It is necessarily so

Hey, fellow Christians…do you realize we have the most intellectually coherent, compelling, and complete worldview? It’s true. And that’s why it’s intellectually superior…because it is true. It conforms to reality, and if a worldview accurately expresses the way things really are, there’s no topping it.

Non-Christians will of course dispute my claim, but the proof is in the proverbial pudding. So let’s have a taste of it.

Can any worldview other than theism adequately account for necessary existence? This is the philosophically ascertained truth that if anything exists, something must exist necessarily. In other words, it can’t NOT exist.

Let’s break this down. If something exists, then either it exists necessarily or it was caused to exist by something else. If it was caused by something else then either that something exists necessarily or was caused by something else. And if it was caused by something else then either that something exists necessarily or was caused by something else. And if it was caused by something else…well, you get the picture. You can’t have an infinite regress of events. There has to be a stopping point…an uncaused cause.

Consider then what must follow from the fact that the universe exists. Either it has always existed or it came into existence at some point. All the evidence supports the conclusion that the universe has existed for a finite period of time, which of course means it totally misses the requirements for necessity of being.

So something or someone caused the universe to come into existence, and because the universe simply is the totality of the natural world…all space, time, matter, and energy…that something or someone must be outside of the natural world. The only viable candidate is a supernatural, supremely powerful, necessary being…what we commonly refer to as God.

Necessary existence is a foreign concept to most of us because we are contingent (non-necessary, dependent) beings living in a contingent world. We think of necessity in relation to commodities for survival like food, water, and shelter or requirements for achieving a particular goal. It’s the “mother of invention” when a felt need motivates an individual or group of individuals to devise a way to meet that need.

We might say that necessity of being is the “father of creation” because nothing can exist unless something exists necessarily. Now I get that this cause/creator of the universe can be understood in different ways, but at least this truth establishes that some personal, supernatural being must exist. I think that’s quite undeniable, though I recognize there are some today with substantial influence who are doing just that.

But if you are a Christian, this is evidence for the truth of the Christian worldview that you can use in sharing the faith and defending it. Contrary to what many today in the science and entertainment spheres love to project as truth, Christianity is not a religion for dummies. It is, in fact, the one worldview that can address with intelligence and evidence all of reality and offer a comprehensive and coherent explanation for it.