial gas cloud. Their measurements established at
least three things:

1. Our universe is steadily expanding and cooling, and has done so
continuously in the past;

2. Two atoms of Deuterium exists for every ten thousand of hydrogen;

3. The gas cloud has a temperature of 7.58 degrees Kelvin and is
twenty-five percent the present age of our cosmos.

All of these results are consistent with, and predicted by Big Bang.

ATHEISM UNGLUED

As I mentioned earlier, many Christians regard Big Bang with disdain.
Their belief that Big Bang is untrue is the same as that of many
atheists who still reject Big Bang. In times past virtually all
scientists also disbelieved Big Bang, and did so for hundreds of
years, favoring instead the "Steady State" theory of the universe.

Numerous atheists disbelieve Big Bang because it implies God's
existence. Scientists once disbelieved it because it violates the
"First Law of Science" (thermodynamics). The First Law asserts
conservation of energy. Energy can take many forms. It can even take
on the form of physical matter (Einstein's famous conclusion). But
energy can neither be created or destroyed.

For example, consider water. It can take the form of a liquid, solid,
gas or plasma, or be further decomposed into quarks, fermions and
gluons. But it always exists as something. In the same way, our
universe consists of many things, and these appear in different
forms. But a natural process cannot bring into existence something
out of nothing (the First Law). This would be creating energy.

Since things exist, and since a natural process could not have
brought them into existence out of nothing, scientists concluded that
they must be eternally existing. This should not be confused with
quantum fluctuations, where Heisenberg's principle permits virtual
particles to be continuously created and returned to Dirac's "vacuum".
These exist over time intervals much too small for energy capture.
Stated differently, perpetual motion machines are still forbidden.

The idea that everything in the universe has existed forever led to
the Steady State theory of the universe-- a theory that was globally
accepted and adhered to for hundreds of years. But Big Bang changed
all of that. It asserted that not only was there a beginning, but
that the (Guth) equations could be viewed as teaching everything
originated from "nothing". Since the sum total of all the positive
energy of our universe (mass, radiation and so forth) is, to within
an order of magnitude, equal to the negative energy of gravitation
throughout the universe, the idea is not as far fetched as appears at
first glance.

BIG BANG'S MEANING

What is Big Bang? What does it say? First let me make clear what it
does not say. It says nothing about the origin of the earth or the
origin of man. In fact, it says nothing about the origin of planets
(except in the Alice in Wonderland agenda of whimsical reductionists).
It does provide a working hypothesis (not a theory) as to how
galaxies may have formed, as well as a description of the nature of
space-time.

Big Bang says that our universe exploded into existence in the form a
curved four-dimensional "space-time" fabric. The curves in the fabric
tell matter how to move, and the matter in turn tells the fabric how
to bend. The amount of matter in a given space is called "density",
and space that is dense contains a large amount of matter.

Since our universe is expanding i.e., enlarging, the amount of matter
that it contains in relation to its space is diminishing. This means
that its mass density continues to get smaller. An important
astrophysical question is whether our universe will continue to
enlarge forever, or stop expanding and collapse.

The answer lies in the amount of matter that occupied its space at
birth. If less than a critical amount, the universe is said to be
"open" and calculations show that it will expand forever. But if the
amount of matter now occupying space exceeds this critical amount,
then space-time curvature is "closed" which means that one day the
universe will stop expanding and collapse.

MIRACLE OF BIG BANG

What is astonishing is that one second after creation, space-time
curvature was neither open nor closed, but flat to within one part in
a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion. This means that:

(a) the spacial and energy distribution of the mass;
(b) the total amount of mass;
(c) all of the physical properties of this mass;
(d) the way that mass unfolded within space-time curvature--

All of this must have occurred with miraculous precision. Stated
differently, it teaches that our universe was tuned at inception to
better than one part in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion,
trillion!

Let me summarize this in as simple a way that I can by examining the
question: "What does the Big Bang theory imply?"

The answer has four parts:

(1) Our world had a beginning;
(2) Space-time's fabric arose from nothing;
(3) It was supernaturally tuned at inception to
better than 10 multiplied by itself sixty times;
(4) The Bible proved trustworthy.

The first point is agreed to by virtually all astrophysicists and
cosmologists world-wide.

The second inference comes from the way that Guth's equations can be
viewed, and also from Peeble's work at Princeton University which
shows that the sum total of the positive energy of our universe (mass,
radiation and so forth) is, to within an order of magnitude, equal to
the negative energy of gravitation that permeates our universe.

The third point arises from the fact that each of the models of our
universe-- no matter how diverse, all agree on one point: Space-time
should have gone out of existence in less than one ten millionth of a
billionth of a billionth of a billionth of billionth of a second (an
interval known as the "Planck" time).

Five independent time estimates ALL give an age for our universe of
between 12 and 18 billion years. When combined, these results lead
any rational observer to conclude that our world seems to have been
supernaturally tuned at inception. I say "supernaturally" because all
known natural processes yield precision (harmony among and throughout
all system phase points) necessarily less than 5 or 6 decimal places.
How ironic that some Christians fight the very understandings that
have disclosed the evidence for a Creator.

NEW WORLD VIEW

The fourth point comes from what the Bible teaches, and our new world
view that is emerging from modern knowledge. Make no mistake about
it. The quantum world view and the Bible agree. Of course this does
not mean that one can "prove" the Bible true. Rather, it is more
accurate to say that the Bible self-evinces its own authenticity, and
that all objections against the Bible can be dislodged-- and arise
either by reason of hidden presuppositions, or from honest confusion
over the subject matter.

There are of course, die-hard reductionists who will go to their
graves insisting that all that exists is matter and its motion.
However this intellectual relic has been trampled underfoot by the
growing disclosures of Quantum Physics-- but that must wait for
another day.

Likewise Big Bang implies that our universe is characterized by
thermodynamic closure (not to be confused with cosmological closure).
This means that the conclusions of modern Thermophysics can be applied
to the question of life's origin. Here again, the Bible shines across
the reductionist chaos.

COSMIC YOYO

Materialists tried to fight Big Bang by alleging the expansion was
one of many, and that the universe grows and then shrinks eternally.
Peeble's put that to rest by showing that it can't happen. The reason
is that not all of the energy created by destroying mass on the way
out (expansion) can return to mass on the way back (contraction).
This means that each explosion must go farther than the one before.

But this requires each earlier explosion to be smaller than the one
that later follows. Computer calculations show that as one goes back
in time, the "explosions" converge to a singularity i.e. a beginning.
Thus "In the beginning" (the first three words of every Bible) prove
correct even for a cosmological yo-yo. Moreover, in light of the
supernatural tuning at inception, the next two words: "God created"
now also appear to be correct. Actually, this latter point can be
established more forcefully from the information content of DNA.

OCCAM'S RAZOR

Let me close with a principle that is widely used in science-- and
then a question. The principle is known as Occam's razor viz., "the
simplest explanation will most likely prove to be the true one."

Now here's the question: What is simpler (and more reasonable)?

1. That specs of space dust endowed themselves with a living
awareness of their own existence to create such things as art
museums, concert halls, bowling alleys and pizza parlors?
Or:
2. That the six billion intelligences that now populate earth
originated from an Intelligence?