God From First Principles

For every sequence of events there must be a first cause, otherwise you end up with a vicious regress: the endless iteration of the same problem, which is a fallacy in reasoning. We know that all things are in motion, and nothing that exists is ever perfectly still at any given time. Motion is caused by the application of force upon an object, therefore all objects that exist are under the effect of applied force. Motion and force are therefore concepts of causal relationship. Force in and of itself is not a primary cause, because force is something that must be exerted upon an object, and therefore there must be an exerter. This exerter would be the first cause of motion, and therefore the first cause of our existence. This is often termed as the unmoved mover.

The primary question is: why does anything exist as it does? So following that, if the questions is: why does the physical universe exist? And if the answer to that question is: because the multiverse exists, then there is a deferment of the answer to a new question, and therefore an initiation of vicious regress. The multiverse begins the endless iteration of the same problem. All of the sciences: cosmology, physics, and evolution, suffer from the same problem of lacking first causes. In cosmology it is turtles all the way down, just in a different form of the concept: the multiverse. In physics we can’t even observe what we are trying to describe. In evolution the problem is one of origins: the inception of semantic information from which life further instantiates, and the formation of organized structures and processes, among many other problems. These types of problems in science are truly continuous.

The idea of God is the only way to solve for the fallacy of vicious regress, because God is the required first cause. Yes, God is required to solve the problem of vicious regress. Nothing else that has been proposed for thousands of years is capable of satisfying the requirement of first cause. I say that nothing has satisfied the requirement, because secular materialists are still trying to find a cause that is satisfying. It is true that if you haven’t sincerely thought about the problem, then anything will satisfy you, but that just reveals a narrow understanding of the problem.

We exist in a causal universe. If force is applied to a body, then that body will accelerate. This is an observable fact. We also know that a series of contingent causal relationships cannot be endless, as there must be an initial non contingent cause. Therefore our causal existence has a first cause. The only reasonable cause that solves the problem of vicious regress is God.