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Cause and Effect—Scientific Proof that God Exists
| by | Kyle Butt, M.Div. |
The Universe exists and is real. Every rational person must admit this point. If it did not exist, we would not be here to talk about it. So the question arises, “How did the Universe get here?” Did it create itself? If it did not create itself, it must have had a cause.
Let’s look at the law of cause and effect. As far as science knows, natural laws have no exceptions. This is definitely true of the law of cause and effect, which is the most universal and most certain of all laws. Simply put, the law of cause and effect states that every material effect must have an adequate cause that existed before the effect.
Material effects without adequate causes do not exist. Also, causes never occur after the effect. In addition, the effect never is greater than the cause. That is why scientists say that every material effect must have an adequate cause. The river did not turn muddy because the frog jumped in; the book did not fall off the table because the fly landed on it. These are not adequate causes. For whatever effects we see, we must present adequate causes.
Five-year-olds are wonderful at using the law of cause and effect. We can picture a small child asking: “Mommy, where do peaches come from?” His mother says that they come from peach trees. Then the child asks where the trees come from, and his mother explains that they come from peaches. You can see the cycle. Eventually the child wants to know how the first peach tree got here. He can see very well that it must have had a cause, and he wants to know what that cause was.
One thing is for sure: the Universe did not create itself! We know this for a scientific fact, because matter cannot create matter. If we take a rock that weighs 1 pound and do 50,000 experiments on it, we never will be able to produce more than 1 pound of rock. So, whatever caused the Universe could not have been material.
FROM NOTHING COMES NOTHING
I know that it is insulting to your intelligence to have to include
this paragraph, but some people today are saying that the Universe
evolved from nothing. However, if there ever had been a time when
absolutely nothing existed, then there would be nothing now, because it
always is true that nothing produces nothing. If something exists now,
then something always has existed.
THE BIBLE SPEAKS ABOUT THE CAUSE
The Bible certainly is not silent about what caused the Universe. In
the very first verse of the first chapter of the first book it says: “In
the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” Acts 17:24
records: “God, who made the world and everything in it…He is Lord of
heaven and earth.” Exodus 20:11 notes: “For in six days the Lord made
the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.”- God is undoubtedly an adequate cause, since He is all-powerful. In Genesis 17:1, God told Abraham “I am Almighty God.”
- He came before this material world, fulfilling the criteria that the cause must come before the effect. The psalmist wrote: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:2).
- And He definitely would instill within mankind the concept of morality, since He is a God of morals. Titus 1:2 says that He cannot lie.
WHY DOES GOD NOT HAVE A CAUSE?
Hold on just a minute! If we contend that every material effect must
have a cause, and we say that only God could have caused the Universe,
then the obvious question is: “What caused God?” Doesn’t the law of
cause and effect apply to God, too?There is a single word in the law of cause and effect that helps provide the answer to this question—the word material. Every material effect must have a cause that existed before it. Scientists formulated the law of cause and effect based upon what they have observed while studying this Universe, which is made out of matter. No science experiment in the world can be performed on God, because He is an eternal spirit, not matter (John 4:24). Science is far from learning everything about this material world, and it is even farther from understanding the eternal nature of God. There had to be a First Cause, and God was (and is) the only One suitable for the job.
CONCLUSION
The law of cause and effect is a well-established law that does not
have any known exceptions. It was not conjured up from the creationists’
magic hat to prove the existence of God (although it does that quite
well). The evidence is sufficient to show that this material Universe
needs a non-material cause. That non-material Cause is God. If natural
forces created the Universe, randomly selecting themselves, then
morality in humans never could be explained. Why is this Universe here?
Because “in the beginning, God….”