Seeing the Designer’s Hand

By Robert Farrow

The universe is full of magicals things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Philpotts.

Atoms are mostly empty space, yet your hand does not slide through the coffee table Why? The repulsive force in all atoms. So what keeps atoms together? The world as we know it, the world that supports life, is full of forces that are everyday taken for granted. Few care why the Sun shines, or why the sky is blue, or that time actually slows down when you are traveling at high speeds or the fact that when you look up in the sky at night, you are looking back in time. Sometimes homo sapien is the least inquisitive species on the planet. The average person might not care about the strong force, the weak force, gravity, or electromagnetism; however, if these forces were only slightly off in value, the world as we know it would be unrecognizable.

I grew up in a Catholic family, but also had a deep love of science, and contrary to what some might think, I did not find these beliefs in contradiction. I have often heard many say, “If God exists, why does he not show himself and prove it to the unbeliever?” Perhaps he shows it to us every day, but like those of us that do not care why the Sun shines, we do not care to think hard enough to see it.

I know the average reader does not care about science, and a few might have already stopped reading, but again, the reason why things are the way they are is found in science. And some might find it interesting that the more I read about science, the more I think I have found evidence of the designer’s hand, evidence for the existence of God. Take for the example that all atoms have a repulsive force and an attractive force, and that except for atoms with high atomic numbers these forces are in balance. (It is in fact very difficult to overcome these forces, which is why fusion as a power source has been so difficult to realize) That these forces are in balance is taken for granted. But is that if these forces were not in balance, we could not exist in this universe. Even more, the fact is, if any of these four fundamental forces had a slightly larger or smaller value life as we know it could not exist.

And there is the rub. That this situation could have happened by chance seems to me nothing short of miraculous. Scientists recognize that something odd is going on and quickly made up a number of theories so they would not have to utter the G word. There is a curious term known as the Anthropic Principle, which states that the universe must be one that admits life to exist. Another theory is the Many Universes Theory, which states that are a number of universes, so it is not surprising that one exists that supports life. This to me is really reaching, and is ignoring the obvious. Scientists have long feared uttering the G word, and the closest they will come is utter the phrase, intelligent design, but is really the same thing. I do not always believe the simplest explanation is always the correct one, but to ignore another explanation because it makes you feel uncomfortable is to me very unscientific. And in the end, who created God seems no more unanswerable then what happened before the big bang. The most likely scenario seems to me that we should not be here at all. Nevertheless, we exist.

The more I study the universe, the stranger and more wonderful it seems. The more I read of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the duality of light, of superstrings, and curved space, the more I realize just how amazing it is that we are here at all. To me the simple fact that we exist shows the hand of the designer, the hand of God at work. The universe is full of miraculous things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. The most miraculous thing of all is us.