Does God Exist – The Universe

Greetings Dear Reader,

I am probably not going to say this correctly but I am going to try.  The major truth that I embrace is that almost everything has a beginning.  I only say almost because I believe that God is eternal and without prior cause.  However, an expanding universe, no matter what you see as its progenitor, had a beginning.

We constantly search for the beginning of things.  It seems part of our nature to want to know where we and other things come from.  I am not saying that sound science does not offer alternative theories for where the universe comes from.  I do say that like everything else there is a beginning.  If science tells us that they have found that beginning and it turns out to be a group of multiverses I am alright with that. 

My question then becomes “What caused those?”  If it turns out that there are constant streams of universes being created by some quantum engine I am OK with that too.  Who built the engine?  It is not that I will reject science.  It I that no matter what we discover we have to reach a place of first cause.  There must be a prime mover.

I choose to believe that this prime mover is God.  It is not logical to me that something can come from nothing without an outside influence.  I have yet to hear a sound refutation of the thinking that there must be a primary cause to the effects that are the universe.

It saddens me that many who claim to have faith use faith as a dismissive to sound reasoning and solid science.  I think that this is part of the reason that good theology and good science are both ignored by well-meaning people.  No matter how far back one regresses causality one must come to the point that there is a prime cause.  I think that this cause must be both intelligent and eternal. 

Hubble image of the Crab Nebula - NASA
One of my favorite things up there.

My beloved friend Tom has expressed that he finds the puerile reply “you must have faith” offensive.  In the context of responding to honest questions about God I must agree that a dismissive demand that one must have faith is in error.  When I come to the end of my understanding I do use faith.  It is; however, wrong to demand faith when people have honest questions. 

I think that the need for faith is attached to the desire that God has for us to have free will.  It is our nature to believe in things.  Those things may be God and his desire for us or they may be that we believe there is no God.  Either way we have faith in something.  It is also our nature to disbelieve in things no matter how much evidence there may be for that thing.  The bottom line is that we have free will.  We are not forced to believe.  We choose.  This is why I try to be honest in my dealings with those who do not believe in God.

You cannot convince someone against his will.  In our freedom to choose we either believe or we do not.  In my experience, and therefore, not a universal truth that I can assert, there is often a personal event or series of events that move us to or from faith.  We seek.  It is in our nature to seek out things.  I will not dismiss another’s strong belief that God does not exist because that is both unloving and disrespectful.  I will say that this belief is just that, a belief.  As I said in my opening thoughts, everything comes down to faith. 

I do not mean that in a simplistic way.  I mean that until someone can claim to have full knowledge and evidence of all that there is one cannot honestly claim that they do not believe in something.  The very best arguments for the existence of or non-existence of God require a measure of faith.  I choose to make my “leap of faith” in the direction of something rather than nothing.     

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."