Scientists tell us that in the instant immediately following the Big Bang, . . .

Scientists tell us that in the instant immediately following the Big Bang, quarks and antiquarks were created in almost equivalent amounts.  Within a millisecond, the universe had cooled down just enough for these two subatomic particles to begin interacting.  Every time a quark encountered an antiquark (which would have happened frequently at such high density), the result was the complete annihilation of both and the release of a single photon of energy.

So far, so good; but here’s the intriguing part.  If there had been perfect symmetry between quarks and antiquarks, then the entire universe would have quickly dissolved into pure radiation.  However, there wasn’t perfect symmetry—close, but not exact.  For approximately every billion pair of quarks and antiquarks, there was one extra quark.  Granted, that doesn’t seem like much.  But it is because of this lone extra quark, out of every billion, that we achieve enough mass to produce the universe as we know it today.

But hold on; it gets even better.  At one second after the Big Bang, the universe begins to expand.  Only here’s the thing—if the rate of expansion had been slower by even one quadrillionth of a degree (i.e., .0000000000000001 slower), then gravity would have caused the universe to collapse back in upon itself.  On the other hand, if it had been a millionth of a degree faster, then the stars and planets would not have been able to form.

In other words, the universe is expanding at exactly the speed required to produce life.  If there had been even the slightest, most infinitesimal variation, either slower or faster, then nothing would have come into existence—no galaxies, no stars, no planets, no us!

But wait; there’s more (I realize I sound like an infomercial).  Altogether, there are fifteen scientific constants—the speed of light, the strength of the weak and strong nuclear forces, the parameters of electromagnetism, the force of gravity, etc.—whose value must be exactly what they are.  If there is even the smallest change in any of these constants, then the universe fails to materialize.

Now, some claim that all of this is the result of a cosmic accident, and that the reason we live, and move, and have our being is because we happen to be very, very lucky.  But even scientists have come to the conclusion that the odds of the universe occurring strictly through randomness, or sheer luck, are wildly improbable.  As renowned physicist Stephen Hawking writes, “It would be exceedingly difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.”

Of course, you don’t need to take Hawking’s word for it.  Just read Psalm 8—“O Lord, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”