This past weekend our campuses looked at Psalm 19. I (Pastor Brian Dennert) have asked John Bivona, a member of Faith Church, to write the post for this week. John works as a Senior Biosafety Officer for The University of Chicago – Office of Research Safety at the Howard T. Ricketts Laboratory (HTRL) located on the campus of Argonne National Laboratory. John has a passion for science and culture, especially when it intersects with Scripture.
“The heavens declare the Glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4, ESV).
David is telling us that the heavens (the earth, moon, stars, and planets) declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of His hands. He goes on to say that despite having no speech,words, or sound, the days speak and the nights reveal knowledge. Psalm 8:3 states that the moon and stars were set in place by the hand of God.
Wow! Let’s be honest and not get puffed up in our virtuous religion — those are some audacious claims! In my opinion, there are two, maybe three, possibilities to interpret the intent of these Scriptures: 1) They are true and can be validated; 2) They are false and there is no evidence to support the claims; and 3) They are not meant to be statements of fact, just poetic literature about God and His relation to the heavens above.
This is where my research background kicks in. Research fundamentally involves questioning the status quo, not with arrogance, but with a respectful boldness looking for truth. This type of critical thinking was encouraged by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 when he tells us to examine or test all things.
Meditating on Psalms 8 and 19 should nudge us to ask obvious questions. Are there really things in the heavens that declare God’s Glory? Do the skies proclaim the work of His hands? Do the days speak? Do the nights reveal knowledge? Is there evidence that the moon and stars are set in place?
I recently watched a video about the vastness of our universe. Without a doubt, the size of the universe is breathtaking, although size alone doesn’t necessarily declare God’s glory or proclaim God’s handiwork. In my opinion as a researcher, when it comes to the heavens, what truly declares God’s glory and proclaims His handiwork is precision, order, complexity and fine tuning.
Let me give you an example. If you picked up a rock from your yard, you could make the argument that the rock ‘coincidentally evolved’, given the combination of time, rain, erosion and wind. Let’s go bigger! Mt. Augustus (see below), one of the world’s largest rocks covers over 11,000 acres and stands about 3,600 feet above sea level. Again, the argument could be made that it ‘coincidentally evolved’ given a mixture of time, rain, maybe some flooding, a little lightning, some erosion, and wind.
Now let’s look at Mt. Rushmore! A big rock that just happens to have some faces that resemble four American presidents.
Is there any way those faces evolved over thousands of years of erosion, wind and rain? How about one million or even one billion years? Not a chance! Dumb and Dumber’s Lloyd Christmas has infinitely better odds of ending up with Mary, then the faces of four US presidents chiseled into a mountain by chance. Mt. Rushmore was created with complexity, fine-tuning, precision, and order.
Let’s look at some other examples of fine-tuning in the heavens.
Habitable Zone
Think about the earth in relation to the sun; if we were 5% closer to the sun, temperatures would be 900 degrees, if we were 20% further away, the earth would freeze. Does the Big Bang put us in the habitable zone, or has God set us in a precise location?
Oxygen Rich Atmosphere
Normal oxygen levels in the air we breathe is about 21%, if we go below 19.5% (just a 1.5% difference), we have an oxygen deficient atmosphere and we’re going to start having some health issues. Go to 23.5% and we’re in an oxygen-enriched atmosphere and we’re going to start having some physical hazards (i.e. fires), and as we go higher, complex life starts to change. Can evolution answer for this fine-tuning, or are the heavens speaking His handiwork?
Orbited by a Large Moon
The moon’s powerful gravitational pull stabilizes earth’s tilt, which ensures mild seasonal changes to sustain complex life. The moon is the perfect size and distance from the earth. Has the Big Bang set this in place?
Earth’s Axial Tilt
The earth just happens to have 23.5 degree tilt. If there were less or no tilt, the earth would be colder and seasons would not occur, a main stimulant to life would disappear. If the planet was radically tilted, seasons would be extreme, and it would make it more difficult for complex life to thrive on our planet. Is this attributed to a random asteroid collision, or a declaration of God’s glory?
Earth’s Magnetic Field
The Earth has a magnetic field — without it, life as we know it, would cease to exist due to exposure to solar winds and radiation from the sun. It’s important to note that Venus and Mars don’t have a magnetic field. Is this a revelation of God’s knowledge or coincidence?
We can see His handiwork proclaimed in the heavens, His glory is declared in the earth, moon, sun, and stars. The days speak and the nights reveal knowledge! The fix is in, we have been precisely set in place by God and for God! (Which leads me to ask…why are we here? Now I’ll leave that one to Brian.
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