For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. -- Romans 1:20 (NIV)But the book of Romans also tells us about truth being suppressed. It seems to me that a lot of God's truth has been suppressed. So it might not be the case that each individual suppresses the truth for themselves, but they might be victims of other people suppressing it for them.
I believe it is hugely important for this information to be public knowledge, and not just kept by the intellectual elites who's careers revolve around it. There is far too much misinformation in the world, especially with the internet and the ease that anybody can share their opinions. There are people who believe that the Earth is flat, there are people who believe that we never landed on the moon, there are people who believe dinosaurs never existed, there are people who think the Holocaust never happened. These are extreme cases, but just like these people, there are many people in the world who have been duped by other ideas in exactly the same way. People believe that all cowboys wore stetsons, people believe that knights needed to be put on horses by crane, people believe that Captain Kirk said "Beam me up Scotty". Misinformation spreads easily, and for many reasons. When this happens, the truth becomes suppressed. So it is very important that we take care to check what we believe and make sure it lines up with truth.
So what follows are a few reasons, based entirely in truth, that tell us without doubt that God is real. I aim to keep this as simple as possible, so I will not go into much depth on each, and I encourage you to read more on any subject that takes your interest. I'll also comment that these are not even all of the reasons that are available to us. This is just a small selection of some of the best.
The Kalam
Look at these two statements:
- Everything that begins to exist has a cause for its existence.
- The universe began to exist.
The universe has a cause for its existence.It logically follows.
So what could that cause be?
The universe is everything that exists in our spacetime - that is all material things, all energy, and everything that comes with them. So that is everything from stars and planets, down to elephants and dogs, down to the smallest molecules and particles.
If all these things began to exist, then they did not exist before they were created.
So if physical matter and energy, and time, and space did not exist, but they need a cause, then the cause must be something that is not physical, and is beyond time and space. This means it would - by definition - be something supernatural and eternally existing.
There are not many options that fit that description. We can imagine the potential options:
- Abstract objects like numbers
- Abstract concepts like ideas
- A non-physical mind
Now let's look at the second option. Ideas are images created by a mind, so it would seem that by virtue of what ideas are, they could not be the original cause of creation. They themselves require the third option. But let us for a moment imagine that ideas can simply exist without a mind. Imagine the idea or concept of a chair simply existing, and that its existence is what defines what it means to be a chair. Again, like the numbers, this floating concept or idea has no creative powers. It is like a description, although it came before the actual objects - more like a prescription.
So that leaves us with the third option as the only possible candidate for creator of the universe. We have deduced that the universe was created by a supernatural, eternally existent, intelligent mind. That seems to be the most basic definition of God that we could have.
It would seem that this conclusively proves that God exists. But you may still wonder why we should believe the first two statements that the deduction rely on. Simply, they are two of the most thoroughly evidenced scientific statements we have. The first statement is known as the Principle of Causality. All of science relies on the Principle of Causality to hold, otherwise we could never trust the results of experiments. The second statement is everything we know about Big Bang theory. Cosmology in the last century has made huge advancements, and the fact that the universe began at the Big Bang is impossible to deny.
To learn more, look up William Lane Craig and his work on the Kalam Cosmological Argument.
Design in Nature
Many people will say that simply by looking around it seems as though the world has been designed. There is some truth in this, but often it can be thought of as simply an opinion.However, there are a number of very good reasons related to design that are strong evidence for God's existence.
Scientists have known for some time about what is called the Fine Tuning of the universe. Fine Tuning refers to the conditions at the very beginning of time, going right back to the Big Bang. What cosmological scientists have discovered is that there are several physical attributes to the universe that are incredibly important for life to exist, and also lie in very narrow parameters.
For example, the universe is known to be expanding. It is expanding at a certain speed. This speed has been constant throughout the roughly 14 billion years that the universe has existed. If this speed was any faster, then the molecules that make up the universe would not be able to bond together and form things like stars and planets and everything that lives on them. If the speed was any slower, then the universe would stop expanding and just crumple in on itself. It could only be the way that it is, for anything to exist.
The speed of expansion is not the only parameter that needs this precision. There are dozens more.
The rate of entropy is one of the other parameters. To picture the odds of entropy being what they are by pure chance, imagine a tape measure or a ruler. Colour in an inch in the middle. Stand across the room and without aiming throw a dart at the ruler. If it hits the coloured inch, then the universe will have the correct rate of entropy to exist. But how long does the ruler need to be for this test to be accurate? It should be the same length as the entire universe.
Given that the universe only had one chance to exist, it is impossible that each of these parameters would have just hit the right spot by luck.
Physicist Roger Penrose calculated that the odds of the rate of entropy being what they are by chance would be one in 1010^123. (That's 10x10 123 times, then take that number and multiply 10x10 that many times). Compare that to the number of particles that actually exist in the universe which is 1080 and you can clearly see how impossible Fine Tuning must be if it was all based on luck.
So if the universe did not come about as a lucky accident, then there must be another reason. Either it just existed as a simple fact, or it was created and designed to be as precise as it is.
We know from Big Bang cosmology that the universe did not always exist, so that leaves us with the only possible option being that the universe was designed.
To learn more, look up William Lane Craig, Hugh Ross, and William Dembski.
A second important reason related to design is on the other end of the scale. While we see the universe as a whole being designed, we also see that our DNA is clearly the product of a designer too.
DNA has often been compared to computer code. Computers have historically been coded using binary, that is everything is described using zeros and ones. Combinations of zero and one are used to create everything that your computers do and display. In the same way our DNA is a code that uses the letters G,C,A,D. These letters describe your attributes, your height, your hair colour, everything about you. It is vastly more complex than any computer code that has been written. Yet we know codes are written by intelligent beings, so it only makes sense that our DNA must have been written too.
To learn more, look up William Dembski, Stephen Meyer, Ray Comfort.
The Roots of Morality
We all make moral decisions every day. But how can we know what is actually wrong or right? Is morality all based on personal opinions or what society tells us? Or are the things that are good and bad actually real truths that we can't escape? Is morality something that is beyond human decision making?Think of our culture that promotes tolerance and caring. Compare that to a culture like Nazi Germany, or periods of Ancient Rome, who were happy to brutally kill anyone they disagreed with. If morality is just a set of rules made up by society, then our culture is no better or worse than the Nazis. It is just different, and we prefer it.
But is that how morality really works? Or were the Nazis and the Romans really wrong to do the things that they did? The only way that it could be true that some actions are really wrong, is if there is some kind of standard that is beyond humanity - something that we can't touch or change. It would be some kind of rulebook that we had to obey.
That rulebook would have to be an actual object that was the physical manifestation of perfect goodness. Can we think of any possible things that could fit that description?
Something that was perfectly good would have all of the best attributes. It would be beautiful, it would be strong, it would be comforting, it would be inspirational, and so on. It would be something that existed forever and had no need for anything else, because it is perfect by itself. It would also be intelligent and loving. These are qualities of goodness.
The only possible thing that fits that description would be God. There simply is nothing else. So, if morality is something real, if right and wrong are real things and not just opinions, then God must exist to be the standard that they are measured by.
To learn more, look up William Lane Craig, Ravi Zacharias, C.S. Lewis.
The Resurrection of Jesus
History can be a difficult subject. Historians can only use the scraps they find that have been left to them. However, in the case of Jesus, there is a huge amount of historical data that was been found. Facts about Jesus and his life are some of the most well evidenced events in archaeology.Here are just a few of the things we know for certain about Jesus:
- He was from Galilee.
- He claimed to be the Son of God (meaning he was actually God himself)
- He was baptized by John the Baptist
- He gathered followers and taught a new way of worship
- He had a reputation for being a miracle worker and healer
- He was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish leaders
- He was crucified under orders from Pontius Pilate
- He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (one of the Jewish leaders)
- The tomb was found empty
- His followers claimed to have seen him after his death. They said that they walked, talked, and even ate with him. He was a physical being.
The simplest explanation is that the biography of Jesus given in the Bible is true. Jesus claimed to be God, did miraculous things, angered the leaders who saw him as a threat, and when he was killed by them, God raised him to show that he approved of him and his message.
Many have attempted to offer other explanations to try and disprove the Bible, but none of the attempts have had any weight to them.
If Jesus was raised from the dead, and history shows us that this is true, then God must exist.
To learn more, look up Gary Habermas, Mike Licona, William Lane Craig.
Personal Testimonies
You can find Christians in most places. Many of them will have testimonies to offer you about why they believe and what makes them so sure. For some it might be tied to the reasons above, but for many deeper reasons will be linked to their own experiences with God.Some may tell you about how prayers were answered. The most powerful stories often involve somebody feeling down and lost and hopeless who then turns to God in prayer and finds a new hope inside them. Their lives change for the better and they escape their misery.
Some may not have had an experience that was quite so dramatic, but rather have had a slower, more gradual coming to faith. They may describe small signs here and there that they ignored at first, but finally found they had no choice but to accept.
Others may have witnessed a healing or a miracle of some kind. We are all aware of the fake faith healers that draw in big crowds with false promises and put on a big show but offer nothing real. However, despite the liars who put Christians in a bad light, miracles do still happen, especially in places where the Gospel is new. Bible scholar Craig Keener has compiled lists of miracles that have happened in recent years and has included the evidence that supports them. He has medical records as well as witness statements. More to the point, Keener was not a Christian until he witnessed a miracle himself.
As an important point, given that there are millions of people who claim to have personally experienced God, only one of these claims needs to be true. If one person, out of all these people, really has had an answered prayer, or a healing, or miracle, then God exists.
To learn more, look up Craig Keener, Gary Habermas, Hugh Ross.
A few other things to look into
These five reasons are very powerful, but there is a lot more that can be looked at. Once again, this is not a complete list, but there might be things you find interesting.Biblical Prophecies coming true - look up Mike Winger
How Islam points to Christianity being the one true religion - look up David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi
How atheism is certainly not true - look up John Lennox, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, Inspiring Philosophy
How science and the Bible go hand in hand - look up Hugh Ross, Fazale Rana, John Lennox, Johanaan Raatz
The Shroud of Turin - look up Gary Habermas
