Q&A: Creation Ex Nihilo
Creation Ex Nihilo
Question
Hello, what can be said in response to atheists who say that the chance of life arising out of nothing is negligible, yet the reality is that we are here, and there is no need for design or for God, and this does not prove Him?
Answer
The reality that we are here is itself the proof that God exists. If that were not the reality, there would be no proof here. This is a foolish argument that keeps repeating itself again and again, and I cannot understand how a person can accept it. The argument is that the chance that a reality like ours would come into being without a guiding hand is negligible. Since it does exist, it is proven that there was a guiding hand. The assumption that it exists is one of the premises of the proof itself. So how can one see that as a refutation? God (who supposedly does not exist) knows.
Discussion on Answer
With all due respect, I am a bit worn out by these questions, which have already been discussed here and in my books and articles ad nauseam.
Which articles??
I would be happy to see a simple explanation of why to assume a designer rather than a process that is currently unknown to us and explains why life arose despite the improbability.
Mainly in the book The First Being Found. That is the main one. Also God Plays Dice. There are also questions in the responsa section here.
And is God the only answer to our being here?? Maybe there are other worlds where there is no life? Maybe life was created through a gradual process (like chemical evolution)? Maybe it is extremely unlikely to form, but because of the size of the universe it still had to happen statistically? Maybe it is something else that we do not yet know? It is much more rational to believe there is no designer, considering that in most of the universe known to us there is no life (certainly, based on sufficient calculations of planets relative to the local sun), and the universe is overwhelmingly not life-friendly. Why should we assume a designer just from the fact that life arose and there are physical constants that allow it (and even for that I think there are explanations)?