Today it is commonly assumed that if one believes in the existence of God they have committed intellectual suicide. Many people believe that we now live in a day of science and there is no need for belief in God anymore. Renown Atheist Richard Dawkins wrote a book entitled "The God delusion" which argues this very point, that God ultimately is a delusion. Another Atheist named Sam Harris in an article entitled "There is no God (and You know it)" states when it comes to the belief in God (specifically the Christian God) that "the most reasonable and odious: the biblical God is a fiction" [1]. So the question we will be discussion today is: Is the belief in God irrational and a delusion or is there rational reasons to believe in God?
Since this is such a large topic I will discuss one point of argument for the existence of God. This argument is called the Kalam Cosmological Argument. Philosopher William Lane Craig lays out this argument in three points. It goes like this: 1) Everything that began to exist has a cause. 2) The Universe began to exist, 3) Therefore, the Universe has a cause.[2]
Everything that began to exist has a cause
The first point is quite obvious and doesn't need a lot of explanation. Craig states that the first point is based on the: "principle that 'something cannot come out of nothing' and is so intuitively obvious that I think scarcely anyone could sincerely believe it to be false.'" [2] Things do not come into existence without something or someone causing them to come into existence. For example, a table came into existence because someone decided to create it.
The Universe began to Exist
The second point is where the brunt of the argument lies. The question being asked here is: Did the universe begin to exist or is it eternal? With the development of the sciences it has demonstrated that the universe is not eternal but rather came into existence at some point in the past. Let me give you one example. 1) The Expansion of the Universe. In 1929 Edwin Hubble discovered what is called 'red shift lights' which showed that the galaxies were moving away from each other or expanding from a singular point in the past. What does this expansion mean? That the universe is not eternal but rather had a beginning. A way to understand this is to imagine a balloon not blown up with dots all over it, the more you blow it up the more the dots move away from each other (or expand). This same concept is what is happening in our universe; it is expanding. If the universe is expanding it cannot be eternal. Craig states:
"In 2003 Arvind Borde, Alan Guth, and Alexander Vilenkin were able to prove that any universe which is, on average, in a state of cosmic expansion cannot be eternal in the past but must have an absolute beginning."[3]
Therefore, the universe has a beginning. Even Stephen Hawkins states:
"Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning at the Big Bang."[4]
The Universe Had A Cause
When points one and two are established it follows that the universe, which is not eternal, had a cause. Now the question is: What is the cause of the universe? Since we know that nothing can create itself but is brought into existence by something or someone outside of itself. For example, a table didn't not create itself but rather someone, who is not the table, brought the table into existence. The same principle applies to the beginning of the universe. Since the universe did not create itself, whatever created it can not be part of it. This means:
"That the universe was brought into existence by something which is greater than and beyond it." [5]
Therefore, whatever the cause of the universe is must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial (all features of the universe), powerful enough to create the entire universe, and personal. Why personal? It wasn't necessary that the universe exist but it was brought about by the free-will choice of whatever or whoever created it. This would make it a personal creation.
So what can be concluded from the Kalam Cosmological Argument? The universe began to exist and what caused it to come into existence is spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful and personal. Therefore, there is "an uncaused personal Creator of the universe exists...beginningless ,changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful. And this...is what everyone means by 'God'" The universe exists because God created the universe as we see in Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..." Therefore, belief in God is not only rational but is the best explanation for the existence and beginning of the universe.
[1]Sam Harris, "There is no God (And You know it)". October 6, 2005, samharris.org https://samharris.org/there-is-no-god-and-you-know-it/
[2] William Lane Craig, Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide (New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 2002) 92.
[3] William Lane Craig "Does God Exist" Reasonable Faith, https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/existence-nature-of-god/does-god-exist/
[4] Stephen Hawkins and Roger Penrose, The Nature of Space and Time, The Isaac Newton Institute Series of Lectures (Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press, 1996), 20. As Quoted by William Lane Craig, Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide (New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 2002) 103.
[5] Ibid 107.