Is there a conclusive argument for the existence of God?

Answer

The debate on whether there is a conclusive argument for the existence of God has persisted throughout history, with highly intelligent individuals taking opposing stances. Recently, arguments against the existence of God have adopted a militant tone, labeling believers as delusional and irrational. Karl Marx claimed that belief in God stemmed from a mental disorder leading to flawed reasoning. Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud suggested that those who believed in a Creator God were delusional, driven by a “wish-fulfillment” motive that he deemed unjustifiable. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche straightforwardly stated that faith indicated a reluctance to face the truth. These historical figures, among others, are now echoed by a new wave of atheists who argue that belief in God lacks intellectual justification.

Is this truly the reality? Is holding a belief in God an intellectually untenable position? Is there a logical and rational argument supporting the existence of God? Apart from citing the Bible, can a compelling case be made for the existence of God that challenges both historical and contemporary atheist viewpoints and provides valid grounds for believing in a Creator? The answer is affirmative. Furthermore, by establishing the soundness of an argument for God’s existence, the case for atheism is revealed to be intellectually feeble.

An argument for the existence of God — something rather than nothing

To present an argument for God’s existence, we must pose the right questions. We start with the fundamental metaphysical inquiry: “Why does something exist rather than nothing at all?” This question delves into the essence of existence—why we exist; why the earth exists; why the universe exists instead of nothing. Reflecting onAt this point, one theologian has said, “In one sense, man does not ask the question about God; his very existence raises the question about God.”

In considering this question, there are four possible answers to why we have something rather than nothing at all:

1. Reality is an illusion.
2. Reality is/was self-created.
3. Reality is self-existent (eternal).
4. Reality was created by something that is self-existent.

So, which is the most plausible solution? Let’s begin with reality being simply an illusion, which is what a number of Eastern religions believe. This option was ruled out centuries ago by the philosopher René Descartes, who is famous for the statement, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes, a mathematician, argued that if he is thinking, then he must “be.” In other words, “I think, therefore I am not an illusion.” Illusions require something experiencing the illusion, and moreover, you cannot doubt the existence of yourself without proving your existence; it is a self-defeating argument. So the possibility of reality being an illusion is eliminated.

Next is the option of reality being self-created. When we study philosophy, we learn of “analytically false” statements, which means they are false by definition. The possibility of reality being self-created is one of those types of statements for the simple reason that something cannot be prior to itself. If you created yourself, then you must have existed prior to you creating yourself, but that simply cannot be. In evolution, this is sometimes referred to as “spontaneous generation”—something coming from nothing—a position that few, if any, reasonable people hold to anymore simply because you cannot get something from nothing. Even the atheist David Hume said, “I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a cause.” Since something cannot come from nothing, the alternative of reality being self-created is ruled out.

Now we are left with only two choices—an eternal reality.ity or reality being created by something that is eternal: an eternal universe or an eternal Creator. The 18th-century theologian Jonathan Edwards summed up this crossroads:

• Something exists.

• Nothing cannot create something.

• Therefore, a necessary and eternal “something” exists.

Notice that we must go back to an eternal “something.” The atheist who derides the believer in God for believing in an eternal Creator must turn around and embrace an eternal universe; it is the only other door he can choose. But the question now is, where does the evidence lead? Does the evidence point to matter before mind or mind before matter?

To date, all key scientific and philosophical evidence points away from an eternal universe and toward an eternal Creator. From a scientific standpoint, honest scientists admit the universe had a beginning, and whatever has a beginning is not eternal. In other words, whatever has a beginning has a cause, and if the universe had a beginning, it had a cause. The fact that the universe had a beginning is underscored by evidence such as the second law of thermodynamics, the radiation echo of the big bang discovered in the early 1900s, the fact that the universe is expanding and can be traced back to a singular beginning, and Einstein’s theory of relativity. All prove the universe is not eternal.

Further, the laws that surround causation speak against the universe being the ultimate cause of all we know for this simple fact: an effect must resemble its cause. This being true, no atheist can explain how an impersonal, purposeless, meaningless, and amoral universe accidentally created beings (us) who are full of personality and obsessed with purpose, meaning, and morals. Such a thing, from a causation standpoint, completely refutes the idea of a natural universe birthing everything that exists. So in the end, the concept of an eternal universe is eliminated.

Philosopher J. S. Mill (not a Christian) summed up where we have now come to: “It is self-Evident that only Mind can create mind.” The only rational and reasonable conclusion is that an eternal Creator is responsible for reality as we know it. Or to put it in a logical set of statements:

• Something exists.
• You do not get something from nothing.
• Therefore, a necessary and eternal “something” exists.
• The only two options are an eternal universe and an eternal Creator.
• Science and philosophy have disproven the concept of an eternal universe.
• Therefore, an eternal Creator exists.

Former atheist Lee Strobel, who arrived at this conclusion many years ago, has commented, “Essentially, I realized that to remain an atheist, I would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non-life produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too significant for me to take, especially in light of the affirmative case for God’s existence … In other words, in my assessment, the Christian worldview accounted for the totality of the evidence much better than the atheistic worldview.”

An argument for the existence of God — knowing the Creator

But the next question we must tackle is this: if an eternal Creator exists (and we have shown that He does), what kind of Creator is He? Can we infer things about Him from what He created? In other words, can we understand the cause by its effects? The answer to this is yes, we can, with the following characteristics being surmised:

• He must be supernatural in nature (as He created time and space).
• He must be powerful (exceedingly).
• He must be eternal (self-existent).
• He must be omnipresent (He created space and is not limited by it).
• He must be timeless and changeless (He created time).
• He must be immaterial because He transcends space/physical.
• He must be personal (the impersonal cannot create personality).y).

• He must be infinite and singular as you cannot have two infinites.

• He must be diverse yet have unity as unity and diversity exist in nature.

• He must be supremely intelligent. Only a cognitive being can produce another cognitive being.

• He must be purposeful as He deliberately created everything.

• He must be moral (since no moral law can exist without a giver).

• He must be caring (otherwise, no moral laws would have been given).

These truths lead us to inquire if any religion in the world portrays such a Creator. The answer is affirmative: the God of the Bible perfectly fits this description. He is supernatural «In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. », (Genesis 1:1), powerful «Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: », (Jeremiah 32:17), eternal «Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. », (Psalm 90:2), omnipresent «Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? », (Psalm 139:7), timeless/changeless «For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. », (Malachi 3:6), immaterial «God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. », (John 4:24), personal «And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?», (Genesis 3:9), essential «and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. », (Colossians 1:17), boundless/singular «Can anyone hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. », (Jeremiah 23:24, Deuteronomy 6:4), diverse yet unified «Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: », (Matthew 28:19), intelligent (Psalm 147:4-5), purposeful «For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. », (Jeremiah 29:11), moral «Therefore the LORD has watched over the evil and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all His works which He does; because we did not obey His voice. », (Daniel 9:14), and caring (1 Peter 5:6-7).

An argument for the existence of God — the shortcomings of atheism

One final subject to address regarding God’s existence is the justification of the atheist’s position. As the atheist challenges the believer’s standpoint, it is fair to reverse the question and direct it back at the atheist. The initial point to grasp is that the assertion the atheist makes—“no god,” which is the meaning of “atheist”—is an unsustainable

Position to hold from a philosophical standpoint. As legal scholar and philosopher Mortimer Adler says, “An affirmative existential proposition can be proved, but a negative existential proposition—one that denies the existence of something—cannot be proved.” For example, someone may claim that a red eagle exists and someone else may assert that red eagles do not exist. The former only needs to find a single red eagle to prove his assertion. But the latter must comb the entire universe and literally be in every place at once to ensure he has not missed a red eagle somewhere and at some time, which is impossible to do. This is why intellectually honest atheists will admit they cannot prove God does not exist.

Next, it is important to understand the issue that surrounds the seriousness of truth claims that are made and the amount of evidence required to warrant certain conclusions. For example, if someone puts two containers of lemonade in front of you and says that one may be more tart than the other, since the consequences of getting the more tart drink would not be serious, you would not require a large amount of evidence in order to make your choice. However, if to one cup the host added sweetener but to the other he introduced rat poison, then you would want to have quite a bit of evidence before you made your choice.

This is where a person sits when deciding between atheism and belief in God. Since belief in atheism could possibly result in irreparable and eternal consequences, it would seem that the atheist should be mandated to produce weighty and overriding evidence to support his position, but he cannot. Atheism simply cannot meet the test for evidence for the seriousness of the charge it makes. Instead, the atheist and those whom he convinces of his position slide into eternity with their fingers crossed and hope they do not find the unpleasant truth that eternity does indeed exist. As Mortimer Adler says, “More consequences for life and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God.”

“An argument for the existence of God — the conclusion

So, does belief in God have intellectual warrant? Is there a rational, logical, and reasonable argument for the existence of God? Absolutely. While atheists such as Freud claim that those believing in God have a wish-fulfillment desire, perhaps it is Freud and his followers who actually suffer from wish-fulfillment: the hope and wish that there is no God, no accountability, and therefore no judgment. But refuting Freud is the God of the Bible who affirms His existence and the fact that a judgment is indeed coming for those who know within themselves the truth that He exists but suppress that truth “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”, (Romans 1:20). But for those who respond to the evidence that a Creator does indeed exist, He offers the way of salvation that has been accomplished through His Son, Jesus Christ: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).