Secondary Causes

Dan Brown

Christians throughout history have thought that God works, in the main, through secondary causes: that He serves us our daily bread on the table, not in defiance of natural law, but in accord with it. The natural world we see around us is no chaotic swamp, but a law-abiding commonwealth. Natural law is not alien to God, because He is the law-giver: "The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." (Psalm 24:1). The "ordinances," or laws, of the heavens, are those ordinance which He has proclaimed:

“Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?” (Job 38:33);

“Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): 'If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.'” (Jeremiah 31:35-36).

Though there are occasions when God works in a way contrary to common expectation, as when He multiplied the loaves and fishes, we also thank Him for our daily bread when no laws of physics have been defied in its production. As Paul pointed out, the created world proclaims its Creator (Romans 1:20), not in spite of, but because the world is lawful, and because the world is intelligible. Intelligibility implies intelligence. Some unbelievers will allow God a role only in that which is contrary to nature:

But it isn't only natural events contrary to law that reveal God's mighty hand. The lawfulness of nature is itself testimony to its legislator, who calls His creation by name: "He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name." (Psalm 147:4).

Enlightenment thinkers sought to tie God's own hands by the very lawfulness of His creation. Though they admitted God had set the system up, they tried to make its very abundance of order squeeze out His providential care of the world. No room was left for God's free action, they alleged, in a natural order whose sequence of cause and effect rolled on inexorably.

But this boast proved impossible to sustain. Science could not demonstrate an iron-clad determinism without exit or entrance, but was ultimately obliged to admit some events, especially those very small, could be predicted only to a level of statistical likelihood. God's freedom is preserved, because in fact there is no random event: "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will." (Matthew 10:29).

God is not embarrassed or put to shame that His creation follows laws; it is He who wrote the laws. Man should be embarrassed that he fails to follow suit.

Lawrence Krauss

Whose views is Lawrence Krauss summarizing above? Who is it who believes that God, having had no involvement with the world for billions of years, all of a sudden began intervening in an alien world created by some rival power several thousand years ago? One realizes with a start that, since Lawrence Krauss, a great crowd favorite with the atheists, does not believe in God, he can only be summarizing what he believes to be the view held by theists! This idea, of an intruder God whose only relation to the world is disruption, is as alien to the theistic mind as would be this stranger-God to the world. God does work wonders, suspending the normal, established ways the world works, such as the conservation of matter and energy:

"One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten." (John 6:8-13).

. . .though some readers think this is a miracle of sharing rather than something for nothing. Who but the lawgiver has the power to change or suspend the law?: "There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?" (James 4:12). This lawgiver legislates not only for mankind, but for inanimate objects as well: "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?" (Job 38:33). The laws in this case are not given by one power, then broken by a rival power, against whom the first then sets off in pursuit.

God is no intruder coming along late in time who, finding a world built by a rival power, begins meddling with it. He creates and sustains the world; His governance is rule by law. Traditional theologians used to say that the act by which God sustains the world is the same as that by which He created. His governance is by no means hostile to the concept of law; if on occasion He does mighty deeds not normally seen in the course of nature, it is only to put the stamp of authorship on His revelation.

How, incidentally, do atheists like Krauss understand this undeniable fact about the universe: that not only men, but planets, galaxies, flowers and trees are subject to law? I will tell you their answer, if you promise not to laugh. Here is the fable: there are a gazillion universes, indeed an actual infinity of 'em. We cannot see the other ones, nor ever will be able to, because they are over there beyond the blue, beyond our sight, just over the event horizon. Thus, conveniently enough, our tale can never be falsified by observation; we can safely repeat it, though it is not science. Now it is perplexing of course that nature should obey law. Why should the natural world show constant, predictable, and intelligible patterns and inter-relations? If there is no intelligence expressing itself in nature, then why should the signal ring so clear, rather than random noise? Well, you see, lots of those other universes were lawless,— you know, those ones we can never see or experience, so this theory can never be falsified,— this one we are stuck in, the only one we can experience, just happens to be one of the lawful ones. Luck of the draw! Because, you see, some universes just happen to be lawful, others lawless, like Dodge City. These latter are the ones where, on Tuesday, water burns, on Wednesday, it quenches fire, on Thursday, it bubbles, and then on Friday, it's Monday. This is not a theory we can test, because we can never see any of those other universes, but rather a bed-time story to tell atheists to quiet their uneasy dreams.

Ex Nihilo

The pagan philosopher Plato, a theist of sorts, believed that God created the world, but not altogether: He pieced it together by organizing pre-existing matter. This view was popular at the time and to this day something similar is defended by the Mormons. The gnostics based their world-view on this concept, which follows from the perception that there is something degraded or illusory about matter. To distinguish their view from this perennially popular rival philosophy, Christians speak of creation ex nihilo, i.e. 'from nothing.'

It is not their intention in so speaking to deny the principle of sufficient reason, which is sometimes summarized as 'from nothing nothing comes,' because God Himself is the sufficient reason for His creation. Rather, they intend to deny the supposition of pre-existing matter, whether uncreated as the Mormons now believe, or created by a lesser god as the gnostics used to believe. There is no need to supplement the Genesis account of creation to teach creation 'ex nihilo,' because "the heaven and the earth" include everything and exclude nothing created. Since there is no suggestion anywhere in the Bible that there is any world-constituent (other than God) which is uncreated, there is no special need to run down the list. The burden of proof must rest with those who claim part of the world is uncreated, only Moses 'forgot' to mention it. Jews and Christians in the early days did explicitly understand creation, contra Plato, to include the creation of matter: "I beg you, child, look at the sky and the earth; see all that is in them and realize that God made them out of nothing, and that man comes into being in the same way." (2 Maccabees 7:28, New English Bible).

Psalm 148 gives an extensive catalog of creation, though of course no catalog can be extensive enough to foil those casting about for some unmentioned thing that they can thus present as uncreated, a cut-out for 'primordial chaos' or whatever:

Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.

"Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
Fire, and hail; snow, and vapor; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD." (Psalm 148).

Mormons do not embrace the teachings of Plato, nor did the early gnostics embrace the doctrine which Joseph Smith took from the materialists of the nineteenth century, that matter was uncreated, eternal and indestructible; rather, they believed it to be the inadvertent creation of a fallen, incompetent power. This view dove-tailed with a generally negative estimation of matter and all those things created therefrom. Much of that negativity rubs off on the God of Israel who created this material world, who is generally mocked and disgraced in gnostic literature. The Mormons, who look forward expectantly to a sexually active eternity, have taken some of these old ideas in an unexpected direction.

It is striking to realize there were some in the early church whose prior commitment to Plato was so intense they could convince themselves the Bible simply 'forgets' to mention there is a major constituent of the world, matter, which is as uncreated as God but whose existence simply goes unmentioned. Nevertheless the Bible is what determines Christian doctrine, not the pagan philosopher Plato. The Bible knows two categories: Creator, and creation; there is no third category, 'uncreated, but found.' John in his prologue teaches about the Creator and creation: "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3). Where is there any mention that the 'stuff'' of which the world is made, matter, was in no way created by God, He simply found it here? Or in Colossians 1:16-17, "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." There is an 'elephant in the room' problem with these verses if, as the Mormons claim, God did not create everything that is, but simply found all kinds of stuff laying around and began busily 'organizing' it, as a human workman would do.

Any intelligent agent, including man, can 'organize' existing matter into a designed form; this is what a builder does when he 'creates' a house. But the Bible teaches that God's creative work is unique. He alone,— not us, not any 'organizer,'— calls the things that are not as if they were:

"Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." (Romans 4:16-17).

Where is there an example of this manner of creating? When God called the world into being, saying 'Let there be light,' etc.:

The second-century Christian author Theophilus of Antioch had already heard of the idea that God created by organizing pre-existent matter, and he gives credit where credit is due: this is the view taught by Plato and believed by his followers:

It cannot be supposed that all men are born Platonists,—the Mormons themselves are not Platonists,—and so there is no reason to read this distinctive teaching of the Platonic school back into the Bible, although those who subscribe to it may be tempted to do so.

Deep Europan Sea

In the nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur closed the door on the old idea of spontaneous generation. Prior to his time it had been widely assumed that there were worms not parented by other worms:

". . .for a worm which is generated from animals has not the aspect of generation and sonship. . ." (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 27, A(2).)

. . .namely, worms which arose, spontaneously, from putrefaction:

"The senses are witness that something is generated out of the sacramental species, either ashes, if they be burned, worms if they putrefy, or dust if they be crushed." (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 3, Question 77, A(5).)

Imagine believing that the mystery life-forms pulsating within the forgotten jars in the back of your refrigerator started right there. To show that this is not so, place a steak out in the open air, and another in sterile conditions, under a bell jar. Soon the steak left out in the open will be crawling with maggots and worms, but not the steak isolated from the environment. Life comes from life; it does not arise spontaneously when conditions are favorable.

What is striking is that, during all the long centuries prior to Louis Pasteur when many able men labored to interpret and understand the Bible, the Bible verse which states life cannot arise in this way escaped their view. And by the way, what is that verse? If you believe what you hear on Christian radio, you would think the Bible says little fishes cannot swim within the blue Europan sea. It says no such thing. Joining hands with the secularists, they have expelled God from nature, allowing Him just one chance to intervene in His own creation.

Miracles

God works His wonders, sometimes through the means of secondary causes, like the east wind:

"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." (Exodus 14:21-22).

. . .at other times through His mere fiat. Both natural law and miracles are works of God:

"Natural law is a description of the way God acts regularly in and through creation (Ps. 104:10-14), whereas a miracle is the way God acts on special occasions. So both miracles and natural law involve the activity of God. The difference is that natural law is the regular, repeatable, and predictable way God acts, whereas a miracle is not." (Norman Geisler, Miracles and the Modern Mind, Chapter 11).

It may seem unbalanced and asymmetrical to say that both natural law and miracles are the products of the same mind, the same agent, but the annals of the behavior of free agents will provide many analogues and similar cases. What does it mean to be free, if you have to do it the same way every time?