Do explanations require more explanations? Sometimes atheists say yes, and sometimes they seem to say no.

As you begin to have more conversations about your Christian convictions with non-Christians, you'll likely see some patterns emerge. For instance, many atheists won't think that they actually have to defend the idea that they believe there is no God. They think the burden is totally on you, yet that is a claim they've made, and they should back it up with evidence and reasons.

But there are other types of trends that come along with this in similar conversations. Now, one of the good arguments for the existence of God is the cosmological argument. We've talked about this before, and it's fairly simple. It says that everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist, therefore the universe has a cause.

And we've discussed that the cause has some things we can know about it. That cause must be immaterial. It can't be made of stuff, because all stuff came into existence at the big bang. It can't have been, at least initially, in time. It needed to be timeless, because time came into existence with all matter at the big bang. It also would need to be personal, because it made a decision to create. It's also very powerful, right? It created a whole universe. It’s also intelligent; this universe works very well. So, those are the five attributes we can know about the cause of the universe.

And that sure sounds a lot like God, right? A personal, timeless, immaterial, powerful, intelligent creator, or being—that sounds a lot like God. Now, that argument certainly doesn't do enough, it doesn't prove enough. But it is a helpful step on our journey to demonstrating the truthfulness of the Christian worldview.

However, some people will say, "Well, what created God?" And then you'll say, "Well, that's kind of the wrong question. Because God is uncreated." "Oh well, can you explain how that works?" someone might say. And you might say, "No, actually, I can't. I don't understand how a being can be uncreated, but I know that God is." And they'll say, "Well, I can't believe in a God where I can't understand everything about them. If you can't answer all my questions, I just can't believe in that type of being."

We've talked about this before, and I've pointed out that people don't apply this standard in any other area of their lives. They'll drive to the place where you're having this conversation, not knowing how their internal combustion engine works, and you might ask them, "Do you believe you have an engine in your car that works?" "Well, yes." "Can you tell me how it works?" "Uh well, no." "Well, how do you believe in that? How are you justified, based on your standards, in believing that that engine works?" And they'll say, "Uh, I don't know." And what you've pointed out is they're being inconsistent. And I think realizing and being able to point out these inconsistencies in someone’s position, and doing so with grace, is an important way to get people to see that their objections to Christianity aren't only intellectual. There's a spiritual component to this where they don't want it to be true. And so, they're objecting in ways they wouldn't in other areas of their life.

But if you just had to distill that conversation down, what the person is saying is: in order for me to believe your explanation, I need to understand all of the potential things you're saying in your explanation. So, in other words, answering questions begets more questions that need answering, and I need to understand every point in the chain. Someone is saying in this example: I need to understand every proposed explanation. If I can't understand it all, I'm not justified in believing any of it. And that's inter…