The Causal Adequacy of the God HypothesisEven so, the argument presented here does not leap straight from critiquingmaterialistic explanations to concluding that a transcendent and intelligentagent must have caused the universe and life to arise. First, as noted, Iprovided positive evidence of the causal adequacy of intelligent agency as acause of the kind of specified digital information needed to produce life. Inaddition, I offered a positive rationale for affirming the unique causaladequacy of a transcendent and intelligent agent as the best explanation forthe ensemble of evidence considered in this book. To make this case, I notonly argued for the causal adequacy of an intelligent agent as the bestexplanation for the origin of biological information; I also provided reasonsto affirm the unique causal adequacy of a transcendent intelligence as thebest explanation for the origin of the universe and its fine tuning.For example, I argued that any cause capable of explaining the origin ofthe universe and its fine tuning must in some way stand causally separatefrom the universe or, in philosophical terms, transcend matter, space, time,and energy. Materialists themselves have tacitly conceded the need for atranscendent explanatory entity by positing universes beyond our universeand abstract nonmaterial mathematical entities (such as those in quantumcosmology) as explanations for the origin of the universe and itsfundamental attributes.As previously explained, these either fail as specifically materialisticexplanations, or they have science-destroying consequences. On the otherhand, God, as conceived by theists, possesses the attribute of transcendenceand can be invoked without science-destroying consequences. Therefore, itqualifies as a causally adequate explanation for the origin of the materialuniverse, more so than any explanation expressing a materialistic orpantheistic worldview.There is another aspect to this. In Chapter 12, I explained how positingthe action of a free agent could resolve the otherwise seemingly intractabledilemma for naturalism posed by the beginning of the material universe.The choice of an intelligent free agent made it possible to explain the originof the universe without invoking either an uncaused material event (inviolation of the principles of sufficient reason and causality) or an infiniteregress of material causes at odds with observations about the universehaving a beginning.18 By highlighting the ability of agents with free will togenerate abrupt changes of state uncompelled by a suite of necessary andsufficient material conditions, Chapter 12 provided an additionaljustification for affirming the causal adequacy of a transcendent, intelligent,conscious agent with free will—a.k.a. God—as an explanation for theorigin of the universe. Moreover, that justification did so withoutundermining the basis of rationality or contradicting relevant evidence.Chapters 8 and 16 reinforced that argument. There I explained how thefine tuning of the universe exhibits two properties—extreme improbabilityand functional specification—that we routinely associate with the activityof intelligent agents. Based upon our uniform and repeated experience, wehave often observed intelligent agents producing highly improbable systemsor events that exemplify a set of functional requirements, such as finelytuned Swiss watches, digital computers, engines, recipes, and codedmessages. Consequently, we have empirical evidence of the sufficiency ofintelligent agency or design as the cause of finely tuned systems. Moreover,since that fine tuning of the universe originated at the beginning of theuniverse itself, this class of evidence suggests the need for a transcendentintelligence to most adequately explain it.In addition, I argued for the superior causal adequacy of theism overdeism as an explanation for the origin of the functional informationnecessary to produce life, because deism assigns only transcendence, notimmanence or involvement in the universe after its creation, to the conceptof God. Yet life first arose long after the beginning of the universe.