1. Something is eternal and has no beginning.
Something has always existed since it's impossible for anything to come into existence from absolutely nothing.
2. Whatever is eternal is the cause for the existence of whatever is
not eternal, or new, and has a beginning.
3. An eternal and purely physical universe would be “mechanical”
and "nonbeing" in nature and could not be changed into anything that had not already existed in eternity past. Something “new” would require a cause that was also new
and had never existed before, but a cause cannot originate itself out of
nothing. The evolution of a physical universe requires a beginning point that it cannot
give itself. The infinite regress of an evolving and expanding universe
is an absolute impossibility.
4. Whatever is eternal must be “non physical” and “non mechanical”
in nature. It must have a potential to cause something else to come into existence and the intrinsic power of “being” to freely actualize that potential without something else causing it to do so, and that would be God. Infinite regress does not affect
choices that are “free” and not the result of a process of causes and effects. God
does what he wants, when he wants, if he wants.
5. Eternal Being would be intrinsically dynamic and not static,
complex and not simple, plural and not singular in nature. This is the rationality
of the Biblical Trinity.
The Impossibility of a Natural or
Supernatural Singularity
Biblical theism and philosophical atheism offer dramatically different versions of human origin and destiny.
Many today will say that we can’t seriously consider the existence of God and a six day creation story as anything more than an ancient myth. The Big Bang theory and relativity, String theory and quantum mechanics, and now Bounce theory and quantum gravity are offered by modern physicists as possible explanations as to how we got here.
However, there are some serious problems with merely “physical” explanations for the existence of the universe. The Big Bang requires an irrational belief that this universe, time, and space had a beginning out of something that was also physical but didn’t have a beginning nor occupy time and space. Also, if there is no God, there is no after life and the human soul or spirit does not exist.
The Big Bang theory also leaves two important questions unanswered. As one critic asks, “What made the Big Bang go bang?” Another wonders, “If the Big Bang created all matter and energy and time and space from a tiny speck, where did the speck come from? How did it burst into being?”
One modern physicist says,“according to quantum mechanics”, tiny particles of matter are popping in and out of existence “from nothing”, and “if a particle can pop into existence from nothing then why not a whole universe?” So, we can imagine an eternity of universes popping in and out of existence.1
In super string theory we are asked to believe that our universe is the result of a “collision” with another universe that is right “next” to us but “invisible”. The Big Bang being only the latest in an eternity of such “cosmic collisions”.2
In Bounce theory we are asked to believe that the universe is made up of tiny atoms of matter and atoms of “spacetime” that have a finite value. In this theory we can imagine a universe that is eternally expanding to its greatest potential, then shrinking and collapsing back into its densest form until it explodes and expands again.3
Cosmologists and physicists, today, have justifiably discarded the notion of an eternal physical “singularity”
exploding at the “big bang” with the beginning of time and space. But any theory of an “infinite series” of physical
events also defies reason. Their theories require not only lots of imagination, they also require “faith” as well.
Faith is believing something is true even though we cannot observe or experience it. Faith is not the opposite of rationality, faith can be rational or irrational. Believing the physical universe is eternally expanding and evolving is science fiction, that a lifeless and thoughtless universe created us, contrary to it’s nature, is an “irrational faith”. There are philosophers, theologians, and gurus who have misconceived God as a “singularity” who is immovable and changeless, existing in a timeless and spaceless eternity. To believe such a deity created the world, or can manifest itself into the world of movement, change, and spacetime, contrary to it’s nature, is another
“irrational faith”.
God experiences movement, change, and time in the creation of the world and in the incarnation of Christ. God is personal because he is not alone. The “plurality” of God is stated in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness.” But how does this make sense if Deuteronomy 6:4 says “The Lord your God is ‘one’ Lord.”? Jesus answers this in John 17:22-23, “The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be ‘one’ even as we are ‘one...that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” The meaning of the word “one” in Deuteronomy 6 is the same as in John 17, it means “united”, not “singular”. The word for God used in Deuteronomy is "eloheem", the plural form for God. This verse should be understood to mean that the Lord our Gods; Father, Son, and Spirit are united in love and in nature. They are “Lord”, in the singular use of the word, because there are no other Gods.
Dynamic Free Theism is the only “rational faith”. Because life, love, and thought exist in God we can
meaningfully and eternally connect with an ultimate spacetime reality who’s nature is not contrary to our own. If
there is no personal God then we are living painfully in opposition to an impersonal and cruel universe until we
return to the dust of death.
1. A Mediocre Universe, Discover Magazine, February 1996
2. Before the Big Bang, Discover Magazine, February 2004
3. The Big Bounce, Scientific American, October 2008
