Epigraph:

بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُن فَيَكُونُ

He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth, and when He decrees something, He says only, ‘Be,’ and it is. (Al Quran 2:117)

Have they been created from nothing, or are they their own creators? Have they created the heavens and the earth? In truth they put no faith in anything. (Al Quran 52:35-36)

…

Commentary by Zia H Shah MD

The above videos precisely define the most important question of our lives, “Why is there anything at all?”

With 1.8 billion Muslims and more than 2 billion Christians who given their missionary spirit are vying for an international paradigm. There are 15 million Jews in their midst but they generally do not want to preach. If all these billions focus on their discussion of the most important question and tackle it with the atheists and minimize the other parochial debates, we will find amazing interfaith tolerance.

The second video is of Rebeca Newberger Goldstein. Here we learn in very precise terms that there are three possible explanations for why there is anything at all:

1. Brute fact.
2. Mathematical equations or laws of nature.
3. God; the necessary being who is the Creator of the universe.

Goldstein seems to lean towards Spinoza’s and Einstein’s understanding, given her Jewish background. These seem to be pantheistic leaning, who think that the laws of nature with better understanding may be able to explain themselves. In other words pantheistic bias is that the universe is able to explain itself. To a theist of Abrahamic faiths this seems false hope.

But, rather than getting in a dry or boring debate with the pantheist, today, I want to merely lay out some theistic philosophers to study or hear and some prior publications to suggest that journey from the three options mentioned above to God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, David, Jesus, John the Baptist and Muhammad is an easy one.

Brian Leftow is in the video above (born 1956) and is an American philosopher specializing in philosophy of religion, medieval philosophy, and metaphysics. He is the William P. Alston Professor for the Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers University. Previously, he held the Nolloth Chair of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oriel College, Oxford, succeeding Richard Swinburne.

David Bentley Hart (born February 1965) is an American writer, philosopher, religious studies scholar, critic, and theologian. Reviewers have commented on Hart’s baroque prose and provocative rhetoric in over one thousand essays, reviews, and papers as well as nineteen books (including translations). From a predominantly Anglican family background, Hart became Eastern Orthodox when he was twenty-one. His academic works focus on Christian metaphysics, philosophy of mind, Indian and East Asian religion, Asian languages, classics, and literature as well as a New Testament translation. Books with wider audiences include The Doors of the Sea, Atheist Delusions, That All Shall Be Saved, and Roland in Moonlight.

Peter van Inwagen (/væn ɪnˈwɑːɡən/; born September 21, 1942) is an American analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is also a research professor of philosophy at Duke University each spring.^[2] He previously taught at Syracuse University, earning his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1969^[3] under the direction of Richard Taylor.^[4] Van Inwagen is one of the leading figures in contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of action. He was the president of the Society of Christian Philosophers from 2010 to 2013.^[5]

Video: Is God Necessary or Who Made God?

Epigraph اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ ۚ لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ ۚ لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ مَن ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِندَهُ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ […]

Video: Is God Necessary and the Crown Verse of the Quran?

اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ ۚ لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ ۚ لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ مَن ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِندَهُ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ […]

How Could Most Mathematicians Believe in Heaven, But Not in God?

Epigraph: He is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden, and He knows all things full well. (Al Quran 57:3) We have created the heavens and […]

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