Dialogue Between a Believer and a Skeptic, Part 1 — Self-existence
1 Peter 3:15b (ESV)
Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
I don’t think much of traditional theology; I’m a skeptic. But skepticism doesn’t answer anything, and the question of origins bothers me. So, even though I don’t think you Bible-thumpers have all the answers, at least you’ve been thinking about it. Let’s hear your ideas.
We don’t have all the answers, but we do have a few—the most important ones anyway. But let’s be clear, this is basically a subject beyond human comprehension. Serious theology will tickle your brain, but you’ll never reach the end of it. You’re asking to have your mind stretched.
Okay, here’s the basic question, “Why are we here? Why isn’t there just nothing? Where did the universe come from?”
God created the universe.
I knew you’d say that. It doesn’t help anyway; it just pushes the question back one level. Where did God come from?
God is self-existent.
Sigh. Just what I expected; still no help. What does that even mean? If God can be self-existent, then why not just say that the universe is self-existent—whatever that means?
The universe can’t be self-existent because of the second law of thermodynamics.
What? You’re pulling my leg, right? You’re going to drop science on me?
Why not? The universe can’t be self-existent because the universe won’t last forever; therefore, it can’t be infinitely old. This is textbook physics. The universe is running down thermodynamically. It’s all about entropy. The details are crazy complex, but you can read about it by researching “the heat death of the universe.”[1]
Okay, I’ll check that out later. Let’s move on. We’ll have to go back to God being self-existent. How can anything be self-existent? What does that even mean?
Something being self-existent means it must exist; it cannot not exist. Take away everything and it’s still there. You can’t get rid of it.
That doesn’t make sense.
Sure it does. Consider this, “If you have two apples and I give you two more, how many apples do you have?’
Four.
Why?
Because two plus two equals four.
Right, but suppose we don’t have any apples. Does two plus two still equal four?
Sure. Ahhh, I see where you’re going. Two plus two equals four is self-existent.
Maybe. Here’s where it gets really interesting. Two plus two equals four could be self-existent—along with all of mathematics and logic—but it might not be.
How’s that?
Leopold Kronecker famously quipped, “God made the integers, all else is the work of man.” It was tongue-in-cheek, but it raises a troubling thought—what if the things that seem self-existent actually aren’t?
Imagine a world without even the concepts of one, two, etc. If you can wrap your brain around that one, let me know, ’cuz I got nothin’.
But we’ve now gotten ourselves to a curious point. Instead of not being able to think of something that’s self-existent, we now have something that we struggle to imagine not being self-existent.
In fact, there’s a whole class of things that, as far as we can imagine, must be self-existent.
I need to go lie down now.
Yeah, that’s enough for one day. We’ll talk again tomorrow.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/science/thermodynamics/Entropy-and-heat-death
