When asking a person what caused the universe to exist, it is quite common nowadays to hear the immediate, impulsive reply, “It all happened by chance”. To many people, the universe and all that it contains originated “just like that”, “out of the blue”, or “from nothing” and without any prior planning or design.
When asked further how something can be derived from nothing, thereby defying one of the most fundamental laws of nature, some go on to explain how certain “forces” and “conditions” came together in such a way that they were able to create the first piece of matter that would proceed to the ultimate existence of the whole universe.
So what is the chance that the world could have come about by itself? Imagine that you had a friend in Australia who had lost their phone number. All you knew was that it contained 10 digits. If you tried calling all the combinations of possible numbers, if you were unlucky enough you would have to try 10 BILLION times before you finally dialed the right number.
Now imagine the number of trials it would take for these correct “forces” and “conditions” to be present before they were able to permit the initiation of the most complex and intricate of creation. Imagine how accurate the combination and how precise the circumstances would have to be before such an event could take place.
In relation to just one of these “conditions”, the expansion rate of the world, it was quoted that, “If it had been smaller by a fraction of a million of a millionth, the universe would have collapsed. If it had been a millionth greater, it would have expanded too rapidly for stars and planets to form. If the forces holding atomic nuclei together had been any weaker the universe would have composed only of nitrogen. If any stronger all the carbon in the universe would have been converted to oxygen.” [Prof Ian Barbour, Association of Scientific Advancement]
However, despite the apparent impossibility of the universe beginning in such a manner by “chance”, there still exits the probability that things could work out, given an infinite amount of time. Fine, but consider this parallel: If you had a coin and threw it up in the air, then according to reality there would exist a CHANCE that it could be heads, and a CHANCE that it could be tails. Similarly, if you threw a dice, there would be CHANCE that it could be 1 and there could be a CHANCE that it could 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. There would always be a chance but YOU would have to be there to initiate that chance. YOU would have to be present to make sure it came into being. It couldn’t just exist by itself or come from nowhere. Only by your action of tossing the coin or throwing the dice could that reality exist. Who then could it be that initiated the chance that brought the whole universe into being, if in the first instance it did originate by chance?
Even if it were by chance that the right conditions and forces became present at the right time, what was it that caused even those conditions in themselves to exist?
Surely the only explanation is that those conditions, those forces, that chance and the very first matter originated from an unlimited source, beyond all power and might. Our Creator, Allah.
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