Ian McNaughton from AIG considers new theories

Ian McNaughton

There are two reasons for holding to a Creationist view of origins. "First, and foremost, this is the only way to be faithful to what the Bible teaches about itself, and second, without a strong view of Scripture as a foundation we will not be ready for the hard days to come," so said Francis Schaeffer. Secular scientific efforts to learn about the beginning of all things also has two prongs; firstly, a search for extra terrestrial life and secondly, the dilemma of "what happened before the Big-Bang? In the absence of scientific evidence the former is speculation and verges on desperation to keep God out of the scheme of reality, while the latter is an on-going scientific search to find the first cause of all things at great financial expense. Both show the human need to find the truth and to understand the powerful reality of life itself. What science cannot tell us is what are we here for, or what is the meaning of existence? Does man have an eternal destiny or only a brief meaningless fate?

For about the last 50 years or so it has been maintained that the Big-Bang is a proven fact. However, because of the philosophical problems which this causes (how could everything originate out of nothing?) men like Sir Roger Penrose of Oxford University who had previously and uncompromisingly maintained for c. 25 years that the Big-Bang was the ultimate answer to origins is now saying 'yes', there was a prior cause and the Big-Bang is not the answer to the beginning of everything. There has to be another first cause! This is a seismic shift in thinking and new philological ideas are now in vogue. It is not that the supposed Big-Bang did not happen but it was not the beginning of everything. So what happened before the supposed Big-Bang? If the universe did not spring out of nothing, where did it originate? According to present current cosmological research, secular scientists see the universe as born 13.7 billion years ago from the result of a Big-Bang. But what was there before that? Some scientists believe that 380,000 years after the Big-Bang cosmic light shone in the universe, but admit that present day physics cannot answer the 'before' question. Yet we are told that evidence of events that happened before the Big-Bang can be seen in the glow of microwave radiation that fills the Universe.

Because of new research Sir Roger Penrose, now proclaims an eternal cycle of expanding universes where matter becomes energy and back again in the birth of new universes and so on and so on. This way of thinking reckons the universe to be eternal and so continues to deny the reality of the divine First Cause (God). This of course is Atheism's aim, viz., to remove God and Jesus Christ out of the scheme of things. Sir Roger admits that he is now taking up ideas that he had not thought of previously. He and others do not now see the answers to our existence in the Big-Bang any longer: the answers lie in the idea of multi universes. This 'evidence' is in its infancy and is unsubstantiated. It has already been described as "quasi-religious speculations." What matters is that there's no proper scientific evidence of a pre-Big-Bang evolution of the Universe.

A careful reading of the Bible will show that God is the First Cause of everything, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The Scriptures do not go out of their way to prove God's existence but accept this as true and as a valid faith position. The universe was made in six days and God rested on the seventh day. Why did He take so long? Answer: to give us a seven day week. The Bible is entirely the Word of God, it does not just 'contain' it. The relationship between the writers of holy writ and God is the Holy Spirit and this is the key to receiving the Bible as authorative and inerrant. Thus we can be reassured that the Genesis account of creation is a reliable and a historical record of the origin of the universe that can be trusted. God is eternal, immortal and invisible and distinct from his creation but his creation is a witness to his power and glory, "since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."