The Cause of Everything

A review of thoughts and opinions expressed by Apostle Del Phillips about Foundational Truth.

w/ Pastor Del

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The Idea Of A First Cause

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The concept of an uncaused first cause, what some thinkers refer to as the first truth, argues that the entire framework of our visible reality depends on a single, motionless, and eternal origin point. We are exploring a philosophical framework recently highlighted by Apostle Dell Phillips on the Truth About Podcast, where he argued that this first truth is not a sudden human discovery, but the initial silent axiom from which everything else in existence follows.

Aristotle And The Unmoved Mover

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Theodore, when we trace this concept back, we hit classical antiquity almost immediately. That is correct. To understand the first truth, we have to look at how ancient thinkers wrestled with the mechanics of change in existence. Apostle Del Phillips emphasizes a fundamental observation that effect always follows cause. A car comes from a factory, rain comes from precipitous clouds. This identical line of reasoning was famously formalized by Aristotle in the 4th century BCE. In Book 12 of his Metaphysics, Aristotle introduces the concept of the unmoved mover, or the prime mover. He observed that the universe is in constant motion and undergoing constant change. But change, according to Aristotle, is simply the actualization of potential. For something to move from potential to actual, it requires an external agent that is already actual to move it. Apostle Dell Phillips used the analogy of an artist behind a painting, or a composer behind a symphony. The artwork is what we experience, but it owes its existence to a source behind the scenes. If we apply Aristotle's logic, every physical object we observe is like a single brushstroke that requires a painter. But Aristotle's unmoved mover is far more abstract than a human artist. According to historical analyses and resources like the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle's prime mover does not physically push or pull matter. Instead, it causes motion by being the ultimate object of desire or thought, which is a significant distinction from a traditional intervening creator. It is a massive distinction. Aristotle's unmoved mover is described as purely actual, possessing no potentiality at all. Because it has no potential, it cannot change, and therefore it cannot be moved by anything else. It is eternal, indivisible, and immaterial. As you noted, it acts as a final cause rather than an efficient cause. The celestial spheres, the stars and the planets, move because they seek to imitate the perfection of the unmoved mover. They are drawn to it. This was Aristotle's solution to the problem of infinite regress. He argued that if every moving thing requires a mover, and that mover requires another mover, the chain cannot stretch backward infinitely. There must be a terminal point, a first domino that falls without being pushed by a prior domino. The rejection of infinite regress is the bedrock of this philosophical framework. Apostle Del Phillips noted that trying to understand our world's existence while rejecting the truth of a first cause is like trying to understand a novel by insisting the author does not exist. You can analyze the characters and the plot, but you miss the overarching purpose and the reason the book is in your hands to begin with.

Aquinas And The Five Ways

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This literary analogy brings us to the Middle Ages, when Aristotle's unmoved mover was systematically integrated into Western theology. The most prominent figure in that synthesis was the 13th-century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas is the pivotal figure here. In his monumental work, Summa Theologica, Aquinas developed what are known as the Five Ways, which are five logical arguments for the existence of God based on natural reason rather than scripture. The first two of these ways are direct descendants of Aristotle's thought. The first way is the argument from motion, which mirrors the unmoved mover concept. Aquinas observed that things in the world are in motion, and whatever is in motion is put in motion by another. The second way is the argument from efficient causation. In the observable world, we find an order of efficient causes. Nothing can be the efficient cause of itself, because it would have to exist prior to itself, which is a logical impossibility.

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Aquinas makes a subtle but critical distinction regarding causality that often gets misunderstood in modern debates.

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According to contemporary philosophical interpretations, when Aquinas argues against an infinite causal chain, he is not necessarily talking about a chronological sequence stretching back in time, like a grandfather causing a father who causes a son.

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He is talking about a hierarchical, simultaneous chain of dependence. A common example used by scholars is a hand moving a stick, which moves a stone. The stone's movement depends entirely on the stick, which depends entirely on the hand, right, at this very moment in time.

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That distinction is vital for understanding the depth of the cosmological argument. Aquinas adopted the terminology of essential and accidental causal chains from Aristotle and later Islamic commentators like Avicenna. The grandfather-father-son lineage is an accidental causal chain. The grandfather can pass away, but the son continues to exist. The series does not require the continuous existence of the first member. But an essential causal chain, like the hand, the stick, and the stone, requires the first cause to be actively sustaining the effect in real time. The first truth in this context is not just something that wound up the universe like a clock billions of years ago and walked away. It is the active sustaining foundation of existence at every given second. If the first cause stops acting, the entire chain ceases to exist instantly.

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This framing shifts the first truth from a historical trigger to an ever-present reality. It makes the concept much more immediate.

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If we view the first truth as the foundational axiom that allows for knowing and seeing, as Apostle Del Philip suggested, it becomes the framework of reality itself. But this intellectual structure has faced rigorous challenges over the centuries.

Kant And The Quantum Challenge

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In the 18th century, the German philosopher Emmanui Kant famously critiqued the cosmological argument. Kant's central thesis was that human beings impose the concept of causality onto the world to make sense of our localized experiences. He argued that we cannot legitimately apply the rule of causality beyond the realm of possible human experience to a transcendent, unobservable cause. Kant's critique represents a major watershed moment in Western philosophy. He argued that our minds are structured to perceive cause and effect within space and time, but we have no justification for assuming that the universe as a whole or something outside the universe operates under those same rules. In Kant's view, stretching the principle of causality beyond the phenomenal world, the world we can observe and measure, leads to logical contradictions. Furthermore, modern physics has introduced its own complications. In quantum mechanics, certain subatomic events, like radioactive decay or virtual particles, appear to happen spontaneously, without a clear, deterministic, efficient cause in the classical sense. The quantum mechanics argument presents a fascinating friction point. If subatomic particles can pop in and out of the quantum vacuum without a strict Aristotelian cause, the premise that everything that begins to exist has a cause seems vulnerable. Yet defenders of the classical cosmological argument counter this by redefining what a cause is. They argue that the quantum vacuum itself is a physical state with specific properties and laws, meaning it is not absolute nothingness. The vacuum itself acts as the material cause, and the laws of quantum mechanics act as the formal cause. So causality isn't truly violated, just expressed differently at the microscopic level. That defense is robust and keeps the Aristotelian framework relevant today. Philosophers like Edward Feeser argue that modern critics often misunderstand what Aristotle and Aquinas meant by potentiality and actuality. Even a quantum vacuum has the potential to produce particles, and that potential must be actualized by the inherent physical nature of the vacuum. The broader point remains, the existence of the universe, the existence of any laws of physics at all, requires an explanation. To say it just happened or it is unexplainable is seen by proponents of the first truth as an abandonment of reason. If we consistently demand explanations for natural phenomena in science and daily life, they argue it is intellectual dissonance to suddenly stop demanding an explanation when it comes to the existence of the universe as a whole.

Morality Science And Cultural Fallout

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That brings us back to the psychological and cultural impact of this philosophy. Apostle Dell Phillips noted that without acknowledging this first truth, all subsequent references to truth become distorted and unmoored from their origin. This perspective has profound implications for how a society constructs its values. When a culture accepts an ultimate, uncaused cause that is the source of all order, what Aquinas called the highest good and the most perfect knowledge, it provides an objective anchor for morality, logic, and purpose. The universe is viewed as a rational place, designed with intent. Without that anchor, we shift into a postmodern framework where truth is relative and the universe is viewed as a product of blind chance. The cultural legacy of this synthesis is foundational to the modern world. When Aquinas merged Greek philosophy with Christian theology, he essentially built the intellectual infrastructure for the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. The belief that the universe was ordered by a rational first cause gave early scientists the confidence to look for rational laws in nature. Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, and Galileo all operated under the assumption that they were uncovering the blueprint of the prime mover. They believed that by studying the physical world, they were studying the effects of the first truth. The cosmological argument is not merely a theological defense mechanism, it was the philosophical engine that drove centuries of scientific inquiry. It is a compelling paradox that the very scientific method born from the assumption of a rational first cause is now frequently used to argue against it. We've reached a point in contemporary discourse where the material universe is often treated as the ultimate reality, with no underlying foundation required. But the persistence of the first truth argument from ancient Athens to medieval Paris to modern podcasts shows how deeply human beings crave an ultimate explanation. The idea of an infinite regress remains conceptually unsatisfying to our minds. We want to find the bottom floor of reality. The human mind is structured to seek origins. Aquinas understood this deeply. At the end of his formulation of the five ways, after proving the necessity of an unmoved mover, a first cause, a necessary being, a standard of perfection, and a cosmic designer, he concludes each argument with a variation of the phrase, and this is what everyone calls God.

The Author Analogy And Closing

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He was cautious, recognizing that proving a prime mover falls short of detailing all the attributes of a personal deity. However, he believed natural reason could take us to the threshold.

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It brings us to the realization that the chain of dependence must hang from a peg, and that peg must possess an independent, uncaused existence.

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The analogy of the author and the novel remains the most accessible way to visualize this. If we find ourselves existing inside a narrative, possessing complex physical laws and conscious thought, concluding that the narrative generated itself is a difficult leap of faith in its own right. The First Truth offers a coherent, historically tested framework that explains the existence of the book. It asks us to look past the ink and the paper, and to consider the source that made the story possible. Share this episode with someone who enjoys exploring the philosophical foundations of our reality.