On the existence of God: A slice from Mark Mittelberg’s new book

If you are one of those Christians who does not yet have a grasp on the details of your faith, or what the rational arguments are for your faith of the existence of God, then there’s a new book that you might love to read!  It is The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask (With Answers) by Mark Mittelberg (Tyndale House 2010).  The questions he looks at deal with God’s existence, science and faith, the reliability of the bible, the existence of evil and pain, Jesus as God, abortion, homosexuality, hypocrisy, and heaven and hell.

In chapter one he provides three arguments for the existence of God, and says:  “As I’ve been exploring these matters for the last twenty-five years or so, I’ve come to believe that today, perhaps more than in any other period of human history, the fingerprints of God have become exceedingly evident for anyone who is willing to search for them.  Each of these arguments is powerful on its own and has convinced many people of the reality of God.  But when considered together, along with our own testimonies of experiencing him in our daily lives, the cumulative case is staggering (ebook loc. 303-316).  Two of the arguments are based on (1) the simple existence of the universe and (2) the not at all simple “just so” universe; summaries of those are below.  The third argument, presenting the existence of objective morality, is not as easily summarized and so is not given here.

Many well known and respected thinkers in the past believed that the universe always existed – that it was eternal.  Until as recently as the 20th century, many scientists thought this too, and there was no way to prove or disprove it.  However, the last few decades saw explosive growth in the scientific fields of physics, astronomy, and cosmology, which changed this thinking.  Einstein’s general theory of relativity (1915), with its various aspects, showed that the universe had a starting point and thus a history.  A confirmation of Einstein’s theory was provided by the Hubble Space Telescope, data from which proved that the universe is expanding.  Coupled with Einstein’s theory that provided that the beginning was a “singularity,” the event came to be called the “Big Bang.”  While some scientists like to think that the Big Bang could just have happened naturally on its own somehow, the evidence is against this.  The cause of the Big Bang, for our universe with matter and time, had to be something that is not matter and outside of time.  This disqualifies aliens.  

There is now much more to consider when thinking about life and where it came from than the mere existence of the universe.  Scientists now know that there are fifty “parameters and constants” that must be “just so” for the universe to sustain life anywhere, and these are all independent of one another.  The four forces of nature are examples of these, and Mittelberg discusses one – gravity.  “If the force of gravity, for example, were to change by one part in ten thousand billion billion billion relative to the total range of the strengths of the four forces in nature, conscious life would be virtually impossible anywhere in the universe” (ebook loc. 394-403).  Another fascinating parameter involves the Big Bang itself.  “If the explosion of the Big Bang had differed in strength by as little as one part in 10.60th power (one part in a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion) [!!!], the universe would have either quickly collapsed back on itself or expanded too swiftly for stars to form.  Either way, life would be impossible” (ebook loc. 404-412).

This is a very small part of Mittelberg’s book.  If you have not read much on apologetics before, his book would be a great and fascinating start.  It provides friendly and informed summaries of the issues to the more experienced student as well.  Near the end of chapter one he concludes:  “The cumulative case for God’s existence is more than sufficient for an open-minded person to believe he really is there” (ebook loc. 537-555).