Insight on the News

Infinite Universe

● Astronomers have long argued over the origin and future of the awesome universe, and of our planet Earth. In recent years most of them have come to believe that the universe originated when a huge mass of material “exploded” outward. However, many have thought that in time the gravity in the heavenly bodies would pull them together again in a cataclysmic crash. That would, of course, destroy the earth and all life on it. Then, it was thought, that all the material would once more “explode” outward.

However, astronomers working independently of one another have recently concluded that this is not likely to happen. After fifteen years of research, Hale Observatory astronomer Allan Sandage and James Gunn of the California Institute of Technology state that the force of gravity existing is not enough to pull the universe back together. Gunn said that it had no more than one tenth the gravitational force required. Both scientists expressed amazement at the results of their studies. They declared that the idea of an infinitely expanding universe that would not destroy itself was “a terrible surprise” to them. But this is not surprising from the Bible’s viewpoint, since it clearly declares that the earth was not created “simply for nothing,” but was made “to be inhabited,” and would be “standing even to time indefinite.”​—Isa. 45:18; Eccl. 1:4.

Punishing Criminals

● A growing number of criminal justice experts are dissatisfied with current law enforcement. They feel that much attention is given to rehabilitating criminals, but not enough to ‘rehabilitating the law.’ They point out that the criminal is often given far more consideration than the person he victimized. Capital punishment has largely been abandoned, so that many willful murderers are eventually put back on the streets. Also, as sociologist Ernest van Den Haag observes in his book “Punishing Criminals,” criminal justice is not uniform: a criminal may get one sentence in one court, but another person who commits the same crime may get a different sentence in a different court.

Of interest is the system of criminal justice given by God to the ancient nation of Israel. Willful murderers were given the death sentence, as were kidnappers, idolaters, and those who committed a number of other crimes, including various grave sex offenses. Prisons were not used; instead, for lesser crimes a system of making compensation was the rule. For example, in cases of theft the guilty party was required to restore several times the value of what he had taken. If he did not have the money to make this restitution, then he had to work off the debt.

What is evident is that the more today’s systems of justice have strayed from God’s thinking on such matters, the more confused and unsatisfactory they have become.

‘Fit in a Small Closet’

● God’s Word states that man was created directly by Jehovah God. But for more than a century, scientists who believe in evolution have tried to find support for their theory in the fossil remains of living things. Often they have given the impression that they have found much evidence about man’s supposed “apelike” ancestors. One such supposed ancestor was a small creature called Australopithecus, found in Africa. However, scientists now say that this could not have been man’s ancestor.

Also, after all the decades of intense searching, how much fossil evidence has been found? The 1976 “Nature/​Science Annual” says: “Nine out of every 10 Australopithecine fossils is a tooth, and not always a very good tooth at that. Everything else exists in bits and pieces, some of them mere nubbins. . . . And in spite of the seeming plethora of finds, the pieces are actually still extremely rare. All of them​—every last one—​would fit in a single small closet. Reconstructing entire individuals . . . solely from the contents of that one closet is a task of stupefying difficulty.”

Yes, how difficult it is to try to prove a theory that cannot be proved, one that is based on a lie. The Bible gives us the correct information as to how man got here. That information comes from the One who ought to know, the One who was there at the time, the Creator, Jehovah God. Thus, the humble Bible writer acknowledged: “Know that Jehovah is God. It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves.”​—Ps. 100:3.