It is Probable That God Does Not Exist

The first argument for God's existence is based on Aquinas's cosmological argument, which essentially states that, in our universe, every effect requires a cause, which in turn must be caused by some other cause, and so forth. This chain of events cannot exist in and of itself, for if each event is caused by something else, nothing would come into existence. The existence of the series of events, then, must be attributed to something that exists independently from the series. This separate cause, says Aquinas, is God. [1] My opponent will likely object here that some phenomena in quantum physics can in fact be their own cause. [2][3][4] It should be noted here that, even in quantum mechanics, causality is still thought to be retained. [5][6] The appearance of matter spontaneously relies on the presence of quantum fields, and we have no explanation for where these come from. [7] Even discounting this, Anselm's cosmological argument can still be applied to the origin of the universe because any origin theories rely on the laws of quantum physics themselves. [7] All of my opponent's arguments presuppose the existence of the laws of physics in order for the universe to have come into existence spontaneously. None of the arguments given (in fact, none at all that I am aware of) provide any explanation for the existence of physical laws. Because the universe itself cannot exist without these principles, the laws of physics are, in a sense, a part of the chain of causality, and must be explained. My opponent's own source readily admits this, saying, "The 'divine spark' was whatever produced the laws of physics ... And I don't know what produced that divine spark." Furthermore, that same source says that the possibility of a Big Bang origin to the universe without the existence of a deity does nothing to disprove the existence of God. [2] My opponent's source does ask, if this is the case, who caused God? However, Aquinas's argument does not require God to have a cause. Rather, it only says that everything that exists in our physical universe must have some cause. Thus, God, as a being that by definition transcends the physical universe, does not necessarily have to have a beginning or a cause. He is outside the series of events, and therefore is not bound by the laws which are a part of that series. [1] My second argument for the existence of a God is that the universe appears to be fine-tuned to allow life to exist. In addition to being unable to explain the very existence of physical laws, the origin theories given by my opponent cannot explain why these laws appear to be fine-tuned to allow life to exist. Everything from the amount of matter in the universe to the mass of quarks, if changed even slightly, would render life impossible. [7] The fine-tuning of the universe is almost undeniable. While it is hard to determine the probability of such a universe coming about either by chance or by design, it is certain that it is much more likely that an intelligent designer would have made our universe than that it would come about by chance. [8] Consider the following analogy. A person who lives in the Amazon jungle, completely separate from modern civilization, is walking along a riverbank when she finds a watch in the dirt. Even though she is unfamiliar with most technology and has never seen a watch before, she recognizes that every piece is designed to make the hands move. Its symmetry, efficiency, and evident purpose make her suppose that it is man-made. It is highly improbable, in her mind, that this object could occur in nature, and she is right. Similarly, when faced with the complexity and apparent design in our universe, a philosophical tool called "inference to the best explanation" [9] says that we should assume that the universe was designed by an intelligent creator. I thank my opponent and look forward to their response. Sources: [1] D'Souza, Dinesh. "What's So Great About Christianity?" p88 [2]http://www.space.com... [3]https://profmattstrassler.com... [4]https://arxiv.org... [5]http://crossexamined.org... [6]https://phys.org... [7]https://cosmosmagazine.com... [8]http://www.discovery.org... [9]https://plato.stanford.edu...