In the end, the beginning ends up coming down to only two possibilities. Once you cut through all the rhetoric, your starting point either has to be God or no God. If you hold the atheist position, then you have to believe that matter or energy is eternal.

Eternal God or eternal matter; take your pick. It’s one or the other. There is no other option. [The Eastern concept of “all is illusion” isn’t considered here because that falls under the presumption of an eternal God, but goes off in an irrational direction.]

While believing in an eternal God as the origin of the universe is an eminently rational and internal consistent assumption, belief in eternal matter is a self-contradiction. Let me explain...

One of the primary tenets of science is that we understand the past and future by what we observe in the present. It is through experimentation and repeatability that the value of a scientific proposal is given weight. One of the undeniable principles that governs the physical universe is the law of Cause and Effect. All currents effects owe their existence to a prior cause. This means the universe as a whole requires a Cause. But the eternal matter/energy position says the physical universe has always been, it doesn’t owe it existence to a First or Prior Cause. So in asserting this, the eternal matter position has to deny one of its fundamental guidelines; it contradicts itself.

The eternal God position however, fits well within the Law of Cause and Effect that we see governing the physical universe. God is the sufficient First Cause. The objection that all we’re doing by inserting God into the origin of the universe is driving the issue back one step but still without resolve, is false. It’s false because the question, “Where did God come from?” doesn’t apply. By the very definition of what we mean by “God” had no prior cause. He is eternal and owes His existence to nothing else. By “God” we also mean a Sufficient Cause, able to bring the physical universe into existence.

The objection of some to the existence of God because science falls short of validating His existence is simply ludicrous. Science by it’s very nature only deals with the evidentiary, with the physical universe. It doesn’t possess the tools to “prove” God. Such is the realm of philosophy and reason. What science does do is provide enough insight about the physical universe that one is logically driven to the conclusion that an eternal, all-powerful God does indeed exist, even more – must exist.

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