If there was a first cause for the universe, why put a beard on it and call it God?

Question

When we look back at the chain of events that led to our existence - evolution, the formation of the solar system, and all the way back to the Big Bang - we naturally feel that there cannot have been an infinite regression of causes, and that at some point there must have been something that caused all this, but was itself uncaused.

Supposing that this is true, why do we anthropomorphise this first cause, assign it human characteristics, and assume that it is deeply concerned with the minutiae of human lives? Isn't it more reasonable to assume a natural event just like all the other natural events which led to the existence of the observable universe?

Sho-Nuff: Interesting hypotheses! :-)

Answer 1

How can we possibly begin to understand something that created everything.. a first cause? The only way man can relate to something is to humanize it.. think of how we humanize animals.. we give them our personality traits, our characteristics.. the same thing with computers, et al.. it's our only way of relating to that.. make it more.. human.

Great question, btw!

Answer 2

I can't claim for other belief systems, but from a Christian point of view, first we know that the cause must have been sentient, especially given the intricate complexities of the universe, from spiderwebs to quantum singularities. Such things do not happen by accident. One evolutionist explained evolution as being "like a tornado assembling a 747 in a junk yard. That's the view of someone who AGREED with it.

For this reason, we know that someone had to perpetuate it. As to why we put humanlike characteristics to this cause, it's more of the other way around. We deduce characteristics that we have as humans are deduced from the fact that we are image of this all powerful being.

The reason that Christians believe that God is concerned with us is based on many things. For one thing there is the fact that He communicates with us on a regular basis. People who are not Christians don't always buy that, but it's really not important what is believed, just what is. We have the Scriptures which he has given us, a series of books written over the course of 1600 years by men from all walks of life and is perfectly consistent (and if you don't believe that, find a secular scholar on the Bible and ask them). We also have the fact that if this perfect and holy God was not deeply concerned with our small vapors of lives, He would have destroyed us all a long time ago.

The problem of assuming a natural event goes back to the same problem that the rest of a self-generating universe theory has. What came before it? With this there never can be a first event, because of the simple law of action and reaction. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If there was never an action, then there would never be a reaction, and thus there would never be any event. The recent discoveries with quantum physics backs this up, as the traditional Copenhagen model has been mostly discarded due to the problem of probability.

The Copenhagen model, since most here are probably not familiar with it, states that there are no laws in science, only probabilities. However, a probability can still be a 100% or 0%. In the case of something causing itself, that probability still remains at 0%, so even in the probability category, a self generating existence cannot occur.

The newer model, called the Bohmian Model, claims that there are no random events, rather all things, in theory, could be completely predicted if a person had complete scientific information. According to Einstein in his classic "God does not play dice" article, probability is only something that is used due to the lack of information. Under this model, we can make more sense of things like particle duality (how light is both a particle and a wave), we just don't have the sufficient information to know the answer yet.

The same is true with first cause. We have sufficient scientific evidence to show that the universe did not start itself, but we don't have the knowledge of what started the universe, and it's knowledge that scientifically will never exist.

Answer 3

Where do you get this BIG Bang thing from?

If it did occur, where did the energy and all that it consists of come from? What set it into motion, and why? Actually, why any of this? What is the purpose? Why have humans come to this place, for no time at all compared to the existence of other things, then leave this place?

You want to judge but you cannot explain your own self! For openers, no one has ever seen anyone! We see arms, legs, feet, chest, but we do not see the person!

We have cut off the arms, exchanged the heart, lungs, eyes, what ever, but the person remained. Therefore, what was cut off or removed is not the person; those are only things that are used!

Where were you before you came here? Where will you go when you leave here?

Humans never created anything? We have used what exists to format other objects, but humans have never created anything!

Do you have an explanation for creation? The why the reason, the purpose! Humans do not care about what is going on in other galaxies.

Why should they even be there? Who/what created them?

Create is not the same as mixing what ever already exist! Where the program did come from that a seed should use water/heat/and soil to grow, bloom, create another seed/ it fall to the earth and repeat the cycle? What caused this plan to come into existence and all the support for it perfectly balanced out? Why?

Answer 4

When a child is just a couple of years old and he asks his father what is a star, the father may choose to tell him a story, instead of giving him a scientific answer, because he is wise and he is aware of the requirements for the age of his son.
He probably knows very well that stars are not little lights that God lights up in the sky at night but he may choose to tell him that story because he wants to stimulate his imagination or because he knows that he is not able to understand a more elaborate scientific answer.
In some countries small kids are warned not to walk in the dark because there is a mysterious and scary creature hidden in the darkness. This warning has it's wisdom in the fact that it is dangerous for a small child to walk in a place where he can not see very well. So instead of an elaborate explanation on why he shouldn't be walking in the dark -that he would probably not understand anyway- a different teaching technique is used where the imagination of the small child is used.
Mankind has gone through a period of infancy a childhood an adolescence and is now painfully entering the age of maturity of the human race. If we analise the religious beliefs of his childhood with our scientific knowledge of the 21 st century we will of course be amused by them.
It would be like telling the same story of stars being little lights that God lights up at night, to our child that is now 21 years old. He will probably laugh at it because he now knows about suns and galaxies and a lot more.

Regarding your question to call the "First Cause" a "Natural Event". A Creator can not lack a quality that his creation has. If we are intelligent human beings then me must assume necessarily that our creator is at least as intelligent as we are. Therefore this "Natural Event" is an intelligent entity and not a mindless entity as the words natural event may suggest.

Answer 5

We don't put a face to the creation, God did. God told us he is deeply concerned and that we are not an accident thrown out in a dumpster somewhere.

Human reason is oftentimes a roadblock to human progression. There is plenty of evidence of that, just read a little history, it will become immediately obvious. Being human we are ALL subject to being wrong at times and for some dumb reason we have an intense fear of being wrong to the point that even if we are wrong we just scream louder that we are right in the hopes that the volume and pitch of our voices will somehow change truth.

No, God lives. God did create us. He did create this earth. He does love us each individually. Just because we cannot comprehend the infiniteness of God does not mean that God does not exist.

Answer 6

Actually, the first cause need not have been "uncaused". Imagine an eternal ring of causes in which each event is caused by a preceding event but there is no first event.

There is no need to anthropomorphise the origin or ultimate ordering prinicple of the universe, people have not always thought that way it is a characteristic of monotheism.

Answer 7

In addition we assume that the act was inentional. Why couldn't two gods be doing the do and accidently get pregnant and create the universe. It happens here all the time.

Perhaps they didn't want to raise it and left it in a dumpster somewhere and that is where all of the turmoil comes from.

Answer 8

I suggest reading Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches by Marvin Harris for an excellent perspective on why we do what we do. Mr. Harris has a wonderful insight that explains the origin of superstitions in rational, objective and credible terms. I rarely hear any references to his work when people are trying to understand superstition. Perhaps I am the only one here who has read his work?

Answer 9

''God'' is mind control. ''God'' was made up by man, on Earth, a tiny planet indistinguishable to thousands of others. It would be arrogant to think that this ''god,'' -that we made up, created the Universe, the Universe is a BIG place, and we are not the only civilization that exists in it. These sad little people who rant on about ''god'' seriously need to get a life, grow up and accept scientific fact.

Answer 10

Except that this wonderful Cause choose to reveal Him/Her self to humans as God. And this wonderful God Who caused the big bang or what ever it was that started creation, decided to live among us as Jesus. And this wonderful Jesus decided not to allow people killing Him from showing us how much God loves us by forgiving the killers and by coming back to live in us as the Holy Spirit and in Holy Communion and in the Sacraments and in our daily lives. We did not create God because we needed some answer as to Who started us being here in the first place. God, for some reason, created us and loves us.