Can something come from nothing?
“For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17)
When you think of the concept of ‘Nothing,’ you may be imagining just dark empty space. But is that Nothing? Space is for sure ‘Something’. Darkness is also a characteristic of something that must exist whether it be natural or even an imagination. Although an imagination doesn’t exist in the physical sense, it is still for sure ‘Something.’ Trying to conceptualize ‘Nothing’ becomes mind-boggling. The fairest way to conceptualize ‘Nothing’ would be to define it as the absence of anything whatsoever. Now seeing as how ‘Nothing’ is incapable of producing anything, how is it that anything exists at all?
Often when someone tries to conceptualize God, they imagine the age-old image of the old, bearded man perched atop a cloud. Although we often personify him because he does in fact have a personable nature to him. Christianity recognizes God to be the necessary uncaused first cause, immaterial, changeless, eternal, personal being who is not bound by the barriers of space, time, and matter, who possesses the power to create the universe.
The Cosmological Argument goes as follows…
- Whatever begins to exist, has a cause.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore, the universe has a cause.
The most logical explanation for the existence of anything at all is for it to have been caused into existence at some point. Whatever begins to exist must exist out of the necessity of its own nature or have an external cause for its existence. Now if that primary cause were caused then it in fact wouldn’t be the first cause, therefore the first cause must exist as an uncaused entity. Things that exist out of necessity of their own nature are the immaterial truths of the universe such as mathematics or the laws of physics, even truth itself. Keep this in mind whenever posed with the question “Then where does God come from?” He hasn’t ‘come’ from anywhere, he has always existed regardless of any conditions. He doesn’t rely on anything for him to exist, he is self-sufficient in his existence.
That first cause is what must be responsible for bringing upon the existence of the material world. That cause must be immaterial and does not occupy space. In order to create space and matter you would have to exist outside of space and matter. Think about it in terms of a computer… you would never look at a computer and just assume that it had the ability to create itself. It seems safe to say that some conscious being constructed the computer in some way or form. Now let’s increase the scale. Would it be possible for a tree to create itself out of nothingness? Of course not, a seed is planted and absorbs nutrients from the soil and energy through photosynthesis. Outside forces are what makes a tree able to become a tree. Now keep increasing your scale. Whether it be the Empire State Building, Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, etc. etc. We understand that none of these things could have created themselves, so why would that line of logic end when we increase our scale all the way to the universal level? “For every house is built by someone, but the One who builds all things is God.” (Hebrews 3:4)
That first cause must be able to exist timelessly. Since the first cause brings about the beginning of time, it must have a timeless existence. What we would call eternal, he has always existed. Some may argue that the universe itself is eternal and has always existed. It is widely agreed upon by both scientific and theological communities that the universe did have a distinct beginning. To refute the claim of an eternal universe is quite easy, for the universe to be eternal, that means there is an infinite number of past events. If there were an infinite number of past events, today (this present moment) would be impossible. It is not possible to start counting from negative infinity and reach zero. To quote famed Twentieth Century mathematician David Hilbert; “The infinite is nowhere to be found in reality.it neither exists in nature nor provides a legitimate basis for rational thought. The role that remains for the infinite to play is solely that of an idea.”
To Quote the twelfth-century theologian Muhamad Al-Ghazali “We know he is a personal being because his act of creating the universe is a free act independent of any prior conditions. His act of creating is spontaneous, therefore we are not merely brought to a transcendent cause to the universe but to its personal creator.” It becomes apparent why the creation of the universe must have been a personal decision when you think about it in cohesion with the fact that the universe and time began to exist at a particular point. If the universe existed out of the necessity of its own nature to exist, then it would bring about the universe constantly whenever it exists. If that were the case then we would live in a timeless universe, and as we discovered, we do not. The first cause must be able to bring about the universe but does not have to do so out of necessity.
“By faith we understand that the universe was formed by the word of God, so that things that are seen were not made out of things which are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3) The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Energy does not magically materialize itself nor does it just disappear. This Law directly relates to the Law of Conservation of Mass, matter itself cannot create more matter or make itself disappear from the universe. The amount of matter in the universe is finite and incapable of creating more of itself. These Laws fully support the biblical worldview in terms of creation. The beginning of Genesis 2 has a heavy emphasis on ‘finished, completed, and done’ when talking about the creation of the world. The Hebrew word ‘Kalah’ is a past tense verb used to emphasize completion, and how it won’t be repeated in the future. This word was used to drive home the point that everything seen, and unseen has been created and will not be created any further.
There is nothing more astonishing than the fact that something exists at all. “To say that ‘Nothing’ has the ability to produce something is worse than magic. When a magician pulls a rabbit from a hat, at least there’s a magician, not to mention the hat!” (Dr. William Lane Craig) It takes more faith to be an atheist and believe that the universe came into existence from pure nothingness than it does to be a Christian. Keep that in mind whenever someone tries to accuse the believers of being the ones who think and believe in something “irrational.” For there is no claim more irrational than to say that ‘Nothing has the ability to do anything at all.’ What seems to be a reoccurring theme in the blog series is that if there is a God who has the power to create the universe out of pure nothingness, then him having the ability to take on human form, dwell amongst us and sacrifice himself as bail for our inequities because he wants us to have a loving relationship with him and each other would be mere child’s play. “The invisible things about him, his eternal power and deity have been seen since the creation of the world and are understood by the things that are made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)