Here’s What Alex “Philo” Filippenko Really Said Last Weekend at SETICon 2

as to this comment from the article:

"The question, then, is, 'Why are there laws of physics?'" he said. "And you could say, 'Well, that required a divine creator, who created these laws of physics and the spark that led from the laws of physics to these universes, maybe more than one.'" But that answer just continues to kick the can down the road, because you still need to explain where the divine creator came from. The process leads to a never-ending chain that always leaves you short of the ultimate answer, Filippenko said."

Hmmm, of course 'material things' cannot be infinite into the past. Theists have been pointing this fact out for centuries:

William Lane Craig - Hilbert's Hotel - The Absurdity Of An Infinite Regress Of 'Things' - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3994011/

I like this following video a little better than Craig's 'Hilbert's hotel' for showing why a infinite regress of 'material things' ('temporal things') is impossible:

Time Cannot Be Infinite Into The Past - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg0pdUvQdi4

Also see Aquinas's "The Argument from Efficient Cause"

The Argument from Efficient Cause. (The sequence of causes which make up this universe must have a First Cause.) http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/aquinas.shtml

Mainstream Theists never claimed otherwise for material things, that they have always existed, but have always maintained that God is 'eternal', and brought material reality into existence:

What Atheists Just Don't Get (About God) - Video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3192755/

In fact the properties that are necessary to explain the origination of the universe 'just so happen' to be some of the exact same properties that Theists have always held for characteristics of God!;

What Properties Must the Cause of the Universe Have? - William Lane Craig - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SZWInkDIVI

Moreover this Theistic presupposition, of the necessity of 'transcendent and eternal' God as 'first cause' of the 'material' universe, has been born out in exhaustive detail by discoveries in modern science:

"Every solution to the equations of general relativity guarantees the existence of a singular boundary for space and time in the past." (Hawking, Penrose, Ellis) - 1970 “All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning.” - Cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University in Boston - paper delivered at Stephen Hawking's 70th birthday party

Even the 'quantum loophole' that atheists have tried to use to get past the beginning of the material universe has now been closed off:

Mathematics of Eternity Prove The Universe Must Have Had A Beginning - April 24, 2012 Excerpt: They treat the emergent model of the universe differently, showing that although it may seem stable from a classical point of view, it is unstable from a quantum mechanical point of view. "A simple emergent universe model...cannot escape quantum collapse," they say. The conclusion is inescapable. "None of these scenarios can actually be past-eternal," say Mithani and Vilenkin. Since the observational evidence is that our universe is expanding, then it must also have been born in the past. A profound conclusion (albeit the same one that lead to the idea of the big bang in the first place). http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427722/mathematics-of-eternity-prove-the-universe-must/

A few comments of interest:

The best data we have [concerning the Big Bang] are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the bible as a whole. Dr. Arno Penzias, Nobel Laureate in Physics - co-discoverer of the Cosmic Background Radiation - as stated to the New York Times on March 12, 1978 “Certainly there was something that set it all off,,, I can’t think of a better theory of the origin of the universe to match Genesis” Robert Wilson – Nobel laureate – co-discover Cosmic Background Radiation ,,, 'And if you're curious about how Genesis 1, in particular, fairs. Hey, we look at the Days in Genesis as being long time periods, which is what they must be if you read the Bible consistently, and the Bible scores 4 for 4 in Initial Conditions and 10 for 10 on the Creation Events' Hugh Ross - Evidence For Intelligent Design Is Everywhere "The Big Bang represents an immensely powerful, yet carefully planned and controlled release of matter, energy, space and time. All this is accomplished within the strict confines of very carefully fine-tuned physical constants and laws. The power and care this explosion reveals exceeds human mental capacity by multiple orders of magnitude." Prof. Henry F. Schaefer Quantum Evidence for a Theistic Big Bang https://docs.google.com/document/d/1agaJIWjPWHs5vtMx5SkpaMPbantoP471k0lNBUXg0Xo/edit etc.. etc.. etc..

=========== It is simply the height of irony that a atheist would argue that a infinite regress of things makes God impossible. For what the atheist is doing when he argues as such is that he is in fact arguing against the inability of their very own materialistic philosophy to account for the origination of the material universe and are confirming what the Theistic philosophy has maintained all along! It is simply beyond ludicrous that a materialist would try to use the infinite regress argument against God who is, and who has always been maintained to be, transcendent of time and space. Verse and Music:

1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Unto The King Eternal - music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLPYRhOQcCU

bornagain77

“The Big Bang could’ve occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there.” Which begs the question of how they got there in the first place. Barb