In the Wall Street Journal, Peter Robinson writes, “The most striking feature of The Story of Everything…is the sheer nerve of the thing.”
The “nerve of the thing” — telling a story based on scientific evidence that refutes the materialistic worldview on several fronts — would have barely raised an eyebrow among those we regard as the founders of science. Stephen Meyer clearly delineates this point at the start of Return of the God Hypothesis, as summarized in his citation from philosopher Holmes Rolston III,
The great pioneers in physics — Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus — devoutly believed themselves called to find evidences of God in the physical world.
Physicist and author Paul Davies concurs and similarly remarks on the audacity of reaching the scientific conclusion that evidence from nature points to God.1
All the early scientists such as Newton were religious in one way or another. They saw their science as a means of uncovering traces of God’s handiwork in the universe. What we now call the laws of physics they regarded as God’s abstract creation: thoughts, so to speak, in the mind of God. So in doing science, they supposed, one might be able to glimpse the mind of God. What an exhilarating and audacious claim!
A Meaningful Metanarrative
The impact of a story is measured by its meaning something. The nerve and the audacity of The Story of Everything stem not from just the scientific evidence it presents for design, but from the cumulative weight of the evidence that comprises a meaningful metanarrative of human existence.
Paul Davies expresses in his own words a similar sentiment.2
To me, the contrived nature of physical existence is just too fantastic for me to take on board as simply ‘given’. It points forcefully to a deeper underlying meaning to existence. Some call it purpose, some design. These loaded words, which derive from human categories, capture only imperfectly what it is that the universe is about. But that it is about something, I have absolutely no doubt.
Despite Davies’s wish to infer meaning or purpose in the universe, he seems to prefer the universe as god rather than a God of the universe. While I respect his opinions, I’m dubious that the laws of nature have it in them to produce mind from matter and meaning from material. It hardly takes advanced training in physics to grasp this point. From an early age we understand that rocks don’t talk, they erode into sand. No mystical, emergent force of nature enlivens silicon dioxide or any other chemical into something significant that the universe is about.
In the World but Not of It
What’s significant is that the scientific exploration of nature reveals that who we are transcends the reach of nature. We are in the world but not of it — in the sense that a cloud, a snowflake, or a bolt of lightning are of the forces of nature. Too long has the materialistic story of evolution captivated people’s minds, bolstered by unsubstantiated claims that nature’s reach extends far beyond its observable limits.
With the publication of books with title like The God Delusion and God Is Not Great, the so-called new atheists mounted an attack focused not on science, but on story. But even earlier, the atheistic worldview of materialism gained traction in the popular mind by the story of evolution and what it implied.
“Chapter titles” in the story of evolution became catch phrases that lodged in the public vocabulary: Life arose from “A warm little pond”; humans are “descended from apes”; humans are “highly evolved”; every feature of every creature is due to “natural selection and adaptation”; and we share “common ancestry” with shrew-like rodents and even bacteria.
The Importance of Story
A compelling story can capture our imaginations and plant seeds that become beliefs.
Belief about our world precedes our reason and it is belief that frames the way we “see” the facts.3
The more we can relate to the characters and the plotline of the story, the deeper we can engage with it. We often use our imaginations to vicariously live out the adventures of a story’s characters. But in the universe of the materialist, the story is empty of meaning. Although the cosmos is vast, it becomes a drab prison denying our longings for purpose and true personhood. G. K. Chesterton comments on the universe of the scientific materialist:
The cosmos went on for ever, but not in its wildest constellation could there be anything really interesting; anything, for instance, such as forgiveness or free will.4
Chesterton relates his own conviction “that this world of ours has some purpose; and if there is a purpose, there is a person. I had always felt life first as a story; and if there is a story, there is a story-teller.”5
Not that Science Is Wrong
What meaning do we draw from The Story of Everything? Not that science is wrong, but that science is telling us a different story from what many of us were taught. The world is full of storytellers, and discernment has always been necessary to know whether a story is true or false. The Story of Everything powerfully connects us to a history of discovery in science that culminates in our lives having a central role in the universe.
From the beginning of the universe, life appears as the prime focus of the particular parameters of nature that govern everything from the expansion rate of space to the formation of stars and the elements essential for life. That humankind holds a unique place in the known universe can be seen in our ability to further the creative process lightyears beyond what any other form of life can do.
Animals, even insects, can create designs that extend beyond the kinds of design produced by the forces of nature alone. Animal designs typically have the added hallmark of functionality — for example, a beehive, or a bird’s nest, or a spider’s web. However, these designs seem to be pre-programmed or instinctive, and do not originate from the individual creativity of the animal. Humans, in contrast, can and do create beautiful designs with a seemingly inexhaustible fund of creativity.6
Inherent in the universe’s panoply of particles and forces is a limitless fund of potential creativity accessible to a mind capable of intelligent design. Paul Davies argues that the particular laws of nature we’ve been given reveal “restrained creativity.”7
You might be tempted to suppose that any old rag-bag of laws would produce a complex universe of some sort, with attendant inhabitants convinced of their own specialness. Not so. It turns out that randomly-selected laws lead almost inevitably either to unrelieved chaos or boring and uneventful simplicity. Our own universe is poised exquisitely between these unpalatable alternatives, offering a potent mix of freedom and discipline, a sort of restrained creativity….To quote Dyson again: it is almost as if ‘the universe knew we were coming’. I can’t prove to you that that is design but whatever it is it is certainly very clever!
Natural forces exemplify this “mix of freedom and discipline” by producing a profound variety of arrangements of matter, displaying beauty that awakens us to perceive the possibility of something more. Of all the species of life on Earth, however, humans are the only ones that manipulate the natural world into shapes and forms that extend beyond bare function. Birds build nests; humans build cathedrals.
Biologist Ann Gauger reminds us that truth, beauty, and goodness “are indicators that the world is rich, purposeful, and meaningful.” Gauger further comments,
Without truth we enter into a world of unreason and illogic. Truth, objective truth, underpins all of mathematics and science. Logic is an absolute requirement to do either, and the basis of all logic is truth.
Quoting philosopher J. P. Moreland, Gauger adds a point that imparts meaning only to humans, out of all species of life known to exist.
The basic laws of logic govern all reality and thought and are known to be true….They are intuitively obvious and self-evident.
What is the meaning of The Story of Everything? The evidence presented points to an intelligent mind as the designer and creator of the universe and life.
But Does the Story Tell Us Anything More?
The accumulated evidence encourages us to open the eyes of our heart, to take a step of faith in the direction the evidence is pointing. As George Montañez remarks in a recent Science and Culture piece about the film,
We are not temporary illusions-of-self, staring up at meaningless voids; we are men and women who bear the marks of a master craftsman.
The authors of Scripture attest that our lives bear the image of our Creator, and our significance comes from being held in the heart of God. The ultimate meaning of the story can be expressed as a relationship with the Storyteller. In the stories we compose, our characters remain separated from us, except in our imagination. The story of everything is different. “God created us to share forever in his divine life and love.”8
From ancient times, the meaning of the story has been sought after, and the almost unbelievable truth has been glimpsed by some who have seen further than most. The Psalmist marvels at the extravagance of the purpose revealed in the story written for us:
What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.9
Notes
- Paul Davies, in his acceptance address for the 1995 Templeton Prize, https://www.templetonprize.org/laureate-sub/davies-acceptance-speech/.
- Paul Davies, https://www.templetonprize.org/laureate-sub/davies-acceptance-speech/.
- Doug Smith, Summer Seminar Alumnus; email from 5/5/2026.
- G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publ. 2006) p. 56.
- G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publ. 2006) p. 56.
- Eric Hedin, Canceled Science, (Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2021) p. 204.
- Paul Davies, https://www.templetonprize.org/laureate-sub/davies-acceptance-speech/.
- Dr. Richard Clement, “All Things Are Revealed in the Cross,” (May 4, 2026), https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/all-things-are-revealed-in-the-cross/
- Psalm 8:4-5 (NIV).