Reflections:
CREATION AND ITS CREATOR - Part 4
By Enoch Reuben Muniah, Johannesburg
Authority and Veracity
On creation of light, God made the stars also. God, in His majestic splendour and grandeur, flung myriads of stars into space. They shine and twinkle with God’s smile of approval.
In Psalm 147:4 we read, “He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them by their names”. He can measure the oceans in the hollow of His hand and collect the dust of the earth in a basket (Isa. 40:12). Awesome! What a mighty God we serve. We catch a glimpse of this complex craftsmanship when God speaks to Job about things beyond our understanding. God asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation”? “Who marked off its dimensions”? “Who stretched a measuring line across it”?
This glimpse of creation’s magnitude causes us to wonder at Earth’s mighty oceans bowing before the One who ‘shut-up’ the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb... who said, “This far you may come and no farther” (Job 38:4-11). With the use of acoustic astronomy, scientists can observe and listen to the sounds and pulses of space. They have found that stars do not just orbit in silence in the mysterious night sky but rather generate music.
Much like whale sounds, the resonance of stars exists wavelengths or frequencies that may not be heard by the human ear. Yet, the music of the stars and whales and other creatures combine to create a symphony that proclaims the greatness of God.
Job is reminded by God of His grand design of the world. “Who laid its corner stone – while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy”? (Job 38:5-7).
In an attempt to harmonise Biblical chronology, Thomas Chalmers conjured up a theory known as the ‘Gap Theory’. It is also now referred to by theologians as the ‘ruin-and- reconstruction theory’ or the ‘pre-Adamic cataclysm theory’. Proponents of this theory believe, that there were millions, if not billions of years between verse 1 and verse 2 of Genesis chapter 1. That would be an argument from silence; there is no definitive or conclusive proof. It is just a baseless argument emerging from the shades of obscurity. The “Gap theory” is not only impossible scientifically but also destructive theologically.
Big Bang versus Big God
Reference has also been made to a ‘Big Bang’ theory, and that too would be an argument from silence; it is mere conjecture. This theory argues that the universe originated in a great explosion billions of years ago. This is based on the hypothesis that, according to the law of thermodynamics, the universe is rapidly expanding and continues to expand. Global warming, perhaps, resulting in irregular climate patterns? The buzzword these days is, “climate change”.
Some years ago, renowned scientists, astrophysicists, and cosmologists, represented by varied countries around the world (India included) attempted to replicate the ‘Big Bang’. They built what was called a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, between 1998 and 2008.
It was the world’s biggest and most powerful particle (proton) accelerator. It was a giant circular tunnel that ran for 27 kilometres and was anything between 100 to 175 meters below the ground. It weighed about 38,000 tons at a staggering cost of 4,75 billion dollars.
The particle accelerator was two proton beams in a high-density magnetic field pumped with helium gases travelling at the speed of light. These beams, travelling in opposite directions at such incredible speed, were guided around the accelerator rings by a strong magnetic field maintained by superconducting electromagnetism. At some point, the proton beams with the helium would collide, causing a “Big Bang.” All of this was engineered with the greatest of precision and with enormous costs, but failed to prove anything.
This is again another example of man’s quest for what lies beyond the unknown, provoked by irresistible intrigue. Ironically, man is mesmerised, utterly bewildered, bamboozled, even gob-smacked by science but mystified by the simplicity of the gospel. The gospel is profoundly simple and simply profound. G&P
(To be continued)
