: Gideon,: 1. The matter which makes up the Universe had to have come from somewhere.
Why? Examine data from a bubble chamber; matter and antimatter can appear out of nowhere - you're thinking in causal terms (i.e. cause ==> effect) - this is part of logic; and, as I've already said, God cannot be limited by logic; thus logic cannot be used to define or justify God.
(You could say "look, this happens in the physical world!" and infer the presence of God from it, but someone else could equally well ascribe it to the flower fairies; in the absence of falsifiability you are merely expressing a belief; and an ultimately a logical one at that.)
: 2. Nobody can ever know where this matter came from. We can know how old it is, what's it's made from, how it spread and formed, but it's origins are impossible to determine.
You can prove where it *doesn't* come from; thus theories on the Universe's origin are falsifiable and therefore scientific according to Popper's principle of falsifiability.
: 3. Something cannot come from nothing. Where then did matter come from? The only answer left is: God, i.e., a mysterious force or entity beyond human understanding.
Again, this is logical thinking in the causal mode; and thus cannot be used as a proof of God. You are trying to use the logical to prove the non-logical; it really is as simple as declaring 1+1=3; it *might* be true under certain circumstances, but not in Euclidean space that we derive our logic from.
: Fortunately, that's where my agreement with the religious folk ends. In my opinion, we cannot know the nature of what, for want of a better term, we call "God." We cannot know what God wants, or how God operates. Anyone attempting to tell us these things is misguided or worse. So, I'll accept the notion of a mysterious force which created the Universe, but that's all.
But you cannot falsify this; thus it is a belief, not a scientific theory. And since it is fundamentally alogical as a belief, you cannot use logical constructs like cause and effect to justify it.
Close, but no cigar.
Gideon.
