Christopher Macosko, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Educational Background:

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Testimony:

I thought to myself, What a simple, superstitious old lady! She doesn't know about hydrogen bonds which are so strong in water that they make it very dense at 4 degrees C. In order to pack into the tetrahedral crystalline geometry of ice these hydrogen bonds must stretch slightly. Thus ice has 9% greater volume than cold water." I had learned this in my honors physics class and was proud of what I knew.

I went on to university and studied more physics. We learned about cosmology: how stars burn hydrogen in nuclear fusion, creating heavier elements and eventually die. There were conflicting theories about the origin of the universe. Frederick Hoyle argued for continuous creation of matter, but no one had found evidence of new galaxies forming. Edwin Hubble had shown that all the stars were moving away from each other. He was able to extrapolate back to a single point in time and space where the universe began with a big explosion. Other scientists didn't like this Big Bang idea and proposed that the universe was really oscillating: expanding then collapsing back to a point, then bouncing back and expanding again.

However, in 1965 Penzias and Wilson discovered that the whole universe is emitting a faint microwave radiation. Most scientists now believe that this background radiation is the diluted remnant of the fierce heat and light emitted in the early moments of the explosion which started the universe. In 1991 sensitive infrared telescopes aboard the Space Shuttle measured the background temperature of the universe: about 3 degrees above absolute zero. This is additional strong confirmation of the Big Bang theory for the origin of our universe.

I can still remember my physics professor explaining these ideas to our class. Afterwards one student asked Well, what was there before the Big Bang? The professor replied, Science cannot really answer that question. However, if you believe in God it is not such a hard question.

I went on to study more physics and chemistry. I was struck by the evidence for design in the universe. First of all, the laws of physics are few, simple and elegant. For example consider Coulomb's law of electrostatic charge. We know that the force between a positive and a negative particle varies inversely with the distance to the 2.10^16 exactly 2 with incredible certainty, 16 orders of magnitude. Newton's law of gravity is similar. Here we only know the dependence to 2.10^4 because gravity is so weak that we can't measure it more accurately. As Alexander Polyakov, a leading Russian physicist and Nobel candidate, put it We know that nature is described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created it. It is interesting that Polyakov wrote this in Soviet Russia where knowledge of God was suppressed for so long.

Another example of a designed universe is the values of the physical constants. Note the tremendous range of these constants. For example, the constant which describes the forces in the atomic nucleus is tiny, 6.69x10^(-39)kg^3/m^3/s, yet it is critical to do the largest of things. If it were only 2% larger the hydrogen atom would not be stable, the stars would not form and the universe would have collapsed long ago. If it were just 5% smaller deuterium would be unstable and the universe would still be an expanding cloud with no stars.

We can make similar observations about the other physical constants. For example, if the mass of the proton were 0.1% larger again hydrogen couldn't exist and there also would be no stars. If the mass were slightly less the nuclear reactions between Be and He to form C would not be favored and we would have very little carbon and perhaps no life on earth.

It seems that very simple laws with very strictly controlled constants govern the universe. These observations have led many scientists to argue that the universe was designed by an intelligent creator. Sir Frederick Hoyle wrote in his book The Intelligent Universe: Such properties seem to run through the fabric of the natural world like a thread of happy coincidences, but there are so many odd coincidences essential to life that some explanation of them seems to be required to account for them.

I thought a lot about these things as a student. Did God really design the universe? I thought back to my neighbor lady. If the charge on the electron were ever so slightly larger than would be no strong hydrogen bonds. Ice would be more dense that water and the lakes would freeze solid in the winter. I could trace my reasoning back a few more steps but did I come to the same God as my old neighbor?

I went to graduate school and started to specialize in polymers, the science of very large molecules. I marveled at the fantastic complexity of DNA. In the nucleotide sequences of each giant molecule are contained millions of bits of information. In the early 1950's some biochemists had argued that DNA was created by chance chemical reactions. In 1953 Stanley Miller showed that ammonia could be combined with other reduced gases like methane and hydrogen via an energy source like lightning or UV radiation. Such reactions can produce the amino acids necessary to produce proteins or the sugars, phosphates and organic bases which are the building blocks for nucleotides which in turn make up DNA.

This argument is still in many found introductory biology texts. However, since 1953 geologists have found new evidence suggesting that there was very little ammonia, methane and hydrogen in the early atmosphere. In the past nearly 50 years no one has yet been able to produce even simple polynucleotides from random reactions. The problem is analogous to the creation of a beautiful house from a pile of bricks and some dynamite. How many times would we have to explode the brick pile to have them fall down to form the walls, doors and windows of a house?

Today the assembly of monomers into highly ordered biopolymers by random processes must be considered extremely improbable. Robert Shapiro calculated that life arising by chance would still be extremely improbable even if billions of planets had been covered with solutions of monomers for billions of years.

I began to believe that there might be a God who created the universe and created life but I didn't think very deeply about it. I was too busy with my studies, getting married and then my doctoral research. God was too distant to care about me.

Soon something happened which changed me deeply. I had finished my Ph.D. thesis at Princeton University and started working as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota. I was developing a new research instrument with my best friend from graduate school. We had started a company. I had invested a lot of effort and money into it and just when we were becoming successful he told me that he wanted to end our collaboration. He wanted me out; he wanted to take the patent and do things his way. I can still feel the telephone sliding out of my hand after that conversation and a horrible emptiness in the pit of my stomach.

My first reaction was retaliation. How could I defame the guy at the next conference? Could I start up a new company in Minnesota? Could I sue him for the patent rights? I had just returned from a meeting with my attorney when my wife, Kathleen, phoned. She had started to go to a Bible study. She suggested a verse: Romans 12:19 Never take your own revenge. Leave it to God for he has said, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay evil.

I was desperate. For the first time in my life I prayed. I cried out, not really sure that there was a God to answer me. Yet he gave me an answer, an answer that went against my very nature. One that I am certain did not come from me. Trust me. Give it up. Go on to something better. I did trust that answer. I went to my friend and signed over the patent and stocks. I wished him well and offered to help him.

I couldn't shake that experience. It wasn't scientific. Could there really be a God who wanted to be involved in my life? If God wanted to make himself known to his creation how would he do it?

I went to a Bible study and learned about the life of Jesus, how the mighty creator God became a mere man in Jesus to bring us back to a right relationship to him. I was especially amazed to read about the change that occurred in his followers after his death and resurrection.

I sought out Christian colleagues. They helped me with my questions and directed me to some Christian writers. One, Francis Schaeffer, had an interesting comment on the development of the scientific method. The Chinese had great technology - the Great Wall, printing, gunpowder, governmental organization - but they did not develop the scientific method because they did not believe that God created the universe with a plan. There was no reason to look for underlying laws; they didn't exist. In contrast, in Europe those who developed the scientific method, Galileo, Newton, Pascal and others, believed strongly that a loving, intelligent God created the Universe and the laws which governed it. They believed that God has a plan and he wanted them to learn about it.

Finally, I took the leap of faith and decided to put my trust in God rather than myself. It was somehow like when I decided to ask Kathleen to marry me. I didn't put any conditions on it. I just knelt down and prayed, Jesus, I accept your sacrifice for me and I want to trust my life to you. I didn't know what would happen but I believed that it would work out.

I am still learning to let God control more of my life but I have seen changes. My research is filled with joy in exploring God's creation, understanding his laws. My colleagues and students are not stepping stones for my career, rather important gifts in my life whom I may be able to help reach the potential God has given to them. I often pray for my students.

My marriage and my family now take priority over my career. I try to balance their needs and the time devoted to work and spent away from home.

Unfortunately, my friend from grad school married the company that we had started and eventually lost it as well as his family. I still continue to consult for the company. This consulting has helped my research greatly as well as rewarded me well financially.

The best scientific theories point to a created universe and creation of life not by random processes. Each of us has basically two choices: theism or naturalism (faith that random processes can explain everything). There is not proof but strong evidence for theism, for design in the universe. If there was proof for a super natural designer, then it could be argued that we would not have free will to reject him. I believe that he wants to interact with us as part of his creation and that the claims of the Christian faith best help us to understand how he wants to relate to us. It is exciting for me as a scientist to try to understand a tiny part of the designer's plan.