Atheists Misunderstand
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By Jim J. McCrea
Atheists do not understand the true arguments for the existence of God.
First of all, they generally claim that if the universe has a cause, that cause must be much more complex than the universe (they are seeing it as one physical thing causing another). The problem with that (they see) is that it has not solved anything, for if the universe requires a cause that much more complex cause would itself need a cause, so you would be right back where you started. So applying Occam's razor, where the simplest explanation should suffice, why not just go with the simplest explanation and leave out the higher cause (thus validating atheism for them)?
However, with such a physical view, they do not consider the broadest and most universal concepts that can be applied to the situation (metaphysics).
The reason why the universe requires a cause outside of itself is because of its *contingency.* Its contingency means that the universe, or any given thing within it, does not have to exist or it can be different from what it is. We observe this as physical things come in and out of existence and change, or at least have the capability of doing do. As a result, a contingent being must have an ultimate explanation for why it exists and why it is the way it is. It cannot be its own explanation in the same way that a contingent truth cannot be used as a premise to prove itself (to try to do so is universally condemned as circular reasoning).
When we postulate God as a first cause of this, being a first cause He must have an attribute that is fundamentally different from the universe and what is in it. God is not contingent, but is *necessary* so does not have a cause Himself. He cannot not exist and cannot be different from what He is. He is Pure Actuality, without the potential for being anything different. He exists because He is Existence Itself, rather than merely having existence in the possessive sense that finite things do. He is infinite because a strictly infinite being cannot be other than what it is, thus He fulfills all that is possible for a being to fulfill. Infinity and necessity are correlatives just as finitude and contingency are correlatives, for if something is finite, it can be other than what it is because it can exist in another configuration or it can possibly not exist because the potential space it occupies can be considered empty.
God, also, is not infinitely complex (as the atheists, having a materialist view of the cause of the universe, would say if God existed), but is infinitely simple, in that He has no composition of parts. For if God is pure actuality without the potential to be anything different, He is in no way decomposable and so He does not have parts that can be separated from another. He is an absolute unity.
God must be personal, because an infinite being must be greater than persons within the universe (us). If He were impersonal, in an important respect He would be less than us. In fact, God has revealed Himself to be three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Therefore, if we show that God is required to explain the existence of the physical universe, that at the same time brings us to a logical understanding of what God must be.
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By Jim J. McCrea
Atheists do not understand the true arguments for the existence of God.
First of all, they generally claim that if the universe has a cause, that cause must be much more complex than the universe (they are seeing it as one physical thing causing another). The problem with that (they see) is that it has not solved anything, for if the universe requires a cause that much more complex cause would itself need a cause, so you would be right back where you started. So applying Occam's razor, where the simplest explanation should suffice, why not just go with the simplest explanation and leave out the higher cause (thus validating atheism for them)?
However, with such a physical view, they do not consider the broadest and most universal concepts that can be applied to the situation (metaphysics).
The reason why the universe requires a cause outside of itself is because of its *contingency.* Its contingency means that the universe, or any given thing within it, does not have to exist or it can be different from what it is. We observe this as physical things come in and out of existence and change, or at least have the capability of doing do. As a result, a contingent being must have an ultimate explanation for why it exists and why it is the way it is. It cannot be its own explanation in the same way that a contingent truth cannot be used as a premise to prove itself (to try to do so is universally condemned as circular reasoning).
When we postulate God as a first cause of this, being a first cause He must have an attribute that is fundamentally different from the universe and what is in it. God is not contingent, but is *necessary* so does not have a cause Himself. He cannot not exist and cannot be different from what He is. He is Pure Actuality, without the potential for being anything different. He exists because He is Existence Itself, rather than merely having existence in the possessive sense that finite things do. He is infinite because a strictly infinite being cannot be other than what it is, thus He fulfills all that is possible for a being to fulfill. Infinity and necessity are correlatives just as finitude and contingency are correlatives, for if something is finite, it can be other than what it is because it can exist in another configuration or it can possibly not exist because the potential space it occupies can be considered empty.
God, also, is not infinitely complex (as the atheists, having a materialist view of the cause of the universe, would say if God existed), but is infinitely simple, in that He has no composition of parts. For if God is pure actuality without the potential to be anything different, He is in no way decomposable and so He does not have parts that can be separated from another. He is an absolute unity.
God must be personal, because an infinite being must be greater than persons within the universe (us). If He were impersonal, in an important respect He would be less than us. In fact, God has revealed Himself to be three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Therefore, if we show that God is required to explain the existence of the physical universe, that at the same time brings us to a logical understanding of what God must be.
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