4) Creation – a special case of God interfering?
Traditionally, God has been thought of as the creator. There would simply be nothing if it was not for God, and so we have to thank him for making life possible. Yes, the problem of evil and suffering gives us a lot to complain about, but if it was not for God, we would not be here at all, so, on balance: “Thank you very much God”.
Before the modern age, it would be simply “bonkers” not to believe in God. Humanity had no other way to explain how the universe came into being and how life is possible except by drawing the perfectly reasonable conclusion: God did it! Now that we have an understanding of the Big Bang and evolution, it does look like it’s entirely reasonable to conclude that it’s got nothing to do with God; it’s all down to the natural laws of science. In that case, why bring God into it at all? A purely natural process of creation completely removes the philosophical problem of evil and suffering. (The problem of suffering remains as acute as ever, of course, but there is no longer any problem about how a good God could allow it.)
Some theists have tried to preserve a role for God by suggesting that God is the one who caused the Big Bang, and, perhaps, gave evolution a nudge in the right direction. However, is it necessary to try and keep God in the picture? IF it is possible for life as we know it to develop in entirely natural ways, then God would not have “to do anything”, and life would still be here, and this is not inconsistent with God’s existence. God, in his omniscience, could see that he just had to sit back and wait, and the Big Bang and evolution would do the rest. Nevertheless, even though life through entirely natural means and God’s existence are not incompatible, it’s fair to ask why we need to posit the existence of God if he is no longer needed to explain why we are here.
We should in passing note that what scientists tell us about the creation of the universe is so mind-boggling that positing the existence of an omnipotent spiritual being is hardly more bizarre. I think it remains the most intellectually convincing argument for the existence of God to ask the simple question: “Why should there be something rather than nothing?”. It might be the correct answer that this is just how the laws of physics work. However, it would certainly be helpful for belief in God if it could be shown that the Big Bang has some sort of causal relationship deriving from God. What might this be? In the realm of pure speculation, we would have to suggest that there is a connection between spiritual reality and physical reality. The matter of the universe is (I believe I’m correct in my understanding) the same as the energy of the universe. We humans tend to think of “things” being what has matter, but in reality, energy is the same, and this energy operates according to certain laws of physics. Therefore, we would have to posit that there is such a thing as spiritual reality, and this caused the effect of the laws of physics that caused the Big Bang. So, perhaps spiritual reality is the grounds which enable the Big Bang to naturally occur, or, more directly using the idea of a personal, spiritual God, then it was God’s spiritual nature and will that caused the Big Bang. In this way, God would still be the creator, and so we should say thank you for that. I think we’ve shown that it is not essential for God to be the creator; it could be that the Big Bang and evolution got us here, and then we discover the spiritual reality of God within the existence that we have. If God is the creator, then there needs to be some sort of connection between spiritual energy and physical energy, with the one causing the other.
Spiritual Devotion 