The Universe Is Not a Lottery - There Is a Creator!

Daphna asks:

"Greetings, I logically understand that there must be a creator of the world. The probability of a universe with brilliant natural laws like ours is impossible. But my question is, the universe is infinite, isn't it?"

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Hello Daphna, and thank you for your question.

The universe is indeed very large, but it is not infinite. There is a number of stars, estimated by NASA at about 10 to the power of 20 stars.

Moreover, a scientific fact known as the "Law of Conservation of Energy" teaches that the amount of matter in the universe is constant; it has been discovered that energy can only change form but can never be created or destroyed, as the verse says: "He commanded, and they were created. He established them forever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away" (Psalms 148:6).

The amount of material in the universe is finite, and therefore the space (that contains the material) is finite.

How do we know the universe is finite?

Well, scientific observations made using the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that the universe as a whole is expanding, galaxies are moving away from each other, which proves that the entire space, with all the stars in it, were once smaller, concentrated, and dense at the beginning in a very tiny point from which the entire universe appeared out of nowhere. This means that the universe has an age and it had a beginning in time. The universe was created ex nihilo and is not "infinite".

Every beginning must, of course, have a precursor. Since science has proven that the entire universe appeared at a certain point in time and did not always exist, this fact proves the existence of a creator who is not limited to matter and time (-infinite and eternal), who created the universe out of nothing.

It should also be emphasized that without a legislator, there is no other reason for there to be order in the universe. The laws testify to a legislator who maintains the existing order in wisdom, without whom the universe would revert to chaos.

Now, some mistakenly ask, "Perhaps the universe was created by chance out of an unprecedented coincidence? Perhaps the universe was created by a statistical error? After all, anything is possible."

Often they are answered that it is not logical, that such probability is far-fetched, and so forth. But this answer does not uproot the imaginary doubt at its core, allowing the atheist to continue claiming "even if it is not logical or likely, I still choose to believe in very rare randomness..."

This is an incorrect approach to the question.

Instead of getting confused with imaginations and baseless theories about imaginary coincidences, one must tell the confused questioners openly:

This is a scientific fact: there is no 'randomness' in the universe, and there never was 'randomness' in the universe.

Let's ask, what is the meaning of the word "randomness"?

Randomness means: an unconscious result from many possibilities.

Therefore, if there is only one default, and there is only one option before us, then there is no place to talk about "randomness".

It is known that our universe appeared ex nihilo along with the laws of nature. These laws, by definition, are laws. They were never random, so there was never in our universe the possibility of other natural laws than ours.

There are people who are not aware of these scientific facts and therefore mistakenly speak of "coincidence," as if creation might be a successful lotto result of "natural laws." But they make a grave error, for those who claim this forget one very simple fact: there are no other possibilities in our universe! We have only one single universe with precise mathematical laws from its inception, which compel matter to behave in a very specific way (natural laws such as gravity, forces between atoms and molecules). These laws are unchanging, and they have no substitutes.

There are not millions of possibilities here, not thousands of possibilities, and not even three possibilities.

Thus, the Rambam clarified unequivocally, "If it could be imagined that he (the Creator) does not exist, nothing else could exist" (Foundations of the Torah, 1:1). This means without the Creator there would be no creation, and without His wisdom, there would be no order in the universe.

And from here your question does not relate at all to "a probability of one in a billion" or "one in a thousand billion," but simply put - either one or zero!

Either there is creation, or there is no creation. Either there is legality in the universe, or there is no legality, and everything is in chaos. These are the only two choices.

And since there is creation, and there are natural laws, there must be a Creator who created the universe and enacted its laws. There is no place for talking about "probabilities," simply because our universe was created from the beginning with fixed laws without "other possibilities."

This means that "randomness" never was and never happened.

Our universe is not a card game.

Our universe is not a lottery draw.

Our universe is not a winning number drawn in a dice game.

No and no. Our universe appeared with one and only default: the legality that has restricted it since time immemorial by the legislator who determined it.

The very legality proves the existence of a non-random factor which directs and compels the universe to behave exactly as it does. That is, there is a Creator, a limiting and obliging factor who preceded the universe, created it as it is, and controls it.

To reinforce this understanding, we must further ask: what obliges the continuation of the legality in our universe at this very moment? The only answer is that there is right now a legislator obliging the legality in the universe and does not allow it to change or disappear into chaos.

The factor that holds the universe cannot be random because the universe operates according to laws and not recklessly.

Legality only comes from a legislator, a plan. And hence the conclusion that our universe is managed by a planning factor, not a random factor.

Since natural laws are wonderfully planned, logic requires that the factor controlling the universe (whose existence has already been proven) is an intelligence far superior to us humans. This means the Creator is not an "unconscious Creator" but a conscious and deliberate Creator.

Thus clarified the Rambam in his book, "Guide for the Perplexed" (Guide for the Perplexed, Part Two, Chapter 20):

"Aristotle proves demonstratively that all natural things do not occur by chance. His demonstrative proof is, as he stated, that chance things do not persist and are not frequently found, while all these natural things are either persistent or (found) frequently. The heavens and all that is in them persist in unchanging states - as we have explained - neither in their essences nor in their movements. The natural things under the sphere, some are persistent and some are frequently found. The persistent ones - like fire heating and stone falling downward, and the frequently found - such as the forms of individual members of each species and their actions - and all this is clear. And since individual members of a living species are not by chance, how could the species itself be by chance? This is therefore a demonstrative proof that those found are not accidental. And these are Aristotle's words against those of the ancients who claimed this world happened by chance and that it occurred by itself without cause... That first cause is - even according to Aristotle - an intellect of the highest and most complete degree of reality. He even said that God wills what is necessary from Him..."

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Summary of the proof:

1. Randomness, by definition, describes a lack of order and boundaries. For example, when ink falls on the floor, it creates random shapes. They are random because they could have fallen and been created in countless different ways, and are not bound to a specific form or order.

2. Legality, on the other hand, is the result of a limiting, planning factor that demands consistent and planned behavior in matter. For example, computer software is not random, because it operates according to pre-existing legality, obliging the computer to work in a very specific way according to the codes programmed in it.

3. Our universe, from the moment of its appearance, was created with extremely precise mathematical natural laws that compel its matter to operate in a very specific, consistent, and non-random way.

4. Hence the inevitable conclusion that our universe is the result of a planning factor, a creator, and cannot be the product of a random factor.

Q.E.D. (m.s.l)

N.B.

[Even those who imagine the theoretical idea of "parallel universes" cannot escape the fact that each of these theoretical "universes" was born from certain legality, which compelled the appearance of each universe, and also the specific behavior of each universe. But if the ultimate factor that "produces universes" was itself a random factor, then no mathematical restrictive legality would exist in any universe and nowhere, because the nature of legality is that it comes from a legislator and creator, while chance comes from an inconsistent factor. Which again leads to the inescapable conclusion, that the factor behind the universe, or behind all the universes, cannot be a random factor, but a limiting and planning factor].