But a modern someone will say, “You have faith, I have science. Show me your belief without science, and I will show you my belief by my science.”
Faith versus science. Such a sentiment lies behind virtually all discussions of the creation of the cosmos, including human origins. We live in a cultural moment where faith is said to be opposed to science. Moderns relegate faith beliefs to the realm of private ruminations, not to be relied upon as the basis for any scientific explanations.
But are modern scientists and “freethinkers,” as God-deniers often style themselves, really free of faith as a basis for their thinking about creation? Surprisingly, it seems that those who are not free to think about a creative agent to explain the cosmos require more faith to support their science. Whether more or less, one thing is true: Any view of creation rests on a foundation of faith.
At its most basic, classical, level the question of the origin of the cosmos derives from an idea attributed to Parmenides: nothing comes from nothing. Stated differently, if ever nothing existed, surely nothing would exist now. Setting aside the philosophical musings of what “nothing” is or isn’t, we can all agree that “something” exists today. And every ounce of our human reason and every bit of our human experience informs us that everything that exists was caused to exist by something else.
Something else? But what caused that something? And the something before that, and the something before that, and . . .
From Parmenides onward, great thinkers in history agree: because something exists today, a first cause must have eternally existed uncaused. The uncomfortable implication of this unscientific notion—that a first cause of the universe must have existed eternally, uncaused—looms imposingly in any path of reason as a Wall of Impossible Truth.
The path to any complete scientific explanation of the cosmos is blocked by this seemingly impenetrable wall blocking our way. We must find a way to scale the Wall of Impossible Truth if we are to hold any rational explanation for the existence of our universe and our human origins. And only one option avails itself to resolve the impossible truth: faith. Materialists and atheists join theists and Christians in relying on one of two faith-dependent beliefs to support their chosen creation stories.
Consider the faith that theists use to scale the Wall of Impossible Truth. Let’s call this Red Faith, with a proper expression articulated by Thomas Aquinas. In his great Summa Theologica (1a.2.3), Aquinas stated the Red Faith view of an uncaused cause succinctly:
Nothing is caused by itself. Every effect has a prior cause. This leads to a regress. This has to be terminated by a first cause, which we call God.
A first cause called God: this is a leap of faith unprovable by any method of science. Nevertheless, Red Faith satisfies Christians who find it entirely reasonable to agree with the mindful God of the Bible that he is the eternally existing, uncaused cause of every “something” that exists today. If the Bible is true, then Red Faith becomes merely another correct reasonable belief about our existence.
Aquinas wrote in response to the views of Aristotle, who believed in an eternal cosmos with no beginning and no end. Aquinas argued against Aristotle’s view of a deity who merely fashions this eternally existing matter, arguing instead that God created matter itself ex nihilo—out of nothing.
Others also challenge Aristotelian ideas by adopting a still different faith. They hold that the cosmos indeed consists of eternal matter—but matter alone—and our entire universe exists ex materia—out of matter. Let’s call this Blue Faith, with the ancient Greek thinkers Leucippus and Democritus being the first to hold this faith.
Originally set forth as atomism, Leucippus and his student Democritus taught that the world is divided into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up all things, and the void, the nothingness that exists between the atoms. The unprovable Blue Faith of Leucippus and Democritus, like that of modern materialists and atheists, holds that matter alone exists in the void, and it has existed eternally. Further, uncaused matter became the first cause of all creations as it moved about in empty space sufficiently to explain the growth of stars and planets and various life forms.
Thus atheists, materialists, atomists, naturalists, and all the God-less “ists” out there, standing before the Wall of Impossible Truth, scale it with a great faith of their own, supporting a view of creation ex materia! In fact, Blue Faith comes in two varieties: either matter is eternal, as Leucippus held, or else it sprang from nothing spontaneously without a cause, as theorized by some atheists today. There is, of course, no scientific reason to believe that matter can spontaneously pop into existence from nothing or that it could have existed eternally uncaused. The Blue Faith of atheists forces ex materia beliefs that are no more scientifically tenable than the ex nihilo beliefs of the Red Faith of Christians.
One faith, two faith, Red Faith, Blue Faith, everyone necessarily holds a faith belief to scale the Wall of Impossible Truth. Neither Red Faith nor Blue Faith can be tested by science. Deciding between Red Faith or Blue Faith becomes a choice informed by all the revelation of nature available being illuminated by the light of unbounded reason.
But when reason becomes bounded by unwarranted assumptions denying God’s existence, there is no choice: the Blue Faith of Leucippus becomes the only faith available to atheists. In contrast, the unbounded reason of thinkers free to consider all possibilities allows a choice of either faith. And true freethinkers usually find the Red Faith of Aquinas most reasonable to adopt.
What about you? Choose your faith carefully. It matters.
(C) 2024 Creation Reformation. Roddy Bullock is the founder of Creation Reformation and author of several books related to creation and evolution. For more information, visit www.creationreformation.com, or visit (and follow!) us at Facebook.
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