Big Bang

(cont'd, Mere Apologetics by Alister McGrath)

One of the claims of recent atheism has been that belief in God doesn't make sense, that it's irrational.  Part of that line of argument has to do with the progress of science.

"Although New Atheist propagandists regularly declare that scientific advance and progress has eroded the case for belief in God in the last century, the facts are otherwise.  The relation of science and faith changed decisively in the later twentieth century.  The first decades of the twentieth century were dominated by a scientific belief in the eternity of the universe.  It had always existed.  Religious language about "creation" was seen as mythological nonsense, incompatible with cutting-edge scientific knowledge." (pg. 96)

Then around the middle of the last century, it became clear that - on the contrary - the universe actually had a beginning.  "Big Bang" theory is now one of the most tested and confirmed scientific theories.  Its consonance with the Bible and a Creator ("In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," Genesis 1:1) is obvious.

Big Bang theory does not prove Christianity, nor that God exists. But it is one big piece of evidence, even scientific evidence, that says the option to believe in God is quite reasonable.