Apologetics 4 - God Exists

The Cosmological Argument

The first question we will ask is if the universe has a beginning or not. A sequence, or series, of events is a collection of things happening over time. If there were no beginning, then the past would be truly infinite. However, if the past were infinite, then coming to the present moment would require crossing an actual infinite number of events. It would be like counting to zero from negative infinity or jumping out of a bottomless pit. Scientifically, the second law of thermodynamics tells us that the universe is running out of useful energy. Therefore, if the past were infinite, the universe would have run out of energy and died an infinite time ago.

Since the universe has a beginning, the next question is if the beginning had a cause or not. Whatever begins to exist must have a cause for that beginning, because out of nothing, nothing comes. Events always have a cause and a beginning is an event. Also, something physical cannot cause its own existence, so it must have an external cause.

Things exist that do not have to exist, so they are not necessary, but merely possible. All things which exist cannot be merely possible. Things that are possible, but not necessary, at one time did not exist. If all things were only possible, then at one time, nothing existed. If at one time nothing existed, then nothing would exist now. Something exists now, so something that exists must be necessary. However, since all physical things must have a cause, a physical thing could not be the first cause. Physical things are cannot be the reason for their own existence. Therefore, there is a first cause that necessarily exists, that is non-physical.

The conclusion that the universe has a cause outside of itself, leads to the questions of if the cause was personal (a god gods, a life force, etc...), or an impersonal event. Many claim at this point that the "big bang" was the cause. However, events all have causes, so what caused the "big bang?" If something caused the "big bang" then it is not the first cause.  Scientists at this point often say the universe expands and then contracts into a singularity and the "bangs" again.  However, this just pushes the question back further and further.  If there were not an infinite series of "big bangs", then there still had to be a first cause at one point.  If there were an infinite series of "big bangs" then really the universe has no beginning, which we have already refuted.

At this point, an objection sometimes occurs, which is, if everything has a cause, then what caused God? However, we are only arguing that things that begin to exist have a cause. God, by definition, exists without a beginning, so he is uncaused, making him the first cause.else. This means that he must be independently self-sustaining. It also means that God is not physical, but immaterial, and in some ways, if not all ways, must be outside of the universe and separate from of.