All arguments that aim to ‘prove’ God are, without exception, faulty. God is not a theorem that can be proved starting from some more fundamental axioms. Being outside the time- and space-constrained scheme of things, God is beyond proof. The project of proving Him, therefore, is doomed to begin with. For one proposes to prove the unprovable, undoing the whole thing before even starting.
The above is true of all such arguments. Upon hearing any of them repeated enthusiastically, I can never help remarking that though I love the conclusion, the reasoning leaves a great deal to be desired. However, when it comes to the so-called First Cause argument, there is an additional-– and a very serious– drawback of it that must be highlighted. No matter which of its various nicknames this argument is referred to as– the unmoved-mover, the uncaused-cause or the cosmological argument– it ends up messing up the world view of very many well-meaning theists who happen to have a high opinion of it.
The problem with the argument is not what many atheists believe to be the death knell for it. For a long time, it has been in vogue in the atheistic circles to respond to it as follows: ‘Well, instead of God, why not consider the universe itself as the uncaused cause– that is, the first link of the chain?’ This ‘rebuttal’ sounds impressive provided one ignores the pesky little fact that the universe is obviously not uncaused or a sufficient reason for its own existence. The theist recognizes that the universe, both for its creation as well as its sustained operation, requires intelligent input from outside. So far so good. But it is precisely this point that often becomes the origin of a very unfortunate misunderstanding.
When the Quran exhorts its readers to observe the universe and asks them rhetorically if they think all of it is attributable to pure chance, many Muslims take it as an endorsement of the law of causality. It is, but there is a nuance to it that many of them fail to appreciate. They conjure up a scheme wherein the universe works smoothly on perfect (and hence unchanging) laws created by God. Since it reduces a personal, active God by a cold and impersonal law (for the creator of such a universe may as well be considered comfortably retired), most philosophers have no problem accepting such an arrangement. The issue for the theist however is that it is impossible to make heads or tails of miracles, supplications and revelation with this sort of a world view.
Cause-and-effect, as a correlation between physical entities is a key pattern of thought that helps man make sense of the world. It is sloppy thinking however to think of God as one would think of a physical cause. God certainly is not the first event in a lengthy cause-effect chain. For starters, God is always in direct control of everything. He is by no means like the first domino that starts a motion by knocking down the next piece and which has no further control of the process once motion has thus been initiated.
The Quran presents a deity that is closer to man than his jugular vein, who listens and answers his supplications, who positively guides sincere seekers, who ensures that none of man’s good deeds remain unaccounted for in the final reckoning, and who is happy when man lives up to his potential– and vice versa. What a far cry from the cold, heartless, indifferent, impersonal and detached law that the first cause argument reduces God to!
More significantly, unlike the first domino which itself is subject to the laws of dynamics just as the rest of the pieces are, God is by no means subject to the laws by which the universe operates. The universe behaves as God wants it to behave. As for God’s Will, that is independent of the laws of the universe. Being the Lawgiver, He is the Creator of those laws, not subject to them.
Moreover, and this too is vitally important, consider again the first domino which has no way to influence, say, piece number 20 except indirectly. That is, by moving the second piece in a particular way so that it moves the third and the third in turn moves the fourth one, and so on till the 20th piece. To achieve any outcome, God is not dependent on intermediate entities. His Will, after all, is all it takes for an event to happen. Many ‘scientifically’ minded Muslims who do not appreciate this have a hard time reconciling the mechanical universe of their fancy with revelation, supplications and the miracles mentioned in the Quran. Embarrassed, they feel obliged to perform intricate mental acrobatic moves trying to explain them away, often to the entertainment of others.
The God that the Quran presents is actively involved in the running of the universe. He could not be more different from a deity who has no role to play after once setting everything into motion at the time of the beginning of the universe. On multiple occasions, the Quran stresses that after creating the heavens and the earth, God established Himself on the Throne, meaning thereby that He not only created the universe, but He actively regulates and controls it as well. The Quran also says that the creation as well as the command belong to Him alone (7:54). Of course, the portions that touch upon this theme consist exclusively of consimilar verses, so the ‘mechanism’ (for want of a better word) by which God runs the universe cannot possibly be figured out. As far as their meaning is concerned however, there is no mystery whatsoever.
By way of an illustration, take the pleasant everyday act of sipping tea. While it is convenient (and in most contexts unproblematic) to believe that God created man’s body and enacted laws of physics, anatomy, neurology, physiology and biochemistry that allow man to lift a cup of tea (or otherwise, owing to ill health or injury), and that God set those laws in place by simply saying ‘Be’ (for His saying is the same thing as His doing). To be precise however, God says ‘Be’ at each instant – at every step of the way the arm brings the cup from the table to the lip. That is, while it often appears automatic, all events (at each intermediate stage of the way) depend on His permission– His ‘Be’. So much for the ‘immutability’ of natural law! Many ‘rational’ Muslims fail to appreciate this subtle (but significant) detail.
The Quran presents a deity that is closer to man than his jugular vein, who listens and answers his supplications, who positively guides sincere seekers, who ensures that none of man’s good deeds remain unaccounted for in the final reckoning, and who is happy when man lives up to his potential – and vice versa. What a far cry from the cold, heartless, indifferent, impersonal and detached law that the First Cause argument reduces God to!
