God’s Laws
- stephenstrent7
- Jul 19
- 6 min read
The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Planets, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, 1511
Where Science Meets the Doctrine and Covenants, for the Come Follow Me lesson July 21-27; Doctrine and Covenants 81-83
We are told in Doctrine and Covenants 82:10, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” That statement is similar to the statement in 130:20-21, “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”
In my opinion, these statements/blessing are not only spiritual but also pertain to natural/physical laws.
Probably the most famous statements concerning God’s role in the Big Bang, and Creation in general, were made by the British cosmologist and theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking. In his book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Hawking stated:
“Hubble’s observations suggested that there was a time, called the big bang, when the universe was infinitesimally small and infinitely dense. Under such conditions all the laws of science, and therefore all ability to predict the future, would break down. If there were events earlier than this time, then they could not affect what happens at the present time. Their existence can be ignored because it would have no observable consequences. One may say that time had a beginning at the big bang, in the sense that earlier times simply would not be defined…One can imagine that God created the universe at literally any time in the past. On the other hand, if the universe is expanding, there may be physical reasons why there had to be a beginning. One could still imagine that God created the universe at the instant of the big bang, or even afterwards in just such a way as to make it look as though there had been a big bang, but it would be meaningless to suppose that it was created before the big bang. An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job!”1
I have great respect for Stephen Hawking’s work and career. He has made major contributions to our understanding of the universe. However, the fact that he was a genius and a brilliant scientist does not make him immune to error.
The problem with Hawking’s conclusion that, “If there were events earlier than this time, then they could not affect what happens at the present time…it would have no observable consequences,” is that his paradigm presumes that everything both inside and outside the entire universe, that we can observe began at the time of the Big Bang. All of the known laws of physics, including quantum physics, deal only with events occurring inside the visible universe. For example, the universe itself is expanding at a rate faster than the speed of light. That con only be true because that expansion is not confined within the universe. Furthermore, neither Hawking nor anyone else knows anything about dark matter other than it apparently has gravity. It is certainly, at least at present, not part of the visible universe (thus the term “dark”) and, therefore, cannot be assumed to either have begun at the time of the Big Bang or to be controlled by the laws that originated at the Big Bang and govern the visible universe.
During the last few years of his life, Hawking was, famously, one of the most vocal scientists arguing that God had no place in the creation of the universe. He stated, for example, “The role played by time at the beginning of the universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a grand designer and revealing how the universe created itself.”2 In a number of similar statements, Hawking made it quite clear that in his mind, time trumps everything, even God. So, was Hawking right? Was he the official spokesperson for all scientists?
Hawking, in my opinion, correctly, pointed out that time and space began at the Big Bang and did not exist before that event. However, physics tells us that what was created at the Big Bang was what Hawking called “normal matter.”3 We cannot, however, say the same for dark matter or dark energy – the other 95+ percent of the universe. Hawking would have us believe that God is limited by E=mc2, but that equation only describes “normal matter,” which is defined by what we can see or detect because of light (the electromagnetic spectrum; time, space and light are expressed as c in Einstein’s famous equation).
If we now recognize, as Hawking acknowledged, that there apparently are distinct components of the universe (at least dark matter and dark energy) that we, at present, cannot detect, no matter how hard we’ve tried, then how can we be so arrogantly confident that there are not yet other parts of the universe we can’t detect? In the face of such overwhelming numbers for the known unknown, how can we be so arrogantly confident that God is confined to the, at most, 5% of the universe that we can detect.
It is my opinion that God is not confined by the time and space of the visible universe, but brought about the laws that govern the universe “before the foundations of this world”.4 In teaching my courses, especially Biochemistry, I constantly refer to “unknown laws” that are controlling the structure and function of the molecular world—laws that we humans are allowed to discover, given enough, time, effort, and inspiration. I believe that there are literally thousands of such laws waiting for us to discover. However, because of the limits of scientific investigation, most of those laws, when discovered, will be described, scientifically as theories—because we lack God’s infinite perspective to understand the full measure of his laws.
In a 2019 BYU Devotional speech, entitled “The Love and Laws of God”,5 President Russell M. Nelson stated,
“After graduating from medical school, I pursued advanced education in surgery. At that time there was no such thing as heart surgery. Then I teamed up with other researchers in the daunting task of making an artificial heart and lung machine. We knew that such an apparatus could possibly maintain the body’s circulation while repairs might be made on the heart. But during that early era, there was much we did not know.
“Then one day, two truths articulated in the Doctrine and Covenants spoke to my inquiring mind. These truths were, first, that all blessings are predicated upon obedience to law6 and, second, that to every kingdom there is a law given.7
“Well, I reasoned that if every kingdom had a law, there must be laws that govern the beating heart. I was determined to discover those laws and obey them. By doing so, blessings would come and lives could be saved…
“We learned that if we added potassium chloride to blood flowing into the coronary arteries, thereby altering the normal sodium/potassium ratio, the heart would stop beating instantly. Then, when we nourished the heart with blood that had a normal sodium/potassium ratio, the heart would spring back to its normal beating pattern. Literally we could turn the heart off long enough to repair it and then turn it back on again…
“The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that God “institute[d] laws whereby [we] could have a privilege to advance like himself.”8 God’s greatest blessings are reserved for those who obey His laws, as He explained: “For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing.”9 God’s laws are motivated entirely by His infinite love for us and His desire for us to become all we can become.”
Trent Dee Stephens, PhD
References
1. Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, p. 8-9, Bantam, New York, 1988
2. Hawking, Stephen, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Bantam, New York, 2018
3. Smith, Brett, Dark Matter at Caltech Speech, redOrbit.com, 18 April 2013
4. Doctrine and Covenants 130:20
5. BYU Speeches; speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-m-nelson/love-laws-god
7. Doctrine and Covenants 88:38
8. 5. Joseph Smith, HC 6:312 (7 April 1844); quoted in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), p. 210
9. Doctrine and Covenants 132:5