in the beginning God created the havens and earth

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleდასაბამად ქმნა ღმერთმა ცა და ქვეყანა
3. Language term English
4. lemma author Pataridze, Tamara
5. lemma category Various approaches to the problem of correlation between science and theology - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Biblical interpretation
6. Publication date 2009
7. lemma manifestations Academia.edu
8. Keywords Zaza Osmanov
9. Url Click Here
10. Lemma body

    1. By prof. Zaza Osmanov

       The universe, according to the contemporary observations, has a complex structure. According to St. Basil the Great, when we observe the universe, we learn something about its source, God. Physician W.K. Heisenberg confirms on its side that “on the basis of the natural sciences… we are discovering God”. It is not surprizing then that the the Church fathers were always focused on the research about the universe.

       How  can we define the reason of the scientific research? Is it possible to reach the Absolute Being through the scientific researches? Two radically opposed opinions are known here, both being in contradiction with the science and religion. Based on the idea of God’s transcendence the first declares to be impossible to reach to the understanding of His nature. The second claims that the science should confirm or deny His existence on the basis of scientific argumentation. In respect of the first opinion we may argue that God is the love and He creates humans able of His understanding. To that end, humans are provided of many tools, and, one of them can be research on visible world. The second opinion leads to the profanation: the science is studding material, visible world; Recognizing the research of God as function of science, we are attributing to the science the principal function actually belonging to the religion and consisting of fight in God.   

       Let see how the contemporary physics might be adapted to the idea of God.

       1) The universe, as it shows presently, seems to be the unique possibility among the other types of the possible universes where the beginning of life was possible and

       2) The universe has a starting point in the time.

       Our universe is the only universe where the life and existence of human was possible. The first opinion about this were expressed in the 20th century by Russel Wallace. In 1973 “the anthropic principle” was promoted. It is a philosophical consideration arguing that the observations of the universe must be compatible with the conscious and sapient life that observes it. According to the physician Brandon Carter, our position in the universe is not central, however, it certainly is the most privileged one. In 1986 “The Anthropic Cosmological Principle” explained by J. Barrow & F. J. Tipler develops the concept of the weak and strong Anthropic Principles. According to the first, the observed values of all physical and cosmological quantities are not equally probable but they take on values restricted by the requirement that there exist sites where carbon-based life can evolve and by the requirements that the universe is old enough for it to have already done so. According to the second, the universe must have those properties which allow life to develop within it at some stage in its history. Indeed, the structure of the universe shows that the physical laws are exactly adjusted to our life condition and their modification will lead to the changes causing the disappearance of human’s life.

       The different theories are explaining why such physical laws supporting the life have been “chosen”? In 1915 A. Einstein developed his theory of relativity and in 1922 A. Friedmann has interpreted Einstain’s equations leading to the strange model for the universe: his starting size was zero, but it was affected by extremely rapid inflation. This was qualified as “Big Bang theory”. The galaxies are quite equally distributed in the space and the universe has the similar appearance in all directions. These three assumptions have been lately confirmed on the basis of the observations and studies by other scholars.

       The Big Bang theory says thus that the universe was born several milliard ears ago. Alongside with this, the Bible says that “in the beginning God created the havens and earth”. Therefore, this allows to conclude that the science is not against the religion. Indeed, the contemporary scientific theories have confirmed the Biblical claim about the universe having the beginning in the time. The research suggests that

       1) It is not accidental for the universe to have this appearance.

       2) the universe had his beginning in the time.

       For a believer it seems to be obvious that these conclusions are leading to the existence of God.