He actually believes that!

I’ve had an atheist stop by who actually believes, not theoretically, not in his imagination, but he actually believes that something can appear, uncaused, out of nothing. And, as it relates to our discussion, the universe is his main example.

This is NOT a joke. In this atheist’s mind anything and in fact everything can just pop into existence at any place, at any time. If that's true, if it really did happen once, we can rightly ask, Why not any time?

"Whoa! Where did that come from? Hey, Wendy!!! There's an antelope in our basement!"

Does that sound absurd to you? Incredible? Unbelievable? Profoundly stupid? How about a universe - uncaused - from nothing with 50 constants and qualities precisely and exquisitely set prior to Planck time?

"Oh well, that," says the atheist, "certainly THAT could happen. But not an antelope."

Of course my new friend refers to Quinton Smith and quantum mechanics. In case you don't know, Smith is infamous for his 1993 statement, “The most reasonable belief is that we came from nothing, by nothing, for nothing.” I can’t tell if my visitor isn't aware or if he’s just conveniently forgetting to tell me that Smith, in 2007 retracted that inane proposition and now admits that the universe, “has a cause for its existence.”

The closest other atheists have come and can come to challenging what we consistently observe

- "Whatever begins to exist has a cause” -

is to say, “But why do I HAVE to believe that? So what if it conforms absolutely to the scientific method of inquiry? It wrecks my deep desire for a Creator to not exist!”

My visitor goes beyond anything science has proven and emphatically states what has become the latest addition to atheist origin mythologies,

“Everything came from nothing, by nothing, for nothing.”