Abstract
This paper briefly presents and engages with four competing hypotheses as to the most plausible explanation for the beginning of the universe. After clarifying some terminology, I will first establish both scientific and philosophical reasons for accepting the notion of an absolute beginning over a past eternal universe. Next, I will interact with Lawrence Krauss’ two versions of “nothing” and speculation of a multiverse as possible suggestions for what that first cause might be. In response, I will demonstrate the logical inadequacy of this approach, and by extension all other non-metaphysical theories. Ultimately, I will determine that, due to the logical contradictions inherent in physical explanations, one is epistemically justified in postulating a metaphysical deistic God as the Necessary Being responsible for the material cause of the universe.
Recommended Citation
Hardy, Bryce E.
(2017)
"Is God the Necessary Being?,"
Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion: Vol. 3:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lujpr/vol3/iss1/4