The Big Bang and the Existence of God - Philosothon



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Big Bang Cosmology and the Existence of God

Introduction

According to the widely accepted Big Bang theory of the origins of the universe, the universe had a beginning. The universe began from a singularity, a point of infinite density, about 13.7 billion years ago. According to this theory, spacetime itself came into existence from this singularity, so that there is no such thing as a time before the big bang. How does this relate to the existence of God?

The Big Bang and the existence of God

The following argument presented by the Christian philosopher William Craig is based on the Big Bang theory:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause for that beginning.

2. The universe began to exist.

3. So there was a cause for the beginning of the universe.

Therefore, God, the cause of the universe, exists.

Craig argues that since it is impossible for something to come from nothing at all, the only way for the universe to have come into existence is for it to have been created by God. It must have been God who created the singularity which gave rise to the big bang. Note that the argument does not depend on there being events prior to the big bang that caused it. That would be a misunderstanding of the big bang theory since according to the theory there couldn’t be anything prior to the big bang. Craig’s argument does not refer to events prior to the big bang but only to the fundamental principle that something cannot arise out of nothing at all. The original singularity must have come from something. If there were no time, space, energy, particles – nothing at all, then how could either a singularity or big bang come into existence?

As mentioned above Craig’s conclusion is that the only way that this is possible is for the universe to have been created by God i.e. a being who is uncaused, eternal, changeless, timeless and immaterial.

Interpreting the argument

There are two ways in which this argument can be interpreted.

Firstly, as a deductive argument. This means that the conclusion follows logically from the three premises. (The statements (1), (2) and (3) are called “premises”). In other words, if the premises (1) – (3) are true, then the conclusion must be true. It would be logically inconsistent for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false.

Secondly, the argument can be interpreted as an argument from the best explanation. This means that the conclusion doesn’t follow as a matter of logic but rather as the best explanation for the beginning of the universe. So instead of the conclusion as stated above it could be stated as follows:

Therefore, God exists because the existence of God is the best explanation we have for the way in which the universe came into existence.

The deductive argument is stronger because if the premises are true, then there is no escaping the conclusion. In order to refute this version of the argument we only have to show that it is possible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false. That is to say we have to show only that if we accept premises (1) – (3), it is possible that God is not the cause of the universe. In order to refute the second version, we have to show that God is not the best explanation for the beginning of the universe. In this case, we have to come up with a better explanation for the beginning of the universe – a harder task.

Now consider some further discussion of each version of the argument.

The deductive version.

1. Is it possible that there is more than one cause of the universe? If so, then the conclusion is false because to conclude that God is the cause of the universe assumes that God is the one and only cause. And note that premise (3) asserts that there is a cause which means “at least one” cause. It doesn’t follow as a matter of logic that there is exactly one.

2. God is usually understood to be all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient) and perfectly good (omnibenevolent). However, it doesn’t follow deductively from the three premises that there is a God with just these characteristics. Furthermore, it doesn’t follow as a matter of logic that the cause of the universe is a Christian (or Hindu, etc.) God, a personal being who we can pray to or who will reward us in heaven for a morally good life on Earth.

The best explanation version

1. It is claimed that God is capable of creating the universe “ex nihilo” (out of nothing). But if we can’t make sense of the universe coming from nothing, it seems no easier to understand how God can create the universe out of nothing. This seems to be explaining one mystery in terms of another. Perhaps one way of solving this mystery is to say that the universe was the result of God’s personal choice.

2. Is it satisfactory to say simply “We don’t know where the singularity came from”? It seems that we are forced to admit that we have no way of knowing how the singularity originated and leave it at that. But then it may be better to say, rather, that failing to find a better explanation for the origin of the singularity, the existence of God is the best explanation we have and should therefore stick with that. In science we accept the best explanation we have on hand until something better comes along, so perhaps the same goes for the existence of God.

3. If the existence of God is the best explanation we have for the origin of the universe, then we can ask, further, why God created the initial singularity at all. And we might also want to know whether or not God created the singularity with a view to the emergence of human beings, and then wonder why God went about it in that way.

4. It is often asked, where did God come from? The suggestion is that if we don’t know where God came from, then it seems that the existence of God can’t explain anything. One answer might be that God is an eternal being. This means that God exists timelessly and therefore doesn’t “come from” anything. God is a being not subject to change within time. So perhaps there is some plausibility in suggesting that God, not subject to time, could bring spacetime into existence.

Rob Neurath

This case was created for the Philosothon Project. This project was made possible through the support of a grant from Templeton Religion Trust. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Templeton Religion Trust.

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