THE EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD part 1

 

Is there any evidence for the existence of God? I will be answering this very question in five lessons. Before I begin, I want you to know that nearly everything I will be presenting in these lessons come from the following books: Brad Harrub’s book “convicted”, Investigating Christian Evidences by Bert Thompson and Brad Harrub, The Bible and science and the human body accident or design by Wayne Jackson. I am only covering a small portion of what these books cover, so for further study I recommend that you get these books or ones like them.

 

I am sure most of us can remember using Bunsen burners in our science classes. While most of the time those experiments we did were a flop, it gave us our first taste of the scientific method. The scientific method is described:

 

As a body of techniques that allow for observation of a particular phenomenon.

 

The scientific method is limited to sense perception. If you cannot physically examine a thing and thoroughly test it, it cannot qualify as being a scientific law. The steps that are necessary for a something to become a scientific law are a follows:

 

  1. There must be an observation of facts. This means, it must be able to be perceived by our senses.
  2. There must be a statement of a problem. This is where someone makes their best guess of why a thing is happening. This is also known as a hypothesis.
  3. The hypothesis must be tested to see if it is true or false.
  4. If enough tests are done that seem to support the hypothesis, then it becomes a theory. Please understand that a theory does not prove anything, it just means that there is enough evidence available to warrant further testing.
  5. The final stage is when the theory has been completely tested from all angles and proven to be true, then it becomes a law.

 

 I want to emphasize that if a thing cannot be tested, then it should not be called a hypothesis, a theory, or a law, which means that the origin of the universe or the origin of man cannot be properly labeled as such because man cannot test it. This is why some scientist have been forced to admit that human evolution is not a credible theory. However, this fact has not slowed down some scientists from proclaiming evolution as being a fact.

 

We need to understand that our children are being taught this scientific method in high school and in college. They impress on them that if they cannot measure a thing with their 5 senses and replicate the results, then it is not real. Once a child has been taught this idea from a young age, when they grow up, they begin to believe it as a fact. The reason this is so dangerous is because anything found outside the scientific method is considered a fantasy. So, guess where that leaves God and the miracles we read about in the Bible? Those who firmly place their allegiance in science will often dismiss the idea of God and what it means. 

 

There is no way to put an accurate number on how many pews that remain empty today because of the influence of the scientific method, but no doubt thousands have been convinced by atheism, humanism, and evolution that either God is dead or never existed in the first pace. For the most part, the media is quick to jump on anything they can that speaks against Christianity and the existence of God.

 

There are numerous web sites that are dedicated to proving to others that God does not exist, and they encourage young people to free themselves from their religion and live free.

 

Unfortunately, people pushing this kind of false message have won the hearts of many, and they continue to win more converts to their side. As Jesus said in:

 

Matthew 23:15  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

 

Over the last 20 years, we have seen major changes in our nation and the way people think. This idea of erasing God from our lives started out as something small and it is now spreading like cancer. We can see this in the way that many of our young people view God and how many of them are self-centered. We have seen conservative policies that got their foundation from the principles of the Bible challenged and overturned in our courts. Some would love to have anything that has to do with God to be erased from our history and from our lives today.

 

In the 1892 ruling of the CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY V. UNITED STATES, the Supreme Court went on record stating that the United States was a Christian nation. While they used the term Christian loosely, the idea was that majority believed in God and Jesus. In the last 118 years since that statement was made by our Supreme Court, our nation has changed dramatically.

 

For example, in 2002 the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. The court said:

 

In the context of the Pledge, the statement that the United States is a nation “under God” is an endorsement of religion. It is a profession of a religious belief, namely a belief of monotheism… A profession that we are a nation “under God” is identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation “under Jesus” a nation “under Vishnu,” a nation “under Zeus,” or a nation “under no god” because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion (Judge Alfred T. Goodwin).

 

These judges took it on themselves to say that God had not done enough for mankind to be singled out. As far as they were concerned, God Almighty is no different than the mythical god Zeus.

 

Of course, we have seen several instances of the liberal judges like these in California make decisions that go against God and what His Word teaches. Thankfully, their decisions are not the final say for our nation, but their decisions are stepping stones that can lead to devastating changes of our laws across the nation. It left unchallenged, it is possible that the Supreme Court that once stated that we are a Christian nation can turn that around and make us an anti-Christian nation.

 

If we keep losing our children to the philosophies of men, one day we may find that

 

  • all public declarations of God, the Bible, or Christianity will have to be removed, which includes our national motto, “In God We Trust.”
  • Military graveyards would no longer be able to use crosses for headstones.
  • Religious ceremonies for government officials and the military would have to cease.
  • Public prayer before sporting or civic events would be outlawed.
  • The president would no longer be sworn into office with his hand on the Bible.  

 

If you do not think this can become a reality in our nation you are fooling yourself. We have at least two generations that have been influenced by atheism, which has implanted in their minds that everything must be proven by the scientific method or it does not exist. Some Christians are being shocked by the children coming out college who come home and tell them they no longer believe in God because God cannot be proven by the scientific method.

 

Since God is Spirit (Jn. 4:24), His existence cannot be proven by our five senses. So, does this mean that God does not exist? Of course not! Well, can we prove that God exists? The answer is yes. We can prove the existence of God using logic and reasoning.

 

I am going to share with you a few arguments that offer proof for the existence of God. When I say proof, I do not mean scientific proof, but proof from logic. These arguments are something that I wish that every young person could hear and examine for themselves.

 

  1. Our first argument is known as the cosmological argument. This argument states that every creation must have a creator.

 

It doesn’t take a special telescope to prove that our universe exists. All you have to do is look around and your surroundings and know that earth exists, and you can look up at the sky and see the sun and the moon, and at night time, you can see many of the other stars and planets in our universe.

 

The question becomes: Where did our universe come from? There are only three possible answers to this question.

 

  1. Our universe is eternal. In other words, it has always existed.
  2. Our universe created itself from nothing.
  3. Our universe was created by something or someone.

 

Some atheist and evolutionist will teach that our universe is eternal, but that does not fit the scientific data that we have. It has been proven that our universe is expanding, which is clear indication that it had a beginning. An evolutionist named Robert Jastrow admitted:

 

“The lingering decline predicted by astronomers for the end of the world differs from the explosive conditions they have calculated for its birth, but the impact is the same: modern science denies a eternal existence to the universe, either in the past or in the future.”

 

Even those who teach the Big Bang Theory have to conclude that our universe had a beginning. This rules out our universe being eternal.

 

Any sane unbiased scientist will also admit that it is ludicrous to suggest that our universe created itself from nothing. One cannot get something from nothing. If you believe that we can get something from nothing, then I would like to sell you a whole lot of nothing.

 

We have now eliminated 2 of our options for the existence of our universe. Now think about this, the fact that our universe exists and that it had a beginning means that it came into existence by something or someone that is eternal because if something cannot come from nothing then our universe had to come from something or some person that is eternal. That something (or better yet someone) is God just as Genesis 1:1 reads:

 

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 

The only logical conclusion I can come to is that our universe was created by our eternal God because every creation must have a creator and something cannot come from nothing.

           

In 1995, NASA astronomer John O’Keefe declared,

 

“We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures ... If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.” (From an interview with Fred Herren in Show Me God.)

 

While there are many scientist who are willing to hold to false theories about the existence of God, the origin our universe, and mankind, there are also scientists who are willing to see that the cosmological argument is true. In fact, I have a book in my library titled “in six days – why fifty scientist choose to believe in creation” These 50 scientist with various degrees in the scientific field have discovered the hand of God in all that they do, and they profess their belief in the 6 days of creation as stated in the book of Genesis. Each of these scientists offer arguments from their particular field to show why they believe in God Almighty and that He is the creator of us all.

 

There is much more details we could go into with the cosmological argument, but I have given you the basics behind it, which I believe offers strong proof for the existence an eternal being, which we know is God.

 

  1. Our second argument is known as the teleological argument and it states that every design must have a designer.

 

If a design is found in nature, then it must have had a designer. For example, a laptop did not just magically appear one day. No one blew up some plastic and other materials and a laptop appeared. Instead, much research and design made the laptop possible. While it is an amazing piece of equipment, its complexity fails in comparison to the complexity and precision of our universe and the human body. There is so much information we could look at with both of these ideas, but I do not have time to give you much depth in the time we have left in this lesson.

 

For the time we have left, lets take a look at some of the details about the design of our universe. 

 

Our Universe operates in accordance with scientific laws. The precision of our universe allows us to know how to launch a rocket that could land within a few feet on the moon or on mars. It also allows us to predict when solar and lunar eclipse will happen and when comments like Halley’s Comet will be seen.

 

The size of our Universe is impressive. While its outer limits have not been measured, the best estimate we have is that it is about 20 billion light years in diameter containing an estimated 1 Billion galaxies and somewhere around 25 sextillion stars. A sextillion is a one followed by 21 zeros. Just remember that while we can only guess at the number of stars, we learn that God knows them all by name.

 

Psalm 147:4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.  5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.

 

Also David said:

 

Psalm 19:1  The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

 

The writer of Hebrews also said:

 

Hebrews 3:3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.  4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.

 

As impressive as the universe is, the creator, which is God almighty, has more honor and is more majestic than His creation.

 

 While the size of our universe is very impressive, its precise design is even more impressive. For example, in our galaxy, the sun is like a giant nuclear engine. It gives off more energy in one second than what mankind has produced since the beginning of creation. Our sun produces intense radiation that is deadly to living things. However, the earth is located at the perfect distance from the sun so that it receives the proper amount of heat and radiation to sustain life. Our earth was designed with an ozone layer, which helps filter out additional harmful radiation from the sun. Since we are 93 million miles from the sun, we are also spared from the destructive pressures waves from the sun as it converts matter into energy. If the earth were 10% closer or further away from the sun, it would spell doom for life on earth.

 

Another potential hazard we avoid from the sun is some invisible winds that contain protons and electrons. These winds hit the earth at high speed, but God has designed the earth like a giant magnet that pushes away the majority of the solar winds back out into space.

 

Even the speed at which our planet rotates is a design because if it rotated faster fierce cyclones would continuously be formed over the face of the earth. If the earth rotated a lot slower, the days and nights would go from extreme heat to extreme cold.

 

The earth’s orbit is not a perfect circle, it is elliptical. This means that the earth is closer to the Sun than at other times. When it is closer, the earth speeds up to avoid being pulled into the Sun, and it when it is further away it slows down to remain in the perfect position in space.

 

The earth moves in an orbit around the Sun, but it departs from a straight line by 1/9th of an inch every 18 miles. If it departed by 1/8th of an inch, we would get to close to the Sun and we would be incinerated. If it departed 1/10th of an inch, we would move away from the Sun and freeze to death.

 

We also know that the earth is tilted exactly 23.5 degrees. If it were not tilted, there would be no seasons. The tropics would be hotter and the deserts would get bigger. If the tilt were changed to 90 degrees, much of the earth would experience extremely hot summers and cold winters. Again, everything is just right.

 

The moon is 240,000 miles from the earth. It too is just in the right spot to control the movement our tides and keep the life in the ocean alive. If the moon was closer to the earth by a fifth, it would cause the tide to be enormous and it would reach 30 to 50 feet high over most of the earth’s surface twice a day.

 

We have just barely scratched the surface of how precise our universe is, but as we have taken this brief look at our Sun, earth, and moon, the evidence that it was designed is overwhelming. The idea that the things I have mentioned so far just happened by chance is just a pipe dream for those who refuse to believe that God created all that we see and hear. I will continue presenting more evidence for the existence of God over the next several lessons. While God’s Word is proof enough for me, as we will see, there is an abundant amount evidence all around us that proves that God is our Creator just as the Bible says.