This week, a theist friend of mine at work sent me a link to this article about the Big Bang. It's pretty standard Christian apologetics work, and William Lane Craig uses this sort of thing in his Kalam Cosmological Argument. My friend just wanted my response.
Here's what I wrote back:
If people seek an answer to why the universe exists, rather than nothing at all, I don't see how saying, "God made it," makes more sense of it or "explains" that better. For after all, it is entirely possible that nothing could've existed, even no God. In addition, as the article pointed out, but didn't further explain, there are logical issues when one wonders, "What could cause a timeless being to 'create' out of nothing? What could prompt the creation itself? What would disrupt the timeless stasis of a god's existence? If god is 'outside of' time, does that mean concepts like 'before' and 'after' don't work? How could that be?..." and on and on and on...It's kind of funny that I mentioned Wiesel a few weeks ago, because my workplace had a Holocaust survivor come and give a speech and this person and I spoke briefly afterwards and I got to ask her thoughts on him. She said, "He was a lot older than I was during it [she was 10 during the worst of it, he was about 16], and he saw a lot of worse things than I did [he was in Auschwitz], so I understand his different perspective."
So I don't think a god makes more sense of existence. A god just sort of transposes all our mystery and lack of understanding into one package.
Basically there is a "gap" that a god can fit in with respect to making the universe, but that doesn't really explain why we ought to believe that a god DOES exist and DID create the universe. So I'm granting that it's possible that some form of Deism is true. But I just don't think there's a good reason to think it is true.
To me, the experience of daily life, the suffering and arbitrary evils of the world, are strong evidence (and maybe even logical proof) that no good and powerful being exists. It's possible a powerful one does, I suppose, but I don't see a good reason to believe it. Therefore, even if god does explain the universe (which I disputed above as it is hardly an 'explanation'), while my version of the universe remains unexplained, then I guess that's just how it is.
Your thoughts on my thoughts?
PS: Check out Victor Stenger
http://www.amazon.com/God-Failed-Hypothesis-Science-Shows/dp/1591024811
He's an expert on cosmology and has a lot to say about different arguments for theism based on science.
