How cause and effect, modern cosmology, and Genesis 1:1 all point to the same answer
The Big Three — What This Article Covers:
1. Every effect has a cause. You already know this. So what caused the universe?
2. The Big Bang describes what happened — but cannot explain why. The escape hatches don’t work.
3. Genesis 1:1 answers the question science cannot. And the God it describes matches exactly what logic demands.
Editor’s note: This is a condensed version of our full-length article published March 22. Read the complete article here. Tomorrow we continue this series with a look at DNA — why the coded language in every living cell demands a Designer, not an accident.
You Already Know the Answer
You have never walked into a kitchen, found a hot meal on the table, and assumed nobody cooked it. You have never received a text message and concluded your phone randomly generated the words. You know better. We all do. And that common sense is at the heart of why a scientist believes in a Creator.
Every single day you operate on a principle so basic it barely feels like a principle at all. Effects have causes. Hot meals require cooks. Houses require builders. Messages require senders. This is not religion. This is the ordinary reasoning you use before your first cup of coffee.
So here is the question everything else depends on: If every effect requires a sufficient cause, what caused the universe itself to exist?
What the Big Bang Cannot Answer
Proponents of the standard cosmological model argue that the universe began approximately 13.8 billion years ago from an incomprehensibly dense, hot initial state. The model makes real predictions that have been confirmed — cosmic background radiation, the expansion of space, the ratio of hydrogen to helium. These are genuine achievements and they deserve honest acknowledgment.
But describing what happened after the universe began is not the same as explaining why it began at all. And that is the question the Big Bang cannot answer.
The Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem — developed by three physicists who were not creationists and were not trying to prove God’s existence — demonstrates that any universe expanding on average throughout its history must have an absolute beginning. Not a recycled beginning. A real one. Alexander Vilenkin himself has stated plainly that cosmologists can no longer hide behind the idea of an eternal universe.
Some propose a multiverse — billions of unobservable universes we can never test or confirm. Others suggest quantum fluctuations in a vacuum. But a quantum vacuum is not nothing. It is a sea of energy governed by physical laws. Where did the vacuum come from? Where did the laws come from? Every escape hatch simply moves the question back one step without answering it.
The late Bill Nowers, a longtime Virginia Christian Alliance advisor, used to compare this to the old story of a philosopher who claimed the earth rested on a great turtle. When asked what the turtle stood on, he replied, “It’s turtles all the way down.” At least that story had a foundation. The naturalistic account of origins, when pressed to its base, has none at all. (For more of Bill’s reasoning, see his article The Real Cause is God here on VCA.)
The God Who Was Already There — Why a Scientist Believes in a Creator
Cause-and-effect reasoning tells us the cause of the universe must be self-existent, eternal, immensely powerful, rational, and personal. Line up those characteristics and you are not describing a vague philosophical idea. You are describing someone. And that someone has not left us guessing.
The Bible opens with a sentence that answers the question science cannot: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “In the beginning” — there was a beginning. “God” — a personal, self-existent being. “Created” — a volitional act, not an accident. “The heavens and the earth” — everything.
The apostle Paul puts it plainly: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
No argument on a page can change your heart. But the God who spoke galaxies into existence can. The Creator who made you is not your enemy. He is your hope — and He is calling.
Dear Christian: if this made sense to you, it might make sense to the skeptic in your family. Share it. You don’t have to win an argument — just ask one honest question: What caused the universe to exist? Then let cause and effect do the work. This is why a scientist believes in a Creator — and why you can too.
Want the Full Case?
Read the complete article — Why a Scientist Believes in a Creator — including the detailed steel-man of the Big Bang, why every naturalistic escape hatch fails, the full Scripture case from Genesis, John, and Romans, and a references section for deeper study. You can also download “Why a Scientist Believes in a Creator ” as a PDF to read offline or share.
For more from the Virginia Christian Alliance on biblical creation, visit our Creationism archive.
For Further Study
Borde, A., Guth, A., and Vilenkin, A. “Inflationary Spacetimes Are Incomplete in Past Directions.” Physical Review Letters 90 (2003). Read the paper
Vilenkin, Alexander. “The Beginning of the Universe.” Inference: International Review of Science, 2021. Read the article
Craig, William Lane. “The Kalam Cosmological Argument.” Reasonable Faith. Search results
Nowers, William E. “The Real Cause is God.” Virginia Christian Alliance. Read on VCA
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Virginia Christian Alliance.
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