{"id":21034,"date":"2022-10-18T21:49:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T21:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21034"},"modified":"2022-10-18T21:49:34","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T21:49:34","slug":"the-adequate-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21034","title":{"rendered":"The Adequate Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 2<\/strong>\u00a0page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The matter is really very simple: We live in a cause-effect universe\u2014every effect must have a cause, yea, an <b>adequate <\/b>or <b>sufficient <\/b>cause, to explain it. A wristwatch implies a watchmaker. A house implies a designer and builder. The computer on which these words are being written required great wisdom and skill to conceive, design, and build.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">If I said that a monkey built my watch, a two-year-old child designed and built his parents\u2019 house, or my computer resulted from a huge explosion (\u201cBig Bang\u201d), you would immediately know that I was being facetious or that I was delusional. I would be suggesting causes, but not causes that are <b>adequate <\/b>or <b>sufficient <\/b>to explain these respective effects.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">This cause-effect principle is axiomatic, admitted by all observant and rational people. It is so self-evident it needs no further proof. Those who deny the existence of God\u2014as the Bible reveals and describes Him\u2014must explain how a universe, incomparably more complicated than anything men can invent, design, and build, came into being. Their glib explanation, that blind, unintelligent forces\/matter coincided without design or planning, and \u201cit just happened,\u201d is not only woefully inadequate\u2014it is unworthy of rational, intelligent men.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">We and our universe are either (1) eternal (i.e., we have always existed) or (2) in some way and at some time, we and the universe had a beginning. Evidence abounds proving that the physical universe (of which we are a part) is depleting, decaying, and wearing out, but that which is eternal is necessarily self-existent and cannot change or decay. We and all other physical things thus had a beginning point\u2014and a cause of beginning. \u201cExperts\u201d may push \u201cthe beginning\u201d point of our physical universe back 1 billion or 100 billion years, but they can\u2019t deny that it had a time of beginning and is thus not eternal. This inescapable fact implies \u201csomething\u201d or \u201csomeone\u201d which\/who had no beginning but has always existed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">We (1) created ourselves, (2) began by some cosmic accident\/chance, or (3) an adequate Cause designed and created us. If we made ourselves, we had to exist before we existed. Only fools would so argue. Did we just \u201chappen\u201d by some inexplicable \u201caccident\u201d? <i>Accident <\/i>is not an adequate cause for the lowly paper clip, yet atheists and evolutionists have nothing better to offer for the beginning\/existence of our intricate universe. Objective, rational minds understand that our vast physical universe demands the existence of an <b>adequate <\/b>Cause.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The Bible sets forth the only <b>adequate <\/b>Cause in God\u2014the eternal (having no beginning), self-existent, omniwise, omniscient, and omnipotent One. \u201cFor every house is builded by some- one; but he that built all things is God\u201d (Heb. 3:4). \u201cIn the beginning God created&#8230;\u201d (Gen. 1:1).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">[<b>Note: <\/b>This article was written for and published in the <i>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/i>Denton, TX, March 14, 2014.]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><b>Attribution: <\/b>From <i>thescripturecache.com<\/i>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0 [Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2\u00a0page.] The matter is really very simple: We live in a cause-effect universe\u2014every effect must have a cause, yea, an adequate or sufficient cause, to explain it. A wristwatch implies a&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21034\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  The Adequate Cause<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[701,130,115,1085,830],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cause-effect","category-creation","category-god","category-gods-omniscience","category-gods-power","wpcat-701-id","wpcat-130-id","wpcat-115-id","wpcat-1085-id","wpcat-830-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21035,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034\/revisions\/21035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}