Warning: This is not for the average GetBigger. Only those that are really, really interested in this topic and is willing to endure more endless walls of text from me. I decided to address it because 10 Pints asked a very valid question and challenged me to answer it. I knew this would be an involved undertaking but since it comes up so often, and I feel that because I've agonize, and continue to agonize, over these issues, and have gone the full gamut of believer, Agnostic for twenty years, and now back to a believer, that I can address these questions and issues competently.
My purpose is not to convert anybody and that these are matters of faith, i.e. belief in something in which there is no conclusive proof. It is simply to demonstrate that you can believe in a Creator based on reason, science and rational arguments and dispute the notion that believers are people who can't think for themselves and are mindless sheep based on emotion and what they want and wish were so.
Again, I want to emphasize, it is to demonstrate that you can believe in a Creator based on reason, science and rational arguments. And what I present, to be precise, is not so much evidence but an argument for a Creator. An argument based of reason and science and not just emotion and wishful thinking.
Belief in a Creator of the universe and the belief that the universe came out of nothing, i.e, first there was nothing: no space, no time and then bang, a Big Bang; is both a matter of faith. Which side you choose doesn't necessarily have to do with intelligence. There are smart people and stupid on both sides. It is your perspective, your world view, that partly determines this.
I find it curious that a Theist does not consider an Atheist as stupid but simply wrong. Of course an Atheist will argue that their belief is based on reason, evidence and rational argument whereas a Theist's belief is based on blind faith, emotion and up bringing.
I can't, nor can anyone else, prove the existence of God, but I can present some rational arguments, some based on science, that the belief in God is not based on just blind faith and emotion.
Thomas Aquinas, whom nobody can credibly regard as unintelligent, made the not very startling observation that things move. But nothing moves for no reason. Something must cause that movement. But whatever cause that movement had to be caused by something else. But this causal chain cannot go backwards forever. It must have a beginning. An unmoved mover. Everything that begins must have a cause. Nothing comes from nothing. So if there is no creator there can't be a creation, i.e. a universe.
But what if the universe is infinitely old? I remember Carl Sagan in the origin "Cosmos" aired in 1980 (I'm old) argued, an argument that I agreed with at the time, said that either a God always existed or the universe always existed. He was just eliminating one extra step. He had no need for God. Matter was his god.
Well, all SCIENTIST now agree that the universe is not infinitely old. The universe had a beginning - a Big Bang. And if the universe had a beginning then it didn't always exist. It didn't have to exist. And if things don't have to exist then it must have cause.
And there is some confirmation of this from science, from Big Bang Cosmology. We now know that all matter came into existence around 13.7 billion years ago.
Now add to this premise a second, very LOGICAL, premise of the principle of causality. That nothing begins without a cause and you get the conclusion that since there was a Big Bang there must be a, well, "Big Banger"..
But does that mean that this "Big Banger" is the Creator? Why can't it be just another universe? Well, according to Einstein all time is relative to matter and since all matter began 13.7 billions years ago SO DID ALL TIME.
So there is no time before the Big Bang. But say there is time before the Big Bang, That you want to reject the laws of General Relativity and still claim the mantle of rationalism. That, say, there are "multi-verses" with many Big Bangs. That, too, must have a beginning. And it is this absolute beginning that most people mean by a Creator. Yet some Atheist find the existence of an infinite number of universes more rational than the existence of a Creator even though there is no, zero, empirical evidence than any of these unknown universes exist.
So it is not just the theist that requires faith, it is also the atheist that requires faith. It takes faith to believe that everything comes from nothing. It took reason, as I had just outlined here, that everything created came from a Creator. God.
Again, this is not meant to change anybody's mind or convert anybody though I do welcome any challenges to my SPECIFIC arguments and to my line of reasoning and the conclusions thereof. It is to dispute the notion that those who believe in God rely simply on just blind faith and wishful thinking. That we are just mindless drones believing in fairy tales that we were raised on. Also, I just touch on one aspect of the existence of a Creator. The First Cause aspect. There is more. God's fingerprints are all around us. If time and motivation is there I might present my case for that as well. The case not just for a Creator but for a God.
The reason these issues are so important is that what you believe, how you got here, is there any eternal accountability, determines your perspective on life and your perspective on life determines how you will ultimately behave. Not so much day to day, but that as well, but when you are morally challenged. It's one thing not to steal when you are rich and can have anything this world has to offer. It's quite another when you're not and really, really want something and can get away with just taking it.
