A few weeks ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a man who
happened to be an atheist. After an hour-long conversation about life, he
blurts out, “You keep talking about science. You’re a pastor. Do you believe in
science?” He went on to say how he doesn’t believe in God because there is too
much “stuff” out there such as “millions of galaxies containing trillions of
stars…it’s just too vast to come from a God.” I could not wipe the smile off my
face as I said, “Exactly! Too much stuff! Where did all that stuff come
from?”
The Law of Cause and Effect is one of the scientific laws
that allows the field of science to even exist; without its guiding principle,
theories become impossible. That is, scientists observe effects such as life,
planets, spinning spiral galaxies, and etc. They spend their life attempting to
determine the cause of such effects. There are two options (three if you count
aliens, but then where did the aliens come from…back to two options) to the
cause of existence, everything from nothing or everything from something. The
first option is naturalism (no God) and the second is theism (a God). Again, a
third option (minus panspermia/aliens) does not exist. If you are not a theist
you are a naturalist (atheist) and vice versa. Either God created or nothing
created.
“I think I believe in science more than the naturalist” is
what I told him. He narrowed his eyes, threw his head back, and asked, “How
so?” I believe the scientific laws that exist today have always existed, and
when God decided to create everything, He simply used the laws that are within
Him. As a theist, I do not suspend the laws of science; I embrace them. In particular,
the law of cause and effect. In order to believe everything came from nothing,
I must suspend reality, logic, and rational thought, basically, all laws of
science. Everything cannot pop into existence from nothing because there is
nothing to make something, and a cause to the first something leading to
everything cannot exist in nothing. Simplified, it takes at least one thing to
make the next thing. If there was Something (what we call God), then all things
are possible because that Thing caused all things to begin. A first cause must
exist in order to make the first effect; therefore, there is no choice but to
accept the required existence of a first Cause, and that Cause we call God. We
are not required to exist; conversely, He is required, and we know this simply
because we are here. The universe overflows with unnecessary stuff, therefore,
there must be a “stuff” Maker, or there would be no stuff. God is not a maybe,
He’s a must.
So my answer to him was a resounding and excited, “Yes, I
believe in—and embrace—science and the very laws by which the field is
substantiated! Further, I find it intriguing that atheists mock my strong
belief in all scientific laws and consider my unbending commitment to same as
ridiculous if not naïve when it comes to the start of it all.” My thought: everyone
innately knows that everything requires a something to make anything and that
what one gets from nothing is nothing. So my question is, “Who is remaining
logical, rational, and intellectually honest? The one who suspends all
knowledge of the laws that surround and uphold us, or the one who accepts the fact
that those same laws require a law Giver?”
