By RAYMOND DE SOUZA
Part 15
I think of the word “gullible” whenever I hear the words “Big Bang” mentioned to explain the origin of the universe. We are supposed to believe that in the beginning there was nothing and then, somehow or other, a huge condensed solid mass of matter came out of the nothing, and without anybody doing anything it exploded and the billions of fragments scattered all over the place and gradually gave origin to stars and planets and seaweeds, frogs, chimpanzees, and finally atheistic scientists.
You’ve got to be very gullible indeed, to believe that from a huge explosion things came out in order after a while! When has anybody seen order coming out of disorder, all by itself? An explosion causes disorder, as any idiot knows, so how can you expect the marvelous order of the universe to come out, all by itself, of an explosion that caused disorder?
It takes a lot more faith to believe in this story than to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ! Anyone who knows even a little about the second law of thermodynamics knows that natural processes tend to disorder, to the loss of energy, not to order and increase in energy. So, left to itself, the universe naturally tends to use up its energy, its processes tend to disorder, increase in entropy.
Contrary to the myth of the “Big Bang” and its child, evolution, we know that “in the beginning, God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1). Of course! Nothing can come out of nothing! Without the creative power of a Supreme Being, nothing would exist, not even the evolutionist scientists. If they are still around, God keeps them in existence, even though sometimes we wonder if He would not do better by making them disappear and stop bothering us, but the Lord has His plans. . . .
Since the universe is not eternal, it was created, it had a beginning. And God our Lord gave it its beginning, by creating the nebulae and galaxies, the solar systems and planets, the plants, animals and an intelligent creature called man, endowed with free will and called to know, love, and serve His Creator. That’s us. He created all things for His external glory.
The Church teaches that God created everything ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing. There was nothing in the universe, there wasn’t even a universe. There wasn’t even time. Suddenly, by the power of God, a huge flash of light appeared, and creation was begun, and time was created. A series of outbursts of light followed, each one indicating a different stage in the creation process. The word for both “light” and “day” in Hebrew is yom. So God created the universe in six days, or six lights.
How long did it last? We do not know. The time between the creation of the universe and today is open to speculation, and there is no Church doctrine about it, simply because it is not relevant to our salvation.
We, Homo sapiens, also create things. From a new piece of furniture to a computer program, we use pre-existing materials and arrange them in a new way to create the item we desire. But we do not make things out of nothing. Only God did that. This is a very important point because science (thermodynamics) tells us that the energy of the universe is being spent, and one day it will come to an end. If it will end, it began. If it began, someone gave it its beginning. The universe is not eternal, matter is not, and cannot be, eternal. Otherwise, the amount of energy would remain the same, eternally the same. But it does not. Period.
What was God’s primary purpose in creating? To put it simply, to manifest His external glory. His external glory is His splendor, manifested by the creatures He brought into being. God is the artist; the universe is His artwork. God is the sculptor; the universe is the collection of His sculptures. God is the painter; we His creatures are His paintings. The whole universe is a magnificent art gallery, which proclaims the glory of the Artist. Every created thing reflects an aspect of God, and since God has infinite number of aspects, the number of creatures is simply immense!
All creatures in the universe reflect God’s power, wisdom, and goodness, albeit in different degrees. There is no egalitarianism in creation! Some creatures are endowed with more perfection than others; there is a hierarchy in God’s creation, just as there is a hierarchy in the Church.
Creatures manifest God’s power because He raised them from nothingness into existence. Creatures manifest God’s wisdom because He designed the nature of each one, and gave it a purpose. There is no creature without a purpose. Pius XII said once that scientists are the discoverers of God’s intentions…a good definition of a proper scientist, unlike those whose purpose is to confuse people with their weird theories…but I digress.
Creatures manifest God’s goodness as He endowed His creatures with the abilities proper to their natures. From the flight of the eagle over the mountains to the squirrel hiding his nuts in a tree hollow; from a rough diamond hidden under the Earth to the polished and cut diamond of the British royal crown; from the Amazon jungle to the gardens of Versailles; from the monk singing Gregorian Chant in a monastery to the Pacific Islander fishing in the sea from a small boat, all creatures reveal different gifts that reflect God’s glory, and are different images of their Creator.
The word “image” here is used with greater accuracy when we speak of men (and women, too, of course, but as I do not worry about being politically correct, I say just “men” to mean mankind and that’s the end of it). Men reflect God’s nature in an immensely more perfect way, because men are persons, that is, beings endowed with intellect to think and free will to make choices.
We know only three kinds of persons in the universe: The Divine Person (there are three of them in the One Triune God), the angels (a few trillions or quadrillions or zillions of them, divided in the nine choirs; we don’t know the exact number), and a few trillion men, from Adam to Wanderer readers today; we don’t know their exact number, either).
One man can give more glory to God than all the stars put together, for the simple fact that the man can do it knowingly and willingly, whereas the starts have no mind and will. The same applies to animals: Dolphins and bald eagles, however beautiful and in need of protection they may be, do not give glory to God like a baby in the mother’s womb. Here we see the horrible, satanic aspect of abortion, when man destroys God’s image for the sake of his own self-centeredness.
There will never be an authentic protection for the environment as long as the killing of innocent children remains available in the land. Abortion destroys God’s purpose for the creation of human beings. It is in itself satanic. But more on that later.
Next article: More on God’s creation and purpose.
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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