Argument by Creation - Cosmological Argument
Whether or not you are a Christian, the Bible provides a dramatic and powerful backdrop for discussing the idea of a Creator. Consider these words of the Psalmist, and the poetry of Job, more than 4,000 years old.
"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat." (Psalm 19:1-6)
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who enclosed the sea with doors when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; when I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, and I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop'? Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal; and they stand forth like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld, and the uplifted arm is broken. Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of distress, For the day of war and battle? Where is the way that the light is divided, or the east wind scattered on the earth? Who has cleft a channel for the flood, or a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land without people, on a desert without a man in it, to satisfy the waste and desolate land and to make the seeds of grass to sprout? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb has come the ice? And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? Water becomes hard like stone, and the surface of the deep is imprisoned. Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their rule over the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, So that an abundance of water will cover you? Can you send forth lightning that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'? Who has put wisdom in the innermost being or given understanding to the mind? (Job 38:4-36)
The God of the Bible is powerful. He is wise, creative, all-knowing. He is loving, purposeful, and thoughtful. But does He exist? Is He just a myth? The Bible emphatically claims that God is, and that He is the Creator of all. One need look no further than the first sentence of the Bible to be reminded,
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)
The Argument from Creation states simply that there must be a Creator, because there is a creation. Consider the postulations on the following pages...
It seems necessary to state the obvious here. Either the universe had a definite beginning point in time, or it has existed eternally. Many, particularly those enamoured of pantheism, maintain that the universe and all that it contains is God. That everything is God - I'm God, you're God, the table that I'm writing on is God. This viewpoint requires that there was no creation, but that the universe is eternal. Scientifically, however, eternal existence is not possible due to...
The Laws of Thermodynamics
In view of the first and second laws of Thermodynamics, the universe must have had a beginning point. The first law states that there is a finite amount of energy in a closed system. The second states that as energy is transferred some amount becomes unusable.
For example, my wristwatch is a closed system. Inside there is a finite amount of energy - the battery, and some stored momentum. As energy is transferred from its storage location to the gears of my watch, some of it becomes unusable through friction, and it eventually runs out.
The universe, like my watch, is also a closed system (granted a big one). And like my watch, it too is gradually winding down. In other words it has a life span. At some point it will run out of energy. Now, if the universe always existed then it would have run out by now. It must have had a beginning point. This same sort of running down happens with all matter. Chemicals break down, energy sources get used up, and things wear out. Duane Gish, Professor of Biochemistry at University of California at Berkeley, stated the dramatic impact of this principle on the theory of evolution.
"Of all the statements that have been made with respect to theories on the origin of life, the statement that the Second Law of Thermodynamics poses no problem for an evolutionary origin of life is the most absurd... The operation of natural processes on which the Second Law of Thermodynamics is based is alone sufficient, therefore, to preclude the spontaneous evolutionary origin of the immense biological order required for the origin of life." 1
Evolutionists would have us believe that billions of years would undo this process, but as Dr. Gish states, this is absurd. Billions of years of things wearing out and running down make the universe less usable, less orderly, and less capable of creating and sustaining life.
The Law of Biogenesis
Additionally, because of the principle of Biogenesis, the life forms within the universe must have had a beginning. This law states that life always comes from life. Science has never observed life coming from any form but other life. In fact, several scientists have tried desperately, with all of the accumulated knowledge of science, to recreate life in a test-tube. In every attempt they have failed.
Two scientists are best known for their attempts to recreate life in the laboratory, Dr. Stanley Miller and Dr. Sydney Fox. In their experiments they put some substances in an oxygen free environment and passed electricity to recreate the effect of lighting strikes. Did they produce life? Not only did they fail to create any life form; they actually strengthened the case for an intelligent creator.
During the experiment several amino acids combined - something that must happen for life to form. Unfortunately they formed in the wrong gender combination. Amino acids are distinctly left-handed or right-handed. All life forms contain only left-handed amino acids. The Miller-Fox attempt combined an even mix of both amino acid configurations.
There are at least three other things to add about this vain endeavor. First, even if they had combined single-gender amino acids they are still a long way from creating life. Second, it's a bit absurd to think that these exact components would be present in the perfect laboratory environment and then get struck by lighting at just the right time and power level. Third, oxygen had to be excluded from the experiment because it prevents the binding of amino acids. But wait! Oxygen is necessary to sustain life. Therefore the same environment needed to sustain life would prevent the creation of it. Impossible!
The Law of Entropy
Closely related to the second law of thermodynamics, there is a principle asserting that things run down. Orderly things become disorderly. Living things wear out. There is a scientific observation called entropy that describes this phenomenon, but it doesn't take more than common sense to understand it. Cars wear out, flowers die, and people get old.
The universe is no different. Things are wearing out. Evolutionists would have us believe that billions of years of evolution have reversed this process. Not only is this unproven and senseless, it is also in direct conflict with the observed. If in a little time things wear out, become more chaotic, and run down, then billions of years would only compound the process.
As this simple diagram indicates, the law of Entropy as observed by science (the black arrow) and the theory of an eternal universe (the light blue arrow) are directly opposed. As time goes on, order and information in the universe diminish - this is called entropy and is attributable to the second law of thermodynamics. Conversely, evolution calls for order and information to increase with time.
The universe itself is the best example of this progression towards chaos. In 1924 astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the continual expansion of the universe. In other words, he recognized that as time passed the celestial bodies were moving outward. Additionally he noted that the rate of expansion was greater as the masses moved further away. This was positive proof that the universe could not have existed eternally. Amazingly, it was peering into Hubble's 100-inch telescope that finally persuaded Albert Einstein that the universe had a beginning.
The Principle of Cause
Knowing that the universe must have had a beginning leads us to explore another principle of science - The Principle of Cause. Simply stated, everything that has a beginning must have had a cause. If I was walking down the street and observed a wristwatch in the gutter, I would immediately recognize that it had both a beginning and a cause for having been placed there. There was a point in time that it got there, and there was something that caused it to be there. All created things have a cause, especially in the case of life forms. Relating back to the concept of biogenesis, there must be a specific cause. That is, life must be caused by life. Likewise, since the universe exists, it must have had a point of creation and a cause. I call that cause God.
Some might say that the cause was something accidental, but no one can explain how that accident might have happened, or what things looked like prior to the accident. Furthermore, as we will see in the next argument regarding intelligent design, the universe is far too complex to have occurred by accident.
Lack of Alternative Explanation
Finally, as we consider this Argument from Creation, we can't fail to notice the conspicuous absence of a reasonable alternative position. Of course there are those who would argue that the universe has always existed, or that it came spontaneously from nothing. But as we have seen, these speculations are futile. They lack substantial evidence, and violate some of the most fundamental laws of science.
Conclusion: A Creator
Since there are few other positions that can be speculated, we can judiciously conclude that there is a Creator. And while we still have much to learn about this great Being, it is fair to assume that He is both powerful and intelligent.
| 1 | Duane Gish, A Consistent Christian-Scientific View of the Origin of Life, Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 4 (March 1979), pp. 199, 186 |