At last night's atheist discussion group, we watched a video of a debate between A. C. Grayling, a British philosopher of considerable renown in the fields of logic, and Daniel Rowe, a rabbi of long standing note and whose graduate studies included work in the philosophy of mathematics.  It was an interesting meeting of viewpoints.
     Given his speciality of logic, Grayling (the atheist) made his case by pointing out the irrationality of God's existence.  Just because the universe exists and therefore has a cause, he said, this does not mean that this cause must be God.
     Fair enough.  However, as Rowe pointed out, given, as his work in mathematics has led him to believe, the impossibility of an actual infinite (to be distinguished from the factual concept of infinity) or, as he put it, "an endless extension" (per Descartes), we cannot legitimately conclude that anything other than an uncaused presence caused the universe to come into being.  Despite the arguments of Lawrence Kraus (see his book A Universe from Nothing), something cannot come out of nothing.
     Maybe so, responded my counterparts in the discussion group, but cannot we just as easily say that, at this time, we still do not know how the universe began?
     We certainly.  But we will always bump into the same problem:  what caused the cause?  It's an issue of infinite regress.  Although I'm willing to accept a degree of agnosticism as to origins, I will at the same time contend that whatever explanation we may eventually find will be fraught with ambiguity.  Either way, we will stumble into that which we cannot understand.

a view from Silver Pass, one of the divides we will cross

     Granted, I cannot explain where God "comes" from, and it is indeed facile to simply use God as a solution because we cannot identify any others.  On the other hand, are we citing originative ignorance because even though we claim to be open all possibilities we cannot bring ourselves to admit that the answer might be God?  Or are we genuinely striving to find the most rational solution?
     By the way, I will once again be traveling in the West for another week or so, this time to do a backpack with my siblings, something we have not done in many, many years.  It should be fun.  Thanks for reading!