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Jijo,
Let me address your second question first.
You said:
- I never experienced a supernatural event in my life so why should I stay Catholic and not step out and go with the natural, ordinary, secular explanation of things?
The secular, ordinary, natural view is inherently contradictory. Basically it holds that all things have a cause and nothing can cause itself, but that there is no transcendent cause of the universe itself.
It focuses solely on secondary causes and purposely ignores the most important question of all, the primary cause. Secondary causes are fun to discover, but are meaningless — as is the entirety of life — without the First uncaused Cause.
Your first question:
- How do you know that the universe can't be eternal and uncaused, seeing that the big bang is just a theory and not a fact?
is more challenging.
- Can the universe be eternal and uncaused?
This would make the universe a necessary being and place it on the plateau of being God, which is what ancient pantheists and Hindus held. Not only does Big-Bang cosmology point to the universe having a beginning, but I believe common human intuition seems to indicate there must be a transcendent intelligence behind the realm of space, time, and matter that gives it meaning and purpose, not to mention existence and continued being.
St. Thomas Aquinas distinguished between creation and cause, and said that while the universe theoretically could have been caused without having a beginning in time, it still had to be caused.
In other words, God who is eternal by nature could have caused the universe to have no beginning, while remaining its Cause, and sustaining its existence. Personally, I don't understand this possibility, but his mind was much larger than mine is. Nevertheless, Aquinas said that despite this theoretical possibility of being caused, but not created with a beginning, he did indeed believe, through the supernatural gift of faith, that the universe had a beginning:
God Himself revealed this through sacred Scripture.
Monotheism makes a lot more sense to me than pantheism. It not only satisfies the mind but also the heart and soul. The universe is not personal and cannot be communicated with through prayer. And we are more than material things that nonsensically evolved through secondary causes with no reason and for no purpose. Rather, we are persons with intellect and will and a destiny far beyond the confines of this temporal life.
The happily ever after and perfection of love and truth for which we were made — for which every human heart longs — is not to be found in this life. Sin interfered with that in Eden at the genesis of our existence and human nature that we inherited. We (due to our human nature) need a Redeeming Savior. Hence, the love of God is both Justice and Mercy.
Peace,
Paul
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