As Easy as One, Two, Three

This is not an explicit apologetic for Christianity per se, but rather a brief reasoning for the cause of existence that fits within the framework of Christianity. I have listed three premises below which, at first glance, may appear overly-simplistic to the point of being a bit ridiculous, but this is indeed the intent, for the purpose of this piece is practicality. It is only an appeal to simple logic, not an exhaustive showing of evidence, nor an in-depth analysis of philosophical thought. It is something I hope could be easily brought up over a cup of coffee or a pint at the pub. My objective is only to try and show that the idea of a universe caused by some type of outside agent is a logically sound and reasonable view to hold. The three premises are as follows:

1. The universe exists.
2. If the universe exists it is reasonable to think that it had a beginning.
3. If the universe had a beginning it is reasonable to think that it had a cause.

Premise 1 should find little dispute. The only criticism I could think of to the existence of the universe would be perhaps some form eastern philosophy which might claim that the visible world is illusionary. Now, I must admit that I have not done much homework on this type of worldview, so I cannot speak confidently on whether I have stated this view correctly. I will say this though: if one did believe that everything was some sort of illusion, then it would be impossible to know if anything was true or false--so just claiming this type of worldview as truth would seem to be self-refuting.

Premise 2 is much more debatable. The eternality of the universe was a view widely held by atheists until the 20th century, when cosmological evidence was found that strongly conflicted with that idea. A scientific revolution occurred in 1929 when astronomers discovered that the universe was expanding. Before this many thought of it as being stationary (which was helpful to the argument of its eternality). The implication of this find was enormous, for when astronomers traced the expansion backwards through time they found that somewhere in the finite past all matter and energy in the universe converged at a single point, and hypothetically this appears to be when the universe began. Most of us know this as "The Big Bang Theory". This theory is the most widely accepted among the scientific community, regardless of worldviews or beliefs and overwhelmingly suggests that the universe had a beginning. Other theories have been proposed and other models have been attempted that might favor an eternal universe, but none of these are as plausible, or have nearly as much evidence, as the Big Bang model, and find much less acceptance within the scientific community. (It should be noted that there is much more to be said about this theory as well as other unrelated arguments for the beginning of the universe, but for the sake of brevity I will not go into them here).

Premise 3 should follow easily from 2 but it brings with it the potential for the most controversy, because it is here where naturalistic explanations hit a wall.If the evidence for premise 2 indicates that the universe did have a beginning then we must take the next logical step; and logic would assume that whatever begins to exist has a cause. The simplest argument for this is that something can not come from nothing. Science, for the most part, would agree with this statement and so we are left with a question mark at this point. And since there is no definite physical answer for this question mark it should not be unreasonable to look at metaphysical possibilities or other options that might have a more explanatory scope.

With this in mind, let us look at some attributes we could reasonably assume that the cause of the universe might possess:

If the universe had a cause it is reasonable to think that the cause, or agent, exists outside of, and therefore transcends, the entire known universe which includes space, time, matter, and energy.

• If the agent is the cause of space, and is therefore not limited by spatial boundaries, it is reasonable to think that it is capable of omnipresence.
• If the agent is the cause of time, and is therefore not limited by it, is reasonable to think that it could be timeless or eternal.
• If the agent is the cause of matter, and is therefore not limited by material form, it is reasonable to think that it could be, to our perception, invisible.
• If the agent is the cause of energy, and is therefore not limited by it, it is reasonable to think that it could be omnipotent.

By following this line of reasoning we end up with a transcendent, omnipresent, eternal, invisible, omnipotent agent that caused the universe into existence.

Now, I do not want to jump too far ahead too quickly. The traits listed here do not, by themselves, necessarily describe a personal agent of deity let alone the Judeo-Christian God; they could just as well be a description of an impersonal force. To move from the impersonal to the personal requires further discussion on topics like the fine tuning of the universe, the existence of organic life, our human nature and morality, etc,; and all of this would take far too long for this post. As I stated above; my goal here was only to show that the idea of the universe being cause by an outside agent is reasonable and logically sound. But for the sake of putting this information into a Christian context; let's see how the attributes listed above are also ascribed to God in Scripture:

Transcendence
But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens; even the highest heaven, cannot contain you... (1 Kings 8:27)

Omnipresence
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths you are there. (Psalm 139:7-8)

Eternality
Before the mountains were born or before you brought forth the earth and the world, fro everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:2)

Invisible Nature
He is the image of the invisible God... (Colossians 1:15)

Omnipotence
O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. (2 Chronicles 20:6)

In summary, we see that: (1) the universe exists and that an argument against its existence seems illogical and self-refuting, (2) Big Bang cosmology has given very strong evidence in favor of the universe having a beginning. (3) Logic would dictate that if the universe had a beginning than it also had a cause: Out of nothing, nothing comes. (4) Since naturalistic explanations cannot account for the cause of the universe than it is reasonable to look outside of the naturalistic realm for explanations.

In future posts we'll try to work on showing how the information presented here is best described by a personal creator, and how that personal creator is best described by Judeo-Christian belief (and if we have any energy left after that we'll work on showing how that Judeo-Christian belief is best revealed and fulfilled by Jesus Christ :).

-Brian Rizzardi-