Out of Nothing, Nothing Comes

If there had ever been a time when nothing existed, nothing could possibly exist now. Today, R.C. Sproul explains why we must appeal to the eternal God, not chance, to account for the universe in which we live.

Do you believe that anything exists now? Do you exist now? Is there anything here? Even if you think it’s all an illusion, do you think the illusion’s here? And I say, where’d it come from?

Ladies and gentlemen, if anything exists now—this is elementary—then there never could have been a time when there was nothing, because the most fundamental maxim of all reason and all science and all philosophy is the maxim, Ex nihilo nihil fit. “Out of nothing, nothing comes.”

If there was ever a time when there was nothing, the only thing there could possibly be now couldn’t possibly be now because the only thing there could be would be nothing, and nothing is not something—not even a little something, not even a microscopic something, not even a subatomic something. It is nothing. And if there was ever a time that there was nothing, there would be nothing now. So there always had to be something. Something that had the very power of being within itself, or nothing could possibly be. Is there anything more elementary than that? If the equation is God or chance, the only possible solution, ladies and gentlemen, is God, because chance can do nothing.