Discovery of Nothing

A recent article published on News24 on 4 Oct 2006 discusses a recent discovery scientists made of ripples in the fabric of the universe. The article goes on to say that these ripples in the microwave radiation explain why the universe is lumpy, and concludes that this discovery adds to proof that the Big Bang Theory is correct.

The final statement made in the article is that Man needs to know his origins and his place in this world. The age-old question: "Why am I here?" This is the question I wish to consider in this article.

Why is it that we always ask the question, "Why am I here?" Why do we need to know our origins? The easy answer is that we have an inate desire to have the answer to these questions. We are questioning beings, and we look for answers to these questions. But the next question (if you excuse the repetition) to ask is, "Why do we have this desire to know?"

If scientists believe that the universe originated in a big bang, that life evolved out of a soup of atoms and chemicals, that everything is by chance, and that we, as Man, are no better than a small frog, then why do we have to know the reason why? There would be no reason for us to ask. We would just accept our place in the food chain of this world, and struggle for our existence alongside all the other animals that have evolved.

However, we do ask, and we do question. Therefore I would argue that our origins differ from the Theory of the Big Bang. That we are asking for a reason, and the reason is that we were made to ask questions. That we were made to need to understand our origins. I would suggest that the scientists should stop looking to the ends of the universe for the answers to questions which originate on Earth, and are to be found on Earth. Perhaps the answer is not as far-fetched as you think!

What do we worship?

Just over a year ago I came across a book called The Astronomy of the Bible, by E. Walter Maunder. It has had a profound impression of the way I view the Bible. One of the things I learnt from this book is that we can inquire into the stars, the moon, the sun, animals, plants and all of nature because we do not worship them.  Worship of them leads to non-inquiry into them, as one then holds them sacred and unquestionable, but, being created in the image of God and not subject to the created things, we can inquire into those things. As the following quote from Maunder's book says:

But the Hebrew , if he was faithful to the Law that had been given to him, was free in mind as well as in spirit. He could fearlessly inquire into any and all the objects of nature, for these were but things--the work of God's Hands, whereas he, made in the image of God, having the right of intercourse with God, was the superior, the ruler of everything he could see.

If he was faithful to the Law which had been given him, the Hebrew was free in character as well as in mind. His spirit was not that of a bondman, and Nebuchadnezzar certainly never met anything more noble, anything more free, than the spirit of the men who answered him in the very view of the burning fiery furnace:--

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. BUT IF NOT, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."