The Grandeur of God 3. A transcendent God, as a First Cause, created the universe but then left it to run on its own. God is thus not immanent, not fully personal, not sovereign over human affairs, not providential. Human beings, though personal, are a part of the clockwork of the universe. We can know the universe, and we can determine what God is like by studying it.
History is linear, for the course of the cosmos was determined at creation.
An Unstable Compound 4. Matter exists eternally and is all there is. God does not exist. The cosmos exists as a uniformity of cause and effect in a closed system. Death is extinction of personality and individuality.