Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky

Man has long looked to the stars in wonder. Over time, views about these luminous orbs developed.

To scientists, stars are “contracting balls of hot hydrogen gas undergoing nuclear fusion”. To Christians, they are “the work of [God’s] fingers” (Psalm 8:3). But can the two views converge? Must science and faith be in opposition? 

Astrophysicist and theologian Rev Prof David Wilkinson recently visited Singapore. The 62-year-old holds a PhD in theoretical astrophysics and a PhD in systematic theology. He is also a Fellow at the Royal Astronomical Society.

Rev Prof David Wilkinson says that looking at the stars has given him a greater appreciation of Creator God.

He is, in addition, the Director of Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS), an international project based at St John’s College, a Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, as well as the author of several books on the relationship between science and religion.

Salt&Light posed him some questions about the universe and God in relation to science.

If God is so supreme over everything, isn’t there the possibility of a better universe out there existing, one where babies don’t die?

REV PROF WILKINSON: That’s a very good question which is about the Goldilocks Enigma – fine-tuning – and whether that could be explained by multiverse. I think I want to take multiverse seriously. I don’t know whether we are one universe of many, but it wouldn’t worry me if we’re not.

Your point is extremely important in cautioning people who are trying to prove the existence of God through fine-tuning. The multiverse might give an explanation of fine-tuning by saying there are many, many other universes which have different laws of physics in them. So you cannot prove God by the fine-tuning argument.

Now, what you asked on evil and suffering was beautifully put because the experiences of evil and suffering are complex.

So, for example, some Christians say in terms of earthquakes, earthquakes are very important for further producing agricultural land on the earth. The tectonic plates movement produces agricultural land in the same way that it produces earthquakes.

Part of the evil of earthquakes is not the tremors themselves. It’s because we don’t invest enough in good housing in places where earthquakes happen; and it’s often the poor who are most affected by earthquakes. So there’s a combination of the natural world with human injustice, which produces evil.

But then there are other experiences of suffering, such as you rightly said, a baby dying early, or, for example, a good friend of mine in science and theology who got pancreatic cancer, one of these stealth cancers, and died very quickly. And to that, I have to say, I don’t know. I don’t have an easy answer for that.

Because once you say: “Well, maybe let’s take pain away”, that has a knock-on effect. 

As a scientist, the thing that allows me to hold that uncertainty – that I don’t know – is that, in many scientific theories, there are uncertainties. There’s evidence for and evidence against. What you do as a scientist is you balance the evidence for and the evidence against.

Suffering (appears to go) against the loving God. What I see in Jesus is strong evidence for a loving God, and therefore I’m prepared to live with the uncertainties in that.

What has quantum physics development to do with Creationism? How does it reconcile  how our universe works? Has its progress detracted from the idea of Creationism and faith?

Quantum theory destroys the tyranny of common sense because up until the early part of the 20th century, Isaac Newton and his mechanistic clockwork universe reigned supreme. Newton had said: “Once you have the laws of physics, you can understand and predict the past and the future. Everything’s predictable and pictureable.”

The pioneers of quantum theory came along and said: “Hold on a moment. When we look at things on the smaller scale – atoms, electrons – they are no longer pictureable in the Newtonian way, and they’re not predictable in the Newtonian way.” The world is more supple and subtle than we ever imagined it from Isaac Newton.

What quantum theory has done in 20th century is to say: “Those models from Newton – which said the universe is pictureable and predictable and therefore God can’t do miracles in the world – they’re not right. They’re wrong in terms of a total description of reality.”

So I stand before you as a physicist who does believe that God does surprising signs and wonders, things that go beyond the laws of physics and certainly don’t fit with the Newtonian world.

You believe in miracles. So how do they work?

I prefer to call them signs and wonders, as the New Testament calls them; because the word “miracles” was taken by David Hume and defined as things that break the laws of physics. I think signs and wonders in terms of Scripture is much deeper.

I think God’s activity in the world is at many levels. God sustains the regularities – the laws of physics – and God may work in the uncertainty of quantum theory and chaos theory, which is at the macro level.

I also think God, as Creator of the universe, has some freedom to go beyond His normal ways of working to do unusual things.

Let me just use a silly illustration. When my kids were small, they needed certain rules and regulations. For example, bedtime would be at a particular time, and they needed that stability of the world to grow in responsibility.

But there were occasions when Newcastle and United were playing football on the television beyond their normal bedtime. At that point, the normal rules were suspended for a higher purpose: Watching the football.

Now, if normal rules were suspended all of the time, the world would be completely chaotic. If there were no unusual things, the world would be completely boring, predictable and pictureable, as Newton would say.

Now I’m conscious that, for me, the problem about miracles is not a scientific problem. It’s the problem of: Why does God not do more, and why does God do certain things and not other things.

And I think, in part, the answer to that is that – as the New Testament talks about it – sometimes I don’t see the bigger story of what God is doing. God works in miracles for a number of reasons, but, in part, to show Himself breaking into the Kingdom.

What do you think is the purpose of the universe?

The purpose of the universe is that God wants to bring about intelligent life to be in relationship with Him.

Now you might say to parents: “What’s the purpose of having children?” I keep saying to my children: “To look after their dad in his old age.”

But actually that’s not the point of having children. The point of having children is an expression of love, of creativity. And I think part of God bringing the universe to birth is an expression of love and creativity.

But I think there’s something more than just human beings here. And sometimes people say to me: “Why did God therefore create 100 billion stars and 100 billion galaxies? He could have created one star and one Earth if He wants to be in relationship with human beings.”

And my answer to that it is: “Because God wanted people to do PhDs in theoretical astronomy.”

More importantly, God is not just a divine mathematician, God is the great artist. God delights in extravagant creativity. So the whole point of the universe and its billions of stars and billions of galaxies is that God’s pretty cool. God’s exciting.

RELATED STORIES:

Day 17: Starry, starry light

Where is God in science? A scientist speaks up

“We don’t stop being humans when we become Christians”: Why creation care matters more than you think