Atheism and the existence of peanut butter

[HappySkeptic]

It may be that the past is eternal, or we don't even understand time (it could've been created in the Big Bang).  There may be a multiverse, and this was one Big Bang among many.

I find it unlikely that there is a "first cause", but if there was, I believe it would be the most simple thing imaginable.  The universe shows us that the complex emerges from the simple.

Well, the complex emerges from the simple only inside the universe, and guided by various physical/chemical laws. But oustide of it, I don't think you can keep applying this heuristic. We simply need a cause of the universe. If the multiverse is true, then let's label the entirety of universes one BIG universe and look for a cause of its existence, etc. You can see that we can keep going indefinitely, if there is a notion of time that is independent of the Big Bang, then there is surely a first cause, because, for our universe to exist, a infinite amount of time must have elapsed -impossible, which implies the existence of an absolute beginning of the chain of causation.

If we assume there is no notion of time, then it really gets harder. An infinite regress of actual causes AND a first cause might both be a coherent possibility. Arguing further for theism can only be on the grounds of explanatory power, that is, a personal first cause intentionally creating a universe explains it better than an infinitely long chain of causation, which looks unnecessarily complex.

Arguing for a god adds no explanatory power.  It is simply employing magic.  The Big Bang might've formed out of a quantum realm where time flows in loops.  Have fun figuring out whether your linear-time ideas of cause are even valid -- especially in a quantum world where random events can and do happen (they are causal only in the sense that past states determine probabilities when averaged over many events).  Even if it were, have fun showing that this cause is similar to what humans have called a god.