Jason Daye 
Welcome to FrontStage BackStage. This week, we have a hand-picked highlight that we believe you will find valuable. If you do, we invite you to listen to the full conversation. You can find the link to the complete episode in the description, as always, please Like, Comment, Subscribe, and Share, so we can continue to bring you meaningful ministry content, helping you, pastors and ministry leaders, just like you, flourish in both life and leadership. Are you ready? Let's go. A lot of people sort of argue the existence of God or that the non-existence of God with science, right? And yet you spend a lot of time, and in this book, you sat down face to face and engaged with people and from across the country, and you connected with them, scientists? Many who were would be considered atheist or at least agnostic, right, but who have come to place their faith in believing that God is real because of what they've learned through science.

Lee Strobel 
Yeah, we've seen a series of scientific discoveries in several major fields over the last just 50 years that make it more rational today to believe in God than at any other time in history. Give you an example. For centuries, scientists believe that the universe was static. It was it always existed. It was eternal. It was always there. And yet, a series of persuasive philosophical arguments, but especially a series of scientific discoveries over the last 50 years involving the expansion of the universe, has now convinced virtually every scientist that the universe had a beginning at some point in the past. Well, that's huge, because that's what, first of all, that's what the Bible says in Genesis, one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And heavens and the earth is a figure of speech, a Hebrew figure of speech, a mirrorism, which simply means God created everything. And so Christianity has been maintaining for centuries that, no, no, the university is not eternal, but it had a beginning. Well, now we know, in fact, Alexander Valencian, the great cosmologist from Tufts University, said, all the evidence we have tells us the universe had a beginning. Well, that leads to a very powerful argument for the existence of God. First, whatever begins to exist has a cause. Secondly, we now know that the universe began to exist. Third, therefore, the universe has a cause behind it. And then you have to ask, Well, what kind of causes into existence? Well, it must be transcendent, because it's separate from creation. Must be spirit, because it existed before the physical world must be eternal, because it existed before physical time came into being. Must be powerful. Given the immensity the creation event must be smart, given the precision of the creation event must be personal, because he had to make the decision to create. Must be creative, because, my goodness, just look at the universe must be caring or loving, because he crafted so perfect a habitat for us to flourish in. And then the scientific principle of Occam's Razor tells us it would be just one Creator. So, you think about that, what have we got? Transcendent spirit, eternal, powerful, smart, personal, creative, caring, unique, that is a description of the God of the Bible. And so just from that one area of science, cosmology, the origin the universe, we have a powerful argument that points toward the existence of a creator who matches a description of the God of the Bible.

Jason Daye 
Yeah, it's so fascinating because, as you said, science is now not only opening up the possibility, almost, of God as the Creator, but it's pointing toward the truth of it, like, it's not just like, okay, that might be one of many theories. It's supporting more and more that, that this does make sense, that the truth that we know as Christ followers is the truth of the universe, which is fascinating. What are some other things in the realm of science?

Lee Strobel 
Another one that's very powerful is physics. Physics are the numbers that govern the operation of the universe. And one of the most extraordinary discoveries of modern physics, just again, within last 50 years or so, is that the numbers that govern the operation of the universe conspire in an absolutely extraordinary way so that life can exist. In other words, the universe is finely tuned on Caesar's edge. That defies the explanation that this could have been an accident or a coincidence, and points more powerfully toward the existence of a creator. It's like if you go out at night and you look up at the sky, expecting to see 1000s of stars, but on this night, you don't see that. On this night, you see 50 to 100 giant dials in the sky, and each dial could be calibrated to one of trillions or trillions of possible settings. And yet, every one of these 50. To 100 dials is absolutely perfectly calibrated so that life can exist. That is the picture that modern physics gives us of our universe. I'll give you an example, one of those dials of force of gravity. Everybody knows what the force of gravity is. If you pencil it's going to hit the ground, but gravity has to be set exactly right so that life can exist. How exactly is it set? Imagine a ruler that goes across the entire known universe, 15 billion light-years. Imagine it broken down into one-inch increments. Now that plausibly represents the range along which the force of gravity could have been, and yet it's set at the exact right spot so that life can exist. What if we were to change it? What if we were to change it one inch compared to 15 billion light year width of the universe, intelligent life would be impossible anywhere in the universe. I mean, it's staggering. Another example is the strong nuclear force. That's the force that binds together the nucleus of atoms. Now, if you were to just decrease that just the tiniest bit, just discrete, decrease it by one part in 10,000 billion, billion, billion, if you did that, all you'd have in the universe would be hydrogen. No life would be possible. So there's 50 to 100 of these settings, and, you know, I talked to one scientist. I said, What are the odds that this could happen? Scientists have a term for that. I said, What? He said, ain't going to happen. So it points toward a super intellect that, as one physicist said, has monkeyed with the numbers so that life can exist. Of course, the explanation the atheists give is that, well, maybe there's an infinite number of invisible other universes, and if you spin the dials in an infinite number of verse, just by chance, they're going to come up correct in one universe. Well, the problem with that is there is no evidence whatsoever of any existence of an infinite number of other universes. In fact, one very prominent German theoretical physicist just did an interview the other day in a newspaper in which she said that this idea that there's an infinite number of universes is scientifically ridiculous. It's not even worth it's a waste of time, was her words. And waste of time not even worth investigating, besides which, if one universe requires an explanation. An infinite number of universes require an even bigger explanation, right? And point even more powerfully toward God. So, just I'll tell you what, Jason, be honest with you, I was an atheist for much of my life. If all I had to go on today were these two categories of evidence, cosmology, the origin of the universe in physics, I would be convinced that God is real.

Jason Daye 
Yeah, it's because Lee, it's at a point where it takes more faith, more belief, to believe that all of those dials were set perfectly by chance, you know, by just chance happening in the universe, than that God's hand was in it. Right? That's the world we live in.

Lee Strobel 
Yeah, that's exactly right.

Jason Daye 
FrontStage BackStage is a ministry of PastorServe. Here at PastorServe, we love walking alongside of pastors and ministry leaders. If you'd like to learn details on how you might qualify for a complimentary coaching session with one of our trusted ministry coaches. Please visit PastorServe.org/freesession. Now FrontStage BackStage is more than just another podcast. In fact, we create an entire toolkit that complements every single conversation. You can find this toolkit at PastorServe.org/network for this episode, and for every episode in the toolkit, you'll find a number of resources, including our ministry leaders' growth guide. In the growth guide, you'll find both questions and insights that are pulled from the conversation that you and the leaders at your local church or ministry can process together to consider how this content relates to your particular ministry context. Again, you can find the toolkit at PastorServe.org/network. Now we hope that you are finding this content valuable, and if so, we'd love for you to share, comment, like, follow, subscribe, that engagement is incredibly important, and also please take a moment to give us a review on your favorite podcast platform, your engagement and your reviews help other pastors and ministry leaders help find this valuable content. I'm Jason Daye, and I'm encouraging you to love well, live well, and lead well. Thank you, and God Bless.