How Did We Get Here?
Every fall, thousands of young adults leave their parents’ loving “Christian” homes to begin life at a college or university. As they eagerly take their first steps of true independence, the faith of many (like mine) faces immediate challenges they never considered during the prior eighteen years of churchgoing. But, in their search for answers, they only need to look back (way back) to where they came from. An Atheistic worldview will never give a satisfying answer to the following question: If there is no God, how did we get here?
Origins
Anyone who has taken Biology 101 at a public university knows the textbook explanation for our origins: Evolution. But, regardless of your views on the subject, it’s an insufficient answer to the question. Even if human life did originate from evolutionary processes, we haven’t relieved ourselves of the need for a Creator. We’ve only moved the timeline a few eons into the past.
The Theory of Evolution gives a possible explanation for the way lifeless matter (the rocks, dust, and breakfast cereal we’re all made of) started thinking, moving, and living in the shape of intelligent human beings. However, for it to be a truly Atheistic argument, it would need to do more. Even if Evolution is correct, it does nothing to explain how matter itself got here.
Before Evolution
Where did the universe come from? Even assuming primordial goo can spontaneously combine into a viable single-celled organism by natural processes, why are there rocks, dust, and breakfast cereal to evolve in the first place?
Let’s start on some common ground held between Christians and Atheists: everything started with a Big Bang. To borrow a quote from a Christian apologist name Frank Turek: “I believe in the Big Bang. I just know who banged it!”
Before Time and Matter
If time and matter began at the Big Bang, then they couldn’t have caused it. But, that raises a difficulty for any scientific explanation of our origins. How can science (the study of things that can be measured) give an explanation for what came before there was anything to measure?
Scientists (made of matter) use matter to measure other matter. Therefore, any explanation that tries to explain the birth of the universe through natural processes, like gravity, still hasn’t gone back far enough. If the universe is the effect, it can’t be the cause. Therefore, science has no tools to measure whatever immaterial timeless force brought everything, including matter and time, into existence.
Because science has no relevant tools, it has no idea whether the Big Bang was the result of the eternal God of Genesis 1:1 or something else. Therefore, saying God was not the origin of the Universe is just as much of a faith-claim as saying that “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.”
An Honest Faith-Claim
Though both Christianity and Atheism must make faith-claims to explain the origins of the Universe, only the Bible admits what it’s doing. But, as an introduction of the very core of the Gospel, Romans 1:17-23 doesn’t stop there. Unlike Atheism, it provides a basis for the Biblical claims.
Romans 1:17: “For in [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.””
In other words: the righteousness of God is revealed from beginning to end by faith. Paul didn’t rest his claims on scientific arguments, the authority of great thinkers, or even his own encounters with the supernatural. He said the whole Gospel rests on righteous faith. But, that’s not all.
A God Outside Time and Space
Even if some people reject it, the truth about God has been revealed. Though Christianity is based on faith, that faith is not blind.
Romans 1:18-20a “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal [timeless] power and divine [immaterial] nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
A person can’t give birth to their own mother. The existence of a Creation requires the presence of a Creator. Scripture merely points out what everyone already knew: the origin of time and space must exist outside of time and space. That eternal, divine force is God.
Obvious Evidence
Ignoring the evidence does not relieve humanity’s reliance on our Creator. Because the evidence is all around us, the very act of denying Him only reinforces the futility of our attempts.
Romans 1:20b-23 “So they [who reject God] are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
Those who reject God embark on an impossible mission: they must explain the origins of time and space without accidentally reinventing the concept of an eternal supernatural deity. So, left with no other choice, they resort to replacing God with manmade theories about the things He created.
An Obvious Conclusion
Christianity and Atheism are not new. As we saw in Romans 1, both have been making the same claims for thousands of years. But, only Christianity offers an intellectually consistent basis for its claim.
Christian faith is not blind. Unlike Atheism, it’s not based on speculation about things that science has no way of proving. Our faith is based on what we can see. The origin of time and space was started by something outside of space and time. Christians call that timeless, space-less being “God.”
Part 2 of this series asks how we should live, if there is no God.