Many people have said, and are saying, that to believe in something like an all-powerful “God” is simply absurd. “The God of the Christian Faith is no more a reality than the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus,” I learned one atheist had said, for he saw no rationality in the concept, and had been given no reason to believe there was anything like a rational basis. Being a devout Christian, I felt very rankled at hearing his statement, but if I was to confront that atheist myself, you might ask, then what would I say?
Before I make my reply, I want to clarify that as a seeker of truth, my goal isn’t simply to win arguments or fight the fight, but to find out the real answers to the matters I am confronted with, and communicate them. Also, I want to make clear that when I talk about God I’m not talking about some icon or mascot of a religion: I am talking about a being that could in fact be there, present in reality, and this is the object of my defense.
Well, in return to the atheistic arguments, I am going to ask this one big, mind-boggling question that has confused many non-Christian intellectuals over the centuries, and it’s this: How did this universe we live in come into being?
“What!?!” you might exclaim. “Why should I be thinking about this? I’m not a philosopher! Leave this stuff to the geeks in the ivory towers! I don’t have time to waste on such brain-pressing subjects, I need to get on with my life.”
I have couple things to say about that. Firstly, if you think about it, everyone is a philosopher, because everyone asks the big question “why;” it would be strange if there was a person who never did once in their entire life. Secondly, if you want to understand your life, and live it more the way you would like to, you first have to understand the world you live in. And the first step into understanding anything correctly, is to find out where it came from: to go to its root. That’s why I pose this question.
The most popular theory outside of the Christian explanation of where the universe came from is the Big Bang, in the theory of Evolution. As this theory explains, in the beginning there was absolutely nothing until there came a tremendous explosion, and as a product of that the universe just came into existence.
But when we say everything started with nothing, it means nothing: zero, nil, zilch, not even space or time, less nothing, or what we normally think of it as. So how can you support the Big Bang theory? You’d have to believe, beyond all rational reasoning, that something came from nothing.
Personally, I find it easier to believe that something came from something, than that something came from nothing. This is my first point.
Point 1: The universe, and everything in it, had to have come from something.
“But wait,” you might argue. “If the universe came from something, then where did that something come from? Another something. And that something had to come from another something, which had to come from another something, which came from another something, etc..” I see your point: it could go on endlessly.
But what if that something which the universe came from was an eternal something? That would solve the problem, because being self-sufficient it would need nothing to back it up.
Point 2: The universe had to have come from something eternal. (Take a break before moving on if your mind needs a rest.)
Now, have you ever seen the Star Wars series? Most of you probably have. If you remember, the universe of story introduced an eternal essence known as The Force as the basis for all that exists, in the fashion of eastern Pantheistic beliefs. The Force is portrayed as an impersonal entity that governs everything, and special individuals known as Jedi are called to employ its power (for good or for evil). Is The Force our answer? It’s certainly something, and it’s eternal, so why not?
Well I don’t know if you noticed the same, but ever since I was a kid I thought Jedi were like the coolest warriors ever but there was one thing about them that always bugged me. They are always taught to let go of their emotions, to throw aside human nature and strive to become detached and emotionless, to become like their all-powerful Force governor, pressing toward the impersonal. But if you lose everything that makes you human, then where can you place those things? Is the ability to love, or to have fun, a flaw that needs to be gotten rid of? I think you and I can both agree this is absurd.
So if love, hate, happiness, anger, and all the like aren’t just defects in the natural order of things, then they had to have had a proper origin. I repeat, something cannot come from nothing. This impersonal Force cannot have begotten something personal. Thus this eternal something we are talking about cannot be The Force: it had to be something personal: it had to be a conscious being, a Person.
Point 3: The universe had to have come from something personal.
“That’s all very well,” you say. “But how can we know anything of the nature of this eternal, personal being?”
Someone, I forget exactly who (Francis Schaeffer mentions him a few times in his books; Baudelaire was the name referred to), once said, “If there is a God, He is the Devil.” But if the creator of all things existing was the Devil, then how is it anything good exists? (You could reverse that and ask if a good God would allow evil to exist, but keep listening.)
Deep down, everyone knows that there is such a thing as right and wrong, and that what is right is more admirable than what is wrong. But if this eternal, personal being was the Devil, then why do what is right anyway? If Good is the flaw, a losing cause, then why not just join the cause of Evil, the winning team, to become more like our creator? Yet if in a story the bad-guys win, we think of it as such a bummer! There is a reason why Right is right. And there is a reason why Wrong is not right. Wrong is the flaw, I think we can agree, and since the original had to be flawless, this eternal, personal being had to be GOOD.
And you don’t need to look inside only to see that. Look around you, past the evil and turmoil of the modern world, and at this planet we live on. There is not only good out there, but beauty as well. We, as humans, consider some things to be beautiful: an attractive woman, a splendid mountain/ocean panorama, or a tiny, delicate field flower. Evil cannot produce any love for such things.
And neither could chaos or chance, as Evolution suggests. If you’ve studied Science, you can see how amazingly everything in the world, from the workings of the human body to the simplest laws of nature and physics, work together with such incredible unity, in such a beautiful way, as to create this living, working system we know and admire as our world. Art cannot exist without first an artist (a painting can’t paint itself!), and only an artist of infinite mastery could have devised such an unimaginably complex and wonderful system as our universe.
Point 4: The universe had to have been created by something good, a lover of beauty and Right, an artist.
SO…still think it’s irrational for us Christians to believe in God? Maybe you should reread this post :-)
And now, putting these four points together, we therefore come to the conclusion: The universe had to have been created by an eternal, personal, artistic, loving, being. Sound a bit like the God of the Bible?
This is why we Christians can so strongly believe in an all-powerful, eternal, artistic, loving God, who is present, watching us, and teaching us through His amazing works. These issues are the ones I would pose to that atheist, or any other non-Christian, when they question our faith, and would ask them what their answer to the origin of the universe is.
I understand if I’ve overwhelmed you by now, but if you’re still reading at this point then I’m glad to know that at least someone is interested in the thoughts I am sharing. If you have more questions to add, please share them. (I can guess you might be asking if this god is really the same God as in the Bible, and if the Bible is really true. That’s a whole field of questions in itself, but I hope to confront that in a later post.) You can e-mail me at <bagheryan.stephen@gmail.com>.
Whew! I’ve spent all afternoon on this post. I think need to take a breather! Anyway, thanks for listening.
God bless you!
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