Similarly we may not know what kind of creator made the universe, but we do know that it was made, and that someone made it. Our world looks so physical, and yet we know with scientific certainty that it was the result of a force beyond physics. This is the literal meaning of the term metaphysics—that which is after or beyond physics. Science has discovered a reality that it had previously consigned to the domain of faith. But today it takes no faith to recognize that the origin of the universe is metaphysical. The universe that came into being in a primeval explosion fifteen billion years ago did not cause itself. It was caused or created, which means there had to be a creator. To that creator we give the nameGod.
It seems at this point that we have established the existence of a creator, but nothing can be known about the nature of that creator. I submit that this is not so. Many attributes of the creator remain unknown or hidden, but there are some conclusions that we can rea- sonably draw from what we know. As the universe was produced by a creative act, it is reasonable to infer that it was produced by some sort of mind. Mind is the origin of matter, and it is mind that produced matter, rather than the other way around. As the universe comprises the totality of nature, containing everything that is natural, its creator must necessarily be outside nature. As the creator used no natural laws or forces to create the universe, the creator is clearly supernatural. As space and time are within the universe, the creator is also outside space and time, which is to say, eternal. As the universe is material, the creator is immaterial, which is to say, spiritual. As the universe was created from nothing, the creator is incomprehensibly powerful or, as best as we can tell, omnipotent.
