Cosmological Argument for God

Where Did it All Come From?

The Cosmological Argument

Okay, class. Today let's look at the cosmological argument for God's existence.

Simply put, this argument says that things today are caused by things yesterday, which were caused by things before that, which were caused by things still earlier, and so on.

But... Uh, Janice, did you bring enough candy for the entire class? Yes, that's right. I would appreciate it if you would save it for later. Where was I? Oh yes! To get the whole universe rolling eons ago, there needs to have been an Initial Cause. There needs to have been something, or someone, who started it all - and that something or someone would be what, or whom? Class? Anyone?

Nobody? I'm talking about God, class! God!

So that's the theory, but is it true? Couldn't the universe have just existed from eternity past? Couldn't it be infinitely old?

Class? Anybody?

Well, the easy answer is "no." Assuming the Big Bang theory is true, the universe had a specific starting point. But setting aside the Big Bang, there is still a problem with the notion of the universe being infinitely old. Let me state it confusingly:

If the universe existed from eternity past, how did it get here?

Or, to put it another way, suppose you put the universe in reverse and everybody started walking backwards and talking funny. Today turned into yesterday and yesterday into the day before and so forth. If you did that, when would you come to eternity past?

A long time, huh?

Okay. Let's put the universe on fast rewind. Are we there yet?

How about if we move at light speed rewind?

It doesn't really matter, does it? No matter how fast or how long you rewind, you'll never get the universe back to eternity past. There's always an eternity before you.

And if the universe can never go backwards from today to get to eternity past, then how can it go forwards from eternity past to get to today? It's the same amount of time from here to there as from there to here.

Okay. Well, I guess that about wraps it up for today, so for tomorrow let's read chapter ...

Mr. Wainwright?

Hmmm? Oh! Did you have a thought, Roger?

Yes. What if you could rewind the universe infinitely fast? If you did that you could get back to eternity past, couldn't you?

Ah! Interesting thought. I'm not sure you could get to eternity past even at infinite speed. Think about it. Suppose you could get back to eternity past. What would you find? The beginning? If you find the beginning, then the universe has a specific starting point, which means you are agreeing with the cosmological argument. If you can't get back to eternity past even at infinite speed, then that's further evidence that the universe couldn't get from eternity past to today.

But since we are here today, that means... Ah, but I'm stating the obvious.

Now, as I was saying about chapter six...

Some Arguments for God

Arguments

Where Did it All Come From?