Download Cosmology on Trial PDF - Institute for Creation Research

distant future and would alreadyhave experienced the cosmicturnaround.Presumably, these retreating bodies inreversed time, being no longer visible,could constitute the vast amounts of“dark matter” required by Big Bangcosmology.To us, it is especially surprising thatso many evangelical scientists and theologiansseem quite willing to discardthe statements of Scripture in order toaccept the imagined “Big Bang” as theevent of divine creation. They are evenusing the “New Age” icon, the so-calledanthropic principle, which presumablyties various cosmic constants in withBig Bang cosmology, as evidence ofthis event. They should realize, however,that all this compromise not onlycontradicts God’s Word, but also theopinions of the large majority evolutionaryof evolutionary cosmologists.For about a decade now, an increasingnumber of scientistsand theologians have been asserting,in popular articles andbooks, that they can detect asignal of cosmic purpose pokingits head out of the noisydata of physics and cosmology.This claim has been widely reportedin the media, perhapsmisleading lay people intothinking that some kind of newscientific consensus is developingin support of supernaturalbeliefs. In fact, none of this purportedevidence can be foundin the pages of scientific journals,. . .Stronger versions of theanthropic principle, which assertthat the universe is somehowactually required to produceintelligent “information-processing systems,” are nottaken seriously by most scientistsor philosophers. 7The author of the above evaluationis Professor of Physics at the Universityof Hawaii, obviously biased againsttheism, but nevertheless accurate in hisappraisal of the influence of theanthropic principle.To come back to Earth, so to speak,it is worth repeating once again thegreat truth that God’s revelation of specialsupernatural creation of the heavensin the beginning has never beenrefuted by any factual discoveries ofastronomy or physics or cosmology.God was there, and He knows! We dowell to believe His Word.By the word of the LORD were theheavens made; and all the hostof them by the breath of Hismouth. . . . For He spake, and itwas done; He commanded, andit stood fast (Psalm 33:6,9).My right hand hath spannedthe heavens: when I call untothem, they stand up together(Isaiah 48:13).References1 Roy C. Martin, Jr., Astronomy on Trial(Landham, Md., University Press ofAmerica, 1999), p. xv.2 Ibid., p. 14.3 Geoffrey Burbridge, Fred Hoyle, andJayant V. Marlikar, “A DifferentApproach to <strong>Cosmology</strong>,” PhysicsToday (volume 52, April 1999), p. 39.4 Ibid.5 Marcus Chown, “Unwrite This,” NewScientist (vol. 164, Nov. 27, 1999), p. 11.6 P. Weiss, “Time’s Arrow May Make U-Turns in Universe,” Science News (vol.157, January 1, 2000), p. 6.7 Victor J. Stenger, “Anthropic Design:Does the Cosmos Show Evidence ofPurpose?” Skeptical Inquirer (vol. 23,July/August 1999), pp. 40,42.c