Thursday, May 9, 2019

Is There Really a God?


One of the most fundamental questions of life has been, “Is there really a God?”  How many times in your life when things were not going well and you not only doubted God’s love, but you questioned His very existence?  I would argue that not only does God exist but there is evidence for that fact. 

In the Bible, the existence of God is not explained, it is simply taken for granted.  In Genesis 1:1 we are told, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Here we see an incredible statement that is both simple and profound.  Notice that it declares that God is, and that He is the Creator of the universe.  And then we read that nature demonstrates a creator and that God reveals enough of Himself in the world for people to know Him. Psalm 19:1 states that, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Also in Romans 1:20 the Apostle Paul tells us, “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.”

Does science point toward God or away?  I think it points toward God for numerous reasons.  In the physical universe itself, God has given many evidences of His own existence.  The deeper that our 21st century science reaches into the secrets of the universe, the more unreasonable it becomes to suggest that all this came into existence without a designer.  No one would ever suggest that a space shuttle could fly into space, orbit the earth, and then land at an exact place and time without the combined creative genius of designers, technicians and mathematicians.  Likewise, sunsets and seasons, galaxies and atoms, the force of gravity and the power of love could never exist without the planning and design of a Creator God.
  
I am convinced that the cosmos of space, time, and matter had a beginning and that something outside the cosmos and, in a sense, supernatural, with power of free choice brought it into existence.  I am persuaded that different forms of the design argument provide justification for belief in God.  I am particularly impressed by the fine-tuning of the universe, the information content and so-call specified complexity in biological organisms.

Research in astrophysics revealed that certain conditions would have to be present for the possibility of life to exist.  These conditions are referred to as cosmic constants. These conditions must be present within an extremely narrow margin.  Given any composition of matter outside these extremely narrow parameters, no life could be produced.  If the electromagnetic force were slightly stronger or weaker, life in the universe would be impossible.  Then there’s the difference between the mass of neutrons and protons.  Increase the mass of a neutron by about one part in seven hundred and nuclear fusion in stars would stop.  There would be no energy source for life.

Even the atheist Stephen Hawkins has calculated that if the rate of the universe's expansion one second after the “Big Bang” had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have collapsed into a fireball. [i]  Stop and ask yourself, when you see the birth of a child, or seasons changing how could this all be created by a "big bang?"  There has to be more to life than this.  The human body is so complex, we could not have begun as just a small, one celled organism.  It is just not possible. 

The Christian faith is not a blind faith as some think it is.  My path to faith did not come by reading an essay presenting rational arguments for God’s existence and love.  My faith in God came after I knew with my mind and felt in my heart that something was not right with the world and something was not right with me.  As a tiny creature in a vast universe I was calling out for answers, answers that mattered more than the next paycheck or ballgame.  To my surprise, God came to me through His Word.  The message of the prophet Isaiah describes God’s action in my life:
 
“In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.  Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 29:18-19)

All the arguments of the finest philosophers will never lead the skeptic to know God until he realizes he’s deaf, blind, meek, and poor.  I was once deaf but now I hear the words of a book, I once was blind but now I see.  By God’s grace, I believe in a God whom I cannot see, at least not yet.



[i] Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1996 edition), page 126



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