TR Hartley

This article is a part of a series on sharing Christianity with atheists and agnostics. For other articles please see:
1. General Guidelines for Evangelism and Apologetics
2. Three Arguments for Theism in General (this article)
3. Four Arguments for Christianity as the Correct/True Religion
4. Addressing Common Objections to Christianity
5. Suggested Further Resources

Why is there something, rather than nothing? How can we explain that “existence” exists? And, why does the observable universe ? How can we explain its comprehensibility? And is there such a thing as moral goodness or moral wickedness? If so, how should we explain that?

These are some of the big questions that any worldview (cultural, religious, philosophical) must explain. I would like to suggest that theism, the belief in some form of divinity, provides a strong logical foundation for answers to these questions.

So, in this article, I will outline three arguments that show how theism (general belief in the divine) answers these questions.

1. Origin of the Universe/Material Existence: Kalam Cosmological Argument

1. Whatever begins to exist, has a cause of its existence (i.e. something has caused it to start existing).
2. The universe began to exist. i.e., the temporal regress of events is finite.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
4. If the universe has a cause, then an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists who sans (without) the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful.
C. Therefore, an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists, who sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful.

**Why the cause must be personal can be hard to see initially.  If the cause is impersonal, IE, it has no will, then it would continue eternally in its initial trajectory.  But, if the uncaused Creator has a WILL, a personal agency, then change can occur, we can see the change from no creation to creation.  IE, a personal creator, sitting from eternity, can will to stand. 

For more unpacking of the Kalam Cosmological Argument, see William Lane Craig’s arguments for more understanding here: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/images/uploads/The_Kalam_Cosmological_Argument.pdf

2. Fine Tuning of the Universe: Teleological Argument  

Commonly known as the watch-maker argument.  If you found a complex machine on the beach, such as a watch, you wouldn’t assume such a machine just came into being.  Rather, the complexity and functionality of the watch points to the existence of a watch-maker. 

Sometimes people make this claim concerning the complexity of human life, or the human genome and genetics.  But even beyond the fine tuning of humanity, or of the Earth as a whole, the entire universe is fine-tuned to point towards a Creator.  Any life, any star or planet formation, is unfathomably unlikely.  Earth life has complex needs, atmospherically, in relation to the sun, and our solar system position in relation to the Milky Way Galaxy that are met exactly by our world.  Beyond this, for the universe itself to exist, the strength of gravitational force, the strength of the Strong and Weak Nuclear forces*, initial force of the Big Bang in relation to gravitational force, has to be fine-tuned to an absolutely staggering degree.  If the universe is 13.8 billion years old, that is approximately 10 to the 18th power seconds old (10,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds).  Estimated number of subatomic particles in the entire universe is approximately 10 to the 80th power.  NOW, with those numbers in mind, astrophysicists have calculated that if the strength of gravity and the Weak Nuclear force was off by 10 to the 100th power, star formation, and thus life, would be impossible.  

(If that doesn’t make sense:  Real Smart Math People said that a universe capable of supporting life to just happen is so unlikely it is unthinkable, so we have strong reason to believe some sort of Intelligence (IE, God) guided the process of the universe coming into existence.)

*The Strong Nuclear Force is an attractive force between protons and neutrons that keep the nucleus together and the Weak Nuclear Force is responsible for the radioactive decay of certain nuclei.

3. The Moral Argument for God’s Existence, or The Argument From Morality

This is one of the most persuasive and useful arguments for everyday evangelism and apologetics.

The argument is framed thusly:

1. If objective moral absolutes and obligations exist, then they must be founded in the existence of a personal God.
2.  Objective moral absolutes and obligations exist.
3.  Therefore, God exists. 

It is readily apparent to nearly everyone that there is something wrong with the world.  That there are true injustices and cruelties of life, and many people have a hard time reconciling that with a claim towards the goodness of some sort of theistic, creator God (or gods.) (This is commonly referred to as “the problem of evil” argument.”

And yet, that very claim, that there truly is evil in the world, actually points to a Creator!  Without a Personal Creator that grounds the moral fabric of the universe, we are left with only opinions; there is no real moral good, or real evil. Because it is readily apparent that there is real evil, and not just “things I don’t care for”, there needs to be an epistemological grounding for that sense of evil.

A common Atheistic response to this is that it’s not a good idea to waste time by thinking through this sort of thing.  Basically, don’t think about this too much.  (IE, “you’re never going to understand everything, just try to be a good person and to find contentment”, etc.)

 I would suggest that if Christianity is asking you to think deeply about morality, and Atheism tells you to not think too much about morality, to me that indicates that the Christian position is more logically supported.

**For a further exploration of this argument, please see this article from crossexamined.org.

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Conclusion

These 3 arguments (Cosmological Argument, Teleological Argument, and Argument from Morality) act as a converging argument, the 3 coming together to present a building case for why theism actually makes sense and is logical.

In these arguments we see that theism gives rational explanation for:

1. The origin of the universe (how is there anything?)
2. The order seen in the universe (how does what exists work together in the way that it does?)
3. Moral intuition and reasoning (there is an self-evident “good and bad” in the universe.)

Answering these three questions is of vital importance to any worldview, and theism provides a logical explanation of these subjects.

From here, we can then make arguments for why Christianity is the most logically supported, and thus true and correct, form of theism. (Please see article three in this series, linked at the top.)