Does God Exist?

You're driving through the neighbourhood on a Sunday morning. A car infront of you slows down and turns into a neutral colored building similar to the other buildings in the area. The sign on the building reads Somerville Presbyterian Church. You're thinking, why do people still go to church these days? Hasn't science proved enough that God doesn't exist? If that question has been on your mind, this short article may provide some answers.

God or gods?

Be it on the streets of Vancouver, in a downtown market of Mumbai or in a pristine remote Brazillian community, history shows that human has a unique instinct that enables them to sense the existence of a greater being. Community groups around the globe invent their version of god or even several gods which they then attempt to reach and communicate to in order to get some kind of benefit - be it a favour, protection, healing and other such things.

But what if there is one single being who is in control of the entire universe, let's for the sake of our discussion refer to him as God with a capital G. This God, instead of sitting passively waiting for human to reach him, is active and full of intention. He has a master plan to pave the way for human to be able to come to him - not in many various ways, but one single way. The plan is the only feasible way to circumvent the limitations of human beings and that plan has been progressing forward across millenia. One component of that plan is to put a unique instinct within the human heart that enables them to sense his existence.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; - Genesis 1:27

Instinct

Take a look at the sky. It's wonderfully littered with clouds of various shapes decorating the luminous blue backdrop. Green trees waves gently in the breeze, the birds sing and your favourite pet animal lays comfortably by your side. Time passed, and the blue sky turns into a beautiful bright orange shadow along the horizon as the sound of the waves at the beach evokes a deep soothing rumble. What caused all these fabulous things to be here? Is this level of enjoyment to be expected everywhere in the universe? Or, is there someone who purposefully caused all these things to happen right here on earth and is holding it all together for as long as he determines?

Human has the ability to sense that God has something to do with it although most of them cannot put a finger on what it is exactly that they have in mind. Deep in their subconcious mind there's a gut feel that it's too far of a long shot to say that the wonderful world happened entirely by chance. They sense the fingerprints of God in the wonderful things surrounding them.

For people with such keen sense, the idea that God does not exist is improbable. The more they study the universe, the more they are convinced that it is all God's doing. One such person was a man named Dominic. After passing a biology exam, he took out a massive thick book that accompanied him during those long nights of study before the exam. The book title was The Cell. He exclaimed, "This book is only for a single organism and it's so thick. How anyone could think that there is no God and that the world happened by accident, I would never understand."

What about all the bad things in the world?

As soon as a baby is born it starts crying. There is no denying that the world we live in is broken. As anything that is broken, there was a time when it was not broken. The baby crying in the craddle expects an immediate solution to its problem. Every second is too long in comparison to the few days that it has spent on earth. But if the baby has a good parent, soon enough its problem is solved and it stops crying.

God has a plan to restore the world, to fix the broken world. The plan has been progressing forward for thousands of years. A plan that is laid out in a book called the Bible. But the end is not yet here. For that we all need to be patiently looking forward for the next steps in his elaborate and perfect plan.

Due to the broken state of the world, sometimes we see what's supposed to be good acted badly. For example, some police commited crimes. Does that mean all police is bad and should be banned? Certainly not, it would result in absolute chaos. Some teachers commited crimes against the students, does that mean all teachers are bad and should be banned? Obviously not, it would result in a generation of underachievers. Instead, each individual criminal should be corrected. Likewise, to blame God for the actions of individuals is not right. Especially, when God has revealed his good plan for the future that we can look forward to.

What is God like?

God is a spirit. That is to say that God is not bound by space, time, nor physical limitations. He is a being, so He has a mind and a character. He embodies all that is good. He is holy, meaning He is set-apart because He is pure. He does not tolerate any nature that is in contrast to the nature of His character because such opposite nature causes considerable harm and suffering. That opposite nature that is in contrast to God's nature is summed up in one word: sin.

He is just. He holds every little guilty action accountable. In that sense he is extremely frighening. But He is also loving and provides a way out to those who come to Him humbly seeking forgiveness and are commited to following Him. Just as His holy and just nature is frightening, so is His loving nature jaw-droppingly amazing because central to His ultimate plan to save human was to take the burnt of punishment due to His people upon Himself.

Revealed Plan

It is clear that all creatures are broken. No human is inherently pure. Instead all human has committed numerous guilty actions in thoughts or in deeds. They have no ability to rescue themselves from the punishment awaiting them after death because even the best of them is so far below the standard of purity that God has. So, God decided to take the punishment on Himself and therefore provide human with a way out. For that to happen, God had to temporarily take on the form of a human being. That human-God had to remain pure and holy. Then that human-God had to announce who He really was - that He was God. Towards the end He had to be tortured and killed, thereby the pure and holy God was sacrificed in place of the impure and guilty human. After He died, He had to rise again from the dead to prove to the world that He had won over the power of sin and death, so that all who hear can put their trust in Him.

The plan started much longer beforehand, but one significant event was when God started with a man named Abraham. God spoke to Abraham and promised him that his decendants would become a large nation. The historical accounts of what happened to Abraham, and his descendants were recorded in the Bible. And there, in the historical accounts of those generations, a great many prophecies were told about the coming of a Saviour - the God-man.

Eventually, around 2000 years ago, He did come. Born of a virgin inside a cattle shed in an insignificant little town, the God-man was born. His name was Jesus.

The humble state of His coming was completely out of the picture of what everyone expected. But the story of His live and His message captivated all who has read the historical accounts. This short paragraphs do not do it justice, the full amazing account is recorded in the Bible. The book of Mark (one of the 66 books in the Bible) is a recommended starting point for anyone who has never read the Bible before.

Today, the sacrificial payment had been paid for human's sins by Jesus' blood. So, forgiveness is freely offered by God to anyone who would accept Jesus as their Saviour.

The plan will come to fruition when Jesus comes again for the second time.

The Book

Another way to know that God exists is to read the book that God's followers call the Bible. The Bible is a collection of 66 books. We touched on this in the previous section above. In one of the sub-books, the Bible speaks of itself as follows:

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,". - 2 Timothy 3:16

That verse says that the Bible is breathed out by God, meaning it is the word of God himself. It was written by people who were supernaturally led by God to write His message to the world. Because it is God's words, many who reads that book can sense as they read it that the book is uniquely different in that there is something of amazingly powerful and true about it.

Out of that experience they have a greater knowledge of who God is, and in their hearts a confirmation is formed that God indeed is alive. This confirmation trumps all other means of proving that God exists.

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” - John 20:29

A Christian's Journey

Those who have accepted Jesus as their Saviour would be living daily in gratitude. They express their thankfulness in feeble attempts gladly trying to please the God who loves them.

They journey through live with a different perspective and throughout this journey, they find numerous occasions of God's wonderful provisions to their needs. It's akin to having powerful invisible hands that guide them, protects them, nurtures them and provides for them like a father would towards his children.

Having experienced these provisions from God is another way that shows that God exists. This though, can only be experienced by His children. And yes, children is what God calls those who put their trust in Jesus. What an undeserved privilege.

Why Don't We See Him Now?

Even in the many years before Jesus came on earth, there were long periods of time when God was mostly silent and invisible. Yet, the plan progressed surely step by step. So, today we are in a period when we do not physically see God, but He was physically here on earth 2000 years ago.

Consider that His first coming was promised for a long time and God fulfilled that promise. Then God made a promise about His second coming, should we not trust Him? There is much reason to trust that He will come. At that time you will see Him in plain view. Except, the second time He comes He will come to judge the living and the dead. It's good to be prepared.

TLDR; for the Rest

The above reasons should be enough for human to realise that God exists. However, below are some other ways that others have encountered in their attempts to explain the existence of God.

Philosophically

A 13th century philosopher wrote several ways to demonstrate the existence of God. We'll go through two of them below.

Moved and Mover

Aristotle had a hypothesis called Unmoved Mover. Everything in the universe is moved by something else through time and/or space. The thing that moves it can either be moving with the thing it moves or not in motion (unmoved). Another philosopher used this theory and derived that God is ultimately the first unmoved mover.

For example, if a girl throws a ball, the ball is moved by the girl's hand. The girl herself is aging and is therefore moving through time. And so on. It can be concluded then that there has to be a beginning where something that is unaffected by time, space and matter initiated the first move.

Final Causality

Final Causality theory says: All the things of nature act for the sake of an end. For example, our eyes sees images and conveys them to the brain, but the eyes have no understanding or knowledge about what it should do. They just do what they do for the sake of sending information to the brain.

For another example, leaves perform photosynthesis to transform energy from the sun into usable energy to grow the tree. The leaves has no understanding or awareness as to why it should do so, but it simply performs the work regardles for the sake of transforming energy for the tree.

This suggests that an intelligent being who has knowledge and understanding of the purpose of each thing in nature has put them in place and is orchestrating everything.

Scientifically

Through scientific observations scientists have collected data that suggests that the world we live in is more rare than most people would think. Astrophysicist Hugh Ross' book Designed to the Core contains many revealing facts about how special earth is. A great number of things come together that are just so incredibly accurate to make life on earth happen.

As science uses a method of cause and effect, it stives to find a cause for every effect. When it comes to the universe, science sees the universe has never been able to find a reason for its beginning. So the most accepted answer was that the universe is in a steady state - it has no beginning and no end. However, this changed during the 20th century as more and more evidence was discovered that the universe has a beginning. A beginning cause by something that is not bound bound the limitation of space, time and matter. This is not an accepted answer by the science community. Below, we'll also cover some of the things that shows that the universe had a beginning.

The Earth is Delicately Balanced

Many things come together to make the earth what it is today. Not only did all those things together which is a feat in itself, but those variables also continue together to be in this current state up till now. With today's technology, we can deduct that if one thing goes a little tiny fraction out of line, life on earth would end.

For example, earth's distance from the sun is just right. The earth is in a Goldilocks Zone. If you have been to the arctic or to the sahara desert and experience the harsh temperature conditions there you would know that the earth is sitting on a knife's edge. A little closer to the sun and earth's temperature would rise, a little further from the sun and the earth would freeze. Either way is catastrophic, life on earth would likely come to end.

Likewise changes to the earth's rotation axis would result in major catastrophes. To see the incredible facts and figures, find out more about Fine Tuning argument.

Cause and Effect

In science, to learn a phenomena we observe an effect and look for the cause. Everything around us is an effect because we can deduct its the cause. For example, if an apple is the effect, the cause of that apple is the apple tree. The causes of the apple tree is the water, fertilizer, sun, rain, and the farmer who sow the seed and harvested the apple. The cause of the seed is another apple and so on. Another example, if a boy is the effect, the causes is the parents. The causes of the parents are the grandparents and so on.

If the whole world is an effect, then the entire universe is an effect bound by space, time and matter. So, there has to be something at the beginning that is outside of the influence of time and space that started it all.

The Second Law of Thermodynamic

This much verified law from Einstein states: "the total entropy of a system either increases or remains constant in any spontaneous process; it never decreases." Entropy is a measure of how much energy is not able to do work. It's energy that goes to waste, forever. In thermodynamic, this implies that heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects, unless energy in some form is supplied to reverse the direction of heat flow.

Applying this law to the universe, as the sun and stars disipates heat energy into the cold outer space entropy increases. This means there is always waste of energy in the universe that cannot be recovered. Over time, the stars are continuously losing energy and growing dimmer. At some point in time the future, the stars will stop burning. So, if it has an end when energy is completely depleted, there has to be a beginning when energy was at its maximum. A beginning to the universe, caused by something.

On a smaller scale we can witness that everything in the world is ageing. Plants, animals, our bodies are all affected by the imperfect transfer of energy stated in this second law. Everything will someday come to an end. What about a rock? Even a rock will be consumed by extreme heat at some point when the planet dies. Something that has an end has a beginning. A beginning caused by something.

Expanding Universe

When something expands, it implies that it becomes physically larger over time. That means we if we back in time, it becomes smaller and if we go further back in time, it was smaller still.

Scientific discoveries in the 20th century verified that the universe is expanding. Therefore at one point in the distant past it was much smaller, it had a beginning. A beginning caused by something that science cannot explain.

We'll take a look at three of those scientific discoveries below.

Red Shift

When light energy moves further away it is stretched and results in it going into the red zone of the light spectrum. This phenomena is called Red Shift. When light energy moves closer, the opposite happens and it goes into the blue zone. A scientist has discovered that galaxies exhibit red shift. This means galaxies are moving away from us. As we ourselves are in a galaxy, it suggests that galaxies are moving apart and expanding.

General Relativity

Albert Einstein discovered General Theory of Relativity in early 20th century. It's a significant theory that has many applications. One aspect of this theory is that there is a relationship between space, time and matter. When applied further to cosmic objects, this theory gave birth to the Big Bang theory. This theory suggests that the universe did not exist in the eternal past, but had a beginning.

Cosmic Microware Background

In 1965 it was discovered that Cosmic Microware Background filled the universe. This discovery further verifies the Big Bang theory. It proves that the universe had a beginning.

Conclusion

The methods we described above is not exhaustive. There are other ways, perhaps better ways to describe the existence of God, such as the Moral Law in our society today. Nonetheless, it is fair to say that the idea that God does not exist does not stand on solid ground.

However, proving the existence of God is moot, somewhat pointless. The reason for this is because unless God himself draws a person to Him, that person would never acknowledge the existence of God even if God was directly in front. The problem is the heart. Only God is able to change the heart. So, if you're genuinely wondering about God, let me humbly urge you to ask Him to enable you to sense His presence in your life.