by Bill Nugent
Article #162
Those who attack creationism will often say something like this:“I agree that single-celled life forms such as bacteria are so immensely complex that they must have been made by an intelligent designer but this intelligent designer must be more complex than a cell, so who designed him?” In using this “who created the Creator?” argument they attempt to undermine creationism by a debate tactic called infinite regress. I will now proceed to dismantle this blasphemous attack on the Creator.
There are four possible ways to explain the origin of the universe.First, there is the position which claims that the universe always existed. Second is the position that the universe created itself.Third is the Hindu or solipsist position that claims that the universe doesn’t really exist but is an illusion. Fourth is the creationist position which maintains that God created the universe.
The first position, which claims that the universe always existed has largely been abandoned by scientists because of the second law of thermodynamics. This law, also called the law of entropy, is not a hypothesis or a theory but has been elevated by scientists to the status of “law.” Virtually all scientists agree to its truth. Richard Swenson, M. D. has this to say about the second law of thermodynamics on page 126 of his book More Than Meets the Eye. “In essence the law states that the universe flows irrevocably in the direction of hot to cold and order to chaos. Heat naturally dissipates. Order decays. All things naturally wear down. As order flows to disorder and heat flows to cold, the energy involved ceases to be available to perform work. Entropy is the name given to this overall quantity of unavailable energy . . . Einstein called it the premier law of all science.” What this means to scientists is that if the universe were, say, a trillion years old it would have died a “heat death” eons ago.
The second claim, which is the claim that the universe created itself can be dismissed as a bald faced absurdity. For the universe to create anything it must first exist and if it exists how did it come into existence? This begs the question. For the universe to create itself it must exist and not exist at the same time in order to bring itself into existence. The contradiction and absurdity of this is obvious.
The third claim is the classical Hindu assertion that the universe is “maya” which means illusion. This is also called the solipsist view. This is the claim that there is no reality outside the self. This is really a philosophical claim that is subjective and unprovable. It is generally falsified by Cartesian philosophy, empiricism and experimental science. The Hindu idea of an illusory universe is why no true science was practiced in Hindu lands. Experimental science had its flowering in post-reformation Europe where the Christian worldview, which regards the universe as subject to the laws of a law-giving God, gave the basis for meaningful experimentation on nature.
This brings us to the fourth claim which is the creationist position that regards the universe as having been brought into existence by an intelligent being who has existence as an eternal characteristic. Noted theologian R. C. Sproul has often said that “If anything exists, then something has always existed. That something that always existed has existence as an essential, immutable characteristic.” The being that has always existed is God. Eternal existence is an immutable characteristic of God. In the Bible, God has said that He has always existed.
God’s name will reveal something to us about His eternal existence. People often forget that God has a proper name. The terms “God” and “Lord” are not names but are titles. The proper, personal name of God is recorded in the Bible. It appears in the ancient Hebrew Old Testament text as the four letters YHVH. The vowels are not given in the ancient Hebrew. The ancient Hebrews considered the name of God too sacred to be spoken out loud. For this reason, Bible scholars are unsure of the exact original pronunciation. Most modern Bibles don’t even put the four letters in the text but substitute the word “LORD” in all capitals wherever YHVH appears in the original text. Some scholars have inserted vowels into YHVH and have produced various renderings such as “Yahweh” and “Yehovah.”
Most names have meanings and God’s proper name is no exception. Exodus 3:13-14 gives the meaning of God’s name as “I AM THAT I AM.” Isaiah 43:10 says “Before Me there was no God formed” (NASB). The Bible clearly teaches that God, the creator is uncreated. Even Plato spoke of what he called an “unmoved mover.”
I have gone to the Bible to answer the scientist’s query as to the origin of the universe. Why should we trust the Bible as being the word of God and authoritative on answering ultimate questions? While there are many proofs of the Bible’s divine inspiration, I would regard the many hundreds of Bible prophecies and their specific fulfillments as foremost. No holy book of any other faith has anything that even approaches the Bible’s record of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy. The Bible authoritatively teaches us about the uncreated Creator who created the universe.