“Do Witness That There Is a Supreme Creator”

Alan C. Miner

In response to the challenge of Korihor to "show me a sign," Alma responded, "Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? . . . all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. (Alma 30:44)

Trent Stephens and Jeffrey Meldrum note that today most people recognize Earth's place within the immensity of space and time. Even at 25,000 miles per hour, astronauts must travel several days to reach the moon. At the same speed, they would have to travel 80,000 years to reach the nearest star outside our solar system. And there are 100 billion stars organized into the great pinwheel stellar system we call the Milky Way galaxy. As vast as our own galaxy is, there are billions of other galaxies hurtling through space at the very limits of the most powerful telescopes and beyond reach of the fastest spaceships. Even if humans could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take four years to reach the nearest star, and 100,000 years to travel across our own galaxy.

Carl Sagan stated, "If we were randomly inserted into the Cosmos, the chance that we would find ourselves on or near a planet would be less than one in a billion trillion trillion (1 X 1033, a one followed by thirty-three zeros)." [Trent D. Stephens, D. Jeffrey Meldrum; with Forrest B. Peterson, Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding, pp. 2, 75]]

“Also All the Planets Which Move in Their Regular Form Do Witness That There Is a Supreme Creator”

In reply to Korihor's request for a sign, Alma said unto him:

Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. (Alma 30:44)

According to Hollis Johnson, a noted LDS astronomer, while we Mormons believe God has revealed himself and his plans anew in our day, others may or may not accept the wonders of nature as proving the existence of God, and they will likely continue to argue about it for a long time.

Consider the incredible panorama of our universe, one that is billions of light years in extent and has been billions of years in the making! Giant clouds of hydrogen and helium (proto-galaxies) formed within a billion years after the Big Bang. Stars then formed in these clouds, and as they lit up the heavens, the stars also fabricated heavier atoms from the original hydrogen and helium when the stars died in mild or titanic explosions, they dispersed these atoms into galactic space. Thus, the Milky Way Galaxy and all galaxies became slowly enriched in heavier elements with time. Atoms of these heavier elements became associated into molecules, as seen in abundance in interstellar space. When newer stellar systems, such as the Solar System, were later formed (about 4.6 billion years ago), they contained a load of these heavier elements, which formed complex molecules. From these complex molecules, living cells and then larger plants and animals, including man, could be created.

Where does God fit into this remarkable picture? The non-believer might say this spectacular caravan of events happened by chance or by the action of natural processes and laws. Every step is describable by mathematical equations. Some might even say the equations themselves are the Final Answer. The believer might maintain that when one views the whole picture, a pattern clearly emerges. There is a direction and a goal indicative of design and intelligence. The discussion will likely go on for a long time! [Hollis R. Johnson, "Atoms, Stars, and Us" in Of Heaven and Earth: Reconciling Scientific Thought with LDS Theology, pp. 120-121]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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