By Weylan Deaver
Atheists have long grasped at philosophic straws in desperate effort to avoid facing the ultimate fact of reality: God. French existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), argued against God, noting that, if everything requires a cause, and if God created everything, then God would have to have caused himself. The Creator would have to be his own creation, which, of course, is impossible. But, Sartre missed the point. Only contingent (that is, dependent) things require a cause. Every effect requires an adequate cause, but God is not an effect. God simply is. God is the self-existing, uncaused first cause of all creation. As the writer put it long ago, “every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God” (Heb. 3:4, ESV). God is unique in that he is the only one whose very nature is to be. Thus, God instructs Moses to tell Israel, “I AM has sent me to you” (Exod. 3:14). Everything outside God is contingent, requiring a sufficient cause for its existence. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Heb. 11:3). The principle of causation leads inexorably to an infinite, uncaused, Creator. The atheist must be false to his own nature (which was made to seek God, Acts 17:27), false to the overwhelming evidence (the heavens declare God’s glory, Ps. 19:1), and false to right reason (since disbelief is inexcusable, Rom. 1:20). His is a fool’s errand.
Biblical Notes 