RELIGION STAGES A COMEBACK

RELIGION STAGES A COMEBACK Refuting Mechanical Explanation of the Universe I F a tree is planted with its roots severed, it will look as green as any other plant to start with, but, on the very next day, its leaves will start drying up, and will go on drying up, and very soon the tree will die. This is exactly what has happened to atheism and disbelief in religion. In the beginning it looked as if atheism was flourishing, religion had become a thing of the past and the world had entered an age of irreligion. But this was a short-lived phenomenon, principally because it was rootless. And now religion has bounced back with renewed vigour. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, there was a strong wave of what was popularly called scientific atheism. But scientific investigations carried out from the beginning of the 20th century started turning the tide against its credibility. Sir James Jeans declared that the universe as discovered by modern science was not compatible with mechanical interpretations. And now that we have entered the 21st century, there is an increasing number of theoretical physicists whose explanation of the world makes the existence of God imperative. Without His Being, no explanation of the world is possible. In a 200-page book, published in 1988, entitled A Brief History of Time, Stephen W. Hawking, one of the foremost physicists of the modern age, explains the Big Bang Theory, according to which the universe is constantly expanding. After working out the relevant mathematical equations, Hawking concludes that the expansion of the universe is taking place according to a well-calculated scheme. The initial rate of expansion must have been fixed with great accuracy so that it would always be less than the critical rate, i.e. the rate at which the universe would begin to collapse. If the ‘Big Bang’ model is correct, and time itself started with it, the initial universe would have exploded and come to an end a very long time ago. But the universe did not explode. This phenomenon cannot be explained unless it is accepted that the rate of expansion of the universe has been determined with the utmost precision. Stephen Hawking writes: There are increasing numbers of theoretical physicists whose explanation of the world makes the existence of God imperative. Without His Being, no explanation of the world is possible.