Chapter 7

"So how could law of gravity exist if there were still no objects to attract and spacetime to curve prior to the Big Bang?"

"I don't know, silly. Science is still searching for the answer," Tesla answers slowly, shifting his gaze toward the television screen. "But what I do know is that your beloved God is not and will never be the answer to the origin of the universe."

"Yeah! You don't know who or what created the gravity and the universe but you are claiming to know and you are one hundred percent sure that God is not the answer." Newton scoffs. "That's a double standard and a contradiction on your part, Tesla."

Tesla rolls his eyes and purses his lips.

"And you know what? Just like your idols Hawking and Dawkins, you always try to put God out of the equation, don't you? Out of the picture." Newton's lips curves into a bitter smile. "Well, what should I expect? You're an atheist. You don't believe in God. You believe that nothing created you, but you know what I think? I think you're just scared to realize that there is indeed a God, a great God that created us in His image and deeply loves us. You just want to keep on sinning, yes? So you're doing your very best to put God out of every possibilities. Out of the big picture. You just keep on denying His existence. Typical atheist. So desperate, Tesla. Really."

"Are you done?" Tesla lifts his left hand holding the remote and turns off the television. He drops his gaze at Newton with a contemptous grin plastered on his lips. "And guess what, Newton? You always put God in every equations, don't you? Always. Well, what should I expect? You're a delusional theist. Typical theist."

Newton shrugs his shoulder.

"Just answer my question, why don't you? How can there be something from nothing? How can nothing produce something? It is, after all, by definition, no thing, right? Unless you also has another twisted definition of nothing just like your idol Stephen Hawking." Newton grins derisively. "So what kind of dictionary you atheist guys are using, anyway? Hawking dictionary? Dawkins dictionary? Or perhaps you just got your definition of nothing from some cheap comic book?"

Tesla's grin falters a little.

"I forgot. Nothing is really not nothing, Newton. There really is something in nothing."

"Huh? Really now? How come?"

Tesla sighs. He is not really in the mood to explain himself but it seems that he had no other choice. Hawk, Copper and Leo are listening and damn if he will let his zealot of a brother to defeat him in front of them. Tesla mentally spats his hands.

"Just like in a seemingly empty glass, it looks empty but scientifically speaking, it's not. There is air and particles of light in it. Just like the way empty space is not really empty because, hypothetically, there are infinite number of exotic particles constantly popping in and out of existence in there."

Newton crosses his arms.

"I already know that."

"Congratulations, then."

"So your point is?"

"First Law of Thermodynamics states that matter or energy cannot be created nor destroyed. So prior to the Big Bang, there was only matter and anti-matter. And because of the imperfection-"

"Can you prove it?"

Tesla blinks.

"Excuse me?"

Newton gives a lopsided grin.

"Can you prove all your claims? About that matter and anti-matter existing before the Big Bang?"

"Stephen Hawking said that-"

"Appeal to authority! Yeah! Sure! Stephen Hawking said these and those therefore they are true." Newton shakes his head and looks at Tesla straight in the eyes. "You see, you are as guilty of it as I am. You also have faith in someone." The corner of his eyes wrinkles a little. "Just like what Professor John Lennox said, and I quote, 'Nonsense remains nonsense even when spoken by a famous scientist'. End of quote."

"Whatever."

"Okay. Back to the topic."

"Sure." Tesla clenches his jaws. The hand holding the remote control tightens its grip around it. "To make things short, I dare say gravity is eternal."

"Because nothing created it?"

"Yes, because matter is eternal." Tesla rises and sits on the sofa in Indian position then looks at Newton smugly. "First Law of Thermodynamics. As long as there is matter there is also gravity."

Newton hoots with joyous laughter.

Tesla glowers at Newton.

"What's so funny, boy? Your screws in the head finally loosened?"

Newton smiles sweetly.

"You just said earlier that nothing created gravity, right? And that nothing is really not nothing but something. So if something A.K.A. nothing created gravity, then gravity is not eternal because something created it and causing it to exist."

Tesla's jaw goes ajar.

"Are you two arguing about something?" Hawk takes one quick glance at Tesla and Newton.

"Nothing, Hawk. We're just talking about nothing," Newton answers jubilantly. "Nothing serious."

Tesla's clenches his teeth. He recklessly slams the remote control upon the coffee table and just gives Newton a cold stare.

Leo, on the other hand, is just tentatively listening to his brothers' tiring debate all along. He cannot help it. His eyes darts back and fort at Tesla and Newton, eyebrows slightly furrowed. On his mind, Leo humbly thinks that his two brothers are just wasting their valuable time quibbling and bickering about something that cannot be settled in the first place. They don't really know what they are talking about. They are all resorting to full assumptions, suppositions, hunches, and guesses. Both Tesla and Newton are claiming for an Absolute Truth. Both want to win their cases. Aren't they aware that real knowledge is humanly impossible? Claiming for an Absolute Truth is impossible to achieve. At all. They know nothing.

"Gravity is eternal, Newton. Y-You just can't understand it because you are ugly."

"We both look the same so you are ugly too," Newton retorts, smiling. "Besides, that's already an argumentum adhominem. Personal attack. Just prove that gravity is eternal. Come on, Tesla. Prove it, why don't you?"

"I can't prove it, boy. But can you prove that your God is eternal?"

"I already said I can't, Tesla. Meanwhile, you can't even explain your nothing. Pity."

"Albert Einstein said that if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

Tesla cranes his neck and glowers murderously at Copper, who is in turn looking at him, smirking.

"Lots of goddamn help you are!" Tesla dully grabs the remote control and points it at the television screen, desperate to get rid of the cold silence and tension slowly building around the living room, but to his great dismay, the television stays dead. He frowns and glares at the abominable thing in his hand. He pushes the red button again and again. The television stays lifeless. Tesla harshly throws the remote control on the carpeted floor and then lies down on the sofa again. He squeezes his eyes shut, appearing to sleep.

"But as for me, I believe there is a God but not a personal one like Newton believes in," Copper mutters, more to himself as he slowly walks around with his hand caressing his chin.

Tesla half-opens his eyes and looks at Copper.

"I believe in some sort of Creator or Higher Force who are responsible for creating us and the universe." Copper stops right in front of Newton and looks down at him solemnly. "Then after creating the whole universe remain indifferent since then. Or maybe it became the universe itself. Who knows?"

"Huh?" Newton mutters.

"Yeah, Copper. Who knows?" Tesla scoffs.

Newton looks at Tesla.

"No one knows, Tesla. Maybe no one will ever know. Perhaps it is unknowable." Copper walks toward the wide picture window again and serenely looks upward to the bright cloudy sky, the red curtain partially covering his face. He sighs. "But what I do know is that there is something out there waiting to be discovered. There is something much more than this. There must be a Creator. A Prime Mover. An Intelligent Designer. The Uncaused Cause. Something very powerful must have set the universe in motion. There must be or else every thing makes no sense."

"No, it's just you who makes no sense at all, Copper," Tesla retorts.

Copper sighs again, not leaving his gaze upon the swirl of clouds.

"Then how can you explain the complexity of life or the seemingly finely-tuned universe that we live in? Are you even aware of the Watchmaker analogy, Tesla? I bet that you don't."

"Oh, great! That's so wonderful, Copper. Amazing! You're a genius! Jeez! Something looks designed therefore it must have a designer. Fantastic!" Tesla claps his hands.

Copper looks over his shoulder and gives Tesla a rather mystical grin.

"You bet there is."

"Oh great! So you are basically implying now that the late Stephen Hawking was wrong?"

"Well, yes. He was wrong." Copper's eyes narrow behind his eyeglass, his face still grave. "I do believe that Stephen Hawking was wrong."

"And you are right?"

"Yes."

"Now that's a tough choice." Tesla chuckles. "Professor Stephen Hawking, the greatest theoretical physicist that ever walked the earth, no pun intended, said that God is not needed for the creation of the universe. Meanwhile, you, just a silly fourteen year-old bespectacled pimple-infested ugly boy, protests and shouts 'Oh no, no, no! God is needed!' Cool story, bro. Changed my life!"

"Who cares about what Stephen Hawking said? It was his belief. He can keep it," Copper retorts petulantly. "And you can keep yours too, Tesla."

"The same principle can be applied to you, silly boy," Tesla retorts back.

"Still I believe that something started this all," Copper insists.

"And that is Jesus Christ!" Newton glances at Copper with a smile. "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!"

"Maybe. But I prefer the deistic one, Newton. The Unknowable," Copper says ever gently, not wanting to hurt Newton's feeling. "I don't think we humans can fully understand God. If we do, then it is no longer a god."

"But then again, can you prove it?"

Copper shifts his gaze at Tesla.

"Nah! You know I can't, silly. But what I can give is some sort of philosophical and supernatural arguments about my deistic god." Copper pouts his lips. "I bet you don't know about that."

"The Kaläm Cosmological Argument," Hawk muses over to himself from his seat, eyes still fixed upon his canvas which is now as colorful as it could get. It is apparently an abstract painting of which only Hawk himself can understand and interpret.

Copper looks at Hawk and smiles.

"Right, Hawk. That's it." Copper suddenly recites:

"Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore:

The universe has a cause."

"And the Cause is the beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful God. Jesus Christ!" Newton points out so hastily and eagerly.

Copper frowns.

Tesla rolls his eyes.

"Whatever." Tesla leans his back against the sofa, crosses his arms, and closes his eyes. "You two still haven't proven anything. Just lots of talk but no substance whatsoever."

"I already said that I can't, Tesla," Copper and Newton exclaim in unison. Both boys look at each other.

"Fair enough."

"But you see, even the late Albert Einstein believed in a deistic kind of god just like me," Copper adds smugly, more than glad to share an old news especially to Tesla. "Einstein said and I quote, 'The more I study science the more I realize that there is a God'. End of quote."

"Spinoza's God, "Hawk murmurs under his breath.

"Yeah, that's it, Hawk. Spinoza's God." Copper pushes up his eyeglass back his nose and looks at Hawk solemnly. "That's a deistic god, more specifically a pantheistic kind of god. Albert Einstein was a deist."

"Albert Einstein was an atheist, Copper," Tesla corrects him, grinning antagonistically. "Keep dreaming, boy."

"Albert Einstein was more of an agnostic I think," Hawk says, gingerly putting the paintbrush upon his messy pallet. He leans his back against the chair, lifts his arms and stretches them.

"Albert Einstein was an atheist, Hawk," Tesla corrects his twin brother. "He didn't believe in any personal god. Deemed it as childish and a human weakness." He throws Newton a morbid glance.

"But Albert Einstein definitely believed in Spinoza's God," Hawk disagrees. "And he clearly stated that he was not an atheist. Well, don't just take my words for it. You can look it up on any reliable sources if you want. He said that we may call him an agnostic but then declared that he believed in a deistic god. I find his words rather confusing sometimes. I'm not sure if what he meant by calling himself an agnostic was him being indecisive about the existence of God or if he was just referring to his uncertainty about his deistic belief. If the latter, then I believe we can safely call him an agnostic deist."

"Who cares about what Albert Einstein personally believed anyway? It was his beliefs. I respect it," Newton blurts out morosely, throwing Tesla a sharp look. "And I suggest that you do the same, Tesla. Don't be so strident about your atheism. It's not funny anymore."

"Spare me. I'm not even trying to be funny. You are the one being funny here because of your ridiculous childish theistic beliefs. Makes my day." Tesla cackles.

"Whatever. No one is forcing you to believe it so just keep your mouth shut," Newton snaps.

"Yeah, of course. As if you can. Duh! I'm a boy of fact, reason and logic. I cannot be fooled that easily. I am an atheist and proud of it," Tesla snaps back, lifting his chin proudly. "Theism is ridiculous as well as illogical. So I won't buy it. No. Never gonna happen, sunshine."

"Therefore it is false?" Hawk arches an eyebrow. He throws Tesla a forbidding look. "Seriously?"

Tesla throws a challenging look at Hawk in return.

"Yes, absolutely. Theism is false!"

"Tesla, I'm afraid that's an appeal to self-incredulity. A logical fallacy."

"A what?" Tesla glares at Hawk as if his twin brother is asking for both of his kidneys. He cocks his head on one side, forehead creased. "Seriously. And how can that be a logical fallacy?"

"You see, just because you regards an idea as ridiculous and illogical doesn't mean that the idea itself is already false."

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