Reason 11 of 13
The universe had a beginning
Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The evidence of modern cosmology points to the universe having a beginning, which points beyond the universe to a cause that is timeless, immensely powerful and personal.
The argument
Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. So the universe has a cause. This is often called the kalam cosmological argument, defended today by philosophers such as William Lane Craig.
A cause of all space, time and matter cannot itself be space, time or matter. It must be beyond them: timeless, immaterial and immensely powerful. Because it chose to create, it looks like a person, not a mechanism.
1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 (WEB) · context
2Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Psalms 90:2 (WEB) · context
The science
Big Bang cosmology describes the observable universe expanding from a hot, dense state about 13.8 billion years ago. In 2003 Arvind Borde, Alan Guth and Alexander Vilenkin showed that a universe which has on average been expanding cannot be extended into the infinite past (Physical Review Letters 90, 151301).
3By faith we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:3 (WEB) · context
20For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse.
Romans 1:20 (WEB) · context
The strongest objection, stated fairly
If everything needs a cause, what caused God?
How it answers
The premise is that whatever begins to exist has a cause, not that everything does. God, as Christians understand Him, did not begin to exist. Every worldview ends with something uncaused; the question is whether it is a mindless universe that began or an eternal mind that did not.
2Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Psalms 90:2 (WEB) · context
Where Christians disagree
- Some physicists propose models (cyclic, eternal-inflation or quantum-gravity proposals) that try to avoid an absolute beginning; these remain debated and unconfirmed. Christians also point out that a related argument from contingency (associated with Leibniz) does not depend on a beginning at all.
Sources
- Planck Collaboration, Planck 2018 results VI: Cosmological parameters, Astronomy and Astrophysics 641 (2020)
- A. Borde, A. H. Guth and A. Vilenkin, Inflationary spacetimes are incomplete in past directions, Physical Review Letters 90, 151301 (2003)
- William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 3rd edition (Crossway, 2008)
Why the evidence matters
If Jesus rose, His offer is real
God loves you and gave His Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish.