We Are Without Excuse
By Don Johnson

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:18-20)

When man questions how the world was created, he is really questioning God and His authority. Is the Bible God's true word? Even though His word does not give the creation details, God left plenty of evidence for us to see.

God expects us to recognize His existence through observation of His creation. The inspired word says that His existence and eternal power have been clearly evident since the creation. This creation includes the planet earth, which is contained within the observable universe. In other words, God created "the things that are made"--the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, etc. For our purposes, we're going to call this the universe.

God said that His existence is so evident that, on Judgment Day, those who refused to acknowledge Him will find themselves standing before Him in shame. They will be unable to plead ignorance of God, because His creation clearly shows His eternal existence, nature, and power. God has said that He will not accept ignorance as an excuse.

Faith Is Either Objective Or Subjective?
When we peel off all the layers, we arrive at the core issue-is our faith objective or subjective?

During an interview, Jesse Ventura, former governor of Minnesota, said, "Religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people." Throughout the pages of God's word, we read that His creation clearly proclaims His existence and that people who think like Mr. Ventura will be left without excuse. Everyone believes in something; Mr. Ventura believes, but he clearly does not believe in God.

Atheists believe that everything in the observable universe resulted from natural processes that caused them to be created. So then, whose faith is objective (based on observable fact); and whose faith is subjective (based on feeling, attitude, opinions, and whimsical hopes)?

I submit for consideration that we should build our hopes on observable facts--not on feelings, attitudes, and opinions. Let us consider some of the fundamental facts that support our faith in God. To do this, we need to keep in mind that observable facts have been evident in God's creation since the beginning. The first people who walked on earth were expected to be able to observe and conclude that God existed. With the passage of time, technological advancements, and our accumulated scientific knowledge, one would think that things as apparent as God and His eternal power, which He said was evident from the beginning, would be even easier to see today. Obviously, this is not the case. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Does God Exist?
To answer this question, one needs to examine the available options. If we narrow down the variables until there's nothing left but the key choices on which the answer depends, we can usually determine the truth by eliminating what is impossible until only the possible remains. When we eliminate the impossible, what remains must be the possible--truth. In this instance, there are fewer available choices-options--than one might expect. To determine whether God exists, we need to look to the origin of the observable universe and identify some key facts.

Natural Laws. To be sure, evolution presents a serious hurdle. Forget about that for now. Before there can be evolution, there must first be the universe. Without the universe, there would be nothing from which to evolve. So let's go all the way back to the beginning of the universe and look, within known natural laws, at the information that proves valuable in a factual examination.

There are natural laws that govern the behavior of all things. Everything that exists is subject to these natural laws, i.e., the laws of gravity, motion, and so on. A natural law exists when there are no known exceptions. A law is absolute. If a thing governed by natural law(s) is found to be occurring outside those law(s), that occurrence would, by definition, be unnatural or supernatural.

If a believer and an atheist are debating creation versus evolution, and the atheist says that the physical laws that exist today did not exist at the time of creation, the believer has won the debate. Atheists argue in favor of evolution from a purely naturalistic position; and if they have to go outside nature's laws to support the argument for evolution, they have admitted to something unnatural, or supernatural.

Once we set aside the natural laws, we have crossed the line between faith based on reason and faith based on feelings.

The available answers to the creation-versus-evolution question are:

  1. The universe is eternal.
  2. God created the universe.
  3. The universe started with nothing and created itself.

Let's consider answer 1. Is the universe eternal? This question has only two possible answers--yes and no. If the universe is not eternal, it must have had a beginning, which implies some sort of creation act. If the universe is not eternal, we can eliminate answer 1 and go on to consider 2 and 3.

Simply defined, the word eternal means: always has been, and always will be, in existence. In answering the question, "Is the universe eternal," we find an important element to consider in the words, "things that were made." There's a reason why the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write those words. Things that are made possess one common characteristic (all are temporary); there's no exception. Things that are not temporary are eternal; they have no beginning or end. We do not know of any eternal, material thing in our universe. The sun and the earth on which we live are not permanent. They had a beginning, and they will have an ending. The sun and the stars are burning balls of gas that will, at some future time, exhaust themselves.

They will use up their fuel supplies, and their fires will eventually go out. Our sun, which is not permanent, gives us life. Without it, we would perish from the earth in a very short time. Every day, the sun uses its own resources to sustain itself in its present state; those resources are not being replenished. When the sun uses up its fuel supply, life on earth as we know it will be over. Scientists know these things. They're not secrets.

Laws of Thermodynamics. Science recognizes three laws known as the Laws of Thermodynamics. Science likes to use long fancy words, but this word's meaning is elementary. Thermo means heat and dynamic means power. So the Laws of Thermodynamics are the laws of heat power. As far as scientists can tell, these laws are absolute. All things in the observable universe are affected by, and obey, the laws of heat power; there are no exceptions. During this discussion, we will be looking at the first two Laws of Thermodynamics-or heat power.

  1. The Law of Conservation of Energy. The first law of heat power, commonly known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed in nature. The total quantity of energy in the universe remains the same. It can change from one form to another; for example, heat can change from motion, to electricity, to light; but the total amount of energy in the universe remains constant. A similar law, the Law of Conservation of Matter, states that matter cannot be created or destroyed in a closed system. Einstein gave us the famous formula, E=mc2, which shows that matter can be converted into energy and vice versa at a fixed exchange rate. The first law of heat power should therefore be combined with the Law of Conservation of Matter to show that the total amount of mass and energy in the universe remains constant. Matter and energy are interchangeable; this brings us to the second law of heat power.
  2. The Law of Increased Entropy. The second law of heat power is commonly known as the Law of Increased Entropy. Entropy is defined as a measure of unusable energy within a closed or isolated system (for example, the universe).

    As usable energy decreases and unusable energy increases, Entropy increases. Simply stated, useable energy constantly becomes less available in a closed system and will eventually run out.

    To illustrate this, think of the gas that powers our cars. The fuel burns and the car uses that energy. Once the fuel is burned, part of it is converted into useable energy. All matter has energy. However, all energy is not useable. Once the usable energy is exhausted, none remains. There will come a future time when we will have no more gas for our cars, no more coal, and eventually, no more sunlight. All of the useable energy in the universe will have been exhausted. This is known as The Law of Increased Entropy.

What these laws teach us is that the universe in which we live had a beginning. At a moment in time, all that we can observe was set in place and begun. Modern science does not dispute this fact, but it makes them uncomfortable. Why? Because we have eliminated the first answer to the creation-versus-evolution question. Our universe is not eternal, and there is no way to get around that fact. What is left are answers 2 and 3. Since the universe is not eternal, either it was created, or it created itself out of nothing. There are no other answers to the question regarding God's existence. This shouldn't surprise us. From the beginning, God has expected mankind to be able to figure it out on his own. It doesn't take a twenty-first-century rocket scientist to see this.

Law of Cause and Effect. In addition to the laws of heat power, we have the Law of Cause and Effect. This law states that all material effects must have an adequate and preceding cause. A single fly that lands on a book is not an adequate cause to effect that book's falling from a table. The cause must be adequate to accomplish the effect. And the cause must have preceded the effect. There is no such thing as a retroactive cause of an effect. We have already determined, from scientific perspective, that our universe had a beginning; so then what caused it to come into existence? If nothing existed before the universe was created, then what caused its creation? In order for there to be a cause, something had to exist prior to the universe.

This something is greater than the universe, and possesses more power than the sum total of all matter and energy that makes up the universe. And, from observation of the order of the universe, we conclude that He also possessed considerable intent and purpose.

In a nutshell, if answer 3 is true, the universe and everything in it must have come from nothing, without adequate cause. Scientists are also aware of this, and they don't like it. They know that nothing creates nothing but more of the same. They know that if our universe came about naturally, at some point in time, nothing had to create something--without cause. Option 3 is eliminated. Why? Because it's impossible. And it shouldn't take a scientist to know this. And when we eliminate the impossible whatever remains must be the truth.

We've eliminated answer 1--the universe is eternal--and answer 3--the universe created itself from absolutely nothing, for no cause.

One answer remains-God created the universe. But science, eager to explain away God's existence, has come up with numerous theories to explain how the universe might have been able to create itself out of nothing. And every single one of these scientific theories has fallen by the way side due to one inescapable fact--all of these theories violate the natural laws that govern the physics of the universe in which we live.

Who or What Created the Universe
This is the next question in our search for the truth regarding God's existence. There are only two available explanations. We know the universe was created, so it must have been created by a who, or a what-in short, a someone or a something.

Let's look at what may have created the universe. We've already determined that nothing can't create something, with no apparent cause. But some say, "The universe was in another form prior to its present form." If this is true, what caused it to change forms and what caused it to come into existence? If it changed forms, then it had an ending; therefore, it was temporary just as our universe is.

If a second universe began, an adequate cause had to effect that beginning. We can go on and on, back through a myriad of hypothetical universe forms, but in the end, if something created the universe, that same something had to create it from nothing, and without a cause. That fact is inescapable. Every material thing in our present universe is temporary and had a beginning somewhere, sometime.

Our universe could not have been created by a what, or a something and conform to the natural laws that govern the behavior of all material things. So what about who? If the universe could not have been created by something material, and we have eliminated that as a possibility, then what remains must be the truth. The universe must have been created by a who.

Qualifying Characteristics of the Creator
The One who created the universe had to possess certain qualifying characteristics.

  1. This creator had to be greater than the universe, powerful enough to bring it into existence, and intelligent enough to design it.
  2. This creator must have pre-existed all matter. This implies that he cannot be a material made of matter. He has to exist without form or substance, and he has to be able to exist outside of our closed-system universe.
  3. This creator has to be an eternal being. In order to have created a temporary universe in the midst of eternity, someone eternal must have existed forever.

It's important to keep in mind that if no existing being possesses these three characteristics, then it would be impossible for anything else to exist. In order for anything material to exist, there must be something-or someone--with the intelligence, power, and ability to create it.

An unconfirmed story says that Sir Isaac Newton had an atheist friend with whom he used to debate the existence of God. They were great friends and spent some time together. At one point in Newton's life, he acquired a model of our solar system. It was set up with complex machinery that showed all the planets and their moons in their orbits around the sun, which was in the center.

Isaac Newton was quite proud of this model, and when his atheist friend came for a visit, Newton invited him in to observe his working model of the solar system. Upon seeing the model in action, Newton's friend became enthusiastic about it and asked Newton who built it for him. Isaac Newton, always ready to make his point in favor of God's existence, told his atheistic friend, "Nobody built it for me. It just happened naturally."

This story, whether true or not, teaches us a basic concept--when there is intelligent design, there must be an intelligent designer. When there is order, we understand that an organizer exists. If something is created, there must be a creator.

Another story also illustrates a point to consider. God and man were talking one day, and God said to the man, "I made you; I created you from the dust of the earth." Then man said, "That's no big deal, I can do that too," so he stooped down to pick up a handful of dust; but God said, "Wait.... you have to use your own dust." Hebrews 3:4 says, "For every house is built by some man; but He that built all things is God."

Our universe was created. There is no doubt about it, and scientists know it. They don't want to admit it, so they continue to struggle with whether it was created by something, or someone. To be fair to science in general, several renowned scientists have admitted that something is very wrong with the naturalist theories regarding the origin of the universe. Big-gun scientists who literally wrote some of the textbooks that outline many of the scientific theories used today have jumped ship because they realize that, other than a creator, no possible logical conclusion can be drawn from the facts. For this, they have been ostracized from the scientific community, rejected as scholars, and treated like superstitious idiots. Their once-famous names are fading from memory and being replaced by the names of new naturalist champions who tell the people what they want to hear.

Once one admits there is a creator, what naturally follows is, "What does this creator expect of me?" People don't like expectation because that implies following someone else's will or direction. They don't want to accept the fact that there is a Creator because they are uncomfortable with having to do His will, live by His direction, and order their lives around His expectations.

As stated earlier, if material things that had a beginning exist now, then some immaterial thing that had no beginning must have existed forever. What is not material must be immaterial, or spiritual. Everything in the universe fits into one of two categories-mind or matter.

A scientist named John Eccles believed that our minds were independent of our material bodies, and he set out to prove or disprove his theory. By studying and experimenting, he was able to determine that the human mind can display intent, purpose, and perception without showing a hint of brain activity. He established a dual existence within man's brain and called it man's mind. Basically, our minds operate within our brains similar to how a librarian operates within a library. The mind uses the brain, but it is not the brain. As one might imagine, there is much controversy over this finding; however, John Eccles received the Nobel Prize for science, which lends credibility to his finding. That means it's hard to argue with him on the matter. He also wrote a book, How the Self Controls Its Brain, about his findings.

What this means is that there is some credible, researched, scientific evidence that points to the reality of an independent mind operation within a person's brain?

God said that He created man in His own image (Genesis 1:27). He said no such thing about the animals. God breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils, and man became a living soul (Geneses 2:7). Again, He said nothing about the animals. There is a dual existence within man. God gave him something different-a living soul--which is different from anything He gave any animal, and at the same time, similar to what is inherent within God--His image. What is that image? It has the ability to hope, to feel compassion, to aspire, to understand morality and know right from wrong, to reason, and to live forever. Man has a mind. God is a spiritual entity who exists outside our natural boundaries. Nothing about Him is material. Therefore, whatever He bestowed upon us in His image cannot be material. It has to be immaterial. God gave us something that exists apart from our natural boundaries.

In order for anything temporary to exist, something that is not material has to have existed forever. What is it? Mind? That eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, mind. Bigger than the universe, older then time itself, intelligent, and powerful enough to create what we see around us from nothing; possessing compassion, love, and aspiration; knowing right from wrong, and having the ability to reason. What has that great mind? I prefer to call Him my God and Creator.

We and the Atheists share something in common--faith. We all know that in order for anything to exist now, the natural laws that govern the universe had to be set aside.

The Atheists believe in creation within the natural laws, with no explanation for cause. Christians believe in creation outside the natural laws, and only one possible explanation for the cause.

Whose faith is based on logical facts and not on feelings? And whose faith is subjective, or based on feelings, attitudes, and whimsical hopes? Whose faith is a sham and a crutch for the weak-minded? Certainly, it is not faith in God.

God exists, and the things that He made loudly and clearly proclaim His existence. The Psalmist wrote, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God" (Psalms 14:1). "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showed His handiworks" (Psalms 19:1), and indeed it does to all who will accept it, and respond to the call of His word.


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