Evidence for God in Physical Design Archives

November 21, 2025November 20, 2025

Evidence for the Existence of a Creator in the Big Bang

Cosmology offers compelling evidence for the existence of a creator God. Many people in both religious and skeptical communities see the Big Bang theory as a threat to the credibility of the Genesis account and the existence of God. However, this is unfortunate because the Big Bang theory actually aligns with the Genesis account and presents a cause of creation that skeptics cannot explain.

Technology has confirmed the Big Bang. The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) provides the oldest record of the universe’s temperature and density from the very beginning. The latest CMB data show that the universe began with a hot Big Bang. Data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe verify that time started at the Big Bang.

The words of Genesis 1:1 fully correspond to this data. The first word in the Bible is “reshith,” meaning an absolute starting point. The next word refers to God, followed by “bara,” a term used exclusively for acts only God can perform. Then, we see the word is “shamayim,” meaning “heaved-up things.” The rapid expansion of the universe aligns perfectly with this wording.

Further study of the biblical record reveals the ongoing battle between good and evil and God’s creation of humans through whom that battle occurs. (See Job 1 and 2.) Skeptics cannot explain why humans exist. The greatest failure of atheism is that it offers no reason for the existence of the cosmos or human life. When science and religion conflict, it often indicates either poor science, poor religion, or both. Historically, this has been the case with the Big Bang theory, but as science progresses and people deepen their understanding of what the Bible truly teaches, we see that both science and Scripture provide strong evidence for the existence of a Creator.

Reference: American Scientist, November/December 2025, pages 353 -359.

November 20, 2025November 18, 2025

Subsea Desalination to Address Water Shortages

One of today’s major challenges, which will only intensify as the world’s population grows, is ensuring there is enough water for humans and animals to survive. God has provided ways to obtain the water needed for crop growth, maintaining healthy animals, and even for space travel. Our space probes have detected vast amounts of water on other planets in our solar system, and even on the Moon. While these discoveries are promising for the distant future, when humans live elsewhere, the more immediate challenge is securing sufficient water on Earth. A potential new solution is subsea desalination.

The 1798 poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes a sailor stranded at sea who laments, “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” Today, various desalination methods are used to remove salt from seawater and produce drinking water. These include boiling seawater and condensing the vapor, flash distillation utilizing temperature and pressure, and reverse osmosis with extremely tiny membranes that allow only water molecules to pass through. These methods often require a lot of energy and specialized materials. Subsea desalination requires far less energy from fossil fuels and can be deployed anywhere with an ocean depth of at least 1,600 feet (500 meters).

Subsea desalination uses the immense pressure found deep in the ocean to generate the necessary energy. At a depth of 1600 feet, the pressure reaches approximately 102,400 pounds per square foot, enough to push water through membranes, leaving the salt behind. The clean water can then be piped to shore. This water will contain very few bacteria and other microorganisms and will be free of algae, river runoff, and the effects of storms and seasonal temperature changes. Very little chemical addition would be needed, and coastal cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco could benefit most from subsea desalination.

Everywhere we look, we see that God has provided Earth and our solar system with abundant resources to meet our most basic needs. And He has created humans in His image with the creativity and intelligence to find those resources.

Reference: Scientific American for October 2025, pages 10-12, and scientificamerican.com

October 31, 2025October 28, 2025

Earth Needs Jupiter

Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the solar system. Its mass is 2.5 times greater than the combined mass of all other planets in the solar system. It divides the planets of the inner solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) from the outer planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). We have previously mentioned that the gravity created by Jupiter’s mass acts as a shield to protect our planet from comets coming from outside the solar system. Additionally, Jupiter influences Earth’s climate cycle. More than that, Earth needs Jupiter for its very existence.

As the solar system was formed, Jupiter’s massive gravity prevented gas and dust in the inner solar system from being pulled into the Sun. These materials coalesced into the inner planets, including Earth. As the planets formed, Jupiter’s gravity helped stabilize the orbits. A recent study co-led by Andre Izidoro of Rice University in Houston demonstrated that Jupiter shaped the structure of the solar system. Earth needs Jupiter today, just as it needed it at the beginning.

According to Izidoro, “Jupiter didn’t just become the biggest planet—it set the architecture for the whole inner solar system. Without it, we might not have Earth as we know it.” As gas and dust swirled around the newly formed Sun, Jupiter’s massive gravity created ripples that formed rings of material which clumped together by gravity to form the inner planets. Earth needs Jupiter because, without it, the material that formed the planet would have spiraled into the Sun.

Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth,” but it doesn’t specify the process God used or how long it took. If the Bible included every detail, it would be an enormous book. But the Bible is not a science book, and scientists are still exploring the processes God used in creation. It is fascinating to consider how complex the creation process must have been, yet the first verse of the Bible contains the essential facts. There was a beginning. God did it. The creation of a functioning universe, a solar system, and a planet for human habitation is summarized in five Hebrew words—“reshith elohim bara shamayim erets.”

References: space.com and science.org

October 22, 2025October 22, 2025

Solar Reflectors in Space

Joshua chapter 10 records an incident in which the Sun stood still to provide light for “about a full day” so that Joshua could lead the Israelites to defeat the Amorites in battle. I don’t pretend to know the details of how that happened, but I have heard a suggestion that God provided a miraculous way to reflect the Sun’s light into the Valley of Aijalon until the victory was complete. From the perspective of someone in that location, it would appear that the Sun stood still. Now, a California-based company called Reflect Orbital wants to do something like that with a constellation of solar reflectors in space.

Reflect Orbital hopes to launch a 60-by-60-foot (18-by-18-meter) mirror into orbit in April of 2026 to test the idea. If the plan succeeds, they want to place 4,000 solar reflectors in space to orbit in a sun-synchronous orbit between the poles. They would follow the boundary between day and night, providing reflected light to areas in the twilight zone. Reflect Orbital says it could enable solar power generation during peak morning and evening hours, improve crop growth, allow people to work into the night, and provide emergency lighting for disaster zones. Reflect Orbital has applied to the FCC for a license, claiming they have the funding and have already received 250,000 requests for service.

Astronomers and those interested in wildlife are very concerned. For example, Robert Massey, Deputy Director of the Royal Astronomical Society in the UK, said, “The central goal of this project is to light up the sky and extend daylight, and obviously, from an astronomical perspective, that’s pretty catastrophic.” With 4,000 solar reflectors in space, each reflection could cover a 5-kilometer area where some agency has requested and paid for service. However, atmospheric scattering would reach an undefined surrounding area. For up to 100 kilometers, the mirrors would appear like very bright stars.

Light pollution is already a problem, increasing by 10 percent per year since the introduction of LED lights, causing fewer stars to be visible in the night sky. Light pollution is also linked to the decline of beneficial insect populations, as well as increased sleep disorders and depression in humans. In addition to affecting astronomical observations, the solar reflectors in space could disrupt migratory birds that depend on the stars for guidance.

Instead of dreaming about what humans can do, maybe we should carefully consider what we should or should not do. Anyone who has experienced the night sky in one of the rare dark sky areas remaining can appreciate the words of the psalmist David: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? (Psalms 8:3,4 ESV)

Reference: space.com

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025

Precisely Nothing – Is It Something?

What is “precisely nothing?” Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss used that phrase in the preface of his 2012 New York Times best-selling book titled A Universe from Nothing. Krass at that time was a professor at Arizona State University and head of the Origins Project there. He later lost that position due to “moral failure,” and is now an anti-theist blogger. An anti-theist is more than an atheist. He does not believe in God, but also actively opposes faith in a creator. Like other anti-theists, he believes that faith in God is not just wrong, but destructive to society.

On what did Krauss base his statement that there was “remarkable new support for the idea that our universe arose from precisely nothing?” Krauss suggests that quantum gravity fluctuations could allow for “the creation, albeit perhaps momentarily, of space itself where none existed before.” Furthermore, “small-density fluctuations in empty space due to the rules of quantum mechanics will later be responsible for all the structures we observe in the universe today. So we, and everything we see, result out of quantum fluctuations in what is essentially nothingness…” He further writes that the universe arose through “a process whereby the energy of empty space (nothing) gets converted into the energy of something.”

Is what Krauss calls “precisely nothing” actually nothing? You may have the same feeling that I have that someone is trying to fool you into believing nonsense. When he writes that “getting something from nothing is not a problem,” I have trouble believing him. Perhaps I am simple-minded, but I prefer a simple explanation of why there is something instead of nothing. It’s explained in a video called a “Proof of God in 3 Minutes.” I encourage you to watch it by clicking HERE.

August 21, 2025August 20, 2025

Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater Connection?

For years, the Does God Exist? ministry took groups of people on apologetics training tours of geological features in the southwestern United States. The Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater (also known as Barringer Crater) were among the places visited in northern Arizona. A recent paper in the journal Geology, written by researchers from the University of New Mexico, suggests a Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater connection.

Scientists have long known about driftwood and lake sediments found in Stanton’s Cave in Marble Canyon in the eastern Grand Canyon. Since the mouth of the cave is 150 feet (46 m) above the Colorado River that runs through the canyon, how the driftwood got there was a mystery. Additionally, explorers have discovered ancient beaver tracks in Vasey’s Cave, 121 feet (37 m) above the river—much too high for beavers to access today.

The proposed explanation for these discoveries in the caves is that, in the distant past, a lake existed in the Colorado River. Geologists estimate the lake was about 50 miles (80 km) long and 300 feet (91 m) deep. Something must have created a dam that held back the river, causing the water to rise to the level of the caves. The dam was eventually overtopped and eroded away, possibly less than 1,000 years ago.

What could have caused such a large dam to hold back the Colorado River? It could have been a volcanic flow or a massive rockslide that sent debris into the canyon. But what could cause a rockslide of that magnitude? New dating methods used by two labs in Australia and New Zealand determined the age of the driftwood to be 55,600 years. David Kring, the science coordinator for Meteor Crater, had estimated the age of the crater to be between 53,000 and 63,000 years. Researchers saw a possible Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater connection.

Kring calculated that the impact at Meteor Crater would have caused an earthquake of magnitude 5.4 or greater. In seconds, a shock wave of around 3.5 would have reached the canyon 100 miles away, potentially shaking loose rocks from the steep cliffs of the canyon and damming the river.

So far, the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater connection is only speculation, but the dates seem to align. As we study the canyon, we can learn a great deal about the area’s geologic history. God gave us curiosity to seek answers about our planet’s past. While we don’t have all the answers about the Grand Canyon’s formation, one thing we know for certain is that the canyon was not formed by the flood of Noah’s time.

References: space.com and news.unm.edu

August 13, 2025August 12, 2025

Global Warming in the Past

We all need to be concerned about the impact of human activities on climate change, but the media hype suggesting that global warming is something new is simply not true. Science News magazine reported data on global warming in the past, going back to the Paleozoic era over 485 million years ago.

The data show that temperatures reached nearly 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) three different times in Earth’s history. The time of the coolest temperatures is the period in which we are living. Earth cooled about three million years ago, reaching 53.6 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). According to NASA, the present average global surface temperature is 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). It appears that our planet is heading into a warm cycle, which humans contribute to, but they are not the only cause.

The media and politicians sometimes present an alarmist view of the future to attract more attention. There has been global warming in the past, and while humans will be affected by future climate change, there are many contributing factors.

Reference: Science News magazine for August 2025 (page 35)

August 8, 2025August 8, 2025

Earth’s Age Is Irrelevant

How old is planet Earth? Why does it matter? Various branches of science agree, based on substantial evidence, that our planet is about 4.5 billion years old. Many Christians argue that it is only a few thousand years old, and they make it a matter of faith. In other words, if you disagree with their timeline, you are an evolutionist and Bible denier. Scientists have methods for calculating Earth’s age, and they have nothing to do with faith or denying the Bible. The truth is that Earth’s age is irrelevant to Christian faith.

Why do many Christians insist on a “young” Earth? It may be because they believe the Bible says so. They base that on a document written by an archbishop of the Church of Ireland, James Ussher, published in 1654. He calculated that Earth’s creation took place on October 22, 4004 B.C. He based his calculations on the assumption that the genealogies of Genesis are complete and that they are recorded for the purpose of chronology. Those assumptions are not correct. The biblical genealogies are incomplete, and their purpose is to show lineage, not chronology. Of course, the lineage eventually led to the Messiah. Because early English translations of the Bible included Ussher’s chronology, many came to believe it was the gospel truth.

Another significant reason many Christians today choose to believe in the young-earth doctrine is that they think it refutes evolution. Scientists don’t insist on billions of years to allow time for evolution. A little-known fact that scientists are reluctant to admit is that 4.5 billion years is not long enough for unguided evolution to create the diversity of life on Earth today. In reality, no amount of time is sufficient for random mutations and natural selection to accomplish the task. But not all of the 4.5 billion years are available for evolution. A large amount of time would be required for the planet to cool and become suitable for life. Then, more time would be needed for non-living elements to organize themselves into the first living cells. (They couldn’t do it by themselves in any amount of time, but that’s another issue.)

The bottom line is that Earth’s age is irrelevant to Christian faith. The age of the Earth is essential to the sciences of geology, paleontology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and others. As it relates to the Christian faith and the accuracy of the Bible, Earth’s age is irrelevant and always will be. Archbishop Ussher was an intelligent church leader and scholar, but his chronology fails because he based it on false assumptions. False assumptions lead to false conclusions.

August 6, 2025August 5, 2025

Shortest Day on Record?

If you’re thinking that you didn’t accomplish much yesterday, August 5, 2025, it might be because the day was shorter than usual. I don’t mean that the daylight hours were shorter. Earth’s solar day was shorter than the typical 24 hours, which equals 86,400 seconds. You probably didn’t notice because the day was only 1.25 milliseconds shorter. Blaming the shortest day won’t help—you’ll need to find some other reason for not achieving more.

Earth’s rotation speed had been gradually slowing down, but for some reason it started speeding up in recent years, making the days shorter. Official and precise records of solar day lengths since 1973 show that they were getting longer. Earth’s gravity creates friction against the Moon, causing it to drift farther away and slowing Earth’s rotation. A slower rotation results in longer days.

The Moon’s position relative to Earth’s equator creates tidal forces that very subtly influence Earth’s rotation rate. Scientists speculate that the slower rotation of Earth’s liquid core might cause the outer layers of the planet to spin faster, but that remains only speculation.

We can’t really say that yesterday was the shortest day because July 5, 2024, was 1.66 milliseconds shorter than the usual 24 hours. Don’t worry about any noticeable change in the length of days. God has given us an incredibly stable planet on which to live. Many finely tuned factors make life on Earth and our existence possible, and it could not have been accidental. This remarkable planet is further evidence that God exists.

Reference: space.com

July 15, 2025July 14, 2025

Radical Sea Level Changes

Scientific American magazine reported that if the entire Greenland ice sheet melted, global sea levels would rise by 24 feet. The article clarified by saying, “The sheet won’t melt all at once, of course…” What articles like this fail to convey is that Earth has experienced radical sea level changes throughout both geologic and human history.

Geologic history shows marine deposits in places you wouldn’t expect. When I taught earth science, I took my classes to Thornton Reef on the south edge of Chicago, Illinois. I am told that the gravel pit now occupying the reef is the largest in the United States. On one trip there, a student found the tube of a cephalopod, an ancient giant octopus-like creature. Clam shells, snail shells, and brachiopods filled buckets that my students took home. This reef is similar to modern ocean reefs, except it winds through the south side of Chicago with a major interstate highway running right through it.

Other examples of historic radical sea level changes are abundant. Oolitic limestone in southern Indiana consists of tiny ocean creatures called oolites. The limestone in the Grand Canyon contains marine deposits. On the other end of the scale, canyons are cut into continental shelves along the U.S. East Coast of the United States. Those canyons were cut when the shelf was out of water. Scuba divers have reported signs of ancient human-made structures and fire pits in those canyons.

Was the Red Sea at the same level when Moses led the Israelites across? Are people searching for Egyptian armor and chariot remains in the wrong spots? The “Sea of Reeds” was likely dry land at that time, so efforts there are probably doomed to fail. We still have much to learn about climate history, radical sea level changes, and ancient peoples. As our technology improves, discoveries will increase, and we look forward to uncovering more evidence of Earth’s history.

Reference: “Greenland’s Frozen Secret” in the July/August 2025 issue of Scientific American, pages 26-36.

John Cooper explores dry land evidence for the credibility of the biblical account in a series of videos produced by Does God Exist?