The Universe has a Purpose

To the opposition, thank you for accepting my challenge, and good luck. I intend to argue that the universe has a purpose. I do not necessarily argue the existence of any specific deity to act as such a purpose, simply that there must be an initial being of some form. My argument will be in part, one of elimination, and rule out the two core secular explanations for the universe not having a purpose. Firstly that something, cannot spring from nothing. Secondly, that the universe cannot be eternal. The other part of my argument will be largely exclusive from the first, and take the form of the two major arguments for the existence of an initial being, the cosmological and teleological arguments. Primarily, something cannot come from nothing. This is evident, as nothing as such, has no power, mass, force, or even existence. Nothing is, unsurprisingly - nothing. This means that in a supposed eternity and infinity of nothing before the universe, there is no possibility that creation could have been caused. Nothing by definition cannot cause, cannot create, literally has no influence upon anything. Therefore this explanation is unsound. Secondly, the universe cannot be eternal. Not only does the cosmological argument show this in theory, but scientific methods have proved this eternal universe unsound in practice. Audrey Mithani and Alexander Vilenkin at Tufts University in Massachusetts stated in 2003 that an infinite universe "must contain trajectories that stretch infinitely into the past." Trajectories cannot be infinite if they are part of a universe that expands, such as the one we inhabit. Furthermore, it is then stated that both a "cyclical universe" and "universes of eternal inflation" both expand in this style. Therefore the universe cannot be eternal, and must have an initial point. Since this cannot be nothing, due to elimination we must conclude that the universe must have been caused by some form of eternal being or deity, and therefore must have purpose. The next part of my core argument entails the often used cosmological argument. This states that as we can observe that everything in reality is caused by something else, that the universe too, must have a cause. Since there is no possibility of an infinite chain of causality, as this is illogical, there must be a first cause which is in itself not caused, and not part of the limited universe. This first cause in itself must be a god, or god-like being, as this is the only thing which needs no cause. This promotes meaning and purpose in the universe, as a god-like being existing infinitely must have had specific reasons and motives for creating the universe and time, otherwise it would simply not have done so, and therefore the universe has purpose. Finally, the teleological argument. In my argument I shall be applying this directly to life. When life was first created on this planet, (we shall go with the most popular theory, if you wish to amend this please state so) through a combination of chemicals and an addition of energy, what was it that forced this first cell to live on? What made it "live" in the first place? Why did this initial form of life feel the urges to reproduce, to feed, to continue, to live on - surely this set of chemicals would be unthinking like any other? What sets life apart? There is no technical reason that I can see why life itself would have the initial basic instincts that are required to show the properties of life. Even the most complex chemical molecules do not actively seek out any goal or purpose, why then - does life? I cannot see any explanation for the complex initiative and active nature of life, other than there being a specific design or purpose behind such which enabled it to be as it is. Overall therefore, due to the ruling out of specific secular explanations of the universes creation, the only possibility is that of an eternal being. Furthermore, the teleological and cosmological arguments not only reinforce the idea of a first cause as an eternal being, but also show through life that the universe as we know it would not be possible without design or specific creation. Therefore, the universe has a purpose. Thank you for considering my argument. References: http://www.technologyreview.com... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org...