Creationist Film Uses Fine-Tuning and Beauty to Challenge Atheist Science
The newly released movie "The Story of Everything" argues that the universe’s origin, physical constants, and cellular complexity point to design, and it critiques the notion of gratuitous beauty as a problem for atheism.
The Story of Everything opened nationwide in over 1,000 cinemas on April 30 and is now available for streaming, DVD and Blu-Ray. Based on Stephen Meyer’s 2021 bestseller, the film presents three scientific claims: the universe began about 14 billion years ago, the constants of physics are precisely set to permit life, and living cells operate as extraordinarily complex machines. Host Jay Richards frames these points as a contest between a purposeful creator and mindless processes.
A fourth chapter tackles what the producers call the "problem of gratuitous beauty," arguing that many features of nature serve no clear survival purpose and therefore challenge atheistic accounts. The film references Einstein’s relativity, Hawking’s remarks on fine-tuning, and critiques Darwinian explanations through the work of Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, Michael Behe, Guillermo Gonzalez and Michael Denton, suggesting that the universe’s richness is best explained as a designer’s gift.
Why it matters
The film promotes a creationist worldview, influencing public perception of science and religion.
In this story
