Opinion : Causality: More evidence of the Creator God

What happens when you pop a balloon? Light a match? Write a letter? Build a car out of Legos? Feed your dog or cat? Water the grass? Or, perish the thought, shovel snow? Now, this might seem trivial, but, in each case, you caused something to happen. If you hadn’t popped the ballon or lit the match, or wrote the letter, etc., each of these objects would remain unaltered, unchanged. This is called causality. Simple. Causality is not a new idea. The ancient philosopher Aristotle developed a doctrine of causality (384-322 BC). Later in the Middle Ages, Francis Bacon (1561-1626 AD) improved the doctrine as did others after him. Modern explanations abound through many popular authors such as C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and John Frame. Basically, causality is understood this way: every effect must have a cause. A popped balloon (effect) requires a balloon-popper (cause). A lighted match (effect) requires match-lighter (cause). And so on. For every observable effect, there must be someone or something that caused the effect to occur. To my knowledge, there is no exception to this law. The above summary is a positive description: things are caused by something else. But causality can also be explained negatively like this: something cannot come from nothing. Or, nothing is self-created, self-assembled, or self-sustained. In other words, nothing exists without a sufficient cause or causes. For example, I don’t suppose I’ll ever find a letter that was not written by someone. I may find one that has no signature, but that hardly means no one wrote it. No, letters require at least these essentials: a letter writer, a writing instrument (pen or pencil), a writing medium (paper or notepad), and, if you’re a bad hand-writer like me, an eraser. All letters have letter-writers, and, there are no letters that did not have someone to write them. Here’s another example. My oldest son enjoys building things out of Legos. His latest and greatest creation looks like a Boeing 747 airliner equipped with realistic windows, seats, and jet engines. When I saw it sitting on his bed one afternoon, I marveled at its complexity, realism and careful design. Even though he hadn’t told me yet that he had built it earlier that afternoon, I assumed someone had assembled it. And, as it turns out, I was right! Later that evening, he told me he had taken several hours to follow a detailed, step by step plan for constructing this behemoth Lego aircraft, and was very proud of his creation. I was never tempted to think the Lego 747 had self-assembled or self-created itself. It didn’t even cross my mind. So, causality is an old idea that seems to working at the present moment. What is a rather new idea (less than 300 years old) is the world, the universe, even the entire ‘cosmos’ (everything) made itself by an incredibly long series of self-caused causes. Now that’s an incredible idea! That’s even more incredible than finding a self-assembled Boeing 747 Lego airplane. That’s even more incredible than finding a real, flying Boeing 747 airplane that wasn’t assembled by anyone. If these kinds of things don’t happen, isn’t it hard to imagine an entire self-caused, self-assembled, self-sustaining universe? I think winning the million-dollar lottery every time you visit the convenience store would be easier. Please understand- I’m not opposed to new ideas. In fact, most of the things this world enjoys (electricity, fancy cars, luxurious heated & cooled homes, iPods and the Internet) have all come from new ideas. New ideas advance our modern world and we all enjoy their benefits. What I am opposed to are new ideas that don’t correspond with reality, ideas like the world somehow forming by itself, without a Creator, without a Divine Sustainer. Of course, you may disagree. However, the ultimate decider is not what you think or I think, but what is true- what corresponds with reality. What we need is some kind of test, some kind of experiment that will demonstrate the truth of causality. We need to find out whether things actually cause (create or assemble or sustain) themselves, or if they require some kind of outside cause or causer. Here’s a simple ‘causality test’ you can try at home. The aim of this causality test is to determine whether watches are self-caused and self-assembled, or if they require an outside causer and assembler. Step 1: Acquire a watch. I recommend a cheap (but working and fully functional) wrist-watch you can buy at any discount store. Step 2: Completely disassemble the watch and throw all the pieces in a container. Step 3: Let it sit for a month or a year and check back later to see if it has reassembled itself. If it hasn’t, proceed to step 4. Step 4: Shake it up a bit. Shake it some more. Let your kids shake it up. If nothing else, take it to the hardware store and have them shake it in one of their noisy paint agitators. Step 5: Record the results and draw your conclusion. Unless you happen to come out with a reassembled watch, you have observed first-hand the law of causality. Watches cannot come from nothing, nor can they self-create, self-assemble, or self-sustain themselves. They must have another greater cause- a watch maker. If simple wrist-watches never come from nothing, so also the incredibly complex universe, the entire cosmos, both seen and unseen, cannot have come from nothing. The universe cannot self-create, self-assemble, or self-sustain itself. It must have another greater cause- a Creator. This idea has been around a long, long time. In fact, the very first verse of the Bible begins with this idea: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). In other words, God is the Causer by which all things, the entire cosmos, were made.

If time remains in the future, I hope to give other reasons to believe in the Creator God. And after that, I would like to give you his identity and character.