The Universe Is Probably Eternal, No God Necessary

"- - - there was no when there was no Universe. There was never a time when the universe did not exist. The Universe is the SpaceTime Continuum so whenever there is time there is a universe, even if there was nothing but time. Time isn't an extension of the universe. The reason I don't believe that the Universe could have a cause is because to cause something to exist means to do something that results in a change from a time when that thing does not exist to a time when it does exist. Since there never was, or even coherently could be, a time when the SpaceTime Continuum didn't exist, the universe could not have had a cause."

Click on the link below for a strong rejection of the Cosmological Argument for a God. Actually, ALL arguments for a God are generated from the intuitive parts of the brain, which are unreliable for determining what is real. Also, they have NO way to test their validity/justification because they don't come from science:

Why the Big Bang Doesn't Point to God

William Lane Craig Is Particularly Dishonest

Virtually all religious apologists are dishonest due to the fact that, when presented with factual information against their dogma, they refused to look at it with open minds. However, William Lane Craig, who I have made several debunking posts against, is a master at this obfuscation. Click on the link below for an expose of this character flaw of his:

End of the End of the Kalam?

God Of The Gaps Explained

Place yourself at home in the morning and there is just you and two others in the house. You prepare your breakfast of toast and coffee and are ready to eat. However, nature calls and you have to answer it. When you return, one of the two slices of toast is gone. You asked the two others, "Where is my toast?" Both of them deny taking it. There is no evidence pointing to either one (a gap in knowledge), however, you make the claim that one of them did it (a leap of faith). THIS is what we are talking about when religious apologists make claims for a God.

The above can be illustrated by debunking the Cosmological Argument (Argument from First Cause, and its variants). The religious claims that there must be the first cause of everything and it is God. The science-based thinker states that such a claim is unsupported by objective evidence and, in fact, given the weirdness of reality at the sub-atomic level and some suggestive evidence for an eternal system of multiverses, the only reasonable stance is to say, "We don't know."

Another Challenge To The First Cause Argument For God

"Causality is one of those difficult scientific topics that can easily stray into the realm of philosophy.

 

"Science's relationship with the concept started out simply enough: an event causes another event later in time.  That had been the standard understanding of the scientific community up until quantum mechanics was introduced. 

"Then, with the introduction of the famous "spooky action at a distance" that is a side effect of the concept of quantum entanglement, scientists began to question that simple interpretation of causality.

"Now, researchers at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the University of Oxford have come up with a theory that further challenges that standard view of causality as a linear progress from cause to effect."

Religious apologists frequently lead out with variations of the Cosmological (First Cause) argument for God. Click on the link below for more murkiness regarding causation.

Quantum Theory May Twist Cause And Effect Into Loops, With Effect Causing The Cause

Theologians Are Backed Into A Corner

"How did the universe begin? Some scientists claim that the universe did not have a beginning. Some theologians contend that the universe did not need a beginning."

The theologians in the video are attempting to accept that the universe probably had no beginning by saying that: "God could create an infinite universe"; "God is not the 'cause' of the world, He is the 'reason' for the world." Ah, the dishonesty of apologetics. Yes, the gaps, indeed, are closing.

Click on the link below for the latest cosmological information regarding the beginning of our universe:

Did the Universe Have a Beginning?

Faith vs Physics

Theistic religions claim that faith trumps reason and science. Roman Catholicism, which claims it began science, proclaims this "Truth", as can be seen in The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

• Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives."³¹ "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."³²

Science does not accept this claim from religions. First of all, "certainty" is a laughable word to science, as science is based not on certainty but on probability and plausibility. Second, contrary to religions that have rigid dogmas that don't change in the face of evidence, science changes its views with changing evidence.  Because of such, science has made great strides in helping us understand reality better, as well as improve human well-being. What progress in anything has any religion offered humanity? I can think of several actions of religion that impede progress.

A good example of how science is expanding our knowledge is physics/cosmology efforts. While this podcast has some speculation, such is the bedrock of the fruits of science:

• "In this episode of the Making Sense podcast Sam and Annaka Harris speak with Donald Hoffman about his book The Case Against Reality. They discuss how evolution has failed to select for true perceptions of the world, his “interface theory” of perception, the primacy of math and logic, how space and time cannot be fundamental, the threat of epistemological skepticism, causality as a useful fiction, the hard problem of consciousness, agency, free will, panpsychism, a mathematics of conscious agents, philosophical idealism, death, psychedelics, the relationship between consciousness and mathematics, and many other topics."

*It is humbling to know that our concepts of causation, time, and space probably are not fundamental to our reality (link)(link)(link). "Certainty" is so pre-scientific.

* Take that, Kalam Cosmological Argument.