Challenge: A Universe Can't Be Made from Nothingness by a Non-Thing
Here’s an email I received recently containing a story meant to show that Genesis is “drivel”:
Monotheistic (or tri-theistic) morons call their preposterous absurd deity God, which is utterly without form or substance, consists of nothing whatever, cannot exist AS anything whatever, and therefore IS nothing (no thing) whatever.
Once upon a time when there was no time, there was nothing (also known as Nonthing). Nonthing was all there was. There was nothing else. Nada, nil, zero, zip, zilch. Nonthing had been existing forever, had never not existed, had no beginning, and therefore never began to exist. Nonthing was all-knowing, yet, having never begun to exist, it had no memory of its first realization that it did exist, much less that it had been existing forever.
But Nonthing somehow suddenly realized that it existed and had been existing forever… Bored out of its nonskull, Nonthing said to itself (there being no one else around), saying, “This sitting around all by myself doing nothing for seventy billion trillion quadrillion eons or so is getting old…. I will make a universe to play with! But with what will I make it? I am all there is…. Aha! I've got it! I will make a universe from all this nothingness surrounding me!”
And so, with an inexhaustible supply of nothingness for building material, Nonthing made the entire universe, complete with stars, galaxies, solar systems, planets, comets, quasars, black holes, dark matter, assorted cosmic flotsam and jetsam and interstellar junk, and a flat planet Earth.
Was the universe made from nothingness? Do ducks cluck? Do chickens quack? Do whales use toilets? Do sharks wear dentures?
In general, what’s the best way to respond to this kind of thing? Secondly, can you explain where this man went wrong in his reasoning and/or his characterization of the Christian God? There’s a pretty basic logical fallacy happening here, and he’s opened himself up to a huge counter-challenge. Can you find a legitimate challenge in his story, restate it for him in a more serious form, and then respond to it?
We’ll hear Brett’s response on Thursday.
