The God Argument

As human beings, we are very inquisitive creatures. Curiosity killed the cat. From setting foot on the moon to building international space stations and now aiming to commercialize space travel, our imagination knows no bounds, or at least that's what we tell ourselves. The sky is the limit or in this case the space! Young kids are born geniuses before the dear old education system intervenes to strip them of their creative powers and do its best to make them redundant like a piece of cardboard lying on the floor of a warehouse.

It's great to ask questions and it's incumbent to provide answers to these questions. To quote Anthony Hopkins in Westworld, consciousness is not a journey upwards. It's a journey inward. It's not a pyramid. It's a maze! After all, belief in religion must be grounded and based upon logic, rationality, and sound reasoning that must not be contradicted by the laws of science, mathematics, philosophy, or any other discipline. So, strap your seat belts, and let's dig into the matter.

Let us say as men of religion that God Created the Universe. Since the atheist will base his rationale on the principle of empiricism (believing in what one sees), let's leave out Heaven and Hell from the discussion temporarily. Let us for now restrict the definition of the Universe to encompass human beings, animals, DNA, trees, fruits, vegetables, natural landscapes, the planets, the galaxies, and so on.

You can fit 1.3 million Earths into the Sun. There are stars out there that are millions of times bigger than the Sun. Millions of these stars unite to form a galaxy and there are zillions of galaxies out there as scientifically proven, courtesy of the Hubble Telescope. Things don't pop into existence out of anything. From nothing, nothing comes. A chocolate bar or a cell phone can’t come into existence on its own. How can one say the same about the entire universe? You see, the entire universe is bound by the principle of causation (cause and effect). Take out this theory and the whole of modern-day science would simply cease to function.

Let's look at this with another analogy. We all love trips to the bowling alleys. Could the bowling balls launch themselves on the tracks and go on to hit their respective targets? In addition, take the case of a falling stack of dominoes. Could they fall on their own without an external force initiating the sequence? To quote the highly revered Dr Zakir Naik, a building necessitates a builder. A painting can’t come into its existence without a painter. Software can’t have its inception without a software programmer. There are 3.2 billion genomes in a DNA strand. The atheist scientist Richard Dawkins himself stated in his book "Blind Watchmaker" that the information contained in human DNA equals the information stored in 10,000 sets of encyclopaedias. An encyclopaedia does not simply pop into existence out of thin air. How could our information book of life not have a cause?

Speculating over the topic of religion and more importantly launching public discourse on it is tantamount to holding two hot pieces of coal in today’s internet-wired, satellite-covered global village. However, at some stage in life, we all have these questions we ask ourselves. What is the bigger picture behind existence? What is the ultimate taxonomy of life? In the greater scheme of things, does the distinction between the past, present and future amount to nothing more than a wavering and unprecedented illusion? Living in this world is pretty much like waking up and finding yourself on a train. It started from somewhere and is headed towards a final destination but you don’t have information about it. You see people around you laughing, eating, drinking and gossiping. Yet, when you ask them about it, to your surprise, you realise that not only do they not know but they don’t happen to care one bit either!

For me. Mohammad Hamza Nasir, a happy-go-lucky individual trying to live life at its most audacious and visionary, the whole concept of existence symbolises the quest to answer the following three questions:

1. Where did I come from?

2. What will happen after I die?

3. What is my purpose in this world?

Let us strive to answer the first question. It is almost unanimously believed and scientifically proved that the whole world emerged from a point of singularity, some 13.8 billion years ago, courtesy of the Big Bang. Previously, there was this widely held doctrine that the universe was fixed in size and infinite in existence, meaning that it had been always there. In the face of scientific progress, this narrative has been delivered an effective death blow. Owing to the second law of thermodynamics, the amount of usable energy in the universe is decreasing. Had the universe been infinitely old, it would have experienced a heat death by now.

As established earlier, from nothing, nothing comes. This negates the possibility of the universe having been created from nothing (Let us not forget that virtually all the facets of the theory of evolution have been disproved in real-time with there being virtually no fossil record to substantiate the claim). One might add that perhaps the universe created itself, but it begs the question that how could something create itself when it was not even in existence at one stage. This universe most certainly does not explain itself.

Third Possibility! The Universe was created by something created. Let us ponder over this viewpoint! If the Universe was put into existence by a cause that was itself created, it begs the question ‘What was the cause that caused the cause?’ Other pops up. What was the cause that caused the cause that caused the cause? What was the cause that caused the cause that caused the cause that caused the cause? And so forth! This would ultimately lead to an infinite regress of causes which means that the universe would have never come into existence in the first place! However, the universe did come into existence and to quote the Esteemed Mathematician Gauss, an actual infinite in terms of numbers simply does not exist. It is an erroneous prospect which does not make any sense, scientifically, philosophically, or conceptually speaking. The Hilbert Hotel paradox is a perfect means of illustrating a case for the dismissal of the actual infinite in real-time.

This leads us to the fourth and final possibility that the universe was created by something uncreated. There must be an external entity responsible for the creation of the universe. An Uncaused Causer! An Unmoved Mover! An Uncreated Creator! Difficult to fathom for us limited beings but certainly the most rational and logically feasible argument of all the above! To quote Stephen King, a finite mind cannot comprehend the infinite. If my finite mind could comprehend an infinite God, he most certainly would not be worthy of being worshipped.

An All-Mighty, All-Powerful, Self-Sufficient, Independent, Transcendent, Transcendental, Necessary, Maximally Perfect and Eternal Deity who is the sole Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. There could not be multiple Gods. Had that been the case, they would have destroyed the universe in their quest for power.

The ontological argument states that God, being defined as most great or perfect, must exist since a God who exists is greater than a God who does not exist. The teleological argument makes a riveting case for the existence of God on the evidence of order, and, hence, design in the universe. For instance. If the mass of a proton or the distance between electrons was changed by one tiny bit, the universe would cease to exist. Hence, there must be a fine tuner. Another example of the fine-tuning argument is the Fibonacci sequence, which depicts a constant design signature, witnessed in various natural phenomena, including but not limited to snail shells, human fingerprints, the formation of hurricanes as well as the creation of galaxies.

Additionally, we can also look at the Kalam Cosmological Argument which states the following:

· Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

· The universe began to exist.

· Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Once you make sufficient rebuttals to repudiate the concept of evolution and make a compelling case for creationism, there is another objection raised by atheists, agnostics and sceptics! If God created the universe, then who created God? I appreciate the question but one has to realise that at the end of the day, it is an invalid question. It's like asking who did John give birth to? Or what does blue taste like? Or how much noise does silence make? Every painting has a painter, and every building has a builder, similarly, the universe has a creator. Just like we infer the talents of the artist based on his artwork; similar we attempt to assess the attributes of the Creator based on his handiwork.

The universe comprises three primordial constituents: time, space, and matter. We define the mass of human beings as the fixed quantity of matter present in all of us. Eating, drinking, answering nature’s call, reproducing, and sleeping are needs of the material body. Just like the man who designed a robot, or a smartphone would not be needing electricity to operate himself, similarly, the one who created matter therefore would not be limited to its shortcomings. The creator is not bound by the laws and limitations of his creation.

Also, if we look at Einstein’s theory of special relativity, we find that time is relative to matter. Stephen Hawking himself concluded that time did not exist before the big bang. Time (past, present and future), space (length, width, breadth) and matter (solid, liquid, gas) had to come into creation simultaneously at the time of the Big Bang. If you had time and matter but no space, you wouldn’t know where to put it. Similarly, if you had space and matter but no time, you wouldn’t know when to put it. Therefore, the deity who created time, space and matter is not bound or affected by any of it and hence, God is eternal, or in other words, exists timelessly, without beginning or end. He is not affected by slumber, hunger, or any other issue. He is not prone to any weaknesses and has been perfect and majestic in his grace always. His dominion is the Heavens and the Earth, and he has no partners on his throne.

Last, but not least, you could reciprocate the Kalam Cosmological Argument to make a sensational case for the existence of God.

· Whatever does not begin to exist doesn’t have a cause.

· God didn’t begin to exist.

· God does not have a cause.

The buck stops with God! The All-Powerful Creator and Sustainer of the Universe! Rather than debating over a universe with God versus a universe without God, the discussion should be God and the Universe versus nothing at all. Since we do exist and since we have sufficient grounds to believe that this world is not merely a simulation, hence all praise be to God, Lord of the Heavens, and the Earth.

In the next blog, we will present scientific and scriptural evidence for the existence of God. Till then, keep rocking and stay blessed! Assalamalaikum!