Is there a God?

IS THERE A GOD?:
The cosmological argument

"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe."

- Carl Sagan

"A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature."

- Sir Fred Hoyle

2.1 Why are things as they are?

Do you ever ponder the meaning or purpose of your own existence? The undeniable fact that we exist compels us to ask "Why?"

Indeed, why does anything exist at all?

To discover why we exist individually, a good starting point is to look at the universe itself, of which we are but a miniscule part. The universe was here a long time before we were born, so the quest to understand why or how it came into existence must begin at the beginning; the origin of the universe.

There are essentially only two possibilities for the existence of the universe. Either...

the universe has always existed (is of infinite age), or

the universe had a beginning (is of finite age).

2.2 Did the universe have a beginning?

In 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble made an observation leading to the discovery that the universe is expanding outward, inflating in one sense, in all directions from a single central point. The first moment of that expansion is what is popularly known as the big bang. Subsequent scientific contributions, including Albert Einstein's discovery of the special relationship between space, time, and matter, led the 1969 Congress of Astronomers to officially declare that the universe definitely had a beginning.

Contemporary studies by leading astrophysicists like Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose continue to validate and enforce that scientific belief. Thus modern scientific observation of the universe has, at least for now, settled the debate over whether or not it had a beginning. By all observations, the universe did indeed have a beginning.

2.3 Everything that begins to exist must have a cause.

Everyone is at least somewhat familiar with the law of causality. The law of causality basically says that for every effect there must be a cause. In baseball, for example, home runs don't just happen, they're caused by a preceding swing of a bat. The cause precedes the effect. This is the case with all things known to have had a beginning, even quantum particles. Quantum laws could not have preceded or originated a universe of which the laws themselves are merely a resulting property or description.

Without exception, every single living organism on the earth today came into existence as a result of first being produced or reproduced. Therefore, as it is agreed among most astronomers that the universe began to exist, logic dictates there must have been a cause which preceded the universe; something existing prior to the universe to cause the universe.

2.4 What caused the universe?

The universe, by definition, is space, time, and matter. Anything consisting of or limited by space, time, and matter is itself merely a component part of that natural universe. So whatever caused the universe could not have consisted of those characteristics which it subsequently produced. Therefore we reason the causal force has to be:

independent of space (limitless),

independent of time (eternal), and

independent of matter (immaterial).

These characteristics further suggest that:

If the cause is limitless, it exists everywhere.

If the cause is eternal, it: (a) never began to exist; (b) can never cease to exist; and (c) is itself uncaused and self-existent.

If the cause is immaterial, it is: (a) not natural, i.e. is supernatural; and (b) not constrained by any physical law of the caused universe, known or unknown.

Given all these characteristics, the somewhat ambiguous term "god" is a suitable label to describe the cause of the universe which we've deduced to be limitless, omnipresent, eternal, immaterial, supernatural, and omnipotent relative to the known universe.

But this alone does not quite yet describe the personal, volitional God of the ancient scriptures.

2.5 The God of the Bible is the cause of the universe.

Since every material effect, including the beginning of the universe, requires a cause, we reason that there must be an eternally existent uncaused cause from which every material effect originates. That cause we referred to as "god" in the above paragraph.

But what initiated that cause? In other words, what could have stimulated "God" to cause the universe?

It is at this point that a personal, volitional God, such as the God of the Bible, becomes the ideal solution to the question of what caused the universe. The only thing that could have prompted an uncaused cause to act before the universe existed is . . . itself. In other words, the only influence known to "God" before the universe existed would have been "God".

Now the only things we know that cause themselves to act, to truly initiate a course of action, are those things with a will and volition, which implies a mind. And if something has a mind, then it is considered a living, personal being. Thus simple reasoning converges upon a preexistent mind; a limitless, eternal, immaterial, self-existent, living, personal being that willfully initiated the universe. This is God. This is the God of Scripture.

The description of God as arrived at by all the reasoning above matches the description of God as given by Moses, Abraham, David, the Old Testament prophets, and the New Testament writers. Is this creator-God of the universe the same God spoken of in the Bible? I believe all available evidence confirms this to be true. Of course, as is the point of this site, read on and judge for yourself.

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NEXT: God, evidence, and atheists

See also:

Where did the universe come from?

How do science and the Bible compare?

IS THERE A GOD?: The cosmological argument

IS THERE A GOD?:
The cosmological argument