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    SINCE THE DAWN OF systematic investigation and research, science has continually attempted a natural explanation of the universe – that is, a natural creation from absolutely nothing. All these earnest quests by the best scientific minds have yielded no logical theory about a spontaneous creation of the universe – or a universe without a beginning, a universe that had always been there.

    In fact, the greatest scientific thinkers of the last 50 years or so now say that any kind of natural creation from absolutely nothing (ex nihilo) remains as unthinkable in this scientific age as it has always been for the philosophers. When we look up into a starry night sky, we can’t help but wonder: Where did all this come from?

   Some cosmologists would like to imply that they have found a way to explain these thorniest of cosmological realities, but all must stop short of claiming any true explanation for ultimate origins. (Cosmology is the natural, preordained quest of every rational person.) In contrast, when the two greatest theoretical physicists of all time – Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking – are put to the task of finding a way to propose a universe without a beginning, they find the task impossible. They are practically saying that the last 100 years or so have brought us undeniable evidence that the universe did have a beginning.

  Those scientists who have been honest about the question of where matter and energy (the universe) originated have admitted two things: first, that the problem is impossible to solve through science; and second,  that this state of affairs is exceedingly frustrating to the scientists.

  Typical of these “frustrated” scientists is the internationally respected astronomer and self-confessed agnostic Robert Jastrow, who admits that scientists have been ‘traumatized” by coming up against “a problem that must forever remain beyond them.” For a respected scientist and agnostic to virtually admit that science has failed to come up with any definitive explanation for the origin of the universe is quite remarkable. It appears that more and more, the world’s leading scientists are inclining towards the great Albert Einstein who earlier on had said that he would like to know more about “how God created the world.”

    Certainly, in the face of science’s failure to come up with natural explanation for the universe’s origin, it would seem that, as the agnostic Fred Heeren (the world’s first “cosmological journalist” who has undertaken the most extensive research on creation) says, “the supernatural explanation given in Hebrews 11:3 is still the best one we have: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made of what was visible.” Clearly, Heeren declares, “this kind of faith is at least as reasonable as any theory science can offer. He stresses with an exclamation point that “science ends where the Bible begins!” He says that, “looking at the alternative to God can actually be a persuasive argument for the biblical God.”  

    Indeed, anticipating all the questions about the unknowable moment of creation, Isaiah tells us that no one can fathom the understanding of the Creator (Isaiah 40:28). But as to who or what is the cause for this effect, the Bible raises the question: Shouldn’t we have known that answer all along? “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? …Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator…” (Isaiah 40:26a, 28a)

    Compared to the alternative of supposing that matter and energy somehow always existed, British physicist Edmund Whittaker says: “It is simpler to postulate creation ex nihilo – Divine will constituting Nature from nothingness.”

    Physicist Barry Parker agrees: “We do, of course, have an alternative. We could say that there was no creation, and that the universe has always been here. But this is even more difficult to admit than creation.”

    All this uncertainty and failure of science to provide a rational explanation for creation and the certainty of faith in God being the author provide the context of that famous quote from Robert Jastrow. After considering the discovery that our universe had a beginning and that science is incapable of ever discovering what went before, the self-confessed agnostic Jastrow concludes in his book, God and the Astronomers, thus:

    “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak: as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” (Caesar I. Agnir)

*Lifted from a semester-long series of seminars conducted in AY 2000 entitled “Science and Theology: Allies or Antagonist?”