Let us take up the first of the two scientific divisions which is the cosmological. Cosmology requires that every event has a cause behind it. This is sometimes called the law of causality. When I look at an event, A, I know that it has been caused by an event B behind it, and the event B itself has been caused by another event, C. We keep going backwards to find out what was that event which caused all subsequent events. Some people think that this would lead to an infinite regress of causes. Such a regress is a philosophical impossibility for a very simple reason: If the past were infinite, we would not be living in an actual present which is an existential reality. Scientifically, it has now been established with certainty that the universe actually came into being at a particular point of time when both space and time began their existence together. An infinite regress of causes is, therefore, an impossibility both from the philosophical and scientific points of view. We are compelled to draw the conclusion that there has to be an uncaused event behind all events which we see. We have to admit that the First Cause is uncaused. When we talk about God, we refer to the One Who stands behind all events.

In teleology, we come to a new set of facts. "Teleos" is the Greek word for "purpose" or "design". When we look at nature, we cannot but be amazed at the precise design of nature. You can look at the macro-world through a telescope, at the greatness and vastness of space. We live in an average sized planet, orbiting an average sized star called "Sun" in the suburbs of an ordinary galaxy called the "Milky Way". The milky way itself consists of millions and millions of stars, so that if you were to count these stars at the rate of one a second, it will take 2500 years. Our universe consists of millions and millions of galaxies which contain millions and millions of stars each. But that is not all. In this vastness of space we find that the constants and the electrical and physical forces which cause the universe to operate are extremely fine tuned. They do not have a wide range of existence within which life here on planet earth can be supported. I'll give you just one example. If the rate of expansion of the universe was altered or tampered with at the 55th decimal place, planet earth would not be in existence. Now that is a decimal point followed by 54 zeros and then you alter the number in the 55th place - an extremely small quantity. The rate of expansion of the universe is fine tuned to that extent for life to become possible on this planet. I can quote many such instances.

Two secular science reporters, John Gribbin and Martin Rees have recently published a book "Cosmic Coincidence" (Black Swan, London, 1992, 2nd reprint) listing the many factors which stand behind life on earth. The four basic forces - the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force - are so fine tuned and operate within such a narrow range in order for us to have life on this earth. If they had been slightly altered, our atmosphere would have become too thick or too thin, the earth would have been too hot or too cold, too close to the sun or too far away from the sun for our existence. Even the inorganic chemistry which played a part in all these planets coming into being would not have existed at all. The creation of carbon and oxygen which are so necessary for organic life are dependent on these extremely fine-tuned factors for their own basic physical chemistry.

Science has now established beyond a reasonable doubt that there is an important teleos, purpose or design in the existence of the universe. In fact this argument has become so powerful these days that even an astronomer like Mr. Tipler from Britain (who is a Pantheist) has come to the conclusion that man is at the centre of the universe. This is called the "Anthropic Principle". Some centuries ago people thought that the earth was at the centre of the universe and believed in what may be called a geo-centric universe. Our generation is being driven to the conclusion, albeit reluctantly, that man is the at the centre of the universe. One is compelled to conclude that this universe including mankind (which is intelligent enough to appreciate it) has been made by a designer. When you walk along the seashore and observe the patterns on the sand caused by the waves, you know that it has been caused by nature. If, however, you were to come upon a sand castle made by children playing there sometime earlier, you would not say that the waves caused the sand castle to come into existence. You would know that there has been some kind of anintelligence in operation. Similarly, when you look at the macro-universe, you are forced to the conclusion that there is an intelligence that designed and executed this marvelous piece of work.

If the macro-universe provides convincing proof that we live in a well-designed world, the micro-universe that exists in all living beings (including ourselves) adds overwhelmingly to the evidence for teleos. When we look at the cell of any living being, we would find it to be extremely complex. "...to grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is 20 km. in diameter and it resembles a giant ship, large enough to cover a great city like London or New York. What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design. On the surface of the cell, we would see millions of openings, like the portholes of a vast spaceship, opening and closing to allow a stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings, we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity..." (Dr. Michael Denton: Evolution - a Theory in Crisis). Dr. Denton is a medical doctor-turned molecular biologist and a self-confessed agnostic. The evolutionist, Richard Dawkins testifies that, "Each nucleus...contains a digitally coded database of larger information content than all 30 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica put together...the total number of cells in the body (of a human) is about 10 trillion". (Dawkins: The Blind Watchmaker, pp. 17, 18).

The atheist astronomer Carl Sagan, who is very famous for his popular approach to science, has said that he is looking for intelligence in outer space. All the scientifically advanced countries in the world are sending messages into outer space. Sagan says that if they would receive even a garbled message (information content) from outer space, they would come to the conclusion that there is intelligence somewhere out there. But when we look into micro-nature, we find a tremendous mass of information packed into the small space of a gene or a cell. This merits serious consideration in favor of an intelligence behind the universe.

We see both from the macro-universe and the micro-universe that we are truly designed by a wise and intelligent Creator. Thus we conclude both from cosmological and teleological considerations that there is an Ultimate Personal Cause Who is both wise and intelligent.