Issue 5 - The Cosmological Argument
Apologetics
The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God
One of the most basic and powerful weapons in the apologist’s toolkit is the cosmological argument for God’s existence. The basic argument goes like this:
Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence.
The universe began to exist
Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.
Ok, you might say, this tells us the universe had a beginning. But what does this prove about God? Well, as apologist Frank Turek and others have noted, we can infer that the first cause must be:
Self existent, timeless, non-spatial, immaterial.
Unimaginably powerful to create the universe out of nothing.
Personal, to choose to create (impersonal force can’t make choices).
Supremely intelligent to design the universe with incredible precision.
Since the second assertion (the universe began to exist) is what holds this argument together, let’s look at the evidence the universe had a beginning. Philosophers and scientists used to believe the universe had always existed - but the scientific consensus is now that the universe had a beginning. Apologist Frank Turek expresses the evidence with the acronym SURGE:
Second Law of Thermodynamics – 1st law says total energy in the universe is constant. 2nd law says the universe is running out of usable energy. If the universe is infinitely old (no beginning) then all energy would be used up by now.
Universe is expanding – Redshift (increase in wavelength of light from objects in space moving away from earth) is clear evidence of expansion. Reversing expansion logically leads to a singularity (no universe).
Radiation from big bang – Cosmic background radiation matches predictions of a Big Bang Model and has all but ruled out the steady state hypothesis (that is, ruled out the idea of a constant, eternal universe)
Great galaxy seeds – Slight variations in temperature of background radiation predicted by Big Bang and confirmed by observation.
Einstein’s theory of general relativity – Time, space, and matter can’t exist without each other, and all had an absolute beginning. Predictions of this theory have been confirmed.
There are other lines of evidence that the universe had a beginning (for example, in an infinite universe all radioactive elements should have decayed to lead by now) but there are also philosophical arguments against an eternal universe. To me, the most compelling is that if the universe is eternal, then there were an infinite number of days before today. But if there were infinite days before today, then today could never arrive (that is, it’s impossible to count up to, or beyond, infinity). Put another way, anything eternal must exist outside of time, or else it leads to all sorts of logical contradictions.
But doesn’t God need a cause? No. The law of causality only applies to things with beginnings. If God had no beginning, He doesn’t need a cause.
So to combine the components above into a single argument:
Everything that begins to exist needs a cause.
There is strong evidence that the universe began to exist (e.g., SURGE), therefore the evidence suggests the universe has a cause.
If the universe has a cause, that cause must be eternal (because it existed before time), immaterial (because it existed before matter), and self-existent (only something that, by it’s nature must exist, could exist without cause forever).
That cause must be immensely powerful and intelligent to create something as big and complex as the universe, and that cause must have agency, because a change from an initial state (no universe to universe) would require deliberate action.
The attributes of the cause of the universe describe what we would conceive of as “God.”
In my mind, the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection (some of which we explored before Easter) is overwhelming, and the primary reason not to believe it is a commitment to a worldview that rules out miracles. Once you’ve established the existence of a supernatural (beyond nature) creator, miracles become plausible, and resurrection will become the best explanation for the set of facts surrounding Jesus' death and the empty tomb.
Cultural Understanding
This essay describes modern Western culture in dystopian terms. In the US, deaths exceed births in 25 states. The marriage rate is at an all-time low and Millennials are the first generation where a majority are unmarried. And desire for children is cratering.
This is a fairly brief essay and I think it’s worth your time. I keep coming back to the final exchange, which I find chilling and tragic in its context. I offer this not to discourage, but to note how ripe the fields are for harvest. People are hungry for the meaning that Christianity provides.