8. Causality
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” Gal 6:7 (NASB)
It takes very little faith to believe the old saying, “you reap what you sow.” It is common sense. Such a simple saying is taken for granted, yet it has profound consequences. The scientific method is based on cause and effect which in turn is based on this very basic and simple truth: you reap what you sow. If you plant a tomato seed, you get more tomatoes. The whole of science is based on the reliability of cause and effect in nature. Tomato seeds cause tomatoes. Nothing else can cause a tomato and a tomato seed can cause nothing else.
Around 400 AD a Christian named John Philoponus used the basic rule of cause and effect to argue against the Naturalism of his own day. His argument is known today as the Kalam Principle. Kalam literally means “speech” or “doctrine.” The Kalam Principle says that whatever begins to exist has a cause; the universe began to exist; so the universe has a cause.
For centuries it was generally believed the universe was steady state. In general the steady state theory says the universe is unchanging and may be infinite in size, content, and time. There are logical problems with this idea. In the real universe, you cannot add one to infinity because it is already infinite, thus you cannot add a new sun, moon, planet, galaxy, or even atoms. The universe mathematically and philosophically cannot have an infinite past, thus is must have had a beginning. In spite of this practical reality, Materialists supported steady state theory to avoid a beginning. Beginning was regarded as the faulty logic of the Kalam principle. If the universe is eternal there is no beginning, thus no cause, thus no logical need for a Creator.
Einstein’s theory of relativity was demonstrated to be true in the 1920s. Among other things, Einstein’s theory of relativity requires the universe to be expanding rather than steady state. If the universe is spreading out, it stands to reason it was once compact. If that is true, it stands to reason it must have begun expanding from some much smaller size than we observe today. These obvious conclusions form the basis for Big Bang theory—nearly gospel today among astronomers and laymen alike who prefer the philosophy of Evolution. These obvious conclusions also support the Creation model. The application of Einstein’s relativity is, therefore, relative.
Initially Big Bang theory was rejected by the Materialistic science community because it requires a definite beginning. Then something amazing happened. Materialists stopped arguing against a beginning. Instead, they now argue against the requirement for a cause. The very foundation of science itself is causality. It should be obvious that for something to begin to exist it must have a cause. To avoid the requisite “why,” Materialist scientists propose the universe came from nothing by a natural chance mechanism. For lack of a better natural explanation, they suggest such unlikely causes as quantum uncertainties. In any realm of science (other than Materialist cosmology) the idea of uncaused beginning would be absurd. When confronted with the fallacy of their argument, they generally respond with the obvious question: “If the universe has a beginning and a prime cause, and if that cause is God, then who or what created God?” This very question has been raised countless times in opposition to God. The Materialist hopes to create a loop of circular logic demonstrating the flaw in belief in God and confounding the Creationist. The answer is simple and elegant. God is eternal. Since God has no beginning, God requires no cause. God is the prime cause of material reality—time, space, energy, and matter.
Once you reach the logical conclusion the universe was caused, then the philosophical question of why cannot be avoided. Evolution does not presume to suppose an answer to the question of why. Big Bang and Evolution theories are human contrivances. No human observed the beginning of life, let alone the universe, therefore no human can know with certainty how it began. The biblical account of Creation is the divinely revealed answer. Genesis offers not only a brief overview of what God did, but much more importantly it offers us answers to the nagging question why.
Cause may be personal or impersonal. For example, if a wife makes a pot of coffee for her husband, you could explain the cause of the coffee personally or impersonally. The impersonal explanation is that the hot water passes over the grounds to produce the drink. The personal explanation is that the wife loves her husband and made the coffee to please him. When we try to answer the question of the why the universe exists with an impersonal description of how, we fail to answer the real question—why. When we ask why the universe exists, we are really asking why we personally exist. We seek to know the meaning of life. Apart from God’s revelation of Himself and His purposes we cannot possibly exceed human philosophy and impersonal guesswork.
Gen 1:22 is the first of several occasions in scripture where God commands his creatures to be fruitful and multiply. Life is commanded to procreate according to its own created kind (Gen 1:24). God says this is good (Gen 1:25). Humans are unique among creation because we are created in God’s image (Gen 1:27). Humans are given responsibility to manage and care for the rest of creation (Gen 1:28). God endowed mankind with similarity to Himself, the ability to have children, authority over nature, and responsibility to love and care for creation as God loves and cares for us. Gen 2:15 gives a more specific job description—to cultivate and care for the garden. Gen 2:16 shows us that God endowed us with free will and the opportunity to use it to obey Him and remain holy or disobey him and know the sting of sin and death. Prior to the introduction of sin, there was no shame or guilt (Gen 2:25). God established marriage as the foundation of the family and the ideal environment for raising children (Gen 2:24). In all these acts of God we see His divine love revealed as the answer to why we exist and why we do the most basic things we do.