Page 174 - The Creation Of The Universe

172 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

t he beginning of this book we made mention of something
called the anthropic principle and said that it was gaining wide-
A spread acceptance in the scientific world. As we pointed out
then, the anthropic principle holds that the universe is not a purposeless,
pointless, or random conglomeration of matter and that, on the contrary, it
was created to serve as a home for human life.
Since then we have seen a host of evidence demonstrating that the an-
thropic principle is indeed a fact: evidence ranging from the speed at which
the Big Bang was propagated to the physical balances of atoms, from the
relative strengths of the four fundamental forces to the alchemy of stars,
from the mysteries of the dimensions of space to the layout of the solar sys-
tem. And everywhere we've looked we have seen an extraordinarily pre-
cise arrangement in the structure of the universe. We saw how the struc-
turing and dimensioning of the world in which we live and even of its at-
mosphere are exactly what they need to be. We witnessed how the light
sent to us by the Sun, the water we drink, and the atoms that make up our
bodies and the air that we inhale constantly into our lungs are all amaz-
ingly fit for life.
In short, any time we observe anything in the universe we encounter an
extraordinary order whose purpose is to nurture human life. To deny the
reality of this apparent Creation is, as the psychiatrist Karl Stern put it, to
overstep the bounds of reason.
The implications of this order and harmony are also obvious. The order
concealed within every detail of the universe is most certainly proof of the
existence of a Creator who is in control of every detail and whose power
and wisdom are infinite. As the Big Bang theory has revealed, this same
Creator created the universe from nothingness.
This conclusion that has been reached by modern science is a fact im-
parted to us in the Qur'an: Allah created the universe from nothingness and
gave it order:
Your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six
days and then settled Himself firmly on the Throne. He covers