Countless religious writings and ruins confirm that humans can’t help but worship something or someone. Should we worship Thor, Jesus, Molech, ourselves, or what? Previous articles in this series introduced truth as knowable and laws of logic as a means toward clear answers for core questions like this one. Here, we present the seven fundamental worldviews and short reasons to eliminate six of them.
We can start by asking how we all got here. Could our universe have started without a beginner? By definition, nothing cannot cause anything. In other words, everything in the universe is an effect, and since there are no uncaused effects, the universe is also an effect. Thus, we couldn’t have come from nothing. That which has a beginning is finite, or has a set time frame of existence, like the universe does. But that which has no beginning or end is infinite. How can anything begin without a beginner, or first cause? Our world began supernaturally, so it had a beginner—a supernatural being.
A popular worldview today, atheism asserts that no god exists or ever did. It requires no beginner where one is necessary. Atheism is out from the get-go.
So, is this beginner finite, infinite, or both? This question brings us to our second worldview, finite godism. Here’s why it doesn’t work. Any finite god also had a beginning. How did it begin? An infinite string of past finite causes would forever reach backward, keeping us from reaching this moment. We can cross finite godism off the list.
This same treatment applies to polytheism. Ancestor worship falls under this worldview. Whether there’s just one finite god or many (“poly”) finite gods, they couldn’t have made our finite universe. Sorry, Zeus and Thor, Buddha and Baal. Your finitude disqualifies you.
Three down, four to go. What if the uncaused First Cause is partly infinite and partly finite? Philosophers call this worldview panentheism. It defies logic, much like a round square. A finite infinite? No wonder so few people take this option.
So far, a first cause must exist, must be uncaused, and cannot be finite. One last question discerns between the last three worldviews. Where is this necessary being? Is it entirely within the universe, totally locked out of the universe, or outside of it but able to fiddle with it?
Pantheism is the name for a god who is in the universe or is somehow itself the universe. Hinduism fits this worldview. However, since the universe is winding down—stars burn out, comets burn up, energy and matter get less organized, etc.—its cause has to be immune from decay. Its cause thus necessarily lies outside the universe.
Though no longer popular, some of America’s Founding Fathers identified as deists. Deism asserts that although “God” was the first cause, he stays outside the universe. This worldview evades miracles, which presents a problem: deists invoke a god who performed the miracle of creation, but deny his ability to perform miracles throughout history. Such a contradiction crosses deism off the list. The last option looks peerless: theism.
The theistic worldview suffers no logical lapses. Hooray! It holds to an uncaused First Cause of our finite universe, who we call God. He possesses eternal being because He is the Creator of all beings. He is infinite, having no beginning or end. He exists outside the universe, but He can interact within it. He made it and can even remake it if He wants.
Philosophers have offered many other reasons to get behind theism. Their observations should encourage anyone willing to consider or accept this worldview, so expect that in the next article.
Dr. Thomas is a research scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in paleobiochemistry from the University of Liverpool.
