Are We Sure God Did Create the Universe?

Last night, I finished Richard Hays’ The Moral Vision of the New Testament, and, after I read the last page of 471 pages, I wanted to shout “Yes!” and dance around my apartment. The problem: my kids were sleeping. So, instead, I did what any good American would do — I watched TV. I had DVR’d Discovery Channel’s Curiosity on “Did God Create the Universe?” (click for clips from the roundtable discussion) with atheist Stephen Hawking. Now, I was skeptical of an atheist answering this question. However, I became engrossed in the program. Hawking’s basic (if anything Hawking says could be “basic”) premise is that if we take into account the laws of nature there is no need for a god to create the earth. Thus, no god, no heaven, no afterlife.

No, I haven’t become an atheist, or agnostic. I figured I needed to say that so no one gets the wrong impression.

I don’t know if you’ve ever struggled with this question of human origins (and please don’t respond to this post with Genesis 1:1 as many Christians are quick to do) and God’s existence. I have. I still do (on occasion). I believe the Bible, yes. I believe there is a god, yes. I believe that God is revealed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, I still struggle with certain questions. I’m just being honest. Neither creationism nor evolution have made me confident. But I thoroughly enjoyed Curiosity.

I’ve been pushed by Christians and atheists alike to know everything, or, at least, everything is knowable. I invite this challenge. I’m pleased by it, and I don’t think God is scared of human inquiry. But the Hawking seems so sure that there is no god. Many Christians seem so sure there is. To the atheist I ask: Are you really so sure there is no god? Are you really so sure we don’t need one? Are you really so sure? What about “miracles”? How do you explain those?

To Christians I ask: Why do you want to be so sure? Why do we go down the road of trying to “prove” everything to the atheist? Where does that leave “faith”? Is our attempts to be so sure leave no room for faith? Where does the Holy Spirit fit in? Perhaps, our attempts to explain everything leave no room for the Holy Spirit, and that would be a far worse tragedy than whether or not I can convince someone God created the world in 6 literal days.

In fact, we, humans, aren’t so sure about much of anything, are we? String theory (see video below) seems to blow that candle out. Multiverses, really? What goes on there? We, Christians, aren’t really that sure about much of anything, are we? Faith seems put those desires out. Perhaps, Newbigin in Proper Confidence was right — faith is real knowledge.

If the place where we look for ultimate truth is in a story and if (as is the case) we are still in the middle of the story, then it follows that we walk by faith and not by sight.  If ultimate truth is sought in an idea, a formula, or a set of timeless laws or principles, then we do not have to recognize the possibility that something totally unexpected may happen.  Insofar as our knowledge is accurate, we shall be able to predict the future.  Future and past events are governed by the same laws, the same principles, and the same realities.  But if we find ultimate truth in a story that has not yet been finished, we do not have that kind of certainty.  The certainty we have rests on the faithfulness of the one whose story it is.  We walk by faith (p. 14).

You can blow this off as postmodern pish-posh, but there’s something there that’s accurate. We don’t know much of anything, and that’s OK. It’s about time we start admitting it.