Does God Exist? Part 1 - The Cosmological Argument
Seth Busby
June 24, 2020
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” Genesis 1:1
We, as Christians, base our whole lives on the presumption that God exists. But, are there good reasons to believe such a being exists? Can we logically defend our beliefs, or is believing in God the equivalent of believing in Santa Clause or the flying spaghetti monster? Fortunately for the Christian, there is good evidence that God does indeed exist. This is the first in a series of articles that will present various arguments for the existence of God.
The Kalam Cosmological Argument
The Kalam Cosmological Argument (sometimes simply referred to as “the cosmological argument”) is an argument for God based on the origin of the universe. The argument goes like this:
- Anything that begins to exist has a cause
- The universe began to exist
- Therefore, the universe has a cause
This is an airtight argument. This means that one has to show that one of the first two premises is false in order to disprove the argument. Let’s take a look at the first premise. Anything that begins to exist has a cause. This seems pretty straight forward, and it is. Our everyday experience confirms that nothing comes into existence without a cause. I am reminded of the truth of this premise each time that I open the door to my unfinished remodeling project. As much as I hope that crown molding, baseboards, and a nice, even coat of paint has suddenly appeared on the bathroom walls the next time I walk in, I know that things just don’t work that way.
So that leaves us to evaluate the second premise--did the universe begin to exist? This premise is up for debate. There are two options. Either the universe began to exist sometime in the finite past, or the universe is eternal. The idea that the universe is eternal seems crazy to us today, but before 20th-century scientific discoveries, it was held by several atheists. However, modern science provides overwhelming evidence that the universe did, in fact, have a beginning.
In order to defend a universe with a beginning, we can appeal to the body of scientific evidence. You have probably heard about the Big Bang before (not the show, the theory). Many times when Christians hear the words “Big Bang” they have an uneasy feeling because they think they are about to get a lecture on evolution and the age of the universe. We won’t tackle those subjects in this article. For our purposes here, we are only looking at the Big Bang as evidence of a universe with a beginning.
The Expansion of the Universe
Evidence for the Big Bang is actually very strong. The Big Bang Theory says that all time, space, and matter came into existence at a single point in the finite past. In the beginning, the universe exploded into being, expanding in all directions. Think of a balloon being inflated. The theory states that the universe has been expanding ever since the beginning and continues to expand even to this day. Now, that doesn’t just mean that matter is floating further out into space, it means that space itself is expanding! Kind of hard to imagine, right? Scientists figured if this were true, then they should be able to observe the universe expanding. This conjecture was confirmed by Edwin Hubble in his 1929 study (Hubble, 1929) when he observed foreign galaxies moving away from our solar system in all directions. We now know for certain that the universe is expanding. If we reverse that process and look into the past, then we can logically assume that the universe would retract into that singular point in the finite past. In 2003, a joint study by three prominent, secular scientists provided evidence that suggested that a universe that is like ours, cannot be eternal, but it must have a beginning due to physical limitations (Borde, Guth, Vilenkin, 2003). One of the scientists went as far as to say, “With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past eternal universe. There is no escape: they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning.” (Vilenkin, 2007).
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Hopefully you paid attention in physics class and already know what the Second Law of Thermodynamics says. If you’re like the other 99% of us, then a short explanation is in order. The Second Law of Thermodynamics basically states that the universe is slowly running out of usable energy. Eventually the sun will burn out. Not just our sun, but all stars and everything else in the universe. This is often referred to as heat death. This law provides good evidence that the universe is not eternal. How so? Think of it this way. Let’s imagine that you left your car lights on and went away for a week. You come back to your car a week later, and what will you see? A car without its lights on. Why? Because the car’s battery ran out of energy. You can think of the universe in the same way. If the universe’s “lights” were “turned on” an infinitely long time ago, would the sun still be shining? No, it wouldn’t. It’s not possible because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Therefore, we can reasonably assume that the universe’s “lights” were “turned on” in the finite past. Otherwise, the universe would already be at heat death and we would not exist.
So What?
Alright, so we know that anything that begins to exist has a cause and we have good evidence that the universe began to exist. We can then conclude that the universe has a cause. So what? Why does that cause have to be God? Well, from the Kalam Cosmological Argument and the properties of the universe, we can deduce many properties/characteristics of the cause of the universe.
The Cause is Spaceless, Timeless, and Immaterial
The cosmological argument, Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, and the Big Bang Model suggest that all space, time, and matter came into existence at the time of the Big Bang event. Therefore, whatever created space, matter, and time cannot be made of or subject to space, matter, and time. For example, if I make a birdhouse, then the birdhouse cannot be the explanation for its own existence. Some outside force had to create it. The same reasoning applies whether we are talking about birdhouses, snow globes, or the universe itself. Therefore, we can reason that the cause of the universe must be outside of space. The cause would be much like a person looking into a snow globe. He created the snow globe and is therefore not a part of the snow globe. Further, the cause must be eternal because it created time. Finally, it must be immaterial (or maybe “spiritual” would be a better word) because it created matter.
The Cause is Powerful
The cause of the universe must be a being of great power in order to create something out of nothing. We humans are very powerful beings. However, our creative capacities are nothing compared to that of the universe’s cause.
The Cause is Personal
Finally, the cause of the universe must be personal. As stated above, the cause must not be made of matter. There are only two types of things that meet the qualifications of being immaterial. One thing it could be is an abstract object like numbers, the laws of logic, justice, mercy, love, etc. These are things that we cannot see but know exist abstractly. For example, I show acts of love to my wife, but you cannot see love itself. Our court system hands down justice, but you cannot see justice. We count three trees, but you cannot see the number three. The other thing that can be immaterial is an unembodied mind. You are made up of a physical body and an abstract mind. We cannot see your thoughts. They are immaterial. This leads us to one of two conclusions--either an abstract object like a number created the universe or else it was caused by an unembodied mind. However, abstract objects like numbers have no causal power. The number thirteen is not going to cause anything regardless of what your superstitious relative tells you. Numbers cannot choose to create something. They cannot do anything. However, minds are causal agents. Your mind causes your hand to wave, your foot to kick, and your lips to move. The only things that have minds are persons.Therefore, we must conclude that the cause of the universe is in some sense a “person”.
Putting It All Together
Through the cosmological argument we have determined that the universe began to exist and that there is a cause of the universe. Further we’ve inferred that the cause of the universe must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, extremely powerful, and personal in order to decide to create. These characteristics are consistent with the Biblical descriptions of God. Through scripture we know that God is spaceless and immaterial (Col. 1:15, 1 Timothy 6:16), timeless (Ex 3:14, 1 Tim 1:17), powerful (Psalm 147:5, Luke 1:37), and personal in order to create (Gen. 1). This provides good evidence that the cause of the universe is the God of Christianity. Now, this argument alone does not provide definitive “proof” of God, but it does give us some convincing evidence. When coupled with other arguments for God, we can make a solid case for his existence. We will look at another one of these arguments in part two of the series.
References
Borde, A., Guth, A. H., & Vilenkin, A. (2003). Inflationary Spacetimes Are Incomplete in Past Directions. Physical Review Letters, 90(15). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.151301
Hubble E. (1929). A RELATION BETWEEN DISTANCE AND RADIAL VELOCITY AMONG EXTRA-GALACTIC NEBULAE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 15(3), 168–173. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.15.3.168
Vilenkin, A. (2007). Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes. New York: Hill and Wang, A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.