The other night I was engulfed in a bitter battle of skill between three of my closest friends. Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have made it a point to stay connected. In our little world, we often spend time discussing religion, politics, and life over a not-so-friendly game of Mario Kart or Halo. Practicing social distance now means we have these exact same discussions except for we are no longer squeezed onto the same couch and we can’t holler for a drink or be served fresh quesadillas from my friends’ mom (insert Wedding Crashers meatloaf jokes now).
Anyways, this new social distance gaming is difficult for me. I am no longer sitting right next to my team member on the couch. In summary, sometimes mistakes are made. For those of you that didn’t grow up in the era of Halo, it is a first-person shooter game that can be played among friends on teams. In this game, when a comrade dies, he appears again out of thin air. He often appears relatively close to the location his partner is at. In the midst of a sniper fight, I had acquired a rocket launcher and was about to end all of our sniper problems. Just as I pulled the trigger my partner appeared in my screen. Needless to say, he was killed, I was killed, and much to the enjoyment of our foes, we lost the game.
What happened in my game was a massive accident, but it was nowhere near the accident that many atheists claim happened billions of years ago. In the previous blog, I discussed the absurdity of believing that the universe has always exist. Today, I want to dive further into another stubborn fact that atheism cannot explain; why are we here. A truly committed and serious atheist will most likely make the case that the universe sprung into existence from the Big Bang in a cosmic accident, but is there more to the story than just an accident? Let’s take a look at the evidence.
Atheists claim the universe came into existence in an event known as the Big Bang. This model explains the expansion of the universe from a beginning point, but does not explain why such a beginning occurred. Remember the Big Bang does not make the case that matter expanded into an empty universe and is just filling up the glass so to speak. Prior to the Big Bang nothing existed. From a scientific perspective this creates a massive problem because we know that from the Causal Principle that everything that begins to exist has a cause. If the universe began to exist it must have had a cause outside of space time. This argument known as the Kalam Cosmological Argument is illustrated beautifully by apologist William Lane Craig in his book Reasonable Faith.
However, the Kalam Cosmological Argument only illustrates the need for a first-cause, one that is not constrained by the absurdities of infinite time regress. The atheist must then abort to a position of claiming something outside of the universe happened by accident or by an unguided force existing prior to the fundamental laws of nature, physics, and the cosmos. Additionally, the atheist would need to show that the fine-tuning of the whole universe was a cosmic or pre-cosmic accident. The evidence for a guided well-ordered universe becomes difficult for the atheist to explain.
For example, the laws of physics are so finely tuned that if just one variable was off by a small percentage a life permitting universe would not be possible. To put this thought into perspective, imagine a tap measure stretching across the known universe. Now imagine a small point on this massive tape measure. If the calibration was off just one inch either direction, life would not be possible.
Additionally, consider our place in the cosmos. We live on a tiny world on the outside edge of a spiral galaxy. In fact, we reside in a small arm of the spiral that is perfect for life. We are far enough away from the dense center to avoid harmful radiation. We are not bombarded by objects being flung off orbit from gravitational forces of passing stars. We also have the perfect view of the universe. The lack of light pollution makes discovery possible.
Lastly, consider the order of life on earth. We are reasonable, rational creatures that have the ability to contemplate our place in the stars. Our bodies our made up of billions of cells, working in conjunction with one another to make life possible. We are the perfect distance from the perfect size star and live on a planet with the perfect atmospheric makeup. The possibility of those things happening by accident are about as likely as a tornado flying through a scrap yard and creating a bright shiny 747 jet.
It seems that if the universe had a beginning the most reasonable explanation would be that a mind was involved in making it. From the complexity of human DNA to plate tectonics, it appears the earth was made for human life to exist. Only a mind could produce the information stored in DNA. Only a mind could fine tune the weak and strong nuclear forces and the gravitational constant. Only a mind could produce creatures with the ability to think, reason, and ponder their own existence.
The order and beginning of the universe seem to be more than just a cosmic accident with a randomly appearing universe. At the beginning of the blog, I shared a brief story of an epic loss due to an unforeseen incident. After days of pondering the loss, I have determined it was no accident at all. For my so-called gaming accident to take place someone had to pull the trigger, and that trigger pull was from a living, breathing, rational, created mind.