Renowned physicist, Steven Hawking, is reportedly releasing a new book that concludes “God did not create the universe, and the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.” …

Apparently, Hawking’s book is written to counter Sir Isaac Newton’s conclusion that God must have designed the universe, because even cursory observation of the complexity of nature indicates it could not have randomly resulted from chaos. This is a biblical concept. ”For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:21.

Prof. Hawking is a brilliant man, but that doesn’t make him wise. The Bible speaks to that too: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.” And more directly to the point, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1.

At bottom, attempts to explain the origin of the universe based on man’s wisdom are the height of hubris. It reminds me of the story my father, a retired Baptist preacher, used to tell from the pulpit. It went something like this. A group of scientists decided to challenge God to a creation contest. The rules were simple – each side gets one gallon of dust, and from it they have to create a living organism. God accepted the challenge on one condition: the scientists had to make their own dust.

Try as they might, men (even brilliant ones like Hawking) cannot get past the conundrum of how to create something from nothing. Only God can do that.