As I walked into the Sistine Chapel my eyes immediately gravitated to the ceiling. There it was. Michaelangelo’s masterpiece illustrating major events and players in the Bible.
Fighting my sore neck I struggled to keep my eyes glued to the ceiling. SMACK! A strong palm slapped me on the back, nearly causing me to sprain my neck and fall on my face.
“Buongiorno!” A bearded man in his early 60s yelled in my ear. Noticing that he was wearing a tour guide’s uniform I decided I would politely entertain what he has to say. “My friend! Is this painting not beautiful? Just look how the different atoms arranged themselves to form this masterpiece.” The man proclaimed in awe as his eyes were glued to the ceiling.
Photo by Alex Krivec from Flickr.com
Art without an Artist?
As I’m sure you already guessed this experience is fictitious. If you were to have an encounter as such I’m sure you’d be left scratching your head. Not because the tour guide’s observation is false (indeed paint is comprised of atoms), but because he didn’t say anything about Michelangelo and his motivations for painting such a timeless piece that has kept visitors captivated for centuries.
Imagine going to an art gallery and the tour guide telling you that all the paintings that are before your eyes have no artists who originally imagined and painted them. To further your disappointment the tour guide fails to give you the meaning behind any of the paintings because…well… there are no artists.
Michelangelo, Steve Jobs, and God
Most people would never look at a piece of art, a piece of architecture, or their IPhone and say there is no artist, architect, or engineer behind them. Unless…they argue that because Michelangelo or Steve Jobs cannot be seen it can reasonably concluded that they are not needed for the existence of the Sistine Chapel or an IPhone.
Can a Big Bang, big bang itself?
The Standard Big Bang Theory was first developed Belgian Catholic priest and phycisist Fr. Georges Lemaitra.
Lemaitre’s model was dubbed “The Big Bang” by physicist and atheist Fred Hoyle.
Lemaitre, Einstein, and Hoyle acknowledged a fundamental principle in metaphysics: “from nothing only nothing can come.” So how can the universe come into existence if before it there was nothing? It can’t. The universe could not have cause itself to exist anymore than the Mona Lisa painting could have painted itself. Prior to the universe there had to be an “other reality” that brought the reality into the universe and all it’s observable characteristics into existence.
It is highly improbable that a universe with no intelligence behind it to create the necessary means for life. Physicist Roger Penrose calculated that the probability of pure chance creating the means for a universe with the constants for life is 10^10^123 to one. Hoyle compared this occurrence to a tornado going through a junkyard and assembling a 747 from the junk in the yard.
Abandoning his atheism Hoyle wrote,
“A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and hat there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”
Questions for Consideration
- Can science either prove or disprove the existence of God? 2. Whether you are a person of religious faith, agnostic, or atheist, what has lead you to affirm your belief?
