God, Creation and ‘The Story of Everything’: A new documentary claims that modern science has reality all wrong.

FINE TUNING: The universe possesses a long list of properties, each of which must be just so. If gravity were infinitesimally stronger, all matter would have collapsed back in on itself. But if gravity were infinitesimally weaker, stars and galaxies would never have formed. To support life, Earth itself must lie just the right distance from the sun, project just the right magnetic field, possess just the right gravity to hold in place an atmosphere of just the right density, and on and on.

The most arresting argument against materialism arrives with the third scientific finding the documentary presents, the discovery of the astonishing complexity of even the simplest forms of life. One lowly bacterium possesses a flagellum—a tiny tail or rotor. The flagellum comprises more than 30 distinct parts, so similar to those of an outboard motor that biologists speak of the flagellum’s propeller, drive shaft and so forth. How could such a structure possibly have evolved its way into existence one random mutation at a time?

Sadly, the materialist only scientist believes that reason the bacterial flagellar motor got here is that it evolved. The reasoning in philosophical terms is colloquially termed “begging the question” They assume evolution has and is always happening, and is true, therefore that is how the motor got here. Without any evidence of any transitional forms...very unscientific y’all.

There a lot more unique biological structures or systems just as complicated. Replication of a cell with the 4D dance of the genome and associated enzymes is a good example. Any college level textbook on the cell will give a decent account of the complexity of that system.

To avoid confusion, “begging the question”, does NOT equal “begging to have the question asked” as many will assume.

QED and IMHO.

If life can just happen by chance, then surely scientists can recreate life on purpose..

and yet they cant.

A scientist told God that with just a handful of dirt, some water, and electricity; he could create life. God said “Okay, show me.”

The scientist picked up a handful of dirt.

“Oh hey now - get your OWN dirt!” God exclaimed.

Bringing up that eternal question: Where did God come from? Philosophies cover the spectrum from ‘nothing’, ‘the before’, the ‘alternate’, the negative/dark matter, the ‘ever/Moebus strip’ and the unknowable - which pretty much covers most other remaining possibilities.

That we can be real as what we are and ponder all that, going far from meeting our daily concerns for personal needs, definitely sets us above most creatures far more confined by the restraints imposed upon them by the demands of their continuing survival.

Mankind/humanity’s most positive quality may be how it continues to free itself from base requirements and devote itself to higher pursuits in a reality where converting foes into allies requires much more from ourselves than reverting to traditional patterns of defensive behavior.

God is all yet to be known...if you aren’t just a part to be consumed as a tiny piece contributing to the eventual fulfillment of the greater whole. I THINK I’d like an after-life as a lone explorer feeding on discovered knowledge but would consign myself to a self-made Hell away from a better outcome (as One with God??) if wrong.

But I don’t worry over what I can’t know or affect - helping to make this real life better as it’s lived.

However it ends up, it behooves us to be the best we can WHILE we can to ensure that our future reflects the best of humankind’s qualities over it’s detrimental tendencies.

Meanwhile don’t waste time and energy fearing the reaper - use it’s inevitability to enrich the experiences you have, knowing nothing is for granted.

I have always conceded this point; that the universe and all its wonders could not have just happened by chance - that life could not have somehow evolved from nothing.

However, if we must conclude that ‘science’ knows nothing about how all this came about, I believe we must also conclude that ‘religion’ knows nothing.

The hypothesis that there must be a god who created the universe is every bit as much a guess as the hypothesis that there is not a god.

There are limits to what we can perceive, and vast wonders beyond our perceptions - some folks are OK with that, and some folks are not.

When people are not OK with not knowing, they start making things up.

Dawkins is a rabid atheist and by many accounts, “A condescending, tone-deaf a**hole”.

CC

"the astonishing complexity of even the simplest forms of life"

"How could such a structure possibly have evolved its way into existence one random mutation at a time?"

As I studied and practice medicine, this alone was enough to convince me that life and the universe could never had developed without a Creator of infinite or seemingly infinite intelligence.

My other experiences confirmed this conviction.

The probability of amino acids randomly combining to create even the simplest folding protein is about 10 to the negative 164th power. This is a number larger than all the molecules in the known universe.

“However, if we must conclude that ‘science’ knows nothing about how all this came about, I believe we must also conclude that ‘religion’ knows nothing.“

Arbitrarily assigning ignorance of one thing to another is an evasive tactic not a rationality. Science’ inability to prove a thing doesn’t in any way affect anything except science’ inability. It is immaterial .The keystone of religion is Faith in what can’t be seen or proven. The Holy Spirit is as real to millions as anything that can be proven. The Word of God as contained in The Holy Bible is testable in its prophecy hundreds of them which were realized but not to a degree that it obviates Faith.

Let’s just say that Dawkins could believe whatever he wished & I had the option of not believing Dawkins.

Thx.

Is there [substantive] scientific evidence for God? Is atheism a position of faith? Yes and Yes

(See also Perplexity AI on the Scientific Evidence for God by Ronald Cram, and,
Referenced list of evidences of this universe being finely tuned for life, even down to dna, indicative of a supernatural cause, from perplexity.ai)
The answer to both questions is a resounding yes. For to believe that an exceedingly vast, systematically ordered universe, exquisitely finely tuned for complex life with its profound intricate complexity and extensive diversity, can be all a result of purely natural processes requires much faith (which, biblically defined, it that of degrees of actionable confidence based upon degrees of evidential warrant
More so than that the universe logically testifies to design, requiring a First Cause (at the least), that of a being of supreme power and intelligence being behind the existence of energy and of matter, and organization thereof.
Meaning that the atheist/antitheist position that there is no Creator/God, is one lacking proof and requires great faith. For atheists can only presume that an exceedingly vast, systematically ordered, intricate universe, exquisitely finely tuned for earthly life with its extensive diversity and astounding complexity - which is well attested to (see below) - came to be by known and potentially known, purely natural demonstrable powers, without any supreme supernatural agency behind it.
And while man- using His God-given intelligence - has discovered causes and means of many things (like lighting) that were once attributed by some to purely supernatural causes, these are discoveries of how God created natural things to work, using laws He ordained, yet which are beside actions for organization of matter, and the programming of it which require supernatural powers and intelligence.
Moreover, rather than a trajectory of scientific discovery leading to a purely natural explanation of the universe, instead, the more that is discovered then the more perplexing competing proposals become, and likewise the premise that the universal can or will be explained to the exclusion of a creator becomes more manifest as a position of faith. See at end for responses to further argumentation for regarding atheism being a position of faith. Meanwhile, here are just some
Sources attesting to "an exceedingly vast, systematically ordered universe, exquisitely finely tuned for complex life with its profound intricate complexity and extensive diversity:"
1. It's almost impossible to understand how unfathomably massive our universe truly is
2. https://www.discovery.org/m/2020/06/Fine-Tuning-Parameters-Jay-Richards.pdf
3 https://youtu.be/ocMcYyhoZh4

4. Fine-Tuning (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
5. Science quotes on God
A list of 60 aspects as regards the above is https://wng.org/roundups/a-fine-tuned-universe-1617224984
6. 'God: new evidence' - the fine tuning of the universe - part 1
7. When science and philosophy collide in a 'fine-tuned' universe
8. The Universe Really Is Fine-Tuned, And Our Existence Is The Proof
9. Design from Fine-Tuning | Reasonable Faith
10. We Live in a Very Fortunate Universe
11. List of Fine-Tuning Parameters
12. List of Factors of Fine-Tuning of Intelligent Life in the Universe
13. Can DNA Prove the Existence of an Intelligent Designer?
14. [God DNA] Proves Presence of God” says Scientists
15. 82 Mind-Blowing Facts about DNA | FactRetriever.com
16. 'God: new evidence' - the fine tuning of the universe - part 1
17. Evidence for the Fine Tuning of the Universe
18. It Takes 26 Fundamental Constants To Give Us Our Universe, But They Still Don't Give Everything
19. The Universe as We Understand It May Be Impossible
20 https://www.c4id.org.uk/Groups/277306/Find_Resources.aspx
21. Genesis Impact
22. THINKAPOLOGETICS.COM
23. James Tour: The Mystery of Life youtu.be/zU7Lww-sBPg
24. Is There Any Evidence for Jesus Outside the Bible?
25. Ancient Evidence for Jesus from Non-Christian Sources
26. Is Jesus Alive?
27. Jenny Hawkins's answer to Do modern historians agree that Jesus existed?
28. Copycat theories refuted: Tektonics.org Bible apologetics and education
29. Amazing Stories, Christian Testimonies, Healing Miracles and Inspirational Stories and actual accounts of God's intervention.
30. Science quotes on God:
"according to many physicists, the fact that the universe is able to support life depends delicately on various of its fundamental characteristics, notably on the form of the laws of nature, on the values of some constants of nature, and on aspects of the universe’s conditions in its very early stages." https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fine-tuning/ A listing of such follows.
“I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.” - Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy) Willford, J.N. March 12, 1991. Sizing up the Cosmos: An Astronomers Quest. New York Times, p. B9.
“Amazing fine tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word ‘miraculous’ without taking a stand as to the ontological status of the word.” - George Ellis (British astrophysicist) Ellis, G.F.R. 1993. The Anthropic Principle: Laws and Environments. The Anthropic Principle, F. Bertola and U.Curi, ed. New York, Cambridge University Press, p. 30
“We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures.. .. If the Universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.” - John O’Keefe (astronomer at NASA) Heeren, F. 1995. Show Me God. Wheeling, IL, Searchlight Publications, p. 200.
“As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.” - Professor Freeman J. of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton
“The statistical probability that organic structures and the most precisely harmonized reactions that typify living organisms would be generated by accident, is zero.” - Ilya Prigogine (Chemist-Physicist) Recipient of two Nobel Prizes in chemistry in, "Physics Today" 25, pp. 23-28
“...how surprising it is that the laws of nature and the initial conditions of the universe should allow for the existence of beings who could observe it. Life as we know it would be impossible if any one of several physical quantities had slightly different values.” - Professor Steven Weinberg (Nobel Laureate in High Energy Physics [a field of science that deals with the very early universe], writing in the journal “Scientific American”.)
16O has exactly the right nuclear energy level either to prevent all the carbon from turning into oxygen or to facilitate sufficient production of 16O for life. Fred Hoyle, who discovered these coincidences in 1953, concluded that “a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology.” - Hoyle, Fred. “The Universe: Past and Present Reflections,” in Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 20. (1982), p.16 (for more of these coincidences click here)
“If you equate the probability of the birth of a bacteria cell to chance assembly of its atoms, eternity will not suffice to produce one… Faced with the enormous sum of lucky draws behind the success of the evolutionary game, one may legitimately wonder to what extent this success is actually written into the fabric of the universe.” - Christian de Duve. “A Guided Tour of the Living Cell” (Nobel laureate and organic chemist)
“The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total chaos if any of the natural ‘constants’ were off even slightly. - - Dr. Paul Davies, esteemed author and Professor of Theoretical Physics at Adelaide University.
“...The capacity of DNA to store information vastly exceeds that of any other known system: it is so efficient that all the information needed to specify an organism as complex as man weighs less than a few thousand millionths of a gram. The information necessary to specify the design of all the species of organisms which have ever existed on the planet…could be held in a teaspoon and there would still be room left for all the information in every book ever written…” - Dr. Michael Denton (Australian microbiologist)
“Amazing fine tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word ‘miraculous’ without taking a stand as to the ontological status of the word.” - George Ellis (British astrophysicist) Ellis, G.F.R. 1993. The Anthropic Principle: Laws and Environments. The Anthropic Principle, F. Bertola and U.Curi, ed. New York, Cambridge University Press, p. 30
“As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.” - Professor Freeman J. of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton
Owen Gingerich, Astronomer: "Frankly, I am psychologically incapable of believing that the universe is meaningless. I believe the universe has a purpose, and our greatest intellectual challenge as human beings is to glimpse what this purpose might be." [1]
"Only gradually did I come to appreciate how magnificently tuned the universe is for the emergence of intelligent life." [1]
George Greenstein, Astronomer: "As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency--or rather, Agency--must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being?" [3]
Stuart Kauffman, Complexity Theorist: "Yet who seeing the snowflake, who seeing simple limpid molecules cast adrift in water forming themselves into cell-like hollow lipid vesicles, who seeing the potential for the crystallization of life in swarms of reacting molecules, who seeing the stunning order for free in networks linking tens upon tens of thousands of variables, can fail to entertain a central thought: if ever we are to attain a final theory in biology, we will surely... have to see that we are the natural expressions of a deeper order." [3]
As regards “order,” from another non-Christian:
“The order of the universe is not an assumption; it’s an observed fact. We detect the light from distant quasars only because the laws of electromagnetism are the same 10 billion light years away as here. The spectra of those quasars are recognizable only because the same chemical elements are present there as here, and because the same laws of quantum mechanics apply. The motion of galaxies around one another follows familiar Newtonian gravity. Gravitational lenses and binary pulsar spin-downs reveal general relativity in the depths of space. We could have lived in a universe with different laws in every province, but we do not. This fact cannot but elicit feelings of reverence and awe.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
*As Albert Einstein observed, " We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations."
Stephen Hawking, a renowned cosmologist, believed that the universe has an underlying order. He wrote, "The universe is governed by a set of laws, which are mathematical in nature, and these laws can be discovered and understood by humans." (Source: "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking)
Brian Greene: "The universe is a grand, harmonious system, governed by a set of rules we call the laws of physics... The harmony of the universe is a reflection of the underlying order that pervades all of existence." (From "The Elegant Universe", 1999)
Emmy Noether: "The universe is a system of symmetries, governed by laws that reflect the underlying order of nature... Mathematics is the tool that reveals these symmetries and laws." (From "Noether's Theorem", 1918)
“We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures.. .. If the Universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.” - John O’Keefe (astronomer at NASA) Heeren, F. 1995. Show Me God. Wheeling, IL, Searchlight Publications, p. 200.
Francisco Varela: "The universe is a system of order, with a self-organizing and autopoietic nature that underlies the emergence of life and consciousness." (From "The Embodied Mind", 1991)
“I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.” - Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy) Willford, J.N. March 12, 1991. Sizing up the Cosmos: An Astronomers Quest. New York Times, p. B9.
Charles Darwin: "The universe is a system of order, with a natural selection that guides the evolution of life towards greater complexity and diversity." (From "On the Origin of Species", 1859)
Commentary:

The keystone of religion is Faith in what can’t be seen or proven.

And Biblically, faith is not blind, but confidence based upon a degree of evidential warrant. Based on which we make choices daily.

Greek "Pistis," faith. Used in,

Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance [Pistis] unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Act 17:31)

True, but I didn’t do it arbitrarily.
I did it based on the fact that the information is not available to either party.

Yes, and then there is their exquisite catalytic precision.

Ok. That’s fair. As a Christian, I have faith about the intelligent designer of the universe. Not personal knowledge. But the amount of wisdom and scientific knowledge that backs it up is very substantial.

Wonderful review; thanks for posting.

PhD chemist and chess master Jonathan Sarfati, PhD has been writing about this stuff academically and as lectures for thirty years, after first having been accepted and published by peer-reviewed scientific journals.

I have seen several of his lectures on DVD and was blown away by his explanation of the structural complexity of the human body that has been revealed by electron microscopy (magnification around 200x greater than traditional lenses) and how its findings support Biblical accounts of creation:

The Christian Root of Science (DVD or streaming)

Of course, any creation scientists and their organizations have been subject to denunciations and cancel culture. His, Creation Ministries International, is no different, like the climate change hysterics towards actual science.

However, if we must conclude that ‘science’ knows nothing about how all this came about, I believe we must also conclude that ‘religion’ knows nothing.

Oh, must we? Hahahahahaha! Fine bit of fallacious tautology there.

Ping

However, if we must conclude that ‘science’ knows nothing about how all this came about, I believe we must also conclude that ‘religion’ knows nothing.

I don't think we can say that science knows "nothing", but rather, it doesn't know everything. Likewise, religion can very well know something, but not everything. And that's why the Catholic Church speaks of many mysteries.

If you do believe in a Creator, of any type, the question becomes does that Creator have an interest in communicating with it's creation. If there is no interest, then you could assume that our religion is entirely man-made. If there is a desire to communicate, then religion could have meaning.

Of course, we do not know these answers. But we might believe that if there is a God, who does create life, there would be an interest in how that life turns out. We might also want to consider the possibility that our lives are made up of more than our physical being, and that our spiritual being or soul has a reality. Proof of this is not scientifically proven, but there are enough instances that cannot be explained by other means to entertain the idea that our souls endure beyond our physical life.

As for me, I've lived part of my life without practicing a religion, and I lived part of my live with a religious practice. I prefer the religious life, so those questions have been answered for me.