I remember one warm summer’s night on the beach a few years ago, just below the border in Lumme, Wash., listening to the crackling fire and staring up into the heavens.

Most of us have shared a similar experience at one time or another, trying to identify shapes and galaxies and searching for shooting stars and maybe thinking to ourselves about the obvious question that such a sight provokes: where did it all come from?

The Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

It has been suggested by some that science and the Bible are in competition and conflict. Many of the earliest scientists were people of profound faith, like Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Kepler. They were men of deep personal faith and conviction.

Newton wrote that the world arose from “the perfectly free will of God,” and that we must investigate the world by “observations and experiments.”

The Old Testament records the story of Job, who experienced incredible personal loss and devastation. In his lengthy attempt to deal with his situation and answer his supposed comforters, Job cries out for an audience with God. And sure enough the Almighty speaks, confronting Job with a science quiz of some 40 questions [Job 38-41]. How would you like to write a science test given by God? Who defined the boundaries of the sea, Job? How do you think light originated? What about astronomy, Job?

Observation is one thing. Men have probed the heavens and questioned the vastness of space for thousands of years. But like Job, we are speechless and ignorant when it comes to the laws of the universe. Every question by God to Job was a progression in increasing impossibility.

How intelligent and wise do you think you’d have to be to actually have a conversation with God, to have the responsibility of naming all of the animals on earth? How many species of animals, mammals, birds and insects do you think there were?

The November 1977 issue of National Geographic pictures a few tools discovered in an archeological dig that were carbon dated to about 4000 B.C. If that dating is accurate, they look like they could have come out of the shed in my back yard. Maybe not so prehistoric after all.

What was man in perfection before he sinned? Scientists say that we only use a fifth of our brain capacity and some say less than that.

Howard Hendricks is an author and professor emeritus of Dallas Theological Seminary. One of his favourite past-times was attending and viewing autopsies. He once asked his pathologist friend as he was probing through the skull of a dead man, “Hey, Doc, have you ever seen a brain that was greatly used?”

The pathologist replied, “I’ve never seen a brain that was slightly used.”

Solomon wrote, “Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance … the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Authentic investigation of our universe leads to the acknowledgment of a designer.

• Les Warriner is the pastor of Living Way Foursquare Church in Maple Ridge.