Where do we, and everything around us, come from? Why is there no need for supernatural explanations in understanding our origins?
Atheism, as defined by its etymology and various encyclopaedic sources,1 is a position that denies the existence of God. It can take many forms and be grounded in different intellectual traditions,2 yet it consistently centres on the absence of a divine being in the worldview of those who identify as atheists. The rejection of belief in the supernatural is often viewed as indicative of intellectual enlightenment, rationality, and logical thinking. Is this assumption, however, justified, or does it oversimplify the complexities of belief and reason?
The Origin of the Universe – Everything Has a Beginning
The laws of thermodynamics are unforgiving and compell us to acknowledge that everything, including the universe itself, must have had a beginning. As scientific understanding advanced, the once-held theory of its eternal existence was gradually abandoned. No aspect of the universe exists in isolation, so new and increasingly intriguing theories began to emerge in response to these developments.
Atheism and a Belief in the Supernatural
One of the oldest riddles related to causality is the question, ‘Which came first – the chicken or the egg?’ Even young children grasp the concept of causality: every effect must have a cause. For example, a vase cannot break on its own; its breaking is the effect of someone knocking it over or placing it precariously on a shelf. While magical thinking3 is often considered a developmental stage, it is typically associated with neurotic disorders in adults.4 Yet, when asked about the origin of the universe, those who reject the notion of a divine creator often respond with, ‘It came from nothing’.
Magic?
Scientists often try to distance themselves from the widely accepted Big Bang theory. According to this theory, the universe began with an event that took place approximately 13.799 ± 0.021 billion years ago,5 before which time itself did not exist, rendering it impossible to discuss what occurred ‘before’.6 While this convenient loophole offers an explanation, it remains an insufficient answer, leaving the question, ‘What came first?’ unresolved.
Great Expansion on a Cosmic Scale
One of the greatest physicists of the last century, Alan Guth, proposed a theory in the 1980s that was intended to dispel all doubts, yet it ended up raising even more. This was the theory of cosmic inflation,7 which suggests that the early universe underwent a phase of rapid expansion driven by negative pressure. However, the same fundamental question persists: where did the material that expanded so rapidly come from?
Another renowned and respected physicist who attempted to explain the origin of the universe without providing a plausible explanation is Lawrence Krauss. In his book titled A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing,8 he describes ‘nothing’ as a quantum vacuum, thereby contradicting himself – after all, a vacuum is not truly nothing, is it? Furthermore, despite several attempts, this theory has not been proven in any way beyond mathematical models. The existence of B-mode polarization, one of the key indicators of the theory’s validity, has thus far been confirmed by only a single study.9 Although Professor Krauss’s body of work is substantial, it fails to offer a complete explanation for the origin of everything around us – nothing can come from nothing. There must have been a beginning.
The Origin of the Universe – A Beginning Without Magic?
‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’ – Gen 1:1
The creation of the universe did not require magic, nor do we need to search the farthest corners of the universe for answers about its origin. The answer is close at hand; it originates from God, who, as a Creator without a material form, has no origin Himself – He was, is, and always will be, simultaneously serving as the starting point of all things. Everything began with Him.
By the way, we recommend reading the articles:
- The Qumran Scrolls – The Most Important Discovery in Biblical Archaeology
- What is the Source of the Genetic Code?
- The Potential Impact of Extraterrestrial Beings on Religious Systems
- Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ
- Is the Biblical Age of the Universe Plausible?
Footnotes
- PWN Encyklopedia, ‘Ateizm’, PWN, https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/ateizm;3872014.html.
- Ibid.
- Reber, A., Słownik psychologii, ed. by I. Kurcz and K. Skarżyńska (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Scholar Sp. z o.o., 2002), p. 138.
- Kępiński, A., Psychopatologia Nerwic (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2002), p. 142.
- Planck Collaboration, ‘Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters’, InSpire, 5 February 2015, p. 31, https://inspirehep.net/record/1345796.
- Hawking, S., The Beginning of Time (2019), https://www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.
- Liddle, A. R. and Lyth, D. H., Cosmological Inflation and Large-Scale Structure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 175.
- ‘Księgarnia Proszynski’, https://ksiegarnia.proszynski.pl/product,62789.
- BICEP2 Collaboration, ‘First direct evidence of cosmic inflation – BICEP2 results’, 17 March 2014, https://www.bicep2.org/.
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