Several years ago I read Andy Rooney's book, Sincerely, Andy Rooney. Rooney is a nationally known writer and a commentator on the CBS program “Sixty Minutes.” His book is a series of letters written over the years to various people on a wide variety of topics. Rooney is insightful, cryptic, often caustic, and occasionally humorous in what he writes. Overall, the book made for interesting reading. His last chapter, a letter to his children regarding his views on religion, however, demonstrated a remarkable lack of “brain power” which he nevertheless had touted throughout the chapter as being what he had used to come to his agnostic viewpoint. (Mr. Rooney and I exchanged at least one round of letters regarding his views).
Early in his letter Rooney made this observation: “How this Earth and all the life on it came about is, so far, beyond anyone’s ability to understand but it seems wrong to stop trying by saying simply that ‘it’s the work of God.’ Even if you think God created it, you haven’t finished answering the question because you have to follow it up by asking ‘Then who created God?’” “Brain power” would help Rooney to understand that “from nothing comes nothing.” But, something is, therefore, something has always been. Unless nothing got busy and created something, then something has always existed! What is that something—mindless matter or intelligent life? Since Rooney (and all other humans) have intelligence and life, which is more reasonable to believe—that intelligent life came from eternally existing matter or eternally existing life? If matter is what has always existed then at what point did some matter begin evolving into life? Had Rooney been there as a cosmic observer, could he have pinpointed the moment at which lifeless matter began to exhibit characteristics of life?
Every effect must have a cause and the cause must be sufficient to produce the effect. However, there cannot be an endless series of effects and causes because at some point one must get back to the one great original cause. For Rooney to say you have to ask, “Who created God?” is to ask the question of a five year old child who has not yet learned to reason back to an original First Cause. It is to ignore the self-evident truth that one cannot have an endless series of effects and causes…that at some point one must get back to the eternally existing, ultimately originating cause of all things. What is that one great originating cause?
Though the Bible is not regarded by Rooney as divinely inspired of God (whose existence he doubts), he nevertheless should be willing to listen to an explanation for the origin of all things that is far more rational than his. “In the beginning (the original starting point of time, hf), was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4, NKJV). Observe that this great creative power had life existing within Himself, and thus was capable of creating other life. The same Biblical writer later said, “We have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (I John 1:2). Thus, this great originating cause had within Him eternal life, that is, He did not have a beginning (when the beginning began, He was already there, John 1:1-2), and was capable of producing all other life.
“Brain power” tells me this is reasonable, much more so than to think that mindless matter somehow produced intelligent life forms on this earth.
Hugh Fulford
July 5, 2011
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