Six Straight-Forward Reasons To Believe That God Exists

At EveryStudent.com Marilyn Adamson provides six reasons to believe in God. Click on the image below to read more…

Here are the six reasons that Adamson presents:

1. The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer:
   • Earth contains the right mixture of gases to sustain life.
   • The Earth is located the right distance from the sun.
   • The Earth contains water, which is uniquely suited to life. Water is a universal solvent and freezes from the top down so fish can live in the winter.
2. The complexy of the human body points to a deliberate Designer:
   • The human brain processes more than a million messages a second.
   • The eye can distinguish among seven million colors.
3. The universe had a start – what caused it?
   • Scientists now say that the universe began with one enormous explosion of energy and light, which they call the “Big Bang.” Scientists have no explanation for what caused that explosion.
4. The universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it?
   • Why is nature so mathematically based?
     • Gravity remains consistent.
     • The earth rotates in the same 24 hours.
     • The speed of light doesn’t change.
5. The DNA code contains vast information and programs a cell’s behavior
   • Every cell of our bodies contains a very detailed instruction code, much like a miniature computer program.
6. We know God exists because he pursues us and wants us to know him.
   • Adamson was a former atheist who couldn’t understand why the topic of God weighed so heavily on her mind. She concluded that it was God who was pressing the issue.
7. Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us.
   • Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius and Moses all identified themselves as teachers or prophets. None of them ever claimed to be God. Jesus did. Jesus backed up the claim by healing people, raising people from the dead, creating food out of thin air, walking on top of a lake, and commanding a raging storm to stop. Jesus, himself, is evidence for the existence of God because he was God in the flesh.

Evidence Good Enough To Convince An Atheist

In this video Lee Stobel interviews Dr. J. P. Moreland of Liberty University, who explains why noted atheist and intellectual Anthony Flew began to believe in God.

Dr. J.P. Moreland shares why former atheist/intellectual Antony Flew began to believe in God. Moreland indicates there were three overwhelming strands of evidence that proved God existed:

1. The “Big Bang” scientific theory indicates that space, time, and matter had a beginning
2. There are at least 50 constants of nature, such as mass of a proton, charge of an electron, the force of gravity in the universe. If any of these 50 were different by one billionth of a percentage point, life could not exist in the universe.
3. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe seeks any data that provides information and therefore indicates intelligence. The number one discovery of biology in the 20th Century was that living organisms here on Earth have cells filled with such data  (DNA), rich in information.  Information indicates intelligence and an Intelligent Designer.

Of course Christians have always known that God exists.   It’s obvious if you open your eyes.  In  Romans 1:20 it says, “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 men are without excuse.” You can clearly see that God exists. How else could the tiniest cells and most distant stars get there?

A 30 Second Argument For God

In this slide presentation author Robin Schumacher provides a quick proof of the existence of God.

Here is the argument that Schumacher presents:

1. Something, the universe (time, space, and matter), exists
2. Nothing cannot cause something (the universe had a beginning)
3. Therefore, a Being outside of time, space, and matter exists

Scientists and other religions used to think the universe always existed; that it was eternal. However the “Big Bang” resulting from scientific discoveries now proves to skeptics that the universe had a beginning. As Schumacher reveals in his slideshow…

1. The universe is running down (2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that the universe is running out of usable energy).
2. The universe is expanding. It is not expanding into space; space itself is expanding. What expands must have a start or beginning.
3. A “radiation echo” has been detected that is an afterglow from the “Big Bang”

Of course Christians have always known that the universe (time, space, and matter) was created: (Genesis 1:1) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “In the beginning” indicates creation of time. “Heavens” indicates creation of space. “Earth” indicates creation of matter.

Three Reasons There Is A God

This week’s lesson is about the existence of God. To start out, go to the Three Reasons section, where I provide three reasons there is a God. Watch three short videos on the following topics:

1. What begins to exist has a cause.
2. Complex design requires a designer.
3. Moral laws require a law giver.

Why Are There Non-Negotiable Moral Standards?

Most people around the world believe that murder, rape, cruelty, child abuse are morally wrong. Why? Is it just an evolutionary coping mechanism that helps perpetuate the species? Read about the arguments that suggest that objective moral standards are evidence that God exists.

In the William Lane Craig vs. Lawrence Krauss debate, Craig points out, “Actions like rape, cruelty, and child abuse aren’t just socially unacceptable behavior—they’re moral abominations. Some things, at least, are really wrong.” ₁ Why? Is it merely an evolutionary aid to survival and reproduction? Craig observes:

[With] a naturalistic view, moral values are just the byproduct of biological evolution and social conditioning. Just as a troupe of baboons exhibit co-operative and even self-sacrificial behavior because natural selection has determined it to be advantageous in the struggle for survival, so their primate cousins homo sapiens exhibit similar behavior for the same reason. As a result of socio-biological pressures there has evolved among homo sapiens a sort of “herd morality” which functions well in the perpetuation of our species. But … there doesn’t seem to be anything about this that makes this morality objectively binding and true. ₂

If it were true, then groups like the Nazis would be justified in their mass killings to purify and perpetuate their race. Yet, how many people around the world support the Nazi atrocities? As Timothy Keller explains in his book, The Reason for God:

An individual’s self-sacrificing, altruistic behavior toward his or her blood kin might result in a greater survival rate for the individual’s family or extended clan, and therefore result in a greater number of descendants with that person’s genetic material. For evolutionary purposes, however, the opposite response-hostility to all people outside one’s group—should be just as widely considered moral and right behavior. Yet today we believe that sacrificing time, money, emotion, and even life—especially for someone “not of our kind” or tribe is right. ₃

Why? Why are there universal moral standards? Where do they come from?  Craig has an explanation: God. Craig reasons:

1. If God did not exist, objective moral values and duties would not exist.
2. Objective moral values and duties do exist.
3. Therefore, if follows logically and inescapably that God exists. ₄

To Read More

William Lane Craig, Is There Evidence For God? William Lane Craig vs. Lawrence Krauss (Reasonable Faith, 2011) Available at: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-craig-krauss-debate-at-north-carolina-state-university#ixzz1uIT936fc (May 11, 2012)

Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (New York, Riverhead Books, 2008)

References

1. William Lane Craig, Is There Evidence For God? William Lane Craig vs. Lawrence Krauss (Reasonable Faith, 2011) Available at: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-craig-krauss-debate-at-north-carolina-state-university#ixzz1uIT936fc (May 11, 2012)
2. Ibid.
3. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (New York, Riverhead Books, 2008), 133.
4. William Lane Craig, Is There Evidence For God? William Lane Craig vs. Lawrence Krauss

Why God Exists

Most people believe there is a God, but why? Must we depend on the Bible for our proof?  I believe in the Bible, but here are some extra-Biblical reasons to believe that God exists.

There are two compelling reasons to believe in God: 1) the origin of the universe and 2) the complex order of the universe.

Origin of the universe

Most scientists today subscribe to the “Big Bang” theory that the universe hasn’t eternally existed but had a beginning. Timothy Keller, in his book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, quotes scientist Stephen Hawking, “Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning at the Big Bang.”₁  Keller also quotes scientist Francis Collins, who says, “When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming.”₂  If the universe came from somewhere, the best explanation would be God.

Complex order of the universe

Most scientists today also acknowledge that our universe possesses an order and very fine mathematical precision. This precision defies human comprehension and is fundamental to intelligent life. According to Francis Collins, “There are 15 constants – the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc. – that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by even one part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, where there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets or people.”₃ This is the “Fine-Tuning Argument,”–that the universe was prepared for human beings.

Lee Strobel, in The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God₄, interviewed several high level scientists, such as Robin Collins, Guillermo Gonzales and Jay Wesley Richards.  They made the following points about the incredible fine-tuning of earth for life and exploration:

• The earth’s atmosphere is unique, filtering out harmful ultraviolet radiation while working with the oceans to moderate climate by storing and redistributing solar energy.
• The size of the earth is just large enough that its gravity retains the atmosphere and just small enough that is does not trap too many harmful gases.
• The earth has a nearly circular orbit, which prevents ice ages from occurring when temperature shifts on the surface of the planet.
• The earth’s distance from the sun is ideal for life, right in a safe distance range of +/- 5%.
• The liquid iron surrounding earth’s core creates a dynamo that generates the planet’s magnetic field, shielding us from low-energy cosmic rays.
• The earth contains valuable ores deposited near the planet’s surface, close enojgh to mine for technological development.
• The sun is one of the 10% most massive stars in the galaxy and emits the right colors of light (with a balance of red and blue), varies its light output by only 1/10 of 1%, and prevents wild climate swings on earth. ₅
• The moon is large compared to earth, something unique in the inner solar system. The moon stabilizes the tilt of the earth, preventing major temperature swings.
• The moon also increases earth’s tides (the moon contributing 60% and the sun contributing 40%), flushing nutrients from the continents to the oceans, which keeps them nutrient rich, and maintaining large-scale ocean circulation, which keeps the higher latitudes relatively mild. ₆
• The earth is ideally positioned for galaxy exploration:
• The sun is 400 times larger than the moon but is also 400 times farther away, which is a perfect match to view a total solar eclipse.  Eclipses can yield important scientific discoveries, helping to interpret the spectra of distant stars and confirming that gravity bends light, as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
• The earth is in in an excellent position to detect the cosmic background radiation, confirming the Big Bang theory.
• The earth’s atmosphere is transparent and allows the science of astronomy and cosmology to flourish

Could this have happened by accident?  Did such a finely tuned universe for intelligent life spring forth without cause?  The best answer is no.  The best cause is God.

To Read More

Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism(New York, Riverhead Books, 2008)

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2004)

References

1. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (New York, Riverhead Books, 2008), 133.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid, 134.
4. Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2004).
5. Ibid, 177.
6. Ibid, 179.