causes, the theists work back from effect to cause and from cause to
effect until they reach a First Cause. By predicating a First Cause,
however, the theist removes the mystery a stage further back. This
First Cause they assume to be a cause that was not caused and this First
Cause is God. Such a belief is a logical absurdity, and is an example of
the ancient custom of creating a mystery to explain a mystery. If
everything must have a cause, then the First Cause must be caused and
therefore: Who made God? To say that this First Cause always existed is
to deny the basic assumption of this "Theory." Moreover, if it is
reasonable to assume a First Cause as having always existed, why is it
unreasonable to assume that the materials of the universe always
existed? To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to
explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy.

The effect noted in any particular case is not of necessity related to a
single cause, and science gives no assurance that causes and effects can
be traced backward to a simple First Cause. A man is so unfortunate as
to contract pneumonia. What is the cause? An infection of the
respiratory tract by the pneumococcus. It is not quite so simple as to
ultimate causation. The person afflicted was harboring these germs in
his nose and throat, and his resistance was weakened by wetting his
feet. The day was cold and his shoes were thin. The humidity and
temperature were such that rain fell. The temperature and humidity were
caused by air currents hundreds of miles distant from the scene, and so
ad infinitum. In this series of complications where may we discern a
first cause? When applied to the much more difficult problem of physical
phenomena, we can conceive of an endless cycle of causes, but we cannot
conceive of a First Cause. "Cause and effect are not two separate
things, they are the same thing viewed under two separate aspects.... If
cause and effect are the expressions of a relation, and if they are not
two things, but only one, under two aspects, 'cause' being the name for
the related powers of the factors, and 'effect' the name for their
assemblage, to talk, as does the theist, of working back along the chain
of causes until we reach God, is nonsense." (_Chapman Cohen: "Theism or
Atheism."_)

A great many theists attempt to deduce the existence of an invisible
creator and ruler of the universe from the visible features of nature
such