Origins

1. Origins “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ” (Romans 1:20) Why Something is Here

2. “Why do we have something rather than nothing at all?” Martin Heidegger “The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics”

3. “Some would claim the answer to these questions is that there is a God who chose to create the universe that way. It is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. In this view it is accepted that some entity exists that needs no creator, and that entity is called God. This is known as the first-cause argument for the existence of God. We claim, however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.” – Stephen Hawking The Grand Design

4. Four Possible Options Reality is an Illusion – It’s not there. Reality was Self-Created– It made itself. Reality is Self-Existent– It’s always been there. Reality is Created by Something that is Self-Existent– It was made by something that has always been there.

5. Reality an Illusion? Student: “Professor, I’m not sure I even exist!” Professor: “Who ,then, may I say is asking?” You must exist to deny your own existence; it is self-defeating to claim you don’t exist and are just an illusion. Illusions require something experiencing the illusion. In other words, reality is not an illusion.

6. Reality Self-Created via Chaos/chance? “Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing in the manner described in Chapter 6” – Stephen Hawking The Grand Design

7. First Problem: Uniformity & Naturalism Naturalists like Hawking affirm two contradictory presuppositions. Naturalism provides no answer as to how the very laws (like gravity) producing uniformity in nature also lend themselves over to the evolution of nature. If naturalists state that nature violates its own laws in order to account for something like macroevolution they are essentially allowing for interruptions in the normal and predictable operations of nature while simultaneously refusing to make allowances for miraculous works of God within the same realm.A naturalistic worldview provides no guarantee that the future will be like the past because without belief in a sovereign God who governs the universe and maintains its uniformity the world is left to chance. Yet chance occurrences do not provide any basis for uniformity in nature.

8. Second Problem: What is ‘Nothing’? particles matter …everything energy motion space

9. How to Think About ‘Nothing’

10. “Nothing is what rocks dream about.” – Aristotle

11. “Hawking's argument appears to me even more illogical when he says the existence of gravity means the creation of the universe was inevitable. But how did gravity exist in the first place? Who put it there? And what was the creative force behind its birth? Similarly, when Hawking argues, in support of his theory of spontaneous creation, that it was only necessary for 'the blue touch paper' to be lit to 'set the universe going', the question must be: where did this blue touch paper come from? And who lit it, if not God?” – Dr. John Lennox

12. Two Down, Two to Go… • Something exists • Nothing cannot create something • Therefore, a necessary and eternal being exists • Jonathan Edwards

13. “There are not many options – essentially just two. Either human intelligence ultimately owes its origin to mindless matter; or there is a Creator. It is strange that some people claim that it is their intelligence that leads them to prefer the first to the second.” – Dr. John Lennox

14. So Which Is it…? “However concrete physical reality is sectioned up, the result will be a state of affairs which owes its being to something other than itself.” – Dallas Willard

15. The Position Logically Stated • Everything in the universe is dependent (contingent) • If every part of the universe is dependent, then so is the whole • Therefore, the universe is dependent right now on some independent / Necessary Being for its present existence

16. Biblical Support for the Position "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Colossians 1:17 "And He ... upholds all things by the word of His power..." Hebrews 1:2-3

17. The Position Broken Down Further • Some limited, changing being(s) exist • The present existence of these beings is caused by another • There cannot be an infinite regress of causes of being • Therefore, there is a first Cause of the present existence of these beings • The first Cause must be infinite, necessary, eternal, simple, and unchangeable • This first uncaused Cause is identical with the God of the Bible

18. The First Cause is Infinite If all other beings that are caused are limited beings, then the first cause must be unlimited. The first cause determines what kind of beings exist, is uncaused, and since everything is limited, then you must go back to an unlimited or ‘infinite’ being that began everything.

19. The First Cause is Necessary If all other beings are contingent (dependent) beings, then the first cause must be independent. Put another way, all other beings are unnecessary – they could not exist. The first cause must exist so everything else can, so it is the only necessary being that exists.

20. The First Cause is Eternal Non-existence cannot give rise to existence, and the first cause gives rise to all other existence, so it must be eternal. No matter what a person thinks about God, they must necessarily go back to some eternal being/thing.

21. "An egg which came from no bird is no more 'natural' than a bird which had existed from all eternity." – C. S. Lewis

22. The First Cause is Simple All multiplicity implies a prior singularity. The first cause cannot be composed of anything/multiple parts, but instead must be pure and simple in its existence. It must be one.

23. The First Cause is Unchangeable Change indicates potential, but because the first cause is infinite, it has no potential or ability to go from worse to better or from better to worse. So the first cause is unchangeable.

24. Why Can’t The Universe Be the First Cause? Can the universe meet the previous set of criteria? No…

25. Why Can’t The Universe Be the First Cause? • The universe is not infinite, necessary, or eternal: all the scientific evidence points to the fact that it had a beginning, and what has a beginning has a cause and is not eternal. Something must have existed prior to it • The universe is not simple: it definitely has multiple parts to it • The universe is not unchangeable: change in the universe is quite evident

26. What Proof Do You Have? • Second Law of Thermodynamics – the universe is running down • Expanding Universe – confirmed through Hubble telescope • Radiation Echo – discovered in the 1930’s by Bell Lab scientists • Galaxy Seeds – discovered in the 1990’s by COBE explorer • Einstein’s theory of relativity – proves universe had a beginning

27. “A Creator must exist. The Big Bang ripples and subsequent scientific findings are clearly pointing to an ex nihilo creation consistent with the first few verses of the book of Genesis.” - Henry F Schaeffer III, Quantum Chemist

28. The Kalam Cosmological Argument • Everything that begins to exist must have a cause • The universe began to exist • Therefore, the universe had a cause

29. “Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements and the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same; the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.” - Dr. Robert Jastrow

30. Genesis and the Categories of Reality Evolutionist Herbert Spencer said all of reality was made up of five components: Time Force Action Space Matter Time Force Action Space Matter “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1

31. What About the ‘multi-verse’ Hypothesis? The multiple universe theory postulates the simultaneous existence of many, possibly infinitely many, parallel universes in which almost anything which is theoretically possible will ultimately be actualized. So, then, there is nothing surprising in the fact that we have the universe that we do.

32. What About the ‘multi-verse’ Hypothesis? Philosophical Response: A multi-verse still has the problem of an infinite regress. Such an issue is not limited to this universe; it applies to any reality. You still must get back to a first cause, and uncaused cause for everything, including a multi-verse. Scientific Response: Scientifically, no evidence for it, but also, good reasons that such a thing does not exist. No model has evidence showing any reality that extends into the infinite past. One of the best proofs of this is the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem

33. What About the ‘multi-verse’ Hypothesis? The 2003 theorem that was proposed by ArvindBorde, Alexander Vilenkin, and Alan Guth proved that any universe which has, on average, been expanding throughout its history cannot be infinite in the past but must have a past space-time boundary. What makes their proof so powerful is that it holds regardless of the physical description of the universe. The Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem is independent of any physical description of that moment. Their theorem implies that even if our universe is just a tiny part of a so-called “multiverse” composed of many universes, the multiverse must have an absolute beginning.

34. “It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. 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.” - Dr. Alexander Vilenkin, Physicist

35. What About the ‘multi-verse’ Hypothesis? • “Let us recognize these speculations for what they are. They are not physics, but in the strictest sense, metaphysics. There is no purely scientific reason to believe in an ensemble of universes.” • Dr. John Polkinghorne, scientist/quantum physicist • “To postulate a trillion-trillion other universes, rather than one God, in order to explain the orderliness of our universe, seems the height of irrationality.” • -Dr. Richard Swinburne, professor/philosopher • Finally, why couldn’t multi-verses be the work of a Creator?

36. What About Quantum Mechanics? Some assert that Quantum Mechanics is the answer. They say that things come into existence from nothing, and QM proves this. This is patently false. There are at least 10 different interpretations of the mathematically equations of QM. Some of them are fully deterministic. Only some have indeterminate causes (one in particular). And no one knows which is correct. Second, it is not true that QM events begin to exist from nothing. They result in fluctuations in the quantum vacuum, which is not nothing. When these particles form, they come from energy that is locked in the vacuum. It is a sea of fluctuating energy governed by physical laws having a physical structure. No evidence suggests that things come into being from nothing.  

37. Drowning the Fish Spontaneous or self-creation, multi-verses, quantum mechanics and other such propositions by non-believing scientists are an example of “drowning the fish”. You can use all the water in the oceans in an attempt to drown the animal, but in the end, it will still be there affirming its existence and presence.

38. Why do Stephen Hawking and Others Offer Such Obviously Dead-End Propositions?

39. “Many people do not like the idea that time has a beginning, probably because it smacks of divine intervention.” – Stephen Hawking

40. “It is rather ironical that in the sixteenth century some people resisted advances in science because they seemed to threaten belief in God; whereas in the twentieth century scientific ideas of a beginning have been resisted because they threatened to increase the plausibility of belief in God.” – Dr. John Lennox

41. “I believe in order to understand.” – Anselm

42. Scientists Used to Start with God Great scientists of the past started with God. They began with God because only a God of order could enable them to believe in an order of the universe, mathematics, etc. They knew you don’t get that type of order from random chance, chaos, or disorder. But today, some scientists reject God so they have no where else to go other than impossible options like self-creation, aliens bringing life to earth, etc.

43. “Men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver." – C. S. Lewis

44. "Theologians generally are delighted with the proof that the universe had a beginning, but astronomers are curiously upset. It turns out that the scientist behaves the way the rest of us do when our beliefs are in conflict with the evidence." - Dr. Robert Jastrow

45. “The tragedy of disbelieving in God is not that a person ends up believing in nothing, alas it is much worse: they may end up believing in anything.” – G. K Chesterton

46. “There are only two possibilities as to how life arose; one is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God, there is no third possibility.  Spontaneous generation that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others.  That leaves us with only one possible conclusion, that life arose as a creative act of God.  I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God, therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible”- Dr. George Wald Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University at Harvard Nobel Prize winner in Biology

47. So Why Is Something Here? “Out of nothing didst Thou create heaven and earth – a great thing and a small – because Thou are Almighty and Good, to make all things good, even the great heaven and the small earth. Thou wast, and there was nought else from which Thou didst create heaven and earth.” - Augustine, Confessions

48. “The best data we have [concerning the origin of the universe] are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole.” – Arno Penzias, Nobel Astrophysicist

49. So Why Is Something Here? “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)

50. Origins “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ” (Romans 1:20) Why Something is Here