Chapter 4 — The Properties of the First Cause

Now that we have absolute certainty that only a Creator can have created the universe and human beings, the following question arises:

What properties must the Creator possess in order to create an entire universe out of nothing?

The Creator must be necessary and independent

Everything we see in the world depends on something else in order to exist. The first cause, or the Creator, however, can depend on nothing and must necessarily exist. Consider, for example, an author and a story. The story depends for its existence on the author. If the author did not exist, the story would not exist either. The existence of the author, however, does not depend on the story. He exists whether he writes the story or not. In this context the author thus represents a necessary existence, while the story represents a dependent existence.

Outside of this context, the author, like everything else in the universe, is dependent and was caused by something. Only the Creator is a necessary existence. He is independent and must necessarily exist, like the author in the example. Otherwise the universe and human beings would not exist. Someone must have knocked over the first domino.

The first cause must be eternal

Since the first cause must necessarily exist, and its non-existence is ruled out, it can only exist beyond time and space. The Creator of the universe can therefore have neither beginning nor end. He must be eternal and have caused everything else.

The first cause must be simple and cannot consist of parts

If something consists of parts, like a tower made of stones, then it needs someone to join these parts together. That is, a tower depends on stones being present and on someone stacking them upon one another.

The Creator cannot consist of several parts. For if he consisted of parts, someone would first have to assemble these parts. And then that would be the truly first cause. Therefore the Creator must be unique and simple. He needs no one and cannot consist of parts.

The first cause must be almighty

Our Earth fits into the sun about 1.3 million times. The observable universe contains around two trillion galaxies. On average, a galaxy has about a billion stars. That makes roughly two sextillion (2 × 10²¹) stars in total. All of this came into being out of nothing. This requires an unimaginable power. Therefore the first cause must be an almighty Creator, who not only created everything but also keeps it running through perfect laws and order.

The first cause must have a will

Since the universe came into being at a particular point in time, this means that the Creator decided at a particular point in time to let it come into being. This shows that the Creator must have a will.

Conclusion

On the basis of pure logic, then, we can clearly conclude that the first cause must be an eternal, necessarily existing and almighty Creator.

Could there be several Creators?

There are people who would now claim, however, that there could be not just one but two or more Creators. Yet this is not logical, as will be shown in what follows.

The Creator must necessarily exist and can depend on nothing else. If there were two or more Creators, they would be either:

exactly the same, or
different in some way.

They cannot be exactly the same

Suppose two Creators were exactly the same in every respect — the same power, the same will. Then clearly only one of them would be needed. So if they were separate, they must differ in some way.

If they are different, one must be incomplete

But if they were different — if one has something the other does not, such as more knowledge or more power — then one is weaker, incomplete, and would need something that he does not possess. He would thereby be dependent and could not be the First Cause, for the First Cause must be absolutely independent and perfect. Therefore the First Cause can only be a single Creator. A further Creator is not logical.

Who would begin?

Thought experiment

Imagine two friends want to play a game together, like Minecraft, where you can build your own virtual world. But both say: "I will only start building if you build first." Then the world would never come into being, since neither takes the first step.

Now imagine it took several Creators to create the world. Either each one waits for the other to begin. Then nothing would happen. But that cannot be, for our universe exists and has a beginning. Or one acts alone and begins the creation. Then only this one is independent and the others would be superfluous.

Who would decide?

If two Creators have different ideas — for example, one wants the stars to shine brightly and the other wants them to shine faintly — whose idea then wins? Only one can decide what happens. In that case it would mean that one is stronger or more authoritative, which again shows that the other is dependent and not necessary.

Several Creators would lead to chaos

When we consider our universe, a breathtaking order reveals itself: planets move in precise orbits, the laws of nature act universally and unchangingly, and life itself arises through a complex sequence written into the DNA.

If several Creators had designed these things, would we not rather expect chaos? Imagine two artists painting the same picture but unable to agree on the design. One paints the sky blue, the other red. One paints trees, the other erases them again. The result? A mess.

If the universe had many Creators with differing ideas, we would likewise expect chaos — for example, planets colliding with one another, laws of nature changing from place to place, life arising randomly and not functioning properly.

But what do we actually see? We see:

The sun rises every day at exactly the right time.
The Earth is at a perfect distance from the sun, so that liquid water can exist — a prerequisite for life.
The planets move in stable orbits without colliding with one another, even though they race through space over billions of years.
The diameter of the sun is about 400 times larger than that of the moon, and the sun is about 400 times farther from the Earth than the moon, which is why the moon covers the sun during a solar eclipse.
The regular succession of spring, summer, autumn and winter, which keeps life in balance and makes it habitable.
The precise length of a day, and the daily alternation of day and night.

This kind of order and harmony permits only one conclusion: there must be a Creator who created everything and who sustains everything.

Even if they agree, one must be the Almighty

Someone might say: “Perhaps all the Creators are in complete agreement. They all work together and never quarrel.” Even if this were true, the fact that they agree would mean that they are dependent on one another and incomplete. If, for example, two Creators agree to share power equally, they cannot both be almighty.

They are limited by one another, and a true First Cause cannot be limited. It must not depend on anything else in order to exist. All the other Creators would be dependent on this one, which means that they would not be truly independent. Therefore they could not be the First Cause and would not be necessary.