The Language of God

I have been reading through a book called The Language of God, by Francis Collins. Collins was the head of the Human Genome Project and is a very strong Christian. Many of his ideas really intrigued me.

For example, consider the following description: "the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy." This description seeks to reconcile the Big Bang theory with the creation account in Genesis. To Collins, the Big Bang "forces the conclusion that nature had a defined beginning" and thus "cries out for a divine explanation."

Romans 1:20 states, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." In every generation, mankind has seen something in nature that he simply cannot explain without looking to divine intervention. To ancient man, it was the sun rising in the sky or plants growing out of the ground. In the Renaissance, it was the mysterious force that made things fall to earth and kept the moon orbiting around the earth. In the Enlightenment, it was the origin of the earth in the cosmic perspective. What is it now? Right now, the mere fact that our universe is able to exist as it does is inexplicable. Collins writes:

Altogether, there are fifteen physical constants whose values current theory is unable to predict. They are givens: they simply have the value that they have. This list includes the speed of light, the strength of the weak and strong nuclear forces, various parameters associated with electromagnetism, and the force of gravity.

And if any of these forces changed slightly, the universe as we know it would cease to exist. If the nuclear binding force were slightly lower, no elements other than hydrogen could ever form. To me, this points to God's words to Job:

          "Who shut up the sea behind doors
          [...]
          and set its doors and bars in place,
          When I said 'This far you may come, and no farther;
          Here is where your proud waves halt'?"

God told the waters "This far you may come, and no farther." He told gravity "This hard you may pull, and no harder."

So we see that God's invisible qualities have, indeed, been clearly seen. True, mankind is constantly searching and finding answers and explanations to these mysteries, but should we expect anything less from a God of infinite depth and complexity? Have we not seen enough to know that, just when we think we have arrived at the fundamental building blocks of the universe, we discover something even smaller, more complex, and difficult to understand?

The fundamental error of science is not that it continues to search. The underlying sin of all mankind is the assumption that, because we continue to learn and discover more, we will one day have learned and discovered it all. It is the same fatal mistake that Satan made, thinking we can become like God, all-knowing, all-powerful. Instead of being filled with awe at God's creation and praising Him, we are inflated with pride at our puny understanding and seek wisdom apart from God. And until we turn away from this pride and turn back to seeking God for wisdom and understanding, we will never obtain it.

If you want a link to the book, here it is: http://www.amazon.com/The-Language-God-Scientist-Presents/dp/1416542744.