Know Why You Believe (eBook)

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Is There a God?

In human existence there is no more profound question demanding an answer. Is there a God? is a question that challenges every thinking person, and the answer has far-reaching implications for each of us no matter where we are in life.

While we were living in Dallas, a salesman of Great Books of the Western World convinced us to buy the fifty-four volume set. Of its 102 great ideas, I began with number twenty-nine, God. The editor, Mortimer Adler, begins with the explanation: “In sheer quantity of references, as well as in variety, this is the largest chapter [of the introductory syntopicon]. The reason is obvious. More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question.”

Adler goes on to spell out the practical implications: the whole tenor of human life is affected by whether people regard themselves as supreme beings in the universe or acknowledge a superhuman being whom they conceive of as an object of fear or love, a force to be defied or a Lord to be obeyed. Among those who acknowledge a divinity, it matters greatly whether the divine is represented merely by the concept of God—the object of philosophical speculation—or by the living God whom people worship in all the acts of piety which comprise the rituals of religion.[1]

God in a Test Tube?

It is obvious we cannot examine God in a test tube or prove him by the usual scientific methodology. Furthermore, we can say with equal emphasis that it is not possible to prove Napoleon by the scientific method. The reason lies in the nature of history itself and in the limitations of the scientific method. In order for something to be proved by the scientific method, it must be repeatable. A scientist does not announce a new finding to the world on the basis of a single experiment. History in its very nature is nonrepeatable. No one can rerun the beginning of the universe or bring Napoleon back or repeat the assassination of Lincoln or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The fact that these events can’t be proved by repetition does not disprove their reality as events.

There are many real things outside the scope of verification by the scientific method. The scientific method is useful only with measurable, material things. No one has ever seen three feet of love or two pounds of justice, but one would be foolish indeed to deny their reality. To insist that God be proved by the scientific method is like insisting that a telephone be used to measure radioactivity.

Eternity in Our Hearts

What evidence is there for God? Anthropological research has indicated there is a universal belief in God among the most remote peoples today. In the earliest histories and legends of peoples all around the world the original concept was of one God, who is the Creator. An original high God appears to have been in their consciousness even in those societies that are today polytheistic. Regardless of other accretions added to this unknown god, the idea of one God has persisted.

Research in the last fifty years has challenged the evolutionary concept of religion’s development. Monotheism—the concept of one God—became the apex of a gradual development that began with polytheistic concepts. It is increasingly clear that the oldest traditions everywhere were of one supreme God.[2] The writer of Ecclesiastes referred to God as having “set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Blaise Pascal, the great seventeenth-century mathematician, wrote of “the God-shaped vacuum” in every person. Augustine concluded, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” The evidence shows that the vast majority of humanity, at all times and in all places, has believed in some kind of god or gods. Though this fact is not conclusive proof by any means, it is a beginning reference point to keep in mind as we attempt to answer the big question.

Law of Cause and Effect

To begin with, consider the law of cause and effect. No effect can be produced without a cause. There’s a note in your door. Someone put it there. The painting on the wall, someone drew it. Nothing comes from nothing! We as human beings and the universe itself are effects that must have had a cause. We come eventually to an uncaused cause, who is God.

The noted skeptic Bertrand Russell makes an astounding statement in his Why I Am Not a Christian. He says that when he was a child, “God” was given him as the answer to the many questions he raised about existence. In desperation he asked, “Well, who created God?” When no answer was forthcoming, he says, “My entire faith collapsed.” Unfortunately, his is a common experience, yet it fails to answer the burning question.

God, the Creator, the Beginner, by definition is eternal. He is uncreated. He is self-existent. Were God a created being, he would not be a cause, he would be an effect. He would not and could not be God.

R. C. Sproul, author and lecturer, explains, “Being eternal, God is not an effect. Since he is not an effect, he does not require a cause. He is uncaused. It is important to note the difference between an uncaused, self-existent eternal being and an effect that causes itself through self-creation.”[3]

Infinite Time plus Chance?

No one would think a computer could come into being without an intelligent designer. It is unlikely that a monkey in a print shop could set Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in type. If we found a copy of it, we would conclude that an intelligent mind was the only possible explanation for the printing. How much more incredible is it to believe that the universe, in its infinite complexity, could have happened by chance?

The human body, for instance, is an admittedly astounding and complex organism, a continual marvel of organization, design and efficiency. So impressed was Albert Einstein with this that he concluded: “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illuminate superior Spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”[4] To our knowledge, he never progressed to believe in a personal God.

There are basically two choices for Christians and non-Christians alike: Did the universe and the human race begin by chance or by purpose and design?

Scientists have long relied on infinite time plus chance to explain the origin of life. This view for them avoids the unacceptable conclusion of divine cause. The process itself requires certain presuppositions and conditions or else no life would generate. For this to have happened there must have been

• an ideally prepared primordial soup
• frequent jolts of electrical charges
• unlimited period of time—eons and eons

Life forms then would evolve. However, the difficulties this theory presents are so enormous that today those same scientists are forthrightly pointing out its weaknesses.

The distinguished astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle has proposed an analogy to illustrate these difficulties. He asks, “How long would it take a blindfolded person to solve a Rubik’s Cube?” If the person made one move per second, without resting, Hoyle estimates it would take an astonishing 1.35 trillion years! Therefore, he concludes, when you consider the life expectancy of a human being, a blindfolded person could not solve the Rubik’s Cube.

Hoyle then explains that it would be equally as difficult for the accidental formation of only one of the many chains of amino acids in a living cell in which there are about 200,000 such amino acids. Now if you would compute the time required to get all 200,000 amino acids for one human cell to come together by chance, it would be about 293.5 times the estimated age of the earth (set at the standard 4.6 billion years). The odds against this happening would be far greater than a blindfolded person trying to solve the Rubik’s Cube!

In another analogy Hoyle bolsters his argument. He likens this to a “junkyard mentality” and asks, “What are the chances that a tornado might blow through a junkyard containing all the parts of a 747, accidentally assemble them into a plane, and leave it ready for takeoff?” Hoyle answers, “The possibilities are so small as to be negligible even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole universe!”

In his impressive book The Intelligent Universe, Hoyle concludes, “As biochemists discover more and more about the awesome complexity of life, it is apparent that its chances of originating by accident are so minute that they can be completely ruled out. Life cannot have arisen by chance.”[5]

Order and Design in the Universe

When we speak of design as opposed to chance, we are referring to the observable parts of our world, the smallest of neutrons and protons, and the vastness of the galaxies. Who or what gave the original specifications and information that put it all together? This information is what we mean by design. It would be comparable to looking for the master plan that...