The biggest question of all

Is there a bigger question than whether or not there is a God? If there is, let me know and we'll look at it.

To think about whether or not there is a God, I start here:

1. If something exists,
2. something must be eternal, unless
3. something comes from nothing.

It is obvious that something exists, so the question is, did something come from nothing? I see no evidence that something ever comes from nothing, so I must posit that there is something that is eternal.

What is eternal? Not the world. Scientists tell us that the world is very old, but in most theories, there is a starting point for it. If the physical universe has a beginning, there must be something older than it (the eternal something). This something could be Aristotle's prime mover. The eternal something would appear to be the cause of everything else. I want to carefully use this next possibility because it carries some baggage that I don't want to carry myself, but this primary mover or cause appears to be an intelligent designer. The universe is a place of order rather than chaos with physical laws that govern it and can be discovered. I will suggest that the intelligent designer behind this order is who we call God.

Why is this the biggest of the big questions? Mortimer Adler, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century said, "More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question" (Great Books of the Western World, 2:561). He explained that there is either a supreme being above human beings or we are left to do as we please. God or no God is a question that affects how we live.

So, how do you answer the biggest of the big questions? Obviously, this is a short piece on a subject that fills library shelves, but I write it as a conversation starter. What do you think?