The Necessity of God, Part II

Have you ever made a decision? Could you have decided to do something other than read this sentence right now? If all events are 100% caused, then the answer to both questions is “No.” You don’t have a choice. You have been destined to read this sentence at this moment since the dawn of time; there is nothing else you could be doing. Your action is caused, just as my writing of this sentence was caused and there was therefore nothing else I could have done. In a universe with 100% causation, everything is predetermined to occur exactly when and the way it does. All of history is like the ultimate computer program, with all events causing all subsequent events until the end of the world. Run it through again with the same origin of the universe, and all of history will play out exactly the same once again. Your every action is completely devoid of significance because you could choose no other way. You are entirely caused and all of your actions, thoughts, and emotions are caused by previous concrete physical events. In short, apart from uncaused events, there is no you. That central part of yourself that believes you are in control is only an illusion. But, we might ask, who is the illusion fooling? (I once read a review in a major national magazine of a book that claimed this wholly caused universe was a reality. The author was daring in his proclamation that “There is no you.” But this brings an immediate problem: “If no one exists, why did he write the book? Who is he trying to persuade?”)

Free will—the making of a decision which is not entirely caused—requires an event that is at least partially uncaused. Without free will, there is no significance. Significance is the possibility of influencing eternity. Without free will and significance, the TV is on but no one is home; the universe is a sitcom that no one made, no one is starring in, and no one is watching.

It should be noted here that, although uncaused events are required for significance, totally random or spontaneous events won’t get us there, either. A truly random event, if such a thing exists, would have no more significance than a totally caused event, because there is no reason or rationality—and therefore no meaning—behind it. What is needed is an event that is neither caused nor random—a requirement that cannot be met in a purely physical universe.

We live in a universe that appears to be purely mechanical. For us to be as we believe ourselves to be, we need causation that is not a physical cause—an uncause, if you will. We need an event that can either occur or not based on a free will or rational impetus—an impetus unavailable in our physical universe. When you make a decision—when you exercise your free will—you are performing an action that is outside the capacity of a purely natural universe. It is an unnatural event, a supernatural event. In short, you perform what might accurately be called a miracle. We are supernatural, non-physical beings, residents of a realm outside of the physical universe who are injected into physical space cocooned in a physical body—a kind of avatar. This is why we distinguish between body—the impossibly complex but purely physical machine with which we interact with our physical environment—and soul.

What other uncaused events might we be capable of? Tune in next time to find out.