Today, we
have discovered a powerful and elegant way to understand the universe. We call it science.
We live in an enlightened world, every day of which brings forth new and
exciting discoveries attesting to the existence of the one creator. Science is clearly revealing to us the
unmistakable fingerprints of God providing mute but clear testimony of His omnipotence,
omniscience and omnipresence.
The size and
age of the cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding.
Our earth is lost in its immensity, and yet from this terra firma, humans
have made astonishing discoveries of the cosmos and our place within it.
These
discoveries remind us that we have to continue to question, to always keep an open mind
and use the knowledge thereby acquired to understand the role of the creator and the
purpose of our creation.
The Final
Testament was written 1400 years ago and the Bible 2000 and more, yet, when we look at the
scriptures and at the recent scientific discoveries we see astonishing similarities.
Up until the
mid twenties, the universe was considered to have always existed, to be neither expanding
nor collapsing, but not standing still. It
was only in the 1940's that Professor Hawking and Roger Penrose put forth the mathematical
calculations which showed that the universe had to have an origin - that there was a
beginning in which all matter was concentrated in a single point (popularly known as a
singularity), that there was a Big Bang in which this point emerged and exploded, creating
our universe, space and time. It is a well
known fact that at the singularity all the known laws of science and the normal concepts
of space and time break down - they no longer apply.
Proof that
their calculations of the origin were accurate was provided by Robert Wilson and Arnold
Penzias in 1964. Their accidental finding of
background microwave radiation of low intensity distributed evenly throughout the universe
was correctly interpreted as a relic of the Big Bang - in other words, a primordial
explosion of enormous proportions that began the whole process was expected to leave just
such a residue, or 'echo' from a 'smoking gun'.
It is
amazing that this very scenario is spelled out in the scripture:
Do the unbelievers not realize that the
heaven and the earth used to be one solid mass that we exploded
into existence?And from water we made all living
things. Would they believe?
(Quran, 21:30)
The modern
picture of Genesis, confirmed by scripture, therefore is of a cosmos starting out in an
utterly featureless state and then progressing in a very orderly fashion, or more
specifically, expanding:
We constructed the sky with our hands,
and we will continue to expand it. (Quran
51:47)
We are
witnessing, and indeed participating in a creative act that is taking place throughout
time.
That the
universe is expanding was directly confirmed by Edwin Hubble's measurements of the light
mitting from various galaxies. These
measurements proved that they were moving away from each other at a rate directly
proportional to their distance from the Milky Way. The
expansion is so precisely set that it neither runs away in an accelerating manner,
resulting in a universe long since dissipated, nor will it give way to recompression for a
final Big Crunch.
There is no
ambiguity in the above scriptural statements. They
are clear and precise. They were written in
the 'dark ages' and only in the light of recent scientific data are we able to understand
and interpret their meaning accurately.
It is
obvious, even at a casual glance, to any observer that the universe is remarkably ordered
on all scales. At the Big Bang, just enough
non-uniformity was included in the original chemistry to allow galaxies to distill and
form. With less non-uniformity we could
conceive of a homogenous cosmos - a thin soup swirling through space. More non-uniformity, and the initial entropy would
have been too high for the development of the universe and for life to exist.
The universe
is composed of matter and energy organized into coherent, identifiable structures,
frequently of great complexity, arranged in a harmonious and ingenious interdependence. Its precision clearly bespeaks an expanding
universe, constructed with consummate skill, being operated in a perfect manner. To state that the universe was created and then
left to operate on its own is laughable!
Science is
simply a knowledge of what already is. It is
a tool for us to realize the unique and infinite power of the Almighty Creator. It points out to us with great clarity how
infinite God is and how infinitesimal the human being is, and how irrational it is
(defying all common sense) to attribute creative powers to humans - be they saints or
prophets.
We have come
full circle. It is time to face the reality
that we are a people steeped in tradition and dogma that has no basis in fact or religion! We must have the courage to acknowledge this. We have broken ourselves into sects and
congregations when it is abundantly clear that we have only one creator. Common sense tells us that we must all be equal
in His eyes.
With the
precision with which He created the universe, He could not but be equitable. Let us therefore not hold on to worthless
traditions, but recognize the One God, discard our prejudices, kill our egos and be united
in His worship.
In the words
of William Paley: "'There cannot be a design without a designer, contrivance without
a contriver, order without choice, arrangement without anything capable of
arranging."
-
Shakira Karipineni
