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The Churches and Modern Thought / An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour cover

The Churches and Modern Thought / An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour

Chapter 73: § 2. The Existence of a First Cause—An Uncaused Cause.5
By Vivian Phelips
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About This Book

The author examines the causes and scope of contemporary unbelief, surveying declining church attendance, scientific challenges, and shifts in public opinion; critiques the state of Christian apologetics—especially defenses of miracles, the resurrection, and incarnation—and argues that higher biblical criticism and comparative religion raise serious difficulties for traditional claims. The book analyzes parallels between Christian narratives and ancient myths, questions the reconciliation of scriptural creation accounts with evolutionary theory, and urges candid, rigorous discussion to address scepticism. It combines historical, theological, and scientific arguments to propose more effective apologetic responses and to call for honesty in evaluating faith and doubt.

§ 2. The Existence of a First Cause—An Uncaused Cause.5

The hypothesis of modern science is that everything as it now exists in the universe is the result of an infinite series of causes and effects; everything that happens is the result of something else that happened previously, and so on backwards to all eternity. The agnostic scientist says that we know nothing about this Infinite Cause, and that the idea of a First Cause is absurd. The Theist affirms that there is an Eternal Infinite Being who is the First Cause. He says that it is absurd not to believe in a First Cause, that materialistic theories are so absurd compared with his that for this reason alone he would remain a Theist. He appears entirely to lose sight of the fact that by predicating a First Cause he only removes the mystery a stage further back. He tells us nothing about the origin of the First Cause or the state of things that preceded it. The appearance of a First Cause upon the scene only increases the great mystery. Certainly it does not solve it. We are no forwarder. The creation of a mystery to explain a mystery is a very ancient custom, but it is a custom that has not met with the approbation of science.

The Theist apparently thinks, however, that he has science on his side. Thus, in the Baird Lectures of 1876, Dr. Flint stated that “the progress of science has not more convincingly and completely dispersed the once prevalent notion that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago than it has convincingly and completely established that everything of which our senses inform us has had a commencement in time.”6 This opinion is still proclaimed by the Church to be the opinion of science. But modern science does not point to a beginning of the scheme of things. The consensus of opinion is entirely the other way. So far as we know, the ultimate cause recedes for ever and ever beyond the time when there was no distinction of earth and sea and atmosphere, all being mingled together in nebulous matter. Where would the Theist fix the “commencement”? The gaps on which theology at one time relied are rapidly disappearing. The apparent chasm between the organic and inorganic, between the lifeless and that which lives, according to the latest conceptions of science, no longer exists. Man may even succeed in manufacturing life, so that yet another teleological argument may collapse.