Arguments for the existence of God Part One - The First Cause
Here are some arguments for the existence of God which I put together several months ago. I have this posted on my other blog as well. These are not arguments for the Christian God (nor the Hindu or Muslim). I am simply trying to establish that a god exists. I do plan to cover why it is the Christian God who alone exists at a later date. Anyway, this series will be four parts. Here is part one. Please let me know what you think.
The First Cause
History consists of a series of events that have happened over time one after the other. Each of these events has a cause and most are a result of the previous event, but all are certainly affected by the previous event. The world as it is came from the result of the world as it was which also came from the world as it was before. If we trace these events all the way back, what will we find? You will either find the first event, or the past stretches back into infinity. If it went back into infinity we run into many problems logically which we don’t have time to get into tonight. It seems common to all that there must have been a beginning at some point. Scientist call this the big bang, because the idea that it stretched back into infinity is ridiculous and illogical. But the questions still remains, who caused the big bang? Where did everything come from that banged? It couldn’t have just appeared out of nowhere. A common axiom of philosophy is “from nothing, comes nothing”. You cannot believe that everything just appeared. It is equally ridiculous to believe that this universe has just always existed. So, where did it come from. Who caused the bang, if there was one?
Ancient philosophers noted that there must be an “unmoved mover” or a god who cannot be changed, who is not affected by time, who set things in motion. God is not bound by time like we are. We had to have a beginning. Everything we experience in this universe had to have a beginning, but God doesn’t. He created it from nothing and started it all. The fact that God has always existed is impossible for us as finite humans to understand, but it is not illogical like the idea that the universe has always existed. God is our first cause.
Tomorrow will be another argument for the existence of God.
posted by Jim Shultz @ 9:54 AM
5 Comments:
Jim said,
"If it went back into infinity we run into many problems logically which we don’t have time to get into tonight."
OK, when are you going to have the time to define the many logical problems?
Hi, Jim. Question: Why is it logical to believe that God has always existed but illogical to believe that the universe has always existed?
I presume you'll eventually get here but . . .
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Excellent questions. Here are some thoughts that I had. I should say first and foremost that I am by no means a scientist. I have only a college intro level of science, but I will do my best to respond. When I said logical, I perhaps mis-spoke a little, although I certainly believe that it makes more sense to believe that God has always existed and that the would has not. We have no means by which we could set out to prove such a thing since we cannot recreate the events. However, this is why I think it is more rational to believe that God has always existed, but not the universe:
There is a law of entropy with which you may be familiar. I think that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is the same thing, but would need clarification from someone else on that. This law (notice this is not a theory) teaches essentially that all physical things go from a state of order to a state of disorder. The universe is decaying, and slowly falling apart. Now I would argue that this is a result of the fall and that things will be restored to what God intended in the Garden of Eden (when Christ returns), however, this is just an aside. Anyway, this entropy shows that things are not only falling apart, but seems to indicate that there must have been a starting point. That is why scientists offer a "Big Bang" theory to explain origins, because they presuppose a time when the earth was not (due to entropy). They offer this insted of trying to say that the earth has always existed pretty much as it is and the planets were aligned as they are for all time in infinity. That would be incompatible with the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. So, the Big Bang theory bes the question: what happened before the Big Bang? The theories I have heard have been less thant desireable and certainly have little to no evidence arguing in their favor. This is why I have argued that there must be a first unmoved mover. Things work in a cause and effect manner (although I am not issuing a hard determinism). This cause and effect relationship of things and the motion of the universe, sequences of events etc. cause ancient philosophers to believe that there must be an unmoved mover who started it all off. There are real problems with saying it has always been around. There is much more that can be said which I am not at all qualified to answer here, but I hope I at least explained why I believe that it is more logical to say God has always existed and the universe has not. If you have a reason to think otherwise, please present it. I love these discussions.
Hi Jim, This is Cindy from LaPorte: Regarding the Existence of God. I have never questioned the existence of God. I believe what the Bible teaches me about creation. It does not make sense to me to believe that matter suddenly appeared without "a mover" as you called it. You mentioned that God is not bound by time as we are and likewise He is not bound by space as we are either. So the laws which affect the universe like gravity, entropy etc. do not affect God. Therefore in my mind it is impossible to try to use the natural laws of our universe to prove God's existence. It is a matter of faith. However as noted above God has made it clear - all you have to do is look at the order and yet variety of the universe. I went to the zoo the past weekend where I saw baboons with purple and pink bottoms and white and red faces. Somebody had to put that together. It wouldn't have just happened. That's what I think anyway.
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