The Astounding Evidence For God’s Existence (Part 1 of 4)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, has a more direct bearing on the moral decisions made by individuals or the purpose proposed by society, than belief or disbelief in God.”  Ravi Zacharias  

It’s the one question asked above all the others. It’s a question that challenges every thinking person and demands to be answered. The question “Does God exist?” continues to be most debated, speculated, and researched above every other one we could propose. Philosophers, theologians, and scientists have long wrestled with this question throughout the ages.  For Christians, our entire faith, worldview, and reason for existence lies in this one question.  If God does not exist, than He can’t possibly have a Son (Jesus), the Bible isn’t the Word of God, and there is no difference between right and wrong. Before we look at the evidence for the evidence for God’s existence let’s look at what atheism is and the dangerous implications it brings if it’s true:

Atheism is a belief that states no God, god(s), or deitiy exists.  According to a recent study, approximately 2.5% of the world’s population is atheist. The atheists that have had a lasting impact on society today are Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. In today’s society the self-proclaimed atheists who are well known are Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens.  Books such as God is not Great, A Letter to a Christian Nation, The God Delusion, and the Blind Watchmaker have all reached the New York Bestseller list.  Atheist thought is predominant in school textbooks, movies, and in our government.  Atheism is on the rise in our society. The question needs to be asked: Why is this?

Why do atheists passionately fight for their position? What’s so enticing about atheism? If atheisism is true then we can assert the following: If there is no God, then there is no right and wrong. There is no one to answer to for our actions that we make on a day to day basis. We are in control of our lives, our destinies, and how we want to live. Suffering and pain are unnecessary and should be avoided at all costs. Pleasure, fame, materialism, and money are all the idols to be pursued above all else. It’s survival of the fittest—whoever has the most toys wins. Live however you please, say what you want, do want you want, and when you die it’s all over and there are no consequences.

This train of thought is becoming the predominant in Western society. We want our lives to be our own; we want all the glory for ourselves; we want to be God. This is the greatest lie of all–we can become like God. This is what Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden with: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) Before we look at the dangers of atheism, let’s look at the main flaws in its thesis.

Atheism in itself is impossible to confirm. One would have to be omniscient and omnipresent to be able to have all the facts and know for certain that there is no God. In other words, they would have to be God in order to say there is no God. Only someone who has been present at all times and a perfect knowledge could know can make such a statement. As Ron Carlson and Ed Decker state in Fast Facts of False Teachings: “…to be an atheist you must have infinite knowledge in order to know absolutely that there is no God. But to have infinite knowledge, you would have to be God yourself. It’s hard to be God yourself and an atheist at the same time!”  As stated in the Bible in Psalm 14:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Atheists state that science, evolution, or the existence of suffering and evil in the world are reasons that God cannot exist. In the recent studies in biology, astrology, geology, physics, and many other fields of science  it has been confirmed that the universe is fine tuned and that science actually supports creation-not evolution(macro). The Cambrian explosion is just one example of this. Science and creation don’t contract one another–they support each other!  Also the existence of suffering and evil is not an easy question to answer, but it certainly doesn’t prove that God doesn’t exist. There are many plausible arguments on why God would allow suffering and evil in the world. As Dan Story so boldly put it: “Today, people continue to rebel against God. We curse Him, ignore Him, and flaunt our disobedience. Motivated by pride, greed, and selfishness, people destroy one another and willfully abuse and pollute God’s earth…it’s amazing God has not lost His patience and destroyed all of us. Rather than condemning God for allowing evil, we should be thankful that  He withholds the punishment we deserve.”  We should first look at ourselves before blaming God for evil and suffering in the world! So the argument that claims that because there is evil in the world, there must be no God, is illogical. Now let’s look at the implications of atheism:

Why is the worldview of atheism so dangerous to our society? First, without God, there is no basis for what’s right and wrong. There are no morals and we are free to make our own law system without any restrictions.  Lying, stealing, drunkenness, adultery, rape, and murder are acceptable if  it feels good and benefits us in the end.  Moral relativism, the quickly rising worldview of this generation, strongly supports this way of thinking. It’s a chaotic system that promotes lawlessness, corruption, and debauchery. It teaches that there is no standard on which to live and we need to tolerate everyone’s different moral values.  Those who are weak, poor, or unintelligent are seen as useless and there’s no reason to show love and compassion to them. With no basis of what is right and wrong–laws seem pointless and only from one person’s point of view. There simply is no foundation for any law system, no correct way of living, and no reason to follow rules. It creates a system of chaos and calamity without a care or a cause for concern of others.

Another danger of atheism is the lost of purpose. With God there is a reason for our existence and we have an identity. Without God, there is no purpose, no meaning, and we have no identity. In the worldview of atheism, everything happens by chance and it’s all one big chaotic mess of a universe. There’s no reason on why we’re here, why we feel pain and suffering, why we long for certain things, and why we can’t seem to be completely satisfied. With this train of thought, everything we accomplish in life, every act of love, every sacrifice–has no meaning and it’s all a waste of time. So then we buy into the lie to live for ourselves, gain wealth and power, and get as much pleasure as we can simply because when we die–it’s over; so why waste time building up things that wouldn’t last past the grave? As King Solomon wrote:  ”Meaningless!  Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:2-4) When we lose our purpose; we lose hope, and when we lose hope; we only gain despair.

The final danger of atheism is the lost of relationships. If God doesn’t exist, than building loving, meaningful relationships is futile. Once  someone dies, they’re gone forever–that’s it. There is no hope seeing them again no matter what they believed. Love is seen as a cruel emotion that shouldn’t be used and avoided with all costs because nothing has lasting value. Why love, if it’s all for nothing?  Again with this worldview, the only logical conclusion is to live for one person–yourself. So with the atheist reasoning, relationships are given little to no emphasis and above all else; you own survival is seen as the ultimate good. When you die; you die, death is the final blow to your existence.

So with all of this said we can now see that the question “Does God exists?”  is of utmost importance and changes the entire basis of our existence. In the upcoming three weeks we will examine the three main proofs of God’s existence: cosmology, intelligent design, and morals. We will look at the scientific reasons, philosophy reasons, and the common sense reasons. This research is by no means exhaustive but it’s a good basis for proving to someone that God does indeed exist. The evidence is simply overwhelming for God’s existence and I hope by the end of this month that your faith will be stronger because of these truths. Then you can boldly tell the world “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist!”

**Next week we will start off with a look at the cosmology argument and the often asked question: “Who made God?”. Also we’ll briefly look at why Earth is so privileged and the amazing facts behind its unique location. Then in two weeks we’ll get a brief look at the incredible design of life and why science supports creation. Finally, at the end of the month, we’ll look into the moral argument and why we have a sense for what’s right and wrong. God Bless.

 Sources:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism#cite_note-1 

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0051a.html