Does God exist? Here are six straightforward
reasons to believe that God is really there.
Just once wouldn't you love for someone to
simply show you the evidence for God's
existence? No arm-twisting. No statements of,
"You just have to believe." Well, here is an
attempt to candidly offer some of the reasons
which suggest that God exists.
But first consider this. When it comes to the
possibility of God's existence, the Bible says that
there are people who have seen sufficient
evidence, but they have suppressed the truth
about God.1 On the other hand, for those who
want to know God if he is there, he says, "You will
seek me and find me; when you seek me with all
your heart, I will be found by you."2 Before you
look at the facts surrounding God's existence, ask
yourself, If God does exist, would I want to know
him? Here then, are some reasons to consider...
1. Does God exist? The complexity of our
planet points to a deliberate Designer who not
only created our universe, but sustains it
today.
Many examples showing God's design could be
given, possibly with no end. But here are a few:
The Earth...its size is perfect. The Earth's size and
corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly
nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about
50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were
smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like
the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its
atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like
Jupiter.3 Earth is the only known planet
equipped with an atmosphere of the right
mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and
human life.
The Earth is located the right
distance from the sun.
Consider the temperature
swings we encounter, roughly
-30 degrees to +120 degrees.
If the Earth were any further
away from the sun, we would
all freeze. Any closer and we
would burn up. Even a
fractional variance in the Earth's position to the
sun would make life on Earth impossible. The
Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun
while it rotates around the sun at a speed of
nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis,
allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be
properly warmed and cooled every day.
And our moon is the perfect size and distance
from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The
moon creates important ocean tides and
movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and
yet our massive oceans are restrained from
spilling over across the continents.4
Water...colorless, odorless and without taste,
and yet no living thing can survive without it.
Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly
of water (about two-thirds of the human body is
water). You'll see why the characteristics of water
are uniquely suited to life:
It has wide margin between its boiling point and
freezing point. Water allows us to live in an
environment of fluctuating temperature changes,
while keeping our bodies a steady 98.6 degrees.
Water is a universal solvent.
This property of water means
that various chemicals,
minerals and nutrients can be
carried throughout our
bodies and into the smallest
blood vessels.5
Water is also chemically neutral. Without
affecting the makeup of the substances it carries,
water enables food, medicines and minerals to
be absorbed and used by the body.
Water has a unique surface tension. Water in
plants can therefore flow upward against gravity,
bringing life-giving water and nutrients to the top
of even the tallest trees.
Water freezes from the top down and floats, so
fish can live in the winter.
Ninety-seven percent of the
Earth's water is in the oceans.
But on our Earth, there is a
system designed which
removes salt from the water
and then distributes that
water throughout the globe.
Evaporation takes the ocean
waters, leaving the salt, and
forms clouds which are easily moved by the wind
to disperse water over the land, for vegetation,
animals and people. It is a system of purification
and supply that sustains life on this planet, a
system of recycled and reused water.6
The human brain...simultaneously processes an
amazing amount of information. Your brain takes
in all the colors and objects you see, the
temperature around you, the pressure of your
feet against the floor, the sounds around you,
the dryness of your mouth, even the texture of
your keyboard. Your brain holds and processes
all your emotions, thoughts and memories. At
the same time your brain keeps track of the
ongoing functions of your body like your
breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and
movement of the muscles in your hands.
The human brain processes
more than a million messages
a second.7 Your brain weighs
the importance of all this
data, filtering out the
relatively unimportant. This
screening function is what
allows you to focus and
operate effectively in your world. The brain
functions differently than other organs. There is
an intelligence to it, the ability to reason, to
produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take
action, and relate to other people.
The eye...can distinguish among seven million
colors. It has automatic focusing and handles an
astounding 1.5 million messages --
simultaneously.8 Evolution focuses on mutations
and changes from and within existing organisms.
Yet evolution alone does not fully explain the
initial source of the eye or the brain -- the start of
living organisms from nonliving matter.
2. Does God exist? The universe had a start -
what caused it?
Scientists are convinced that
our universe began with one
enormous explosion of
energy and light, which we
now call the Big Bang. This
was the singular start to
everything that exists: the
beginning of the universe, the
start of space, and even the
initial start of time itself.
Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, a self-described
agnostic, stated, "The seed of everything that has
happened in the Universe was planted in that
first instant; every star, every planet and every
living creature in the Universe came into being as
a result of events that were set in motion in the
moment of the cosmic explosion...The Universe
flashed into being, and we cannot find out what
caused that to happen."9
Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in Physics,
said at the moment of this explosion, "the
universe was about a hundred thousands million
degrees Centigrade...and the universe was filled
with light."10
The universe has not always existed. It had a
start...what caused that? Scientists have no
explanation for the sudden explosion of light and
matter.
3. Does God exist? The universe operates by
uniform laws of nature. Why does it?
Much of life may seem uncertain, but look at
what we can count on day after day: gravity
remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a
counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the
same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn't
change -- on earth or in galaxies far from us.
How is it that we can identify
laws of nature that never
change? Why is the universe
so orderly, so reliable?
"The greatest scientists have
been struck by how strange
this is. There is no logical
necessity for a universe that
obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the
rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs
from the recognition that the universe doesn't
have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a
universe in which conditions change
unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a
universe in which things pop in and out of
existence."11
Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for
quantum electrodynamics, said, "Why nature is
mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there
are rules at all is a kind of miracle."12
4. Does God exist? The DNA code informs,
programs a cell's behavior.
All instruction, all teaching, all
training comes with intent.
Someone who writes an
instruction manual does so
with purpose. Did you know
that in every cell of our
bodies there exists a very
detailed instruction code,
much like a miniature
computer program? As you may know, a
computer program is made up of ones and zeros,
like this: 110010101011000. The way they are
arranged tell the computer program what to do.
The DNA code in each of our cells is very similar.
It's made up of four chemicals that scientists
abbreviate as A, T, G, and C. These are arranged
in the human cell like this:
CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on. There are
three billion of these letters in every human cell!!
Well, just like you can program your phone to
beep for specific reasons, DNA instructs the cell.
DNA is a three-billion-lettered program telling the
cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction
manual.13
Why is this so amazing? One
has to ask....how did this
information program wind up
in each human cell? These are
not just chemicals. These are
chemicals that instruct, that
code in a very detailed way
exactly how the person's
body should develop.
Natural, biological causes are completely lacking
as an explanation when programmed
information is involved. You cannot find
instruction, precise information like this, without
someone intentionally constructing it.
5. Does God exist? We know God exists
because he pursues us. He is constantly
initiating and seeking for us to come to him.
I was an atheist at one time. And like many
atheists, the issue of people believing in God
bothered me greatly. What is it about atheists
that we would spend so much time, attention,
and energy refuting something that we don't
believe even exists?! What causes us to do that?
When I was an atheist, I attributed my intentions
as caring for those poor, delusional people...to
help them realize their hope was completely ill-
founded. To be honest, I also had another
motive. As I challenged those who believed in
God, I was deeply curious to see if they could
convince me otherwise. Part of my quest was to
become free from the question of God. If I could
conclusively prove to believers that they were
wrong, then the issue is off the table, and I would
be free to go about my life.
I didn't realize that the
reason the topic of God
weighed so heavily on my
mind, was because God was
pressing the issue. I have
come to find out that God
wants to be known. He
created us with the intention
that we would know him. He
has surrounded us with evidence of himself and
he keeps the question of his existence squarely
before us. It was as if I couldn't escape thinking
about the possibility of God. In fact, the day I
chose to acknowledge God's existence, my prayer
began with, "Ok, you win..." It might be that the
underlying reason atheists are bothered by
people believing in God is because God is actively
pursuing them.
I am not the only one who has experienced this.
Malcolm Muggeridge, socialist and philosophical
author, wrote, "I had a notion that somehow,
besides questing, I was being pursued." C.S. Lewis
said he remembered, "...night after night, feeling
whenever my mind lifted even for a second from
my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of
Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. I
gave in, and admitted that God was God, and
knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most
dejected and reluctant convert in all of England."
Lewis went on to write a book titled, "Surprised
by Joy" as a result of knowing God. I too had no
expectations other than rightfully admitting
God's existence. Yet over the following several
months, I became amazed by his love for me.
6. Does God exist? Unlike any other revelation
of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most
specific picture of God revealing himself to
us.
Why Jesus? Look throughout the major world
religions and you'll find that Buddha,
Muhammad, Confucius and Moses all identified
themselves as teachers or prophets. None of
them ever claimed to be equal to God.
Surprisingly, Jesus did. That is what sets Jesus
apart from all the others. He said God exists and
you're looking at him. Though he talked about his
Father in heaven, it was not from the position of
separation, but of very close union, unique to all
humankind. Jesus said that anyone who had
seen Him had seen the Father, anyone who
believed in him, believed in the Father.
He said, "I am the light of the
world, he who follows me will
not walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life."14 He
claimed attributes belonging
only to God: to be able to
forgive people of their sin,
free them from habits of sin,
give people a more abundant life and give them
eternal life in heaven. Unlike other teachers who
focused people on their words, Jesus pointed
people to himself. He did not say, "follow my
words and you will find truth." He said, "I am the
way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the
Father but through me."15
What proof did Jesus give for claiming to be
divine? He did what people can't do. Jesus
performed miracles. He healed people...blind,
crippled, deaf, even raised a couple of people
from the dead. He had power over
objects...created food out of thin air, enough to
feed crowds of several thousand people. He
performed miracles over nature...walked on top
of a lake, commanding a raging storm to stop for
some friends. People everywhere followed Jesus,
because he constantly met their needs, doing the
miraculous. He said if you do not want to believe
what I'm telling you, you should at least believe
in me based on the miracles you're seeing.16
Jesus Christ showed God to be gentle, loving,
aware of our self-centeredness and
shortcomings, yet deeply wanting a relationship
with us. Jesus revealed that although God views
us as sinners, worthy of his punishment, his love
for us ruled and God came up with a different
plan. God himself took on the form of man and
accepted the punishment for our sin on our
behalf. Sounds ludicrous? Perhaps, but many
loving fathers would gladly trade places with
their child in a cancer ward if they could. The
Bible says that the reason we would love God is
because he first loved us.
Jesus died in our place so we could be forgiven.
Of all the religions known to humanity, only
through Jesus will you see God reaching toward
humanity, providing a way for us to have a
relationship with him. Jesus proves a divine heart
of love, meeting our needs, drawing us to
himself. Because of Jesus' death and
resurrection, he offers us a new life today. We
can be forgiven, fully accepted by God and
genuinely loved by God. He says, "I have loved
you with an everlasting love, therefore I have
continued my faithfulness to you."17 This is God,
in action.
Does God exist? If you want
to know, investigate Jesus
Christ. We're told that "God
so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him
should not perish but have
eternal life."18
God does not force us to believe in him, though
he could. Instead, he has provided sufficient
proof of his existence for us to willingly respond
to him. The earth's perfect distance from the sun,
the unique chemical properties of water, the
human brain, DNA, the number of people who
attest to knowing God, the gnawing in our hearts
and minds to determine if God is there, the
willingness for God to be known through Jesus
Christ. If you need to know more about Jesus
and reasons to believe in him, please see:
Beyond Blind Faith.
If you want to begin a relationship with God
now, you can.
This is your decision, no coercion here. But if you
want to be forgiven by God and come into a
relationship with him, you can do so right now by
asking him to forgive you and come into your life.
Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door [of your
heart] and knock. He who hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come into him [or her]."19
If you want to do this, but aren't sure how to put
it into words, this may help: "Jesus, thank you for
dying for my sins. You know my life and that I
need to be forgiven. I ask you to forgive me right
now and come into my life. I want to know you in
a real way. Come into my life now. Thank you
that you wanted a relationship with me. Amen."
God views your relationship with him as
permanent. Referring to all those who believe in
him, Jesus Christ said of us, "I know them, and
they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and
they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch
them out of my hand."20
Looking at all these facts, one can conclude that a
loving God does exist and can be known in an
intimate, personal way.
for more information please join us on twitter @albillsng and feel free to write or send us anything on email with albills.com@gmail.com, or chat us up on whatsapp with 08063465456, for Facebook users join our group with - so you've heard or like our page - billstips
CHANNEL PIN: C0031D251