Infinite Regress and God

In my continued reading of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, the next chapter dealt with the proof that God does not exist.

Honestly, none of his arguments against the existence of God provided proof.  I’m not going to address each one of these in this blog.  However, I will say that his “proofs” are as weak or weaker than the “proofs” for God that he criticizes in the previous chapter.  In fact, Dawkins doesn’t even appear to realize that he uses his biases (just as he accuses Christians of using their own biases) to make his claims.  I found it amusing that this intelligent man is apparently unable to see his own logic flaws…especially when considering that he uses Christian biases to jocularly antagonize and belittle believers in the previous chapter. 

There is one point that he made, however, that made me stop cold and face an issue that I have avoided.  He introduces this as the problem of “infinite regress”.  One can find the definition by simply Googling (or Binging or Yahooing, etc.) it, but I’m going to put it in terms that anyone can understand.  If the universe is full of perfection, intelligence and complexity (from solar systems to ecosystems to internal body systems to molecular systems) that leads me to believe that they must’ve been designed by a Creator, THEN the Creator must be even more perfect, intelligent, and complex.  So who created the Creator?

I’m not going to lie.  I’ve thought about this before…often.  Dawkins didn’t amaze me with his brilliance by asking this question, but he did make me face a hard one. 

I think the standard answer has been, “Well, I don’t know.  But I have faith…and faith means that you don’t always have the answers yet you still believe.”  It seems like a cop-out.  However, there is logic behind it.  Simply put, we as humans don’t have all the facts.  As Christians we believe that when we do have all the facts, things will make sense.  Dawkins can’t accept this.  I’m sure he sees this argument as simple-minded and weak.  So, I’m going to expand on it with my own thoughts.  Am I offering “proof”?  No.  But I’m using the tools of Dawkins and his atheist cohorts…reasoning.

The universe and everything in it (that I can think of in my limited knowledge) was developed with a cyclical nature.  Think about it.  Planets make orbits.  Seasons come and go yearly.  There is a complex life cycle.  We have an intricate water cycle.  Women deal with a menstrual cycle.  Every process in our knowledge (or at least in mine) is based on a cycle.  It is my firm belief that “global climate change” is just another cycle but a longer one of which humans have very little data to realize that it is all part of the system.  (Can I have MY Nobel Prize now?)

I realized this even as a child.  In fact, when I first understood that through Jesus Christ we would have eternal life, it terrified me.  Have you ever really thought about it?  I simply cannot fathom anything eternal.  This is my challenge to you.  Go into a room by yourself (maybe tonight when you go to bed), close your eyes, and consider living forever.  It’s not something that you can do as you read this.  It’s not something that you can do in a minute.  Really think about what that means…what that looks like.  I did this as a child…I still do this occasionally.  Honestly, it scares the crap out of me. 

Because everything I know is cyclical, when I consider eternity I see it as a spiral.  This never-ending spiral continues to spin and spin and spin (like a barber pole) with no end.  Really, it is terrifying.  I remember being very young and thinking, “I don’t want to live forever!”  And I will not hesitate to tell you today that the concept still makes me nauseated.  I just cannot conceive of it.

Now maybe you’ve never thought about this to the depth that I have…until now.  But many people have.  In fact, I believe that this is why many believe in reincarnation.  Reincarnation is cyclical.  We can understand it.  In fact, in my limited human thinking, reincarnation is more appealing to me than eternal life.  Why?  Because it fits with my understanding of the universe.  Things come and go.  If I’m going to live forever, it must be in cycles.  But the Bible makes it clear that this is not the case.  (Hebrews 9:27-28)  Hmmm….so apparently there is something more that I don’t understand.

Can I prove that there is something beyond our universe that is NOT cyclical.  No.  But even people who lived back in Moses, David, and Jesus’ times must’ve had the same thoughts.  After all, I am nothing special.  So, if Judeo-Christian beliefs were all invented, why wasn’t reincarnation simply built into the plot?  It would’ve fit in better with our human understanding.  In fact, many other religions (Hindu, Buddhist, Kaballah, New Age, and many of the Greek philosophers) have done just that.

Our God is eternal.  Can I fathom it?  No…it is completely out of my realm of understanding.  In God’s wisdom and perfection, He created our universe with laws of nature that would make it perpetual and self-sustaining.  They are cyclical.  God, however, is not.  He wasn’t created, He hasn’t evolved, He doesn’t age…He is eternal.  God’s reality is totally separate from our reality.  He doesn’t live by our “rules”.  The “rules” were made for us!  God did, however, choose to enter our world through Jesus Christ and live by our rules for a short period of time.  However, while here He also demonstrated His ability to not follow the rules.  Hence the miracles…seen by thousands, recorded in history, and preserved in the Bible.

The only afterlife that makes sense, then, is an eternal afterlife with an eternal God.  The cyclical rules of this world will no longer be necessary.  Darwin, Dawkins, and Hawkings’ human logic models are meaningless in God’s kingdom.

Does it STILL scare me?  Absolutely.  It is beyond my comprehension.  But I’ve been assured that it will be heavenly.