dhw: On 21 June you wrote: "I think we can suppose an infinite number of universes in past eternity if we presume first cause is eternal" [which you do]. Atheists "know" that non-conscious eternal energy produced this one, therefore that may be what eternal energy does, one after another. Why is it plausible for a theist to "suppose" an infinite number of universes, but poppycock for an atheist?-I 'supposed' it to answer your question of what God did all those eons before the Big Bang. I don't know what He did, and it doesn't matter to my personal theology. I only know this universe and don't need a multiverse, as the atheists do to support their position.-> > dhw: From my padded fence I do not believe in chance, in God, or in my panpsychist hypothesis (whether theistic or atheistic). But I realize that one of them must be closer to the truth than the others, and so I do not disbelieve or "reject" any of them. Not believing is not the same as rejecting ... a distinction many theists and atheists seem to have difficulty understanding. -Your disbelief is rational for you. I believe that two of your proposals require chance: chance itself and panpsychism as you describe it evolves on its own by chance. That leaves God and you find it rational to not accept that third choice.