The Design of the Cosmos Part 1: The Kalam Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God

What caused the universe? Or, do you believe that the universe just is, and has always existed? Which question fits your worldview? If the atheist is to be consistent, then he/she should believe that the universe is all there is and all that ever was; in other words, an honest atheist should believe in the eternality of matter and energy, time and space.

But is such a belief credible? The answer is a resounding no. Modern science has come to the conclusion that the universe began to exist a finite time ago (about 13.7 billion years ago) and that it was not created out of any existing materials; rather, it was created, "out of nothing", in an event known from science as the Big Bang. This happens to match perfectly the record of scripture as stated so many times in the bible - here are a few verses for you:

Genesis 1

The Beginning

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Hebrew translation for "heavens and earth", "shamayim" and "erets" is referring to the universe. whenever shamayim is used with the erets(earth), as in 1:1, the combination refers to the entire physical universe.

Here's another verse - Hebrews 11:3

Hebrews 11:3 (New International Version)

³By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

The fact that the Bible teaches that the universe was created out of nothing or creation ex nihilo, can be explained in greater detail in a work by Ken Samples, "Creation Ex Nihilo."

Such a belief that the universe has always existed surely cannot be credible for both philosophical and scientific reasons. I'm going to spend much of this week's and next week's topic on the philosophical reasons why the universe cannot be eternal, including an article written especially for this blog from a special friend of mine, Dr. William Lane Craig. Later on, I will write for you the scientific reasons why the universe must have begun to exist about 13.7 billion years ago.

Before I can show you evidence for design of the universe, I'd like to show you from philosophy that God exists and that He created the universe. For if He exists, then it would make sense that He is the sufficient causal agent of the Universe. Furthermore, if He exists and is the causal agent of the universe, then He must be non physical (immaterial or spiritual), He must transcend this universe that He created (ruling out the pantheistic world religions as true), and that He must be a personal being. We would then expect to find fine tuned design in the universe; the product of an intelligent mind.

Here's an excellent argument from the field of Philosophy: The Kalam Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God. It was developed by the Medieval Islamic Persian scholar Al-Ghazali. It goes something like this:

Premise 1: What ever begins to exist must have a cause.

Premise 2: The universe began to exist.

Premise 3: Therefore the universe has a cause.

Let's unpack each of the premises briefly.

Premise 1: What ever begins to exist must have a cause. I believe this is self explanatory and rather uncontroversial. In order to refute it, one must believe that it is normal for things to pop into existence uncaused. But surely this is implausible, simply from the vantage point of individual experience. For instance, we don't experience things "appearing" into existence out of nothing; As Dr. William Lane Craig likes to often state: "No one fears that suddenly, at this moment, though you might be away from home, a horse might appear suddenly from nowhere in your living room of your house and will soon begin defiling the carpet!" No, rather, out of nothing, nothing comes. Therefore, whatever begins to exist that didn't exist before, must have a cause for its coming into existence.

Premise 2: The universe began to exist. Here's where the real agitation may arise, although it can clearly be shown from philosophy and from science that Premise 2 is true. I will tackle the scientific evidence in a future blog, so for today, let's take a look at Premise 2 philosophically. If the universe did not begin to exist, then Premise 2 would be false, and the entire Kalam argument would go down in flames. But if that were to be true, that the universe has always existed, then that would mean that the universe is infinite - that is to say, that there would have been an actual infinite number of past events. But any mathematician will tell you that, from set theory, there is no such thing as an actual infinite number of things, but rather, only potential infinites exist. In other words, the infinite can only be described in terms of the potential (ex. adding one more thing) and not the actual, because infinity continues on forever, otherwise, it would not be infinite, but finite. But if it were true that the universe never began to exist, then that would mean that there have been an actual infinite number of past events, such that we would have had to traverse this actually infinite number of past events to get to this current event. But surely this is absurd, because we should have already reached this current event by now if we had indeed traversed an infinite number of past events. Indeed, if you go back billions of years, we still should have already reached this and any event in the past, which is also absurd. Even if you go back an infinite number of events, you'd have already reached the current event, which is also absurd. Therefore, the universe had to begin at some point in time in the past.

Science agrees with what is called, "the Big Bang Theory" which I will develop for you later. Not only must the universe have begun to exist a finite time ago, but time itself must have begun to exist at the big bang, at the beginning of the universe. Science also agrees with this, thanks to Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity (which at first Einstein himself didn't agree with, so he added a "cosmological constant" to his theory to avoid the unavoidable conclusion that the universe had a beginning, since this would mean that the universe required a designer and a Creator, a concept he didn't like very much.)

Premise 3 follows logically and inescapably: "Therefore, the universe must have a cause." If the first 2 premises are true, it is inescapable that the universe had a cause for its coming into existence. Furthermore, this cause must be immaterial, or non physical, for if the cause were physical and came before the beginning, then it would not make any sense to speak of the beginning of the universe - the cause would be prior yet physical, which is absurd. In addition, the cause must be personal, because for the cause to be non personal and inanimate, such as abstract numbers like the number 7 for example, would be to say that non personal inanimate entities such as logic or numbers can be involved in causal relations, which is also absurd. No, only an infinite, uncaused, personal being with a will or mind can create or cause the universe to exist. Many atheists follow this argument with an argument of their own at this juncture, which goes something like this: "Then what or who caused God to exist." But look carefully at the first premise once more. It does not state that everything has a cause, but rather, only that anything that begins to exist has a cause, and since God is eternal and uncaused (and therefore never began to exist), God does not fit into this category. Therefore, the universe must have a cause, and this cause is the God of the Bible.

Here is an excellent video from Dr. Craig's website, www.reasonablefaith.org, on this very topic at a recent event at Saddleback Church, in California.

I hope you enjoy this series. Tune in next time as Dr. William Lane Craig graciously guest hosts on my blog! He will give more philosophical arguments for the fine tuning of the universe - after this, we will get into the scientific support for the design of the cosmos by Jesus Christ, Creator of the universe - as it so states throughout scripture:

The Supremacy of Christ

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

May God bless you richly - and please get out and enjoy this incredible weather!

Cheers

Tom