FAITH & CULTURE PROJECT: Does God Exist?

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Ever wonder if can actually be proven? I can remember back when I first became a Christian. I would like to say that my conversion eliminated all doubts and that my only concerns were learning the Bible, or discrediting (how could so many leading scientists be wrong?), but it certainly wasn’t. As the novelty wore off, I began to acknowledge that I really had no actual proof that God existed. How could I be sure? Perhaps I was just the victim of a strong emotional delusion—self-authentication will only get you so far. Maybe the Christian faith was merely satisfying some deep primal need for structure or emotional support. These ideas were reinforced by the many Christians I had met who appeared to be living in a of the stark realities of life. As a new believer, these people really bothered me. From the outside looking in, the Christian faith appeared to be trying to sell an unrealistic pipe dream. Was I supposed to pretend to be living in a utopian fantasy world when everything around me said the complete opposite? What about all the pain, suffering, and tragedy in the world? What about that claim thousands of lives every year? What about war, genocide, and terrorism? What about cancer, starvation, child abuse, , human trafficking, , , , child prostitution? If a loving God exists, then why doesn’t He seem to care about anything?

It became apparent that to know whether life really had any overarching meaning beyond that of likely possibilities it would require that the existence of God be known with some degree of certainty. But is this even possible? Is it possible to look beyond the reality in which we find ourselves to know that there is a God? Maybe the scientists are right and we merely evolved from the , and life is nothing more than a cold, indifferent accident without rhyme or reason. believed that human beings are nothing more than “chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet.” Today’s consensus is that science has more plausible explanations for our origins and development than do . Even today’s church is reluctant to affirm that God’s existence can be conclusively proven.

But is it true that we have finally arrived at a new and more enlightened stage in our evolutionary development where religious beliefs can be shoved aside and no longer hold the answers we once thought they did? Is the Christian faith nothing more than a feel-good relic from the past, a kind of forced speculation or wish projection, with no basis in reality?

In the New Testament, we find the claim that God has made Himself known to mankind through the created order and that all are without excuse (). But how far can we take this? Has God really proven His own existence? Can we know that He exists with absolute certainty? Does this also mean that no other explanations are possible?

Let’s begin by asking the age-old question, why is there something rather than nothing? Or to be more scientific, ‘how’ is there something rather than nothing? (the word ‘why’ implies ‘purpose’ yet to be established). Obviously, if there was ever nothing, then nothing would still be here (actually it wouldn’t “be” at all). And if nothing could produce something, then it wouldn’t really have been nothing to begin with. So we must admit that it’s not possible that there was never nothing. Something must have always existed or we simply wouldn’t be here to contemplate its nonexistence.

But what is it that must have always been? Does it necessarily have to be God? Many would say it’s the universe. Could the universe be the self-existent and eternal ground of all being, and we simply evolved from it? Is this the answer? Can this be proven? To answer this question, we must first determine if it’s possible for time and space (wherein the universe exists), to have no beginning or end. In other words, is it possible for the universe to have an infinite past? Apologists answer this question with what is known as the . The idea is that if something has a beginning or an end, it cannot be infinite. Fair enough. This is true by definition. The easiest way to understand this argument is to picture time going down railroad tracks. If it were truly infinite, would it ever get here? The answer is no. If it were truly infinite it would never get here because anything truly infinite cannot have a starting point or an ending point. It must remain infinite. Our imaginary time train, however, does make it here, and, in fact, stops in what is known as the present, or the now. This clearly reveals a stopping point and demonstrates that the universe is finite and limited. There was a time when it did not exist. In fact, this stopping point reveals its dependency upon something else having already been here that truly is infinite and exists outside of time altogether.

At this point, many are quick to affirm something like the Big Bang that got it all started. But here we find the same problem. Now we must explore the possibility of an infinite regress of cause and effect. That is to say, something would have caused the Big Bang, and then something would have caused that, and so on . . . . Before we entertain this possibility, the obvious circular reasoning involved should be pointed out. This explanation never really answers anything: like where did all this exploding or non-exploding stuff come from? And how could this process ever have begun if it involves an infinite regress? But let’s continue.

Can we have an infinite regress of cause and effect? No, we can’t. We can’t have an infinite regress of cause and effect for the same reasons the universe cannot have an infinite past; namely, we speak of present causes and present effects that likewise take place in the here and now. Once again, this presents a stopping point. Clearly, the universe had a beginning, as did cause and effect, and neither can be the infinite, self-existent ground of all being.

What the universe does demonstrate by its very time-space existence is the necessity for a first cause that was not caused by anything else—an uncaused cause. This is what referred to as the '.' This first cause must be infinite and self-existent—the very ground of all being itself.

When we consider this necessary transcendence, along with the fact that there is an ordered universe that exists in a specific way rather than some other way—this first uncaused cause must also be a thinking, purposeful being with creative power. Does this sound like a suspicious leap? But wait a minute, you say, couldn’t order and design and eventually the universe itself have sprung from chaos if given enough time and chance? Perhaps we will never know how it all came to pass, but why couldn’t chaos and chance be the means by which it happened? Why does everything have to be the creation of a thinking purposeful god?

In whatever way expressed, this sounds reasonable to most people. In fact, the most popular answer given by unbelievers is that chaos and chance, over a long period of time, produced what we know today as the universe—and, once again, we simply evolved from it. In light of what we’ve just seen, this explanation is logically implausible, but let’s explore this idea anyway and see where it leads. Let’s begin by first defining our terms; namely, what is chaos and chance?

When most people envision chaos, they usually imagine a whereby particles and chunks of matter, along with chemicals, gasses, and other various elements are haphazardly scattered; or the more scientific rendering is that the makings for these things are infinitely compressed (or whatever the latest theory now proposes) and somehow these elements, along with everything else, will in due time come into existence.

The problem here is that none of this is describing chaos; this describes merely a chaotic condition. There is a big difference. Chaos has no actualized being or ground to do so. It has no . It does not and cannot possibly exist. Chaos represents a condition of pure potentiality but actually nothing (no-thing in particular). Chaos is neither this nor that, forever. Chaos cannot produce any-thing because chaos isn’t any-thing. Pure potentiality cannot possibly exist. The same can be said of ‘chance.’ This idea likewise has no ontological status. Chance is merely a word used to describe the possibilities of something happening. In this case, the possibility of no-thing doing some-thing, or producing some-thing, is none whatsoever.

But what about a chaotic condition, you ask? A chaotic condition can have an ontological status and can exist. But before we think we've solved the problem, let’s examine any one element of a chaotic condition. To make things simple, let’s look at a single floating rock (you can substitute anything you want, including its infinitely compressed makings). When we consider this rock we must ask certain questions. Like why is it a particular size and weight instead of some other size and weight? Why is it shaped the way it is rather than some other way? Why is its molecular structure the way it is instead of some other way? Why is it a rock at all? Why not a chemical or gas? What determined these characteristics? Where did this information come from? Is there something within the rock capable of transcending its physical properties and somehow thought it a good idea to bring itself into existence as the specific kind of rock we now see?

We can apply this to the universe as well. The universe doesn’t have to be the way it is. It could exist in some other form. It could instead be filled with water and we could be aquatic creatures of some kind. Or it could be filled with sand, and we could then burrow our way from place to place, forever missing that left turn at Albuquerque. It could even be filled with gumballs and lollipops for that matter.

As you can see, the existence of anything, regardless of what it is, requires mind, purpose, and creative power. These transcendent necessities are inescapable. As you can also see, we are left with the same problems when we consider the idea of the universe emerging from a chaotic condition (in whatever form). Can any of the elements within this condition be accounted for? Can they be infinite or eternal? If so, where are they kept? Time? Space? Even if you magically granted them an eternal existence, can the necessities of transcendence now be dismissed?

It’s easy to use nebulous words like chaos and chance without ever seriously considering what they would involve; but as you can see, this explanation, and others like it, only serves to introduce confusion when answering the original question: how can something come from nothing? Not only do we still have no explanation as to where anything came from, but we also have no explanation as to how the various elements of our chaotic condition, in whatever form, came to be what they are.

To simply dismiss these obvious necessities and relegate everything to the unknown by creating an indeterminate starting point, and then to introduce even more confusion by attaching the random processes of (which have themselves proved untenable), is to throw common sense, along with the elephant in the room, out the window. Regardless of how much we may never know, we will always know that something cannot simply spring forth from nothing.

When all is said and done, we are left with no other possible conclusion. To deny the necessity of a transcendent uncaused cause is to deny existence altogether. Whether these transcendent necessities belong to the Christian God is yet to be proven, but we must nevertheless admit this inescapable conclusion as did thinkers, scientists, and philosophers of the past. Otherwise, we are left to embrace the impossible. We are left to conclude that something actually can spring forth from nothing (even specific items), an utterly nonsense statement—regardless of how it’s packaged.

And so there we have it. But the question now remains, how do we get to the Christian God from here? How do we know this is the right God or transcendent thinker? Fortunately, the Christian faith does not leave us hanging. In fact, it is the only religion in the world that authenticates itself through unassailable proofs. How you ask? Take for example.

Miracles do not prove the existence of God, but rather they authenticate the messengers of divine revelation. Miracles were used by Jesus and His apostles to certify the message they proclaimed and the authority they were given to proclaim it. This confirmed they were messengers of God and no one else. We know this because only a Being that can supersede, or suspend, the governing laws of nature could ever bestow such an ability. In other words, it requires transcendence. The best anyone else could produce would be only magic tricks. Not even the enemies of Jesus denied His power to work real miracles.

The same can be said of predictive prophecy. There are hundreds of fulfilled prophecies in the Bible confirming the coming of Jesus and other world events. Only a Being that transcends time and space could ever have produced such a book. It should also be noted that these prophecies were all very specific. They are not like which are so vague they cannot be proven or disproven.

As far as my personal assurance of the Christian faith is concerned if such authenticating evidence had not been provided, I would probably still believe in God out of sheer logical necessity, but I doubt I would be a Christian. In fact, the world’s religions would look like competing used car salesmen. I would not waste my time, and neither should anyone else. In the words of , “Take away miracles, and you take away Christianity.”

For the reasons outlined in this essay, I do not believe we are free to define life, reality, and personal identity for ourselves. It is self-evident that our world comes prepackaged with a given order and a given meaning; and that for the sake of our fellow man, and human flourishing, we should see ourselves as obligated to discover that meaning and conform our lives to it. When it comes to the current mental health crisis (not to mention mass shootings), the lives of our loved ones and neighbors could depend on it. To understand further how this relates to our duties and obligations, see another book in this series titled, American Bloodlust: The Violent Psychological Conditioning of Today’s Young People.

For those curious about the message the apostles proclaimed to the world. It was the message that , God incarnate, was sent into the world as an act of divine intervention on behalf of fallen man. Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life, fulfilling God’s laws perfectly where Adam had failed. He was inevitably betrayed by one of His own and crucified on a . This is where He was to be offered to God as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Afterward, on the third day, He was raised from the dead, showing Himself to be the accepted sacrifice. Through His sinless life and sacrificial death, Jesus satisfied the demands of God’s justice. If you repent of your sins and place your trust in Him, your sins will be forgiven and you will have everlasting life.

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