The Prime Mover

All effects in the Universe lead back to the creator: 1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. 2. The Universe began to exist. 3. Therefore, the Universe had a cause. 4. The first cause, can have no cause, and therefore is eternal and is known by its creation as GOD.

by Michael Corthell

There is a famous historical idiom, ''All roads lead to Rome.'' In the same way, ''All effects lead back to God'' is a pithy way to describe the first cause argument.

''Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?''  
―Aeschylus

One of the most famous arguments for the existence of a Creator were given by Saint Thomas Aquinas, called the "five ways". One of the five ways, the last, is the argument from design, which you can study here. The other four are versions of the first-cause argument, which we will look at briefly in this teaching.

The argument is basic and very simple. It is natural, it is intuitive, and it is just plain old common sense. Paradoxically, we have to become very convoluted and complex in our thinking (and extremely clever) to cast doubt on the theory or dispute it. (see Stephen Hawking's last book.)The theory hinges on a basic human need. It a human instinct that we all share: The need to know and ask, ''Why?''  

Nothing can exist without cause and without a reason why it is, the way it is.

There is a single common logical outline to all Aquinas' proofs. Instead of proving God directly, he proves him indirectly by refuting atheism directly. Either God, the first cause exists or He does not.

The proofs look at the negative (or 'not') and then he refutes them, leaving the only one other possibility―that God does indeed exist.

If there is no independent personage or being, then the whole domino chain of dependent beings is dependent on nothing and can not exist.

The 4 Points of First Cause:

1. The cause of motion.

2. The cause of a beginning to existence.

3. The cause of present existence.

4. The cause of goodness or value.

The common thread in these four points is that if there were no first cause, there could be no secondary causes at all, and there are indeed second causes called the ''moved movers'' and ''caused causers'' who are dependent, who's existence is dependent on the first cause. We are the ''moved movers'' (as well as all life.) This is the ''proof'' that there must be a first cause of motion, beginning, existence, and ultimate perfection.

If this cosmological argument is getting a bit too complex and begins to go off the rails, you can always go back to what is safe, sure and clear, and that is the point I made at the beginning of the article; ''All effects lead back to God''.  Not all can or even want to understand all the fine details of the first cause argument, but all can understand this statement by C. S. Lewis, "I felt in my bones that this universe does not explain itself." What he is referring to is that the very nature of the Universe screams its existence: ''I AM!'' 

In my opinion only a self-deluded person can be an atheist. But there is hope for such persons. They are believers in the sense that they believe that there is no God. It must be admitted that the 'force' does exist my friends. It is a force with incomprehensible power, that has infinite foresight, wisdom and knowledge. This is the first cause, the 'thing' that got the whole 'thing' going in the first place. 

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Existence

by Jim Holt

Why is there something rather than nothing? In his book "Why Does the World Exist?" Jim Holt dares to ask. He follows this question toward three possible answers. Or four. Or none.