John 1:1–3, 14:6 (ESV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
I’m stuck. Kronecker’s idea that numbers are created is too much. Let’s go with numbers and stuff like that being self-existent. Otherwise, we’re just banging our heads against a wall.
Me too, but at least we’ve got self-existence down.
Yeah, but how does that help? It still doesn’t answer the basic question. Where did the universe come from?
You’re right, but let’s take stock of where we are so far. We have a collection of things we see as being self-existent—numbers, mathematics, logic, right and wrong, things like that.
This includes many theorems yet to be discovered.
Very good. Let’s call all this “abstract truth.” It includes all such truth, whether we know it now or not. And, not only can we conceive of it being self-existent, we struggle to conceive of it not being self-existent.
Yeah, but abstract truth doesn’t have the power to create the universe. It can’t do anything; it’s all in the indicative. Where does the imperative come from? There must be something else.
Exactly. Whoever or whatever created the universe must be more than just abstract truth—or maybe there’s a part of truth that we haven’t figured out yet that has the power to create the universe.
So you think truth created the universe?
Something like that. I’m glad you used the word “think.” We must constantly remind ourselves that whatever we think is the answer to your original question is, at best, incomplete. More likely, it’s totally simple-minded.
But I do think that truth created the universe. Jesus said, “I am the truth.” And the Bible says that the universe was created through Him. Those references hint that something like truth created the universe.
But, again, let’s be clear that us mere mortals are simple-minded. This is just one possible interpretation—of both the Bible and of the metaphysics. It’s reasonable and plausible, which is more than the alternatives can say.
What about the alternative posed by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow in “The Grand Design”?
I’ve read the book[1] and other references, and I couldn’t agree less. They claim that the universe popped into existence out of nothing because nothing is unstable. I don’t agree with their definition of nothing.
How’s that?
Nothing is defined as that which has no properties other than the property of having no other properties. Instability is a property. Hawking and Mlodinow give nothing the power to create the universe. It all strikes me as a pun. Their nothing is something.
But this unstable something could be self-existent, right?
Sure, but has anyone made that case? They call it nothing, and since nothing is automatically self-existent, they’ve ignored that issue. They dodge it by calling the creator “nothing.” Like I said, it’s sounds like a pun.
Fair enough; I need to research more. But everything you’ve said so far is a long way from Christianity.
Yeah, we’re not there yet. I have many more fundamentals to explain first. The next one will really blow your mind, but at least we’re sure about whether it’s self-existent.
What’s that?
Time. We’re sure that it’s not self-existent.
Really? How can we know that?
See you tomorrow.
