"5 Reasons: Why I Still Believe in God" - DAY 21

Day 21 – alternate theories of the universe

[T]he fine-tuning of the universe points powerfully toward an Intelligent Designer—and some people will hypothesize anything to avoid reaching that conclusion.  –WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

The Argument from Design presents a tough challenge to atheists. They must admit there is evidence of design in the universe. How then can they say that the universe had no Maker?

We have already seen two ways atheists have addressed this dilemma. The first is to theorize an eternal universe, one with no beginning, a universe that always existed and required no Maker to bring it into being. The problem with this, we have noted, is recent scientific evidence that the universe is not eternal, that it had a definite beginning in time. The second way atheists have responded to the Argument from Design is to admit they were wrong about the universe and to conclude that there must be a God behind it. We have observed that a number of atheists have for this very reason converted to theism, and we have given quotes from two such individuals. 

The majority of atheists, however, still cling to their unbelief. Steadfast and determined, they have looked at the evidence pointing toward a finite universe and tried to find ways to refute it. In so doing, they have come up with some alternate theories to explain how the universe can appear to be finite yet really be eternal. 

One of their theories is commonly called the Many Worlds Hypothesis.¹ It states that our universe may be one of a legion of universes, and while ours may indeed have had a definite beginning, the conglomerate of universes did not. The proponents of this hypothesis claim that the universe as we know it arose from the conglomerate, much like a drop of water arises from the sea. When our universe ends, it will be reabsorbed into the eternal whole. 

A second alternate theory is what I call the Accordion Universe Hypothesis, usually referred to as the Oscillating Model.² The universe, this theory claims, is much like an eternal accordion, sometimes expanding and sometimes contracting but always existing. Its nature is one of eternal oscillation. Going through cycles of compression, then expansion—each cycle lasting billions of years—our universe could very well be eternal but appear to be finite. What science sees today as its definite beginning would simply be one of the points where it is maximally compressed and begins to change direction.

I am not about to attempt to weigh the merits of these alternative theories. That is the job of the scientists. But I do want to make you realize something that is as obvious as the nose on your face: the fact that atheists have had to come up with these theories is testimony enough that the Argument from Design is a formidable challenge to them. In fact, if it were ever proven that the universe had a beginning, the atheist would have no intellectual recourse but to throw up his or her hands in surrender to the theist. If spiritually receptive, he or she would have no reasonable response than to bow in reverence before the reality of God.

Day 21

Quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 79.

¹For a more detailed discussion of the Many Worlds Hypothesis, read Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), pp. 141-144.

²Strobel also includes an explanation of the Oscillating Model of the Universe in the work just cited, pages 113-117.