What the Universe Tells Us

The universe is organized. “Galaxies are not randomly splayed out across the sky but instead follow a weblike pattern,” according to an article in Astronomy magazine. How is this possible? Scientists believe that the secret may lie in an invisible material known as dark matter. This dark matter has been called “a kind of unseen scaffolding upon which . . . galaxies, galaxy clusters, and galaxy superclusters . . . are aligned and supported.”

How did the universe become so organized? Is it likely that such order came about as a result of a mindless process? Note the comment made by the late Allan Sandage. He is regarded as “one of the greatest and most influential astronomers of the 20th century,” and he believed in God.

“I find it quite improbable,” he said, “that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle.”

The universe is fine-tuned to support life. Consider what scientists call the weak force. It keeps our sun burning at a steady rate. If the force were weaker, the sun would never have formed. If it were stronger, the sun would have disappeared long ago.

The weak force is just one of several finely tuned features that we depend on. Science writer Anil Ananthaswamy says that if even one of those features had been different, “stars, planets, and galaxies would never have formed. Life would have been all but impossible.”

The universe has an ideal home for humans. The earth is equipped with the right atmosphere, the right amount of water, and a moon that is the perfect size to stabilize the earth. “Our tangled web of geology, ecology, and biology,” says National Geographic, “makes this strange rock [earth] the only one in reach that’s just right for humans.”a

Our solar system is, according to one writer, “in the middle of nowhere” in our galaxy. But that very isolation is what makes life on earth possible. If we lived closer to other stars​—either at our galaxy’s center or among its spiral arms—​the radiation would jeopardize our life. Instead, we find ourselves in what some scientists have coined the “galactic habitable zone.”

Based on his scientific knowledge of the universe and its properties, physicist Paul Davies concluded: “I cannot believe that our existence in this universe is a mere quirk of fate, an accident of history, an incidental blip in the great cosmic drama. . . . We are truly meant to be here.” Davies does not teach that God created the universe and human life, but what do you think? The universe and the earth seem to be designed to make life possible. Could it be that they seem that way because they were designed?