Where is all of this Evidence Leading?

I believe that the evidences that we have examined here for the existence of God are compelling. The Cosmological argument establishes the eternal, purposeful and all powerful creative nature of God. God is a Being who is personal and has chosen to cause the universe to exist. The Teleological argument conveys the glory and intelligent wisdom of God as revealed in the splendor of the created universe. The Moral Argument bears witness to God’s moral nature as the Ultimate Law Giver and Authority of the universe.

These laws, as witnessed in man’s very conscience, reveal that the Creator has a standard and that standard exposes the vast difference between good and evil. The Moral purpose argument demonstrates the God has created us for a purpose and that He places value and meaning to our lives. The combination of these evidences cannot lead to 100% certainty or scientific proof for God’s existence but we can know that God exists with moral certainty and certainly enough to stake our lives on it. Faith will always be necessary in our pursuit of knowing God, yet for any and all sincere seekers of truth, an absolute confident assurance based on evidence and fact is readily available to know the truth of God’s reality.

Why Would Someone Not Believe in God Despite the Evidence?

Just as there are many reasons why people believe in God there are also many reasons why people do not believe in God.

There are (3) types of doubt and unbelief.

These are:

1. Factual or Intellectual doubt

2. Willful doubt

3. Emotional doubt

It may be that a person has sincere doubts intellectually regarding the fact of God’s existence. It could be pride, a desire to not have any accountability to a higher absolute authority or maybe a demand for absolute certainty on the matter. For others it may be a conflict between a loving God and the allowance of evil and injustice in His creation. It could be a combination of disappointments with people or institutions who have in a sense represented God. Some have examined the various evidences and observable conflicts in their view of the world and have come to the decision that God does not exist. They may reject God because the world as they see it is inconsistent with their view of God. It could certainly be a mixture of various factors mentioned above. Regardless of what the issues are, the fact remains that they deny God’s existence either directly or indirectly thorough apathy.

Why do other people believe in God?

On the other hand, there are people who may believe in God for various reasons. They may fear the concept of going to hell or of being judged by God. Or on the flip side they may believe in God because they want to go to heaven. For others, they believe in God because they see purpose and meaning for their lives only in Him and His existence is the best explanation for the world and the universe as they see it. The arguments of nature, causality and the design of the universe compels others to believe in God. For the Christian, the prophecies of the Biblical Scriptures fulfilled in the life , death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and rooted in the Gospel are the greatest factors for faith in God. There are other reasons why people may believe in God, some far better in quality and truth than others. So what are we to do? 

Pascal’s Wager

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a seventeenth century French mathematician, scientist, philosopher and Christian. In his writing, Pensees (Thoughts), he made his case that either God exists or He does not exist. There is no neutral third option. According to Pascal, we can neither prove or disprove His existence. Pascal begins his argument with the premise that the existence or the non-existence of God is not provable by human reason because the nature and essence of God is infinite and beyond human comprehension. Because human reasoning ability is not able to decide this grand question of God’s existence, he encouraged people to “wager” that God did exist and live to know and serve Him rather than to “bet against Him”. His point was that we do not have the option of not wagering. If we simply ignore the “God” issue, then by default we are wagering against Him. So we either automatically by default wager against God or we wager by faith based in evidence for God. No one finds an escape from the wagering process. If we wager “bet” that God does exist and we are right we win not only now in this life but also in eternity. If we are wrong and God does not exist we really lose nothing. Living a purposeful and meaningful life has great benefits even if it tus out to be a lie.

If on the other hand, we wager “bet” against God and He does exist then we lose big not only in this life but especially in eternity. The wise position according to Pascal is to wager your life on the belief that God exists and pursue Him by faith. There is everything to gain if you do and everything to lose if you don’t.

Pascal goes on to make the point that the primary problem is not an intellectual problem but rather a heart issue. He states that our heads (intellect) tell us to believe but our hearts (faith) are not willing to follow. He suggests that we relinquish our heart and its desires rather than attempt to look for further intellectual evidences to bring us to this place of faith. Start living like a believer and as we do our faith will grow.

“Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? …. If you gain you gain all; if you lose you lose nothing” – Pascal 21

In this life we are betting on whether or not God exists. It is the great gamble of life. When we believe in God this is not just a simple intellectual acknowledgement that He exists but rather it is a commitment to follow and learn to know Him.There is a tension that God has instituted in life regarding the revelation of Himself to man. He has given us enough information as to His Person and Nature so that by faith we can have moral certainty regarding Him. However, He has not chosen to provide anywhere near 100 % certainty or revelation of Himself so as to not require faith on our part. This tension between too little and too much is what pushes us to pursue Him. Things that are easy are things that we do not value or appreciate. God desires us to pursue Him and by pursuing Him we learn to know Him and demonstrate that we love Him.

This is life – to know God, love God and make Him known.

The Biblical Basis for Knowing God.

As a Christian and believer in Jesus Christ , I have presented the evidences here with as much of an open and honest approach as I can. However, I am decidedly in the camp of theism and in particular the theism centered in the Christian Scriptures (Bible) and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a complete line of evidences for God’s existence that cannot be explored in enough detail here to even begin to bring justice to the completeness and scope of the case that could be made.There are six lines of evidence that are used by Christian apologists and theologians in making the case for the existence of God. The first four have been examined here and the two remaining are beyond the limits of this presentation. These six lines of argument are:

1. Cosmological

Cause Necessity – The universe is not self-existent, self-caused or eternal. God is the Creator of the universe, the uncaused Cause.

2. Teleological

Design, order and life constants of the entire universe points to a Great Designer. God is the Great Designer.

3. The Moral Law

Absolute moral values, ethics and laws exist and they require a Moral Law Giver or Absolute from which they are derived. The morality of man argues for the moral personality of God.

4. The Moral Purpose

It is inconceivable that there should be any other purpose for the universe than that it should result in some moral end. This demands a purposeful Being who is directing to this end. God alone provides purpose and ultimate meaning for our lives.

5. The Fact of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection and His authoritative claims provide very strong evidence for believing in the existence of God. This is based on the uniqueness of the historical events of the life of Christ resulting in the establishment and expansion of the Church through the preaching of the Gospel.

6. The Evidence of the Christian Scriptures – Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament

The Bible (66 books) is the most unique book in the history of man with six earmarks of its Divine inspiration.

A. Uniqueness of its Message

The Bible provides the complete history of man, history of sin and history of salvation from sin and it unfolds the future ultimate restoration of all things.

B. Uniqueness in the Harmony of Theme

The Bible consists of 66 books written by over 40 authors in 3 languages over 15 centuries yet it has one unified theme – the Savior, the Messiah – Jesus Christ.

C. Uniqueness of fulfilled prophecy – SEE NOTE #3.

D. Uniqueness of transmission reliability – SEE NOTE #4.

E. Uniqueness of archeological reliability – SEE NOTE #5.

F. Uniqueness of scientific reliability – SEE NOTE #6.

It is certainly beyond the scope of this limited examination to cover these arguments. (See the recommended books at the end of this presentation for further detailed analysis). However, these six arguments form a basis for the Christian defense for the existence of God. Examining the teachings of the Bible provides us with the information that takes us beyond the basic acknowledgement of God’s existence and tells us what kind of God He is.