One particular atheist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is also a noted astrophysicist, has an interesting take on why there cannot be a God. According to him, the universe is so violent and is always trying to kill humans and therefore since the universe is not benevolent then it could not have been created by a benevolent being. There are several problems with this argument, one being where did the universe come from to begin with? If it has an age then it has a beginning and we cannot be so naïve to think that it sprang from nothing. Physical laws don't allow for the creation of matter ex nihilo sans some external operator. This type of creation from nothing would have to be a supernatural event. According to Tyson the meanness of the universe tells us point blank that there is no God. I beg to differ. My argument is simple, the meanness and chaos of the universe has an ultimate purpose.
Degrasse Tyson says that because there are elements within the universe and events that could kill us and “want to kill us and don’t have our health and well-being in mind” that there cannot be a God. On its face, this is a very weak argument.
1. To personify the events that occur within the universe means that Tyson believes that these occurrences have a mind of their own.
We know that the weather and comets and stars are not autonomous, thinking beings. On the contrary, they are simply material objects that do not have the capacity to do anything other than exist. If one believes that these natural, physical phenomena are personified, are they gods? If so, then the one who believes this is not an atheist but a polytheist. The bigger question is, what's keeping those things from killing us? Has he considered this? He is still alive and his health and well-being have not been affected by these chaotic events of the universe. I wonder if he has considered his life as proof of divine benevolence?
2. The chaotic state of the universe is NECESSARY!
If not for the chaos, the periodic table, as we know it, would not exist; the elements necessary for life would not exist; the natural resources that we use every day would not exist. The fact that those things DO exist and that we are able to harness them and use them says something. It speaks volumes about a benevolent God who gave us everything that we needed to survive (see Genesis 1-3). The earth itself, according to Isaiah 45:18, was created to be inhabited and not to be a "waste place".
Three different processes exist within stars to make elements. These are violent and high energy processes. Without these violent processes, a violence that Tyson uses to indict/dismiss God, the heavier atoms on the periodic table would not exist- without which there would be no iron (or steel, an alloy containing iron) to build massive university buildings for astrophysicists to sit in and doubt the existence of the One who gave the elements for the construction of said academic buildings! Without the higher energy, more violent processes, then we would have been doomed to remain in thatch huts with none of the grandiose infrastructure that we have become so accustomed to. That controlled chaos had to be controlled by someone. There would be no silicon or boron to make glass for telescopes for astrophysicists, cosmologists and astronomers to peer into the wonder of God's vast interstellar creation.
The fact that the temperatures, violence and energy necessary to arrange neutrons, protons and electrons into atoms all coexisted to bring about the elements, is a testament to some guiding principle within the universe. Just as a simple aside, Think about the fact that alone Na or Cl are both poisonous to humans but together they are an essential nutrient to the body! Think about this for one second: carbon combines with other carbon and oxygen atoms to make cellulose which, along with hemicellulose and lignin in various combinations, gives wood or corn or cotton or other cellulosic natural products! But the carbon had to come from somewhere and astrophysicists agree that stars are where the elements were generated. God used the violence within stars to give us every element that we know of and the starting points for ever element that man has created. To me that is a huge piece of evidence for God.
3. Tyson has a one-dimensional view of God.
To say that he only knows God as benevolent is a misconception that must be corrected. We don't serve a God of our own creation, He has no creator. To ask "how can a benevolent God be responsible for such chaos" is almost an elementary question when the chaos clearly served a magnificent purpose (see above). One must also understand that the nature of God is not one-dimensional but multi-faceted. God is simultaneously love and wrath.
Let’s take the argument from a different angle. The fact that we live on earth and extinction level event (ELE) asteroids and meteorites are not pelting this planet daily is a testament to God's beneficence. The mere notion that we survive within the chaotic framework of the Universe is a miracle! None of us should be here at all, period. Entropy says that everything should head towards disorder and yes, we are slowly headed to disorder, our bodies break down and eventually the planet will too, but the fact that there was/is any order, in the midst of the chaos of the universe, is mind boggling! From where did the order originate?
The fact that one planet, out of billions of proposed galaxies that no one has ever been to, has the potential to support life and does support BILLIONS of human beings is a miracle. The evidence of God’s benevolence is the breath that we breathe every day and the sun being at the perfect distance to heat the planet and the seasons changing when they do and the crops sprouting in their own time without prompting.
Even the natural disasters that we witness can also be taken as a sign of His benevolence. How? Yes we mourn the dead but do we ever ponder what goes through the minds of those who survive? Do we consider the fact that babies buried in the rubble of an earthquake have survived unharmed amid mass death and destruction? What of the ones who rush in to assist during those disasters? From where does their benevolence originate? The fact that there is ANY benevolence in the universe at all means that benevolence has an origin. What or Who is the origin? Christians know the answer, non-believers choose to ignore it.
4. The corruption of sin and the consequences of sin on the planet seems to escape his notice.
The calamities of the earth happen because the earth itself us under the curse of sin. Not individual sin but the sinful state of the earth and the universe for that matter. However, I expect this to be lost on someone who does not acknowledge God. If one does not acknowledge God then surely they will not consider the concept of sin. Adam's sin brought wrath onto the planet, a wrath that the planet had never seen before. William Dembski, a noted mathematician and Christian, wrote a wonderful theodicy in his book "The End of Christianity" which took man's sin into account as the true reason for the calamity that we currently see in the earth. This is why a "new heaven and a new earth" is the ultimate result of Christ's return (See Revelation 21). Perfection will be re-established when Jesus returns to set everything right.
I don't claim to be as intelligent as Dr. Tyson but fallacious arguments, no matter how worldly-wise the speaker is, must be refuted with truth. His argument against God is a human attempt to hold on to his notion that God is only benevolent rather than accepting the evidence of God's existence and His wrath. He is not ready to step out of his comfort zone and seeks to contain God within a box that he can understand. Scientists are sometimes unwilling to step into realms that cannot be controlled but for the Christian (scientist or not) that's called faith. Many times people are afraid to engage scholars. We believe that because they are scholars they are above reproach. Nothing could be further from the truth. If they are in error, they need to be corrected. If they are being myopic then they need to be enlightened such that their worldview may be expanded. I pray that Dr. Tyson would know the Lord Jesus Christ in the pardoning of his sins before it is too late. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 1:20 "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" This is the beauty of the Lord. He confounds the wise and brings their arguments to nothing. May God bless and keep each of you who are reading this.
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