For
me, images released recently by Northwestern University scientists of
tiny light flashes signaling the moment of human conception are
evocative of a larger, cosmic-sized truth espoused by both science and
the Bible. Namely, the creation of the universe itself – the mother of
all moments of conception – was likewise marked by an explosion of
light.
According to their article in Scientific Reports, the
Northwestern researchers collected immature human eggs from willing
female patients at the Fertility Center of Illinois – eggs that would
have been discarded in the normal course of the patients’ fertility
treatments. The researchers used special chemicals to mimic the moments
of conception – the law forbidding them to use actual sperm. In each
case, they discovered, the decisive moment was accompanied by a small
burst of zinc atoms. The eruptions appeared as flashes of light because
of fluorescing agents used by the scientists.
According to science – at precisely a moment of conception known as
recombination & decoupling
– an incomprehensible outburst of light accompanied the creation of
hydrogen and helium, the first atoms of the embryonic cosmos. To this
day, the dim afterglow of that seminal light – the so-called cosmic
microwave background – is visible to certain kinds of powerful
telescopes.
According to inflation and big bang theories, it didn’t
end there. Hydrogen atoms eventually began to fuse, the way they do in a
hydrogen bomb, and – voila! – once again, in a flash of light, the
first stars came into being. They, in turn – like colossal stoves –
cooked up the heavier elements known to us today. Including the zinc
atoms that explode, like fireworks, every time a human being is
conceived.
I find it notable that the Bible agrees with science that
the universe was conceived in a paroxysm of illumination – I imagine,
unlike anything we’ve ever seen. According to Genesis 1:3, that event
happened at exactly the moment God uttered the immortal words, “Let
there be light.”
The Bible’s explanation of things goes even further,
by actually assigning a sacred status to light. In 1 John 1:5, light is
identified with the Creator himself: “God is light; in him there is no
darkness at all.”
Scientists don’t use that sort of language, of
course, but amazingly, they do agree that light very definitely has a
transcendent status. It wasn’t always the case, though: scientists made
that discovery only relatively recently.
The momentous change of
heart began in 1905, when an unknown outsider named Albert Einstein
published his heretical theory of special relativity. According to
Einstein, contrary to what scientists had always believed, light
experiences a reality wholly unlike the one you and I do – inhabits an
otherworldly realm where, among other things, the commonplace laws of
space and time are not obeyed. Like God, if you will, light transcends
the restrictions of the ordinary, physical world.
Scientists were
slow in coming around to believe Einstein’s heterodoxy. But today, it is
a key component of the modern scientific catechism.
Like the Bible, therefore, science now agrees that whenever we interact with light, we interact with something that is at once
in this world, but not
of
this world. Chief among these divine-like encounters are those
instances when light makes abrupt, attention-getting appearances. Like a
moment of creation when something truly special suddenly comes into
existence that wasn’t there before – be it a human embryo, a star, or an
entire universe.
Michael Guillen’s newest book
"Amazing Truths: How Science and the Bible Agree" (HarperCollins) will
be released on February 9, 2016. Born in East Los Angeles, he earned his
BS from UCLA and his MS and PhD from Cornell University in physics,
mathematics and astronomy. For 8 years he was an award-winning physics
instructor at Harvard University. For 14 years he was the
Emmy-award-winning science correspondent for ABC News, appearing
regularly on "Good Morning America," "20/20," "Nightline," and "World
News Tonight." Dr. Guillen is the host of the History Channel series,
"Where Did It Come From?" and producer of the award-winning family movie
"LITTLE RED WAGON." For more information, go to www.michaelguillen.com.
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