The very first second

Science teaches us that the universe sprang from the initial singularity, a point of infinite density and almost no dimensions, about 13.7 billion years ago. The Big Bang was not an explosion of matter and energy, but the sudden expansion of a very small volume of space to 20 light years across in one second to create our universe, which is still expanding. All the matter and energy that exists today came into existence in that first second. Where did that initial singularity come from?

Theologians tell us that God is omnipresent and omniscient—everywhere all the time and all-knowing. I believe that the spirit of God is as big as the universe, both in the beginning and now. Science tells us that nothing existed outside that initial singularity and today also. Nothing is not empty space as we know it. The Big Bang was not an explosion, but rather the expansion of space which left in its wake matter and energy, which followed the laws of physics to create our universe. All the matter and energy in the universe came into existence in that first second.

The spirit of God is indeed omnipresent in you and me, and in all living beings. I believe he was on this planet over four billion years before he made man. The commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” means: Do not kill any living being for fun or sport. Killing animals for food is OK, if done mercifully. It is how we evolved.

People who enjoy hunting and fishing have no qualms about killing animals. They kill for fun. An embryo is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. The life of an embryo begins at conception. Less than half of them become human beings. Your life as a human being began when God breathed into your nostrils your first breath. RUUD DuVALL

Fayetteville