Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I The Sunday Guardian I Mar 13, 2022
In an article titled ‘A Physicist’s Faith in Science and God’ (The Times of India, January 31, 2015) the American Nobel-prize winning physicist Charles Townes (1915 – 2015) speaking about the universe and religion, observes:
“No one can deny that the universe is the outcome of intelligent placing. It is unusual. We, too, are unusual. To make it possible for life to exist, special physical laws are required. So I would say that this is a very special universe. It has been intelligently planned. How can anyone confute that? So, there is indeed a spiritual world; a Creator. Most people do not realize that science, like religion, requires faith. We make so many assumptions. We believe that the laws of physics are reliable — that’s a kind of faith…I do believe there is a spiritual presence in the universe. It is difficult to define God, but I can feel an Omnipresence everywhere. People ask, if God created the universe, who created God? So there’s always a problem with a beginning.”
Most people would admit that our universe is an intelligently designed universe. Thus, there must be a beginning of such a universe. The existence of a meaningful universe is an undeniable fact. Some people are sceptical about its beginning – how did it begin and who is the beginner? However, when looked at deeply this question seems illogical. It is an obvious fact that where there is a beginning, there is a beginner. The phenomenon of beginning itself proves the existence of a beginner. If we are compelled to believe in the beginning, then we must also, out of the same compulsion, believe in the beginner.
All our knowledge points to the fact that there is a world that exists outside of us. When we accept the existence of the world, it becomes necessary to accept that this world has had a beginning. Since a beginning without a beginner is impossible, we are compelled to believe in the existence of the beginner.