Does Dark Matter and the Structure of the Universe Show God's Hand?

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Introduction

            At the outset, I should establish that by no means am I an expert in this area. However, I am pulling much of my information from experts in their field and making a rational judgment. This article is essentially branching off of or a continuation of a design argument for God. With that said, this approach is taking more up to date scientific evidence/ theories and extrapolating a conclusion from that. Now, I am not arguing that because I believe in a designer that is the reason that the universe looks designed so there must be a designer. Rather, I find myself intrigued by outer space and the study of the stars and just so happened to find some of these new ideas about the structure of our universe quite astounding. As I continue throughout this discourse, I will attempt to not use professional jargon but rather simplify concepts or terminology where I am able. Let me jump into things.

Dark Matter and the Structure of Our Universe

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            As I work my way through this material, I am going to try my best to keep it organized. To predicate the discussion of dark matter I want to peruse galaxies and generally how they form and hold together. Galaxies form from nebulas. These are basically (when I say basically, I mean in simplest terms) congregations of gases and dust. Gravity works inside these nebulas to begin forming galaxies. What is very interesting is that astronomers have found that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at the center of them.[1] It is the gravity from these supermassive black holes that “pull” these galaxies together. Our own Milky Way galaxy is no different. A typical giveaway of there being a black hole at the center of galaxies is an emission of huge energy bursts which are called quasars. Our galaxy does not have one of these but astronomers found that the stars near the center of the galaxy are orbiting something and those stars are traveling very fast (millions of miles per hour). Based on the speed at which these stars are traveling they have come to the conclusion that the only thing that could pull stars that fast is a supermassive black hole.

            Now, there are different types of galaxies: whirlpool galaxy (160 million stars), M87 (elliptical galaxy), the Sombrero galaxy, Andromeda (200,000 lys across), and IC1011 which is 60,000 times larger than our own Milky Way. Much like life here on Earth, there is an immense amount of diversity out in the universe. These galaxies (and everything in our universe) are governed by these sets of laws. Those laws do not seem to matter much out in deep space as far as life goes because the universe seems to be pretty rampant with angry star systems. But in the Milky Way, there are these things called “cosmological constants” that are all needed to be in a very narrow range for life to exist.[2] Roughly, there are 26 constants (these we know about) that need to be balanced just so, so that our universe can sustain life.

            Most people that have interacted with an educated Christian have probably heard of these and their connection to the fine-tuning argument for God’s existence. My goal here is not to rehash this old argument but rather to bolster it with some newly discovered aspects of our universe. With these small (by small I mean touched on very briefly) matters out of the way I am going to move on to dark matter.

            Back in the 1930’s astronomer Fritz Zwicky posited that there must be something out there besides gravity that is holding these galaxies together.[3] Dr. Jeremiah Ostriker had this to say regarding dark matter, “We did a simulation, where we put a lot of particles in orbit in a flat disc which was just like a picture of our galaxy. We expected to find that we get a perfectly good galaxy and that it had a spiral and what not. But we found it always came apart. It seemed like a natural thing to try and it solved the problem (adding the gravity differential from dark matter).”[4] Also, Dr. Andrew Benson said, “Without it (dark matter) the universe wouldn’t work the way it seems to work.”[5] So, as can be seen from these two professional astrophysicists/ astronomers, without this thing called dark matter, the universe would not persist in the way we currently observe it nor may not exist at all.

            As it stands currently, there is more dark matter in the universe than normal matter. The break down by NASA is 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, and 5% normal matter.[6] Dark matter has not been observed directly but scientists have seen the effect of it by observing how it interacts with light traveling from distant galaxies. There is this event called gravitational lensing and this is where the light bends around these clumps of dark matter. So, basically speaking dark matter is this stuff that helps provide that extra hold on galaxies so they do not fly apart (kind of like glue). Dark energy is mentioned above and for the sake of understanding, this stuff is posited to act in the opposite way that dark matter does. So, instead of pulling things together this force is pushing things apart. You could say that this was observed by Edwin Hubble when he saw that galaxies were moving away from each other or that the universe was expanding, this dark energy is the force that astronomers say is causing this.

            What is very fascinating about all of this is that this dark matter helps keep galaxies in place (holding together) and these galaxies are not just randomly distributed out in the cosmos. Rather galaxies form together into groups called clusters. These clusters form into bigger groups called superclusters. Yet again, these superclusters form into something bigger called filaments. In essence, all of these galaxies are a structure with each other, not in the sense where there is a specific design (like a dolphin) but rather that there is some order that is born out of the chaos. The thing that I immediately think of is Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”

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            Now, at this point, since I have interjected a Bible verse, the skeptic may say something to the effect of it was simply developed through random processes and long periods of time. I would completely agree that there were processes and long periods of time. But to answer for these clusters, superclusters, filaments, and the dark matter that assists gravity in holding it all together can really only be answered by one of three ways: chance, physical necessity, or by a creator. Chance seems like a great option but the probabilities just for the existence of life are outlandishly insane let alone the beautiful structure of the universe in total (i.e. clusters forming superclusters which form filaments). If you skip the chance idea but want nothing to do with a God than you must say physical necessity. Well, when you say this you are saying that the universe could not have been any other way. Since you are making a positive claim then you bear the burden of proof to show that it would be impossible for the universe to have been any other way. Of course, there is the option of a creator which really is the simplest of all the theories of the why and the how.

            It seems that the more research that is done the more amazing, confusing, and wonderous we see our universe as being. There is very little chance that the universe just came to be as it is without any assistance nor does it seem this is the only way things could have been. Obviously, following this train of thought does not get you to the Christian God but what it does do is open up the idea that a supremely powerful, personal (non-personal things do not create), immaterial (outside of the things that make up the universe), intelligent (dark matter helps in this since gravity could not go it alone), etc., type of being. This leads one to investigate the plausibility of the major monotheistic systems out there and how close to the truth they are. I will not touch on that here but I think submitting the idea that there was a creator seems like a natural thing to do since the more we look at the universe the more complex and astounding it becomes. As a matter of fact, it seems surprising that the more we are able to observe in the universe than our predecessors (ancients) more people do not find the idea of God more plausible. But I guess this speaks to the fact that many would not be persuaded by miracles because the structure of the universe and the things that help hold it together (dark matter) look a lot like the miraculous.

Conclusion

            My goal here was not to provide some knockdown argument for the existence of God. Rather my goal was far more modest in scope and it was simply to state some new things that are being discovered by our observations of the universe and say, “hey look at this.” Dark matter is something that the scientific community did not like initially but soon realized that there had to be something added on to the laws that we currently know to make things work. Yet another value on the mathematical scale that seems to be leaning towards a creator. As I said earlier and I shall say again, the heavens declare the glory of God.

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[1] “Alien Galaxies: The Strange Secrets,” Season 2, Episode 6. The Planets on the Science Channel. Most of the material referenced will come from this television series.

[2] Ethan Segal, “It Takes 26 Fundamental Constants to Give Us Our Universe, But They Still Don’t Give Everything,” Forbes August 22, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ethansiegel/2015/08/22/it-takes-26-fundamental-constants-to-give-us-our-universe-but-they-still-dont-give-everything/#5dcaa8004b86. Here, there is 26 referenced constants.

[3] The Planets.

[4] The Planets.

[5] Ibid.

[6] “Dark Energy, Dark Matter,” Universe, NASA, https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy.