I recently saw a photo taken by the Hubbel space telescope. It was aimed at the Andromeda galaxy, the closest galaxy to earth. The number of stars in the image was shocking. So, I looked it up.
How many stars are up there?
200 billion trillion.
Of these, on a typical urban night, about 2,000 are visible. They are separated by large areas of black. But, the black isn’t empty space……. the rest of the stars are there……we just can’t see them with our eyes……or with our best multibillion dollar telescopes…….because they are too far away. In fact, if we could see every star, the night sky would be a uniform white with a few brighter spots due to the closer stars. Even with our best tools, we cannot see the entire universe. Furthermore, the light from the furthest stars has been travelling for a long time to get to us. Earendale, the furthest star found by the Hubble telescope is 28 billion light years away. Scientists estimate that it was 13 billion years old when it emitted the light we are seeing. It is a very large star which would typically have a lifespan of a few billion years. In other words, the star Earendale…….documented and measured by one of our most sophisticated telescopes……is likely already dead and gone.
What’s the point?
The point is that we cannot see everything that is real. The fact that we cannot see or measure, or analyse something does not mean that it is not real. Even worse, some of the things that we can see, like Earendale, are no longer real. The fact that we can see, measure, and analyze something does not mean that it is real.
The simple reality is that science cannot see or measure or analyse the entire universe. We cannot see, measure, or analyse the big bang and what followed it. We can detect radiation that was emitted about a half million years after the “big bang” but we are completely blind for the first 400,000 years and almost completely blind for billions of years after that. We fill in that blind spot……millions to billions of years……with assumptions, extrapolations, and theories. And even these assumptions change about once every ten years. The fact that this year’s theory as to how the universe began is different from last year’s theory means that last year’s theory was wrong. And next year’s new improved theory will mean that this year’s theory is wrong.
The greatest of the assumptions behind these theories are:
There is no creative intelligence behind it all.
Even if there is a creator, he is bound by the same rules of nature that we are bound by.
If we cannot measure it…….it isn’t real.
If we can measure it…….it must be real.
And that doesn’t even begin to deal with the mass and energy that are missing. The 90% of the universe……the so called “dark matter and dark energy”……. that science simply cannot find. Dark energy and dark mass are real…..but we cannot detect them.
This is the house of cards that secular humanism builds on when it tells us that there is no creator.
This is the house of cards that you are wagering your future on……..when you believe the scientist when he tells you that he has it all figured out…….when he tells you that there is no creative intelligence, no God, behind it all.
we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:18, ESV
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
Paul, Colossians 1:15-16, ESV