The Caused Evidence – Part 2

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The CAUSED Evidence – Part 2

What other no-God-involved causes of the universe do people believe in?

In Part 1, we found there was not a natural cause of the universe, as all of nature was what was created, so what options are left?

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Scientific and philosophical literature outlined possible causes of the universe. Alternatives to the biblical model fall into three general categories:

1. NATURAL CAUSES, such as vacuum fluctuations;
2. HYPER-NATURAL MATERIALS beyond our universe, this includes multiverse models; and
3. ABSTRACT OBJECTS, such as laws of nature.

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1. A Hyper-Natural Cause?

What about supernatural/hyper-natural stuff beyond our universe? Four reasons why hyper-naturalism is not a viable explanation.

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In a debate, an atheist made the common naturalist claim, but after being faced with evidence displaying that naturalism is already disproven, he then adjusted to the argument that there could be something beyond nature that was not God. A reasonable thought to look into. So what about stuff that is entirely outside of or beyond our universe being the cause? Maybe super matter, a preexisting quantum vacuum state, or something generating multiple universes?

2.1 Any preexisting quantum vacuum, supernatural matter, or any nature-like thing in any multiverse would still have a beginning, and therefore, would itself require a cause. When it was becoming apparent that the universe had a beginning, Arvind Borde, Alan Guth, and Alexander Vilenkin produced five papers over ten years demonstrating that even if there were supernatural matter or even multiverses, it would all, just like our universe, have a beginning and therefore require a separate cause.[1] It just pushes the need for the necessary, uncaused, transcendent cause back a step, as displayed in Figure 3. 

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Figure 3: Even if they exist, supernatural matter or multiverses would require a cause.

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2.2 Any natural explanation, even if it is different matter or energy or even a vacuum beyond our universe, still fails because one thing we know about matter, energy, or any part of any universe is this: Nature is unstable and ceaselessly changing. That is how things get done—sometimes it takes a long time to be a change we can measure, but inevitably nature always hits that point where it changes. Any natural stuff is always moving closer and closer toward heat death (or at most a cold expansion of space) when all the energy, or instability, which is what nature uses to change and do anything, is used up, and nothing else would be able to happen.

Any natural cause beyond our universe cannot be the eternal first cause, because if so, then a long time ago we would have already reached heat death—no instability or potential to do anything—yet, the fact that stars are still shining disproves any natural cause even beyond our universe.

A natural or even hyper-natural cause, like anything in nature, is described by initial conditions (how it starts off) and natural laws that describe how nature constantly changes over time. So a flashlight can be compared to a supposed natural cause of the universe as both can be described by the initial conditions and natural laws involved. If a flashlight were turned on, then knowing the initial conditions (new batteries) and natural laws involved (batteries convert chemical energy into electrical energy, and the reaction can be sustained for maybe 24 hours with typical flashlight batteries), what would we be observing if the flashlight had been turned on an infinite time ago (or even a week ago)? No light. This is exactly what we would see (or not see, in this case) if any natural thing caused the universe because it would similarly have used up all ability to do anything. Not a single star would still be shining; there would be no light.

Therefore, even if there were some speculative stuff beyond our universe, it cannot be the necessary, uncaused, first cause because even if it were in another time dimension (separate from the time dimension that began with our universe), it would have run into heat death a long time ago, and no stars would be shining (nor would anything else be happening).

2.3 What about if that super-matter or quantum vacuum were outside of our universe and outside of any time dimension, in a timeless state? Isn’t that what Christians claim about God? If no time passes, then nature would not move closer to and eventually reach heat death. True. But if the super-matter were outside of time, then nothing could happen—including causing our universe because physical processes require time to do anything.

We describe the changes in nature with equations, and the equations assume or depend on time. For example, here is the equation for the radioactive decay of an atom: (N_(t) = N₀e^-λt). If in a timeless state where (t)ime equals zero in that equation, then the result is: N = N, which means there is no change and there can be no change. Nothing happens.

If there were any natural stuff outside of time, then it would simply stay the exact same forever.

2.4  Philosopher Richard Swinburne notes that any cause is either explained as a NATURAL CAUSE, which is fully explained by initial conditions and the natural laws followed, or a PERSONAL AGENT CAUSE, which has the added factor of choice. One or both types of causes may be involved in an effect.

For example, how do you explain the effect of the teapot boiling?

Natural explanation: The heat from the stove top is conducted into the metal teapot, then through convection the water heats up to a high enough temperature to diffuse the herbal ingredients.

Personal agent explanation: I put the teapot on because I want some tea.

• The first cause of the universe cannot have a natural explanation because there was nothing prior to the first cause, no initial conditions or laws to work on them. Therefore, the first cause must involve a personal agent.
• If there is just a natural cause, why only 14 billion years ago? When the conditions were right, the natural laws would automatically make the beginning happen, and that would have been an infinite time ago. Furthermore, if in a timeless state, initial conditions do not change and there is no operation of laws of nature. For a beginning to occur a specific time ago, or from a timeless state, requires a choice to have been made.
• The cumulative case shows other evidences of personal agency, e.g., the fine-tuning of the beginning and development of the universe.

Any type of hyper-natural or different type of nature being the cause of the universe also fails. There are only two options left . . .

[1] Some multiverse models did not require a beginning, but any of the models that were capable of leading to our current universe did require a beginning.

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