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Evidence of God: how is God known?
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Some would say he could only be known through the personal experience of his calling. Others would say he couldn’t be known at all because he doesn’t exist. Still others say that there is scientific evidence of the existence of God that flies in the face of evolutionary theory. But how does one truly and certainly know that God exists?
It is a matter of faith
This is perhaps the most flaccid and dangerous of explanations. Truly, if we understand what faith is then this statement could be true as all things can be reduced to matters of faith. But what is commonly meant by this explanation is that mortal man is not able to intellectually conceive of an all powerful being. His reasoning is vastly superior to ours, and therefore defies explanation. We must therefore transcend the barrier of reason and embrace God with a blind trust.
I honestly believe that this is a cop out. We as Christians can no longer consent that our faith in God is blind and that we have no reason to believe in his existence other then an unfounded hope in the eternal. This is why the men of science, proponents of evolution and atheists mock the Christian. He blatantly must give up his reason in order to cling to a god that he only hopes might exist, regardless of how certainly he might feel about it.
There is scientific evidence that supports the existence of an eternal God
Again, this is dangerous territory for the Christian. Most of the arguments against the existence of God are based on this same science so there is much controversy here. I remember reading about one study concerning layers of sedimentary strata within the Grand Canyon. The fossil of a prehistoric mollusk was found in a layer of strata that was above another presumably much older layer containing human remains. How could a prehistoric fossil that was extinct millions of years prior to human life on this planet be buried above human remains? The creationists theorized that in fact these layers of sediment that supposedly took millions of years to create were perhaps formed in one day as the result of a worldwide cataclysmic event; the genesis flood. Evolutionists suggested that perhaps the plates has shifted over time causing an older layer of strata to be uplifted above a newer layer. Besides, with millions of years is not anything possible?
In the end, both theories were well supported with evidence and yet they were contradictory to one another. We can look at the same set of raw data and obtain differing but equally plausible explanations. This is because the data that we are examining is not pure fact in and of itself. It requires an interpretation to be meaningful. But each one of us interprets information according to our basic view of the world. If we assume God to exist we interpret data in light of this assumption. Likewise, the same is true if we assume that he doesn’t exist. The result is that we all end up seeing evidence for what we want to see and nothing else. Objectivity becomes impossible because of the personal nature of basic beliefs.
The existence of God is absurd
This is a very common view among atheists. Whether the scientific evidence is compelling or not, they will always fall back to this notion that an invisible creator spirit is impossible according to the rules and laws of the universe. But let’s clarify a few things first. If as Christians we say that we believe in God, we are saying minimally that we believe in something that is invisible. There are many things that are invisible that have been proven to exist. Consider things invisible to the naked eye such as air, space, time and electricity. These things are not immediately visible but can be known through other means. Some have tangible properties insofar as they can be quantified and measured. But some are known to exist solely through their relationship to other things. Think of space. Space cannot exist without interstellar bodies because space is defined as the distance between such bodies. Space may contain particles and gases but these particles and gases are not the same as space. And yet space is very real. It is three-dimensional. We have passed through it. Space has no tangible qualities in and of itself and yet we know it is real. How? When a thing is known not by its own qualities but from other things we say that we can infer its existence. If God is to be known at all it must be through this same inference. When we use deductive reasoning to know something to be true we are no longer appealing to the scientific method. Certainly our powers of observation are still required but the way in which an argument is proven sound is entirely different then the way in which a scientific theory is proven sound. Where science fails logic must take over.
Deducing God
We must all admit that God’s existence is not immediately self-evident. There is nothing for us to see or feel or hear in a physical sense. But there is a riddle set before us as old as time, a very basic question that has plagued mankind from the first man to the last. How did we get here? Is God the answer? Again, it is not immediately known. But we can identify according to logic a limited number of categorical responses. We can know that there are only three basic answers to this question of origins. 1) The universe has always existed. 2) The universe was caused to exist by another. 3) The universe does not exist at all. These three categories represent the three worldviews of theism, atheism, and eastern mysticism.
The universe does not exist
This view is less popular in western culture but is the basic belief behind Hinduism, Buddhism, and other eastern religions. The spirit is viewed as the only reality in the universe. Our perceptions of the material world are just that, merely perceptions that exist solely within our mind. The world as we see it is merely an illusion. The problem here is that an illusion suggests that we are being deceived. There is no cause or reason to believe that such a deception exists.
The universe has always existed
This belief is the driving force behind all materialism, evolution and atheism. If the world has always existed then the universe is eternal, without beginning and without end. If the universe were eternal it would be self-maintaining. Stars would not burn out and die. Resources would be replenished not depleted. But the cycle of life is not infinitely sustained. No new species are being created by evolution. Evolution shows us only a history of extinction. The most basic form of energy in the universe is heat. We can see its properties by examining a glass of ice water at room temperature. It gradually melts until the molecules cease to interact and becomes static. That is the nature of the universe. In no way can these properties be described as self-maintaining. Consider that all life on earth would be extinguished without the sun which itself is giving off heat and will eventually burn out and die a heat death. The universe is not self-maintaining and the universe is not eternal.
The universe was caused to exist by another
By deduction, this statement is proven true. If the universe exists at all and it had a beginning, then that beginning must have had a cause. Whatever the cause of the universe was it must be outside the universe and immaterial in its nature, which is spirit. If the creator spirit is outside the universe then it is outside all time and must be eternal. The eternal creator spirit is the God referred to in all theistic religions.
If we can know God through the use of our reason then what about faith? Perhaps true faith is simply faith in what we know. There are no blind leaps here. Man was made in the image of God, but God does not have a body. His spirit, his mind, is the likeness in which we were created. Our ability to reason and know truth is the same in us as it is in him. It is the light he has given us to see in the darkness.
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