Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - In the Beginning God…

Episode Date: October 16, 2017

Alan shows how you can use two simple questions to show that the Christian story of creation is true and reasonable. Download the mp3...

Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now this is the beginning of a story of how the world began. It's a story about what happened in the history of existence. And of course it was inspired by the Holy Spirit when Moses wrote Genesis about 3,400 years ago. Now this story of creation sets the stage for our entire Christian worldview. There is, however, as you probably know, a competing story.

It's the atheist story. Now, our story says that God made all things. The atheist story says nothing made all things. And so the question then becomes, how do we know then which is true? Let me offer you two simple questions that will show you that our story of creation is the true story or the most reasonable story.

So here's question number one. Have things always existed? Now notice there's only two possible answers to this question, yes or no. Either things have always existed. Now notice there's only two possible answers to this question, yes or no. Either things have always existed or they have not. There's no third option here. Now consider things have always existed. In other words, let's consider first answering

the question with yes, that things have always existed. Well, this would mean that atoms, planets, stars, and basically the entire universe has always been around. Most scientists, though, recognize that that's impossible because of what's called the second law of thermodynamics. Now, this principle, or this law, is very easy to understand. Imagine you walk into a room and see a hot cup of coffee sitting on the table, and, you know, the steam coming from it, you can smell the aroma in the air. Well, the second law of thermodynamics tells us

that that cup of coffee has not been there for an eternity, because if it had been there for an eternity, it would have cooled down by now. The coffee would have reached the same temperature as the air in the room around it. And the same is true of the universe. We can detect hot stars, like our sun, for example, is one of them. We can detect these hot stars in the universe.

And the second law of thermodynamics tells us that the universe could not have existed for an eternity, because if it had, the stars would have cooled down by now. They would have reached the same temperature as the space around them. And their energy would have been spent, and so there would be no stars anymore. There wouldn't be these hot bodies in space any longer. And so this leads scientists to conclude that the universe is not eternal.

And that would mean that the answer to the question must be no, things have not always existed. Specifically, the universe began to exist at some time in the past. And of course, this is completely consistent with our story in Genesis 1.1. So since the universe hasn't always existed, we can ask the next logical question. And here's question number two. What caused the universe to begin to exist? Now, again, there's only two options, something or nothing, right? I mean, something caused the universe to begin to exist or nothing caused the universe to begin to exist. So let's first consider that nothing caused the universe to begin to exist.

Well, as you probably realize, this sounds quite unbelievable, right? I mean, how would that even be possible, right? Nothing is not something. Therefore, how could it be responsible for beginning anything, right? When there's nothing, nothing can be done. Do cars, for example, begin to exist by nothing? Well, no, they're caused by machines and people. Do trees begin to exist by nothing? Well, no, they're caused by machines and people. Do trees begin to exist by nothing?

Well, no, they're caused by pollination and seeds. Do planets begin to exist by nothing? Well, no, they're caused by a star's gravity and space dust material. There's never a case when nothing causes something to begin to exist. There's always something. If nothing pops into existence without a cause, by the way,

then how can the entire universe, something even more immense, something more intense, simply begin to exist from nothing? And if it could, by the way, why don't other things pop into existence as well? You know, why doesn't a leopard or a carburetor or a peanut butter cup, which, by the way, would be really great if peanut butter cups would just spontaneously appear, but why don't these things kind of just pop into existence without a cause?

Why does nothingness prefer to cause only a universe to pop into existence and not my favorite candy? So, as you can see, nothing can't be an explanation for the beginning of the universe. The only other option, then, is that something caused the universe to begin. Every time something begins to exist, it has a cause. That is what we experience 100% of the time, and the universe cannot be an exception to that. Now, can we understand some characteristics about this something that caused the universe to begin? Well, we know it must be very powerful because it had to create all of space and time

and matter completely out of nothing. It must be also timeless because it existed before time began. It must be immaterial because it created the material world and it couldn't really create itself. It would have to be personal because only a personal being can act freely and choose to create. It must also be very smart since it had to create all the physical laws like gravity and electromagnetism and the nuclear force and other things like that. And it had to coordinate them together to form a life-permitting universe. Therefore, whatever caused the universe to begin was extremely powerful, timeless, immaterial, personal, and super smart. And those characteristics, by the way, are consistent with Yahweh, the God of the Bible. And that's because our story of God and creation fits what we know to be true from reality.