"Well, if God created everything then who created God?"

   So I head this the other day as I was of course in a coffee shop in my neighborhood.  My favorite thing about reading my Bible or Christian themed books in the coffee shop is that in this city (which is world famous for being one of the most Atheistic cities in north America) is that you don't have to bring study questions, because the people in the coffee shop will ask you hard questions every time.

  So I am there reading away, and this fellow stands over my table as he is passing by and says you don't really believe that stuff do you?  I love this question by the way, I understand it offends many Christians.  But I love that people take a stance one way or another.  The hardest thing that I encounter is people who could care less about issues such as the Bible or God.  So I say, "Yes I do, I'm surprised that you don't, why don't you sit down and tell me why you don't believe the Bible?  So he gladly sat down and said to me, "The Bible says that God created everything, but that's a circular argument because who created God?!" he giggled and waited for my answer.  I had seen this many times before, many people expect that this is the first time we have heard this question and that it is a knock down argument and there is no answer to it.  Well actually I have been hearing this question since long before I was a Christian, in fact I remember hearing it on the playground of my elementary school.  I don't mean to be dismissive but really its a playground type question. 

  So, first off Christians dont believe in a "created God" and the question assumes that God is created and created Gods dont exist.  It is impossible for a timeless and spaceless being to come into existence, no thesit believes in a "created" God.  I showed him from John chapter 1 that people who believe the Bible believe in an uncreated God. Then I went ahead and asked the man "if we were to find machinery on the dark side of the moon, would we be reasonable to assume that it came from intelligence? or would we have to first assume that that said machinery formed itself by natural causes?"  He said that It would obviously be from an alien race. I then asked if we would first need to know who that alien race was and know about them before we would pause at the answer that that machinery was produced by them?"  He said no.  "So why then do we need to know who made God before we can pause at the answer that God created the universe?" "In order to recognize that an explanation is best, you don't have to have an explanation of the explanation."  Also now because of the Big Bang, we can understand that the universe, all matter, energy time and space came into existence.  Something must have caused this because everything that comes into being has a cause.  This cause must be timeless, space less, and supernatural, since acted outside of time space and nature.  That sounds like what we usually call God.  We chatted for another 20 minutes and exchanged numbers.  I'm expecting to meet up next week.

I will expand further in another blog but for now, the main ideas are, that for in order to recognize that an explanation is best, you don't have to have an explanation of the explanation.  You can used examples like machinery on the moon or finding artifacts here through archaeology. Also talk about what could have caused the universe to come into existence at the big bang.

 Karl Sagan is famous for saying "In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of course ask next where God comes from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?" [Carl Sagan, Cosmos, page 257]

  In our age of astrophysical cosmology we just cant stop at the idea that the universe has always existed.  Because of the Big Bang we understand that the universe came into being, so that points to a transcendent cause of the universe.  I still meet people who believe that the universe is eternal, but really they just haven't caught up with contemporary cosmology.

Its my goal to keep these blogs short and just talk about my experiences, so I know there is tons of more information but Ill share it in another entry.

"God didnt create the universe, it has always been here"

I am amazed to say I actually hear this objection all the time.  Most people know what the big bang is, and the big bang shows that the universe did have an absolute beginning.  A beginning where all time and space and energy came into existence.  Also everyone seems to know that something does not come from nothing.  Nothing existed before the big bang.  Nothing.  No matter, no energy, no time.  I was chatting with someone today about this and I said to him if we heard a huge "BANG!" behind us and he asked me "what was that?" and I replied with "nothing" he would not believe me, no one would.  Something does not come from nothing, also life does not come from non life.  Science and logic supports this.  So anyone holding onto the idea of an eternal universe would have to deny either science or logic. 

Christians can get a bad reputation in this town, in my timme out at UBC especially I was called many names, specifically "creationist" with the idea behind it that Christians are people who deny science and follow blind faith.  I have never been this way and I dont know of many Christians that are this way.  It is usually people attacking straw men, because I see Christians being called names like this all the time rather than people trying to get to know them.  I understand that each individual atheist or agnostic is different and I cant judge their beliefs before I know them.  In our multicultural city most people understand this, so I would love to see it pass on to conversations between people on faith.

  I was amazed at the simplicity of William Lane Craig's Kalam Cosmological Arguement. Which is :

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

It is simple and memorizable and everyone has an opinion on it.  Making it a great talking point with people.  When I talk about it with atheists they usually will say things along the line of "most of that is true but not for the universe" when I ask why they usually dont know.  I dont think everyone needs to have an answer on the spot.  I myself will often say to people "I dont know the answer to that can I look into it and we can have a coffee in a week?"  but I do offer for people to take time and look into this arguement but rarely hear anything back.

Also I think a great talking point is if you sit down and find a cup of coffee on the table and it is still warm, you know one thing...that that coffee hasn't been there forever.  According to the 2nd law of thermodynamics we understand that the universe is winding down. Entropy increases.  So from the fact that we have a very young sun, and all the energy in the universe is not already used up, we can know that it has not always been here. 

I just want to add, that on this issue especially both Christians and Atheists can get very upset.  I think all of us humans can get upset or defensive when we get put on the spot and dont know the answer.  But lets always work together and reason together, these conversations should be engaging and even fun.