Hello readers and welcome back to Deeper Waters, a blog dedicated to diving into the ocean of truth! I do have another project in the works, but I am going to be taking a little vacation this Sunday. The wife and I are going on a trip to see her family for an annual get-together the family has with other friends. I wish to wait until I get back before I do anything on the project. Of course, if I need to change the plan of the next project, I can do that. For now, I’d like to comment on a story that hit the news today.
The story comes from an announcement by Stephen Hawking that God did not create the universe. The news can be found here
What do I have to say about this? First off, I have a problem with so many atheists who want Christians to remain quiet on scientific issues without proper study. Is my problem with that position? No. I don’t think we Christians should speak authoritatively on science unless we’ve really done the proper study on science. However, I think the sword cuts both ways and scientists should not comment on philosophy and/or theology without the proper study. A work such as Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion” shows just what happens when someone comments without proper study. Anyone who thinks that book makes a persuasive case is just uninformed on the topics.
Second, I wonder what is going on when I am told however that the universe came from nothing. Nothing is non-existence. It has no properties. You cannot say anything about it. You can only say what it is not really. It is not anything ultimately. Am I to believe non-existence is capable of bringing about existence? Now I do know physicists and others can use the word “nothing” differently than I do as a philosopher, but if they have something in mind, they do not have nothing in mind.
Third, this doesn’t answer the question of existence. What is the basis for existence? Existence does not come from non-existence. Not only what is the cause of the universe coming into existence, which is a deep enough problem, but what is the cause of the universe existing?
Now someone can reply “Well what about the cause of God?” This is a question acceptable if you’re in Sunday School. It’s not one if you’re trying to be a serious philosopher. God’s very nature is His existence, as we saw in our study on the doctrine of God. Existence does not need a cause.
How do we know the universe is not exempt? Because we have evidence that the universe came into being first off. Second, even if it didn’t, the universe is also changing. It is growing older and it is losing usable energy. It is moving from one state of existence to another. My getting up and walking across the room would be a change in existence. The universe is in time and is bound by matter. Whatever is material is not the ultimate cause of all things since it is matter + form + existence.
Finally, Christians also have other arguments for God’s existence, such as the argument from morality, the argument from beauty, and the evidence that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Unfortunately in our world, science is taken to be the final authority. Science is great, if you want to do science. It’s not the tool to use however to do philosophy, theology, history, mathematics, etc. Now there is some overlap in these areas no doubt. But theology is primarily about God even if it uses philosophy and history. Those areas are just tools used by the science of theology to study its main subject, God. Being a physicist does not mean you’re qualified as a metaphysician.
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