A Philosophical Look at the Gospel
Why is there something rather than nothing? Philosophers have agonized over this for a very long time. This is a question that needs to be answered. The basic answer to why there is something rather than nothing is because of God and His will to create. This is an argument that I have developed to substantiate the existence of God goes as follows:
P1. If there are reasons entities change over a time, then a greatest entity exists.
P2. There are reasons entities change over a time.
C. Therefore, a greatest entity exists.
I will give a very brief defense of this proof for God.
Some entities change over time. This change over time must be accounted for in some way. The change over time with these entities is random or ordered. We know that they are ordered. If the change over time is ordered, then something must order them. So there is a reason why entities change over time. That reason is that there is a Greatest Entity behind the smaller entities that change over time. Therefore, a Greatest Entity exists, which all people know to be God.
More importantly, God is not contingent on us. He is Holy, which means He is set apart (from creation). God does not need to create the universe, but He does. Why? Because he wants to fellowship with entities and beings. Noteworthy is that there is a lot of debate, even among Christians, about the fundamental purpose of God's plan in creation, but I will set that aside. We do know that God wants a relationship with His creation, and He can't have that relationship without creating. Someone might say, "God could just create angels and be happy." Sure, He could do that, but it gives God "good pleasure" to create a diversity of beings who worship Him. His primary concern in creation is His own worship. This does not mean God is a narcissist. Why? For two reasons:
1) God is goodness, and
2) When we worship God, it makes us happy/blessed/joyful
Furthermore, God, in creating the universe and earth, did so to the effect that His creation could respond to Him.
But the problem is that we do not worship God as we ought to. None of us do. So you have this infinite being that deserves infinite worship. And we are mortal beings. So how can we infinitely worship an infinite God? Hang on to that question, as I will answer it later. For now, we know that we don't worship God perfectly. So then, the question is, can we make up for our imperfections? In other words, what happens to the time in our mortal bodies when we do not worship God the way we should? Does our moral failing disappear into the ether? Well, see, that's the thing. Nothing just goes away on its own. Something must be done about it.
Join me on a journey now as we go into some things at the edge of my ability to articulate.
If something is imperfect, that imperfect thing must be resolved. In the universe, certain laws dictate how things go. Our actions in the universe are one of those things. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If I punch my neighbor in the face, that action will have a consequence in the universe. I might not rightly know what the result of that action will be, but I know that an equal and opposite reaction will happen at some point. I do not call this Karma. I call this the equilibrium of the moral law. The universe is a highly complex place. And people are indeed very complicated themselves. So when you have all these moving parts in daily life, you have to see that life itself is a consequence of laws. Some laws are physical, and some are Spiritual. I'm talking about Spiritual laws. So in our moral behavior, rather than thinking about everything in a materialistic sense, the universe as an extraordinary place, and, given God exists, then spiritual laws must exist as well as physical laws. So our moral actions have an equal and opposite reaction even if we can't see it because our physical senses limit us. Further, if you have ever acted not as lovingly as you should, or acted in a way that was with greater force than what was necessary, then something must be done about your moral failing.
Therefore, if our moral failings go unpunished, they don't really go unpunished because, eventually, we will have to pay for them ourselves. That is, unless something can be done to pardon our moral failings.
There is a way for our moral failings to be paid for. Now, there is something to be said about what the payment should be. By the very fundamental nature of moral imperfection to an infinite God, we could pay with our own blood. Why blood, you ask? Because it is the life force of our existence. Without blood, we could not be alive, so we cannot repay an infinite God with our possessions, which he gave us the tools to have--which belong to Him; we have to pay God with something we actually possess. And all we actually possess that is not God's is our bodies. And since our bodies are made up of the same thing as everything else in the universe, then the only thing that makes sense to give God is our blood, which keeps us alive, because it is something our body produces, which we can produce more of.
The problem is that a punishment to owe to an infinite God would cause us death due to how much blood we would give up in the punishment (and a lot more we would owe on top of that). So our payment, since we could never produce enough blood in this life to pay for all our moral failings, would require us to give to God more blood longer than we are alive. Hence, an afterlife where we can pay for our moral failings.
But, since God is rich in mercy towards His creation (He created it after all; Wouldn't you think God would love what He created?), He thought about all of this from before the time that He created everything. He knew we couldn't pay for our moral failings for not worshipping him infinitely. So, before He created the universe, God devised a good, holy, and perfect plan. The plan was that He would redeem creation from their moral imperfections by Him suffering the punishment we all deserve. WOW! Since God is perfect, He could atone for our moral failings by spilling His own blood for us. He was a perfect sacrifice for our account. So, God sent His begotten Son, Jesus, who is of the same substance as the infinite God, to live a morally perfect life and then spilled His perfect blood so our moral failings could be paid for. All we have to do is accept that principle as a moral law of the universe, and the infinite God will forgive us. And when we accept Jesus as our payment for our moral failings, the Spirit of Jesus' blood lives in us--the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, which vindicated Him because He was punished even though He was perfect. It would be a moral law of payment in the form of Christ living in us Spiritually so that God can accept us.
Now, back to that question I said to remember. I mentioned that we could pay for our moral failings in the afterlife. But another way we could end up in the afterlife is by giving God infinite worship in the afterlife. All that that requires is to accept Jesus' payment for our moral failings in this mortal life, and we can spend eternity with God worshipping Him for infinity.
God bless you! Until Next time!