The Search for God Page 2.1.3.1
The law of cause and effect, also known as the law of causality, states that for every effect there is a prior or antecedent cause.
This idea seems simple enough and is witnessed every day.
One of my favorite activities when I was young was playing billiards in my grandparent’s basement. I was too little to use the cue stick so I would just roll the white ball and attempt to strike any ball, hoping to knock the sphere into the pocket.
If you were a ball in the pocket, and experienced the effect of weight as another ball fell on you, you might wonder what caused that. Well, the ball fell. Why? The ball rolled over the pocket and gravity took over. Why did the ball roll? It got hit by another ball. Why was that ball moving?
On and on we can go, analyzing every effect and searching for a prior cause. Why did this human push the white ball? Enjoyment? We could then analyze all the reasons my personality wanted to play that game. What caused those emotional effects?
How it affects us
Most days, we don’t contemplate this issue, but we understand and take for granted this law in our everyday lives, just like the law of identity and the law of non-contradiction. The law of causality differs however, in that this law is born out of experience.
We might contemplate the cause and effects rationally. We might even attempt to predict what the effect will be. If I drive my car through a red light during heavy traffic, most likely the effect will be a collision.
If I say to my wife something snarky because I’m angry and tired (cause), I would expect a similar response (effect). We live in a universe that displays the characteristics of cause and effect. Why is this important in our search for God?
Let’s evaluate life. Take your life, What caused you to be here? Parents. What caused your parents? Grandparents. We understand this. So back and back through the generations, we trudge until we get to two humans. Where did they come from?
Well, here we have two options.
- The creation option
- The evolution option
But let’s say for purposes of this article we take the evolution option, where did those two humans come from? Another species. Okay, so we repeat the process again and again, going back in time.
Where did life come from?
Species after species, until we get to the first cell, the first living thing on this planet. Where did that living cell come from? Again, two options are a creation from some other intelligence or evolution.
So again, for this article, we take the naturalistic evolution non-intelligent intervention option. Non-living material is chemically combined to produce the cell. Okay now, where did those chemicals come from?
The planet earth. Where did the planet come from? Again cause and effect. Back and farther back we go, star system, after star system, galaxy after galaxy, combining, crashing, smashing together.
Since we know the universe is expanding or at least science tells us this and we understand that every effect has a prior cause, reason dictates that this universe has a first cause, something that caused the universe to begin expansion. You can see that we could keep going back, infinitely.
Well, what if something exists that is uncaused? What if something exists which is eternal? Whoa, head rush. I know, right? Some scientists use to believe the universe itself was eternal. Maybe the physical matter is eternal. Maybe.
The eternal
We will explore this concept further in another article, but as eternality relates to the law of causality, could something be uncaused? Can something be eternal, something always existing? Could this something that has always existed be a being?
Could the uncaused eternal be God? Even though this concept is challenging to understand, if God is true, then God, the greatest conceivable being, would have to be an eternal, uncaused being.
So as we explore the various religions, we are searching for a being who claims to be eternal and uncaused. Maybe we will never find such a being. Maybe such a being is so transcendent that he never speaks to mankind or even notices us.
Just like the other laws, the law of causality demands that we include the characteristic of uncaused, eternality in our search.
Could the cause of the universe be itself caused?
Sure, but what does that do? Back and back, cause after cause, effect after effect. While this infinite regress is possible, the other possibility is that there exists something or someone eternal and uncaused. So which pathway do we follow: infinite regress or something eternal, uncaused?
Why would we make a conclusion without testing a hypothesis? Well, my hypothesis is that there exists something that is eternal and uncaused. In addition, based on the law of identity, this something is an actual being. For now, I name this being-God.
And based on the law of non-contradiction, this being is all-knowing. Will you search for this being or just stop here? If infinite regress is the absolute truth, can we ever approach 100% certainty?
Since we cannot peer into the past beyond our universe, a being or some time capsule that survived the big bang would have to tell us. We could hold out for that knowledge. While I am waiting for that information, I am going to search for an eternal, uncaused God.
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- The law of causality is born out of time and experience within our universe.
- Why is that significant?
- The law suggests something is eternal and uncaused.
- If you agree, the next steps.
- If you disagree, please consider reading.
References and Links
The Law of Causality and the Cosmological Argument (RC Sproul)
Doesn’t the Law of Causality make a First Cause Nonsense?
What is Causation? Closer To Truth