Evidence, Reason, Faith
Evidence
Let’s start here …
The existence of God - Kalam’s argument
There is a 1,000 year old argument, called Kalam’s argument, which has been given support by modern science. A scientific fact discovered in the last 100 years and not broadly discussed among peasants like us, is that the universe – you know, everything that we know of – used to not exist. It had a distinct beginning. Not only that, but before the “beginning” there used to be nothing. Nothing.
This argument states:
1) Whatever begins to exist has a cause for it’s coming into being.
2) The universe began to exist.
3) Therefore, the universe has a cause for it’s coming into being.
Now we know, scientifically, that the universe had a beginning. Einstein, Hubble and the 2nd law of thermodynamics (all of which we will discuss later) proves that the universe is finite - it had a beginning.
We also know (cause & effect) that whatever exists, had to have a cause.
Now, we look for the “First Cause”, which has to be greater and outside of the universe, and must be supernatural. (Since the universe couldn’t have started naturally on it’s own.)
As Biblical Christians, we consider this First Cause to be God - who has revealed Himself to be all knowing and eternal.
Reason
What do you think?
What do you think?
How does this argument strike you? Does it challenge any of your views at all? If we think about it, what possibilities are there about how it started? It can only be one of 3 things.
1) The universe has always existed – has always been here. But, we now know that it is not possible for it to be eternal. A modern theory is the multiverse that says that there are an infinite number of universes, and we just got lucky. It should be pointed out that there is not a shred of evidence for this fairy tale..
2) It created itself. Hardly worth a comment, but “from nothing, nothing comes”.
3) Someone, or something, created it.
I suppose the argument could be made that it doesn’t prove the existence of the Christian God. It could be argued that something from “out there” helped, but where did “they” get started? I am open to evidence showing any other source for the “First Cause”. I’ll wait.
We’ll will explore this more in later posts, but for now, what do really smart people and publications say?
Discover Magazine
“The universe burst into something from absolutely nothing – zero, nada, and as it got bigger, it became filled with even more stuff that came from absolutely nowhere”.
Stan Odenwald, PhD, author of the Astronomy Cafe.
“Astronomers have not the slightest evidence for the supposed quantum production of the universe out of the primordial nothingness”.
Faith
Something else to consider ...
Something else to consider...
Although Kalam’s argument is not a conclusive argument for the existence of God, it does present us with the necessity of answering the question, doesn’t it? There had to have been a cause for it’s beginning, since all things that begin to exist need a cause for their beginning.
As creationists, we believe “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made”. (Psalms 33:6) This is in conflict with naturalism, but we believe that God is a supernatural Being, capable of operating outside the laws of nature, and that creation was a supernatural miracle.
God has left His evidences in biology, cosmology, archaeology, history and prophesy. It is our hope that with cumulative evidence, you will open up your mind and heart to the possibility of faith and be open to examine the claims of scripture. All of us owe it to ourselves to carefully examine these issues for ourselves. The consequence of following bad advice from your auto mechanic is one thing, but if the claims of scripture are true, the consequences of not getting this right are eternal.
Hopefully, I’ll see you back next week.