The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel [52]
I closed the magazine and tossed it on Craig’s desk. “Maybe Tryon was right when he said, ‘I offer the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.’ ” 21
Craig was listening intently. “Okay, that’s a good question,” he replied. “These subatomic particles the article talks about are called ‘virtual particles.’ They are theoretical entities, and it’s not even clear that they actually exist as opposed to being merely theoretical constructs.
“However, there’s a much more important point to be made about this. You see, these particles, if they are real, do not come out of nothing. The quantum vacuum is not what most people envision when they think of a vacuum—that is, absolutely nothing. On the contrary, it’s a sea of fluctuating energy, an arena of violent activity that has a rich physical structure and can be described by physical laws. These particles are thought to originate by fluctuations of the energy in the vacuum.
“So it’s not an example of something coming into being out of nothing, or something coming into being without a cause. The quantum vacuum and the energy locked up in the vacuum are the cause of these particles. And then we have to ask, well, what is the origin of the whole quantum vacuum itself? Where does it come from?”
He let that question linger before continuing. “You’ve simply pushed back the issue of creation. Now you’ve got to account for how this very active ocean of fluctuating energy came into being. Do you see what I’m saying? If quantum physical laws operate within the domain described by quantum physics, you can’t legitimately use quantum physics to explain the origin of that domain itself. You need something transcendent that’s beyond that domain in order to explain how the entire domain came into being. Suddenly, we’re back to the origins question.”
Craig’s answer satisfied me. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any rational objection that could seriously jeopardize the initial assertion of the kalam argument. And it has been that way since the early philosophers began to use it centuries ago.
“Even the famous skeptic David Hume didn’t deny the first premise,” Craig noted. “Hume wrote in 1754, ‘I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a cause.’ 22 It wasn’t until the discovery of scientific confirmation for the beginning of the universe in the twentieth century that people began to say, well, maybe the universe just came from nothing.
“Nobody has defended such an absurd position historically,” said Craig, “which, again, makes me inclined to think this is just a corner they’re being backed into by the evidence for the beginning of the universe.”
STEP #2: THE UNIVERSE HAD A BEGINNING
Turning to the second premise of the kalam argument, I said to Craig, “If we were sitting here a hundred years ago, the idea that the universe began to exist at a specific point in the past would have been very controversial, wouldn’t it?”
“No question about it,” replied Craig. “The assumption ever since the ancient Greeks has been that the material world is eternal. Christians have denied this on the basis of biblical revelation, but secular science always assumed the universe’s eternality. Christians just had to say, well, even though the universe appears static, nevertheless it did have a beginning when God created it. So the discovery in the twentieth century that the universe is not an unchanging, eternal entity was a complete shock to secular minds. It was utterly unanticipated.”
Still, I needed evidence. “How do we really know that the universe started at some point in the past?” I asked. “What proof is there?”
“Essentially,” said