Why the Comparison Fails
“Some people take the view that the universe is simply there . . . a bit as though it just sort of computes, and we happen by accident to find ourselves in this thing. I don’t think that’s a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe.”
— Roger Penrose
Modern skeptics often argue that the universe simply “is”—a brute fact requiring no cause or explanation. They then claim that belief in God is no better: that God, too, is just another brute fact. On this view, invoking God doesn’t advance our understanding; it merely shifts the mystery.
But this objection, though rhetorically clever, falls apart under philosophical and theological scrutiny. It’s built on a category mistake, a failure to distinguish between contingent physical realities and necessary metaphysical foundations.
This blog presents two foundational responses:
- The universe is contingent and therefore not a brute fact.
- God is not a brute fact but a necessary being, grounded in metaphysical necessity.
Let’s explore why this distinction is not only important but inescapable.
What Is a Brute Fact?
A brute fact is something that has no explanation—neither in itself nor in anything else. It is just there, inexplicably. The late atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell once said of the universe, “It is just there, and that’s all.”¹ That short sentence has functioned as a philosophical lifeboat for naturalists ever since.
But what happens when we examine whether the universe truly fits this definition?
“In the beginning there were only probabilities. The universe could only come into existence if someone observed it.”
— Sir Martin Rees
The Universe Is Not a Brute Fact—It Is Contingent
What Makes Something Contingent?
A contingent entity is one that depends on something else for its existence. It could have failed to exist or could have been otherwise. The universe, as modern cosmology shows, fits this description precisely:
- It began to exist (as confirmed by Big Bang cosmology and thermodynamics).
- It is composed of changeable, dependent parts (galaxies, stars, laws, and constants).
- It could have been radically different—or not existed at all.
These are not the traits of a necessary being. These are marks of contingency.
“With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape: they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning.”
—Alexander Vilenkin, Many Worlds in One
The Principle of Sufficient Reason
The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) states that everything that exists has an explanation, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause.² This principle undergirds all rational inquiry. Science, philosophy, and even everyday reasoning assume it.
To say “the universe is just a brute fact” is not an explanation. It is an intellectual escape clause. The universe is exactly the sort of thing that demands explanation: finite, changeable, and derivative.
Even David Hume, the most skeptical of Enlightenment thinkers, affirmed:
“It is impossible for anything to produce itself.”³
If the universe cannot produce itself, and if nothing cannot produce anything, then the universe must have come from something outside and greater than itself.
“Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning at the Big Bang.”
—Stephen Hawking, The Nature of Space and Time
God Is Not a Brute Fact—He Is a Necessary Being
What Do Theists Mean by “God”?
The Christian conception of God is not that of a random, unexplained being. It is the idea of a necessary, eternal, self-existent reality—one whose non-existence is impossible. In classical theism, God does not have existence—He is existence.⁴
This is what Thomas Aquinas described as ipsum esse subsistens—“the very act of to-be itself.” God is not one being among many; He is Being Itself—the metaphysical foundation of all contingent realities.
“The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole.”
– Arno Penzias (Nobel Laureate, co-discoverer of cosmic background radiation)
Necessary vs. Contingent Beings
| Aspect | God (Necessary) | Universe (Contingent) |
|---|---|---|
| Exists necessarily? | Yes | No |
| Began to exist? | No | Yes |
| Dependent? | No | Yes |
| Composed of parts? | No | Yes |
| Requires explanation? | No (necessity is self-explanatory) | Yes (depends on external cause) |
God’s necessity means He is not a brute fact, but the only reality that doesn’t require a cause—because His existence is grounded in His essence.
“There is no doubt that a parallel exists between the big bang as an event and the Christian notion of creation from nothing.”
– George Smoot (Nobel Laureate, COBE satellite co-discoverer)
The Argument from Contingency and Metaphysical Distinction
Premise 1: Whatever is contingent requires an external cause or explanation.
Premise 2: The universe is contingent (it began to exist, is changeable, and composed of parts).
Conclusion 1: Therefore, the universe requires an external cause or explanation.
Premise 3: No contingent being can explain itself or be the cause of all contingent reality.
Premise 4: Only a metaphysically necessary being can serve as the sufficient cause of all contingent existence.
Premise 5: God, as classically defined, is a metaphysically necessary being.
Conclusion 2: Therefore, God is the best and only sufficient explanation for the existence of the contingent universe.
This argument does not invent a brute fact. It terminates the regress of causes in necessary being, not arbitrary mystery.
Metaphysical vs. Physical: A Category Error at the Core
There’s a deeper philosophical flaw in comparing God and the universe as “equal brute facts.” It commits a category error—conflating fundamentally different kinds of reality.
The universe is physical: It is composed of matter, energy, and space-time. It changes, decays, and is governed by natural laws. It is located within the framework of cause and effect.
God is metaphysical: He is immaterial, eternal, outside of time, and not composed of parts. God is not a being but the ground of all being. His existence is not one more fact among many; it is what makes facts possible.
To claim that the universe and God are the same kind of “brute fact” is like asking: “What does the number five taste like?” or “What does the color blue feel like? These are category errors—confusing a non-physical concept with a physical experience. In the same way, to treat a contingent, physical object (the universe) as metaphysically self-existent is to confuse what is caused with what is uncaused by definition.
The universe belongs in the realm of the dependent. God alone belongs in the realm of the necessary.
“Science cannot tell theology how to construct a doctrine of creation, but you can’t construct a doctrine of creation without taking account of the age of the universe and the evolutionary character of cosmic history.”
– John Polkinghorne
The Cost of Denying Explanation
Claiming that the universe is “just there” without explanation is not only irrational—it’s unsatisfying. It contradicts the very principle on which science operates: that things have causes, reasons, and structures that can be discovered.
If the universe truly is a brute fact, then science itself is built on nothing. No reason to explore, no reason to trust rationality, and no basis for consistency in the laws of nature.
As C.S. Lewis put it:
“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.”⁵
And if it has meaning, then the most rational conclusion is that it points beyond itself—to a Mind, a Source, a Foundation that is not contingent but eternal.
“Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth – the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves.”
– Paul C. W. Davies
Why God and the Universe Are Not Epistemic Equals
To say “God and the universe are both brute facts” is to equate the metaphysically ultimate with the physically dependent. It is to ignore contingency, causality, and category altogether.
- The universe is finite, physical, and contingent.
- God is infinite, metaphysical, and necessary.
This is not a coin toss between competing mysteries. It is the difference between a ceiling fan and the ceiling itself. One hangs on something else. The other is the thing upon which everything hangs.
God is not an arbitrary mystery but the necessary terminus of rational explanation. The universe is not a rival brute fact. It is the thing that points beyond itself—to Him.
“The evidence from cosmology determines that the cause of the universe is functionally equivalent to the God of the Bible, a Being beyond the matter, energy, space, and time of the cosmos.”
– Hugh Ross
Footnotes
1. Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects, ed. Paul Edwards (New York: Touchstone, 1957), 107.
2. G.W. Leibniz, Monadology, §32.
3. David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ed. Richard H. Popkin (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1980), 27.
4. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 3, a. 4.
5. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 38.
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