The mission of Issues in Perspective is to provide thoughtful, historical and biblically-centered perspectives on current ethical and cultural issues.

Theoretical cosmologist, Paul M. Sutter recently wrote, “I’m a cosmologist, the kind of scientist who studies the origin, history and evolution of the universe. I have spent my career researching one special part of the universe called cosmic voids: the vast expanses of nothing that stretch between the galaxies. Most of our universe is void—somewhere around 80 percent of the volume of the cosmos is made of nothing at all.  By strict accounting of cosmic abundances, our planet and the life we find here amount to essentially zero. Insignificant. A small speck of blue and green suspended in an ocean of night, a tiny bit of rock and water orbiting just another star. The great forces that shape our universe have grown the voids over billions of years, and their present-day monstrousness puts cosmic insignificance into stark relief. Forget planets and stars; at these scales, even mighty galaxies are reduced to mere dots of light.  There is a temptation, when faced with the true scale of the empty cosmos, to look at our tiny world with nihilism. To feel that our great achievements amount to nothing. That our history fails to leave a mark. That our concerns and anxieties are rendered meaningless. That our very humanity is reduced to irrelevancy.”

Michael Guillen, a Harvard physicist and former ABC News Science Editor (1998-2002) who became a Christian, writes, “When I was an atheist . . . my worldview rested on the core axiom that seeing is believing.  When I learned that 95% of the cosmos is invisible, consisting of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy,’ names for things we don’t understand, that core assumption became untenable.  As a scientist, I had to believe in a universe I mostly could not see.  My core axiom became ‘believing is seeing.’”  He goes on, “science’s worldview is becoming more mystical, not less.  Witness supernatural-like concepts such as virtual particles, imaginary time and quantum entanglement . . . Faith is the foundation of the entire human experience—the basis for both science and religion.  Our faith in physical reality drives us to seek treatments for deadly diseases like COVID-19, to explore the depths of the sea, to invent the perfect source of energy.  Our faith in spiritual reality drives us to create breathtaking works of art, music, and architecture; to see life as a divine creation, not an accident of nature; to be curious about things that are not of this world. .  . Faith is anything but a weakness.  It is the mightiest power in the universe.”

Sutter and Guillen posit two astonishing facts about our universe:

• Somewhere around 80 percent of the volume of the cosmos is made of nothing at all.
• 95% of the cosmos is invisible, consisting of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy,’ names for things we don’t understand, that core assumption became untenable.

Yet, in the vastness of this universe with all of its “unknowns,” there is Earth.  As Sutter observes, “Earth is the only known place where humanity exists — where humanity can exist. It is the only known place where laughter, love, anger and joy exist. The only known place where we can find dance, music, art, politics and cosmology.”  Why?  Does random chance explain this seeming anomaly?

The Bible makes it clear that God created the universe out of nothing (see Genesis 1:1; Psalm 33:6, 9; John 1:3; Hebrews 11:3, etc.).  Because God created everything out of nothing, matter is not eternal.  God did not simply reshape existing matter; He created everything from nothing (ex nihilo).  Because God created everything out of nothing, the universe has purpose and meaning, which comes from God.  God is not part of His creation, for He made it and rules over it.  He is above (i.e., transcendent) and independent of His creation.  But God is not an absentee landlord, so to speak; He is intimately involved in His creation.  Indeed, His creation is continually dependent on Him for its existence and its functioning.  The Bible is the story of God’s involvement with His creation, providentially accomplishing His purposes and sustaining His creation (Acts 17:25,  28; Colossians 1:17).  Isaiah 43:7 also demonstrates that the physical world was created for God’s glory.  When we view the Webb telescope photographs we naturally ask, “Who could have made all this?  Who could make it out of nothing?  Who has sustained these galaxies and star dust clusters for these endless years?”  As Wayne Grudem concludes, “Such infinite power, such intricate skill, is completely beyond our comprehension..  When we meditate on it, we give glory to God.”  Because God has given humanity dominion authority over His world (see Genesis 1-2 and 9), we have the desire to discover and master our physical world.  The Webb telescope illustrates this truth.  However, in doing so, the results of our discovery should drive us toward God; it is His revelation to us.

These truths remind me of King David’s words in Psalm 19:

19 The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above] proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun

5     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.  [ESV]

And Psalm 8:

8 O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2     Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him? [ESV]

When I took chemistry and physics in high school and college, I learned that matter consists of molecules, which are made up of atoms with a nucleus of protons and neutrons with electrons spinning around that nucleus. But today, studying particle physics reveals a great deal of complexity and mystery far beyond the simplicity of molecules and atoms.  Ten years ago, scientists at CERN, the world’s largest particle-physics laboratory located in Geneva, Switzerland, announced that experiments at their Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had found the elusive Higgs boson.  This was proof of the existence of a force field which permeates the universe, and gives all other known particles their mass.  It was the final piece of the Standard Model, the scientific theory that, for now, best describes the properties and behavior of all known matter and forces in the universe.  [The LHC has been switched off for 3½ years for an upgrade which will make it more powerful to explore the complexities of matter in this universe.  It has just been switched back on.]   CERN and its American counterpart Fermilab are seeking to posit a “theory of everything,” which, based on the work of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and the mysterious field of quantum mechanics, will explain everything in the universe.

But the Standard Model is not a complete description of the universe.  Not only does it fail to account for gravity (this is the purview of general relativity), it does not say anything about two other important but obscure phenomena:  dark matter and dark energy.  Physicist Katie Mack, a theoretical cosmologist at the Perimeter Institute, offers a helpful explanation:  “. . . with the use of more powerful telescopes in the 1970s, stars within individual galaxies were found to be moving at impossible speeds . . . As the evidence mounted, some astronomers began to suspect that the stars we see in the night are mere window-dressing—sparks of light embedded in massive but invisible clumps of the only truly important substance in the universe . . . Not knowing what to call an unseen substance that vastly outweighed everything else, they leaned into the mystery and dubbed it ‘dark matter.’  Decades of investigation have brought us nothing to contradict these astronomers’ suspicions of our essential unimportance, nor any answers as to what dark matter might be made of.  We have found no real leads, but many dead ends . . . Nonetheless, study after study has found seemingly incontrovertible evidence that dark matter not only governs the motions of stars and galaxies, but is responsible for their very existence.  Individual matter—or something that acts exactly like it—has directed evolution of the universe from the earliest moments of creation . . . .”   Mack concludes with this observation:  “[We] have been forced to accept the scenario that best matches the data:  that more than 80% of the matter in the universe is invisible to us.  To make matters more perplexing, just a few decades ago we found reasons to believe even dark matter’s cosmic dominance is dwarfed by a mysterious phenomenon that we, in our increasing desperation, call ‘dark energy.’  One is tempted to despair of understanding the cosmos at all.”

In a most helpful article on the Standard Model and the “theory of everything,” The Economist writes, “What physics no longer has, though, is an all-embracing model of the future to try to fit everything into . . . For the moment, fundamental physics is back a pragmatic phase, gathering more pieces of the jigsaw in the hope of fitting them together later.  Physicists have by no means abandoned the lofty goal of unifying forces and creating a grand theory that encompasses everything.  But they need a new map to get there.”

The “new map” The Economist calls for should begin with faith, faith in a God who has revealed Himself to humanity.  His revelation is necessary for us to know Him because we are so different from Him.  In terms of capacity, God is infinite and we are finite.  In terms of nature, He is holy and we are sinful.  As Rick Cornish writes, “God is inaccessible without His accommodating Himself to us by revealing Himself.  We cannot know God or relate to Him unless He reveals Himself.”  What theologians call general revelation is His communication to all people, at all times, in all places.  God’s general revelation is found in creation, both in nature (Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:18-25) and in human beings created in God’s image with a conscience (Romans 2:14-16).  The content of this general revelation reveals broad truths about God—His existence, his power and that He is the creator.  Our inability to understand everything in the universe does not mean that God is the author of confusion or chaos.  The presence of mysteries or paradoxes does not mean that God is incomprehensible or that His world is incomprehensible.  He further has revealed Himself in His special revelation, His written Word.  Based on our study of His creation and His Word, we can posit the following propositions:  [1] God is the sole originating source of everything; He is ultimate and sovereign.  [2] The universe is not eternal—it had a beginning.  [3] Nothing, either material or spiritual, exists apart from God.  [4] Everything has value because God made it and pronounced it good.  [5] Scientific study of the universe is possible—and will bring glory to God as the Creator.

See Paul M. Sutter, “The Emptiness of the Universe Gives Our Lives Meaning” in the New York Times (10 November 2024); William E. Carroll, “Aquinas and the Big Bang” in First Things (November 1999); George F. Will, “The Webb Space Telescope is telling humanity the history of everything” in the Washington Post (27 January 2023); Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, pp. 262-272; Katie Mack’s review of The Elephant in the Room in the Wall Street Journal (9-10 July 2022); The Economist (9 July 2022), pp. 75-7; James P. Eckman, The Truth about Worldviews, pp. 17-26; Rick Cornish, 5 Minute Theologian, pp. 49, 109-110; and Michael Guillen in the Wall Street Journal (24 September 2021).