Written by: Mike Laxton (December 9, 2025)

Universe Designed opens with a breathtaking reminder of just how impossibly vast our universe truly is. Viewers are immediately confronted with a scale that stretches human comprehension—50 billion trillion observable stars, which themselves account for only about 0.27% of the known universe. The film uses this staggering imagery as a launchpad for the central question that anchors the entire documentary: Why is there something rather than nothing?

What follows is a compelling, intellectually rich, and emotionally resonant exploration of science, philosophy, and faith. One of the documentary’s greatest strengths is how it rekindles a childlike sense of wonder in a world where constant distraction has slowly eroded our curiosity. Early on, the film highlights how our culture’s obsession with amusement—literally “not thinking”—keeps us from wrestling with life’s biggest questions. The filmmakers push us to stop scrolling, stop numbing, and start musing again.

Without rushing into religious claims, the film patiently builds a scientific case for a universe that had a definite beginning. Through Einstein’s general relativity, Hawking’s cosmological insights, and the implications of space-time physics, viewers are shown that time, matter, space, and energy all began together. This naturally raises the unavoidable question: what caused them? Whatever the cause is, it must be timeless, spaceless, immaterial, and immensely powerful—an uncreated first cause that sits beyond the natural order.

The film then transitions into the realm of fine-tuning, highlighting the razor-thin margins required for life to exist. Cosmic constants, environmental parameters, and physical laws would need to be tuned so precisely that the odds of them arranging by chance are, as one expert notes, more remote than selecting a single proton out of all the protons in the universe. The documentary dismantles the multiverse theory as an escape hatch for atheism, even citing physicists who admit that explanations that “explain everything explain nothing.”

Only after nearly half an hour of scientific groundwork does Universe Designed begin gently introducing explicitly Christian ideas—a brilliant move. By the time Scripture is mentioned, the viewer (believer or not) has already been ushered to the brink of acknowledging design.

The film’s second half shifts toward biological evidence, examining the gaps in macroevolutionary explanations, the abrupt appearance of life during the Cambrian explosion, and the growing scientific consensus that neo-Darwinism is fundamentally incomplete. The evidence of design isn’t shrinking; it’s multiplying.

From there, the documentary pivots into historical reliability. Through textual criticism, manuscript evidence, and expert commentary—including a homicide detective applying investigative techniques to the Gospels—the film presents a robust case for the trustworthiness of the New Testament. With over 5,600 manuscripts and fragments dated within decades of the original writings, the Bible stands in a league of its own compared to ancient literature. Variations exist, but none touch core doctrine—an important distinction often misunderstood by skeptics.

Then comes the heart of the film: the Resurrection. Universe Designed dismantles every major alternative theory—hallucination, conspiracy, mistaken identity, swoon theory—and shows why virtually no credible scholar today denies that Jesus died by Roman crucifixion and that His followers sincerely believed He rose from the dead. The powerful line shared in the documentary captures this turning point perfectly:

“The New Testament writers did not create the Resurrection. The Resurrection created the New Testament writers.”

As the film enters its final act, all the scientific, historical, and philosophical threads converge into the person of Jesus. If Genesis 1:1 is true—if God created something from nothing—then every other miracle becomes possible. Jesus becomes the lens that brings the universe into clarity, the Designer who not only set the cosmos in motion but stepped into it.

By the time the closing invitation arrives—accompanied by a gorgeous rendition of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”—the weight of the evidence is not merely intellectual. It’s deeply spiritual. For me personally, the film moved me to tears. It’s more than a documentary; it’s an altar call dressed in scientific wonder.

Universe Designed is, without question, a must-watch. For skeptics, seekers, and believers alike, this film offers the rare blend of reason and revelation. It doesn’t just give you something to think about—it gives you a reason to believe.

Releases: December 13, 2025 (Streaming)

Running Time: 86 Minutes (Turtle Moon Films)

Not-Rated / Documentary

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