Thinking About Our Faith

Part 1.

Introduction

It is interesting to ask people what they believe about God and then ask for a reason for that belief. What is it that persuades them to hold the worldview that they do? On inquiry, I have found that many people need an adequate foundation for their worldview. They may have come to their worldview because of their family or church, or perhaps they absorbed it at school or the movies. But when asked why they hold their worldview, they seldom think about why they believe what they do.  

We should know that no one can conclusively prove any worldview, and no one can prove that God exists or does not exist. All belief systems with a good foundation arise from examining evidence coupled with critical thinking. Using evidence and reason, the best conclusions can be derived. 

The following articles outline the evidence that builds a case for theism. However, before that, some necessary definitions are below.  

Definitions:

1. Critical Thinking: Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.[1]
2. Evidence: the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is accurate or valid.[2]
3. Specified Complexity: What is specified complexity? An object, event, or structure exhibits specified complexity if it is both complex (i.e., one of many live possibilities) and specified (i.e., displays an independently given pattern). A long sequence of randomly strewn Scrabble pieces is complex without being specified. A short sequence spelling the word “the” is specified without being complex. A sequence corresponding to a Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified.[3]
4. Teleology:
   1. Philosophy: the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause by which they arise.
   1. Theology: the doctrine of design and purpose in the material world.[4]
5. Worldview: Ligonier’s article about worldview states, “As the word suggests, a worldview is an overall view of the world. It’s not a physical view of the world, but rather a philosophical view, an all-encompassing perspective on everything that exists and matters to us. A person’s worldview represents his most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the universe he inhabits. It reflects how he would answer all the “big questions” of human existence: fundamental questions about who and what we are, where we came from, why we’re here, where (if anywhere) we’re headed, the meaning and purpose of life, the nature of the afterlife, and what counts as a good life here and now. Few people think through these issues in any depth, and fewer still have firm answers to such questions, but a person’s worldview will at least incline him toward certain kinds of answers and away from others.”[5]

Seven Common Worldviews

1. Atheism: A rejection of the claim that there are gods. Encompasses humanism, materialism, and scientism.
2. Pantheism: The view that the world is identical to God or an expression of God’s nature. God is impersonal, does not have a will, and cannot act on the universe.
3. Panentheism: The belief that God infuses the created universe and transcends the universe. God is currently finite but is becoming infinite. Yet he is limited and is neither all-powerful nor all-knowing.
4. Finite Godism: God’s power is limited. God is loving and desires good but is finite and incapable of bringing the desired good about.
5. Polytheism: The belief that there are many finite gods in the world, and these gods actively influence the world. These gods are supernatural but do not transcend the universe, so they are not infinite.
6. Deism: There is a transcendent God who is infinite and all-powerful. This God designed and created the universe. The universe, governed by the laws of physics and nature, functions as God desires. Once created, God no longer interacts with the universe.
7. Theism: God has always existed. God chose to act at a set time and created space, time, and matter. Once the universe was created, God continued to take an interest in his creation and those who came to live in it. Though God transcends the universe, He is also immanent in it.

Part 2.

Proofs of God

1. The Experiential Argument
2. The Ontological Argument
3. The Shorter Ontological Argument   
4. The Longer Ontological Argument
5. The Cosmological Argument
6. The Teleological Argument
7. The Moral Argument
8. The Argument from Human Need
9. The Combined Arguments

1. Overview

Is There Evidence That God Exists?

Like many, you may have assumed that most people believe in the God of the Bible. While that was true in the 1950s,^[6] by the 1970s, there were doubts about God’s existence. In the 50s, questioning God’s existence would have been heresy. In the 70s, it was edgy to question God’s existence. However, by 2020 it was no longer an issue. We were entering an age where those with no belief or a belief in a vague spirituality were ascending. What had once been believed by virtually everyone was now suspect. Don McLean captured this in his song, American Pie.[7] One stanza reads, “Did you write the book of love, And do you have faith in God above if the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in rock and roll? Can music save your mortal soul? And, can you teach me how to dance real slow?” The lyrics are worth reading. They are prescient.

We are in a different world. Fifty years ago, 97% of Americans believed in God; thirty years ago, 73% of Americans believed in God; today, only 51% have a biblical view of God. A rapid and sudden downturn in the number of people who believe in the God of the Bible has occurred. Only 6% of Americans hold a Biblical worldview. Americans are now recreating God in their image or outright rejecting Him.

This has led to some interesting statistics. Satan is more likely to be viewed as fundamental in people’s minds than God. Barna’s survey shows that 56% of American adults believe in Satan, while only 49% are confident that God exists!^[8] Given the large number rejecting God’s existence, it is not surprising that 52% of adults believe the Holy Spirit is not a living being but a symbol of God’s power or purity.

Statistics reveal a trend in religion like that in medicine. The youngest and the oldest Americans are most affected. In the last thirty years, belief among those 18 to 29 declined by 26%. Likewise, belief among those born before 1946 decreased by 25%. Among women, the percentage of those having believed in God also declined by 25%. The largest drop was seen in those who were attending Pentecostal or charismatic churches. Belief declined by 27%. Only among those with incomes 20% above the national average was a modest increase of 2% seen.

Replacing a traditional belief in God, skepticism towards God’s existence is increasing. Thirty years ago, only 1% of people would claim God might not or does not exist, and today that number has risen to 20%. Only half of American adults would describe God as the one who created and controlled the universe while being omnipotent, omniscient, just, loving, and perfect. Of the remaining half of American adults, 20% hold an agnostic view of God, believing we cannot know God exists. 10% see God in a more mystical sense; God is found in realizing man’s higher potential and achieving higher consciousness. 6% of American adults are atheists, 4% are polytheistic, and 3% are pantheistic. The last 6% are unsure of what they think about the concept of God.

Those who tend towards embracing the traditional view of God are conservative or Republican, have college educations and an above-average income, and who live in the south. Conversely, those who trend away from a traditional view of God are atheists, agnostics, those with no religious affiliations, political liberals, those 18 to 29 years old, and those self-identifying as LGBTQ. 

Of those who believe in the traditional view of God, only 36% felt they could be sure God existed, and 57% thought it was impossible to be sure about the presence of God, believing it is a faith issue, not an issue of evidence.

Fundamental spiritual truths, taken for granted for centuries, are no longer accepted. In many cases, people no longer know anything about those truths. In the past, people were concerned about life’s most important questions. Searching for profound truth involved God. Now the culture is self-absorbed, seeking entertainment and self-gratification. Big questions no longer get asked, let alone answered. We are entertaining and amusing ourselves into oblivion. Moral issues no longer trouble us. Many believe there are no absolute morals. You only live once. It’s A Brave New World.[9]

Is there any evidence for the existence of God? Who has the truth about God’s existence? Or, as Pilate famously asked, “What is the truth?”[10] During this tumultuous time, it has become embarrassingly apparent that the Church has failed to educate its members about many different and necessary truths. As a result, young people do not have a strong faith and are at risk when challenged about their faith. Those who have left the church blame the church for not answering their questions, and those who deconvert claim that they were never given the reasons that they should have faith. They believe the Church does not have answers to the questions that must be asked. As an experiment, ask some of your Christian friends the reasons for their faith. You may find that many cannot defend their faith other than saying they were raised to believe what they believe.

As Christians, it is essential to consider whether there is enough evidence to support our belief system. We want to follow the truth wherever it leads us. In the next section, with one exception, the experiential argument, we are looking for evidence that is not emotional or experiential but instead factual. We cannot “prove” God exists, nor can anyone “prove” he does not exist. Our goal is to see if there is adequate evidence to make a strong case for the existence of God.

In the last paragraph, it was noted that there was one proof of God that was not built on fact but instead on experience. When an individual has a transcendental experience with God, it is strong personal proof of God’s existence. When it happens, we know God exists, which may become our most substantial proof of God’s existence. However, our experiences are subjective and cannot be verified by someone else. Therefore, while important to us, our experiential claims may not be persuasive as apologetic arguments. In addition, our subjective experience often cannot tell us enough about God to know who God is apart from other sources.

Ontological arguments attempt to demonstrate the reality and necessity of God through the use of reason alone. They are based on the use of logic. Below are two arguments, first a brief argument and then a longer and more precise argument.

1. The Shorter Ontological Argument
2. Something exists (I do)
3. Nothing cannot produce something
4. Therefore, something exists eternally and necessarily
5. God is the one identical to the one described in the Bible since there can only be one being of pure actuality, there cannot be two infinite beings, there cannot be two perfect beings, there cannot be two ultimates, there cannot be two greatest beings. The God of the Bible is the greatest. Therefore, the theistic view is true, and everything opposed to it is false.
6. The Longer Ontological Argument
7. Being Is (Principle of Existence) Cannot deny it.
8. Being is Being (Principle of Identity) Identical, A=A
9. Being is not non-being (principle of non-contradiction)
10. Either being or non-being (Principle of excluded middle)
11. Non-being cannot cause being (The principle of causality)
12. A caused being is like its cause (Principle of Analogy). Like produces like. Being cannot give what it does not have. Efficient causes bring something into being; instrumental causes are the means.
13. A being is either necessary or contingent but not both (Principle of the excluded middle)
14. A necessary being cannot cause another necessary being to come to be. Necessary beings neither begin nor end.
15. A contingent being cannot be the efficient cause of another contingent being, and only a necessary cause can be the cause of a contingent being. Only actuality can produce actuality, and potentiality cannot produce actuality.
16. A necessary being is a being of pure actuality with no potentiality. Therefore, a necessary being has no potential not to exist. If a necessary being exists, then it must exist necessarily with no possibility of not existing.
17. A Being with pure actuality cannot cause another being with pure actuality. Whatever being comes to be must have potentiality, and pure actuality has no potentiality.
18. The being caused by a Being of Pure actuality must have both actuality and potentiality. This created being has the potential not to be, which Pure actuality does not have.
19. Every being caused by a being of Pure Actuality must be both like and dislike its cause. It is like its cause in its actuality but unlike its cause in its potentiality. And what is both like and dislike its cause is similar to it.
20. I am a contingent being.
    1. I exist
    1. I am not a necessary being since I change or come to be.
21. But only a necessary being can cause a contingent being to exist.
22. Therefore, a Necessary Being of pure actuality who caused me exists.
23. This Necessary Being of Pure Actuality with no potentiality has certain attributes.
    1. Cannot change (immutable)
    1. Cannot be temporal (eternal)
    1. Cannot be material (immaterial)
    1. Cannot be finite (infinite)
    1. Cannot be divisible (Simple) (has no potential to be divided)
    1.  Must be all-powerful (omnipotent), infinite, and has power
    1. Must be morally perfect (Holy) since it causes moral beings to exist.
    1. Must be Personal (personal) since He made personal beings.

The Cosmological or Kalam Argument is based on the fact that we now know we live in a universe that was created. Therefore, the universe has a distinct beginning. We recognize the concept of causality, and that which comes into being has a cause. 

The Cosmological Argument states:

• Everything that begins has a cause.
• The universe had a beginning.
• Therefore, the universe had a cause.

Arguments for the Cosmological Argument

There are several reasons to understand that we live not in an eternal universe but in a created one.

1. The Second law of thermodynamics states that all systems move toward lower entropy. Hydrogen is being used up, and the universe is running out of energy. This points to the fact that the universe had to have a beginning point. We have not yet run out of hydrogen, but in the distant future, we will have exhausted all the available energy. The loss of hydrogen is a one-way trip. Therefore, the universe cannot be eternal.
2. Stars observed by powerful telescopes have a red shift in their light spectrum. This shift means that those stars are moving away from us, indicating that the universe is still expanding.
3. Using mathematics, it was determined that there should be a radiation echo from the explosion that created the universe. The predicted echo was discovered on a finely tuned radio in 1964.
4. The theory of General Relativity supports an expanding universe and shows an interdependence between space, time, and energy. It also demonstrates that the universe had a beginning point.
5. Scientists predicted that if there had been a tremendous explosion at the beginning of the universe, there would be a great mass of energy at the edge of the universe. Space exploration has demonstrated this to be true.

These are strong reasons to believe that the universe came into being at a specific time and must have had a creator.

Teleology involves the idea of purpose and design. Many things were necessary for human life, and even minuscule changes in physical laws or conditions would preclude life’s development. Both organic and inorganic portions of the universe give many appearances of design. This is verbalized in a proposition. The proposition is:

• Anticipatory design shows an intelligent designer
• Human life shows anticipatory design
• Hence, Human life shows an intelligent designer

Teleological Evidence

A small list of examples showing design includes:

1. From Astronomy
   1. Fine Tuning of fundamental laws of physics
   1. 21% oxygen
   1. Gravitational forces perfect
   1. Distance from sun perfect for heat
   1. Expansion rate of universe suitable for life
   1. Thickness of earth’s crust right for life
   1. Tilt of earth provides the best condition
   1. Speed of light is proper for life
   1. Nuclear forces correct to hold atoms together
   1. Distance between stars perfect for life
   1. Cosmological constant (energy density of space) is minutely right
   1. Right amount of seismic activity for life
   1. Position of Jupiter protects the earth.
2. From Microbiology (1)
   1. Life has specified complexity
   1. Specified Complexity (DNA) indicates an intelligent designer
   1. Therefore, the first life had an intelligent designer
3. From Microbiology (2)
   1. First life had irreducible complexity
   1. Irreducible complexity indicates an intelligent designer
   1. Therefore, first life had an intelligent designer
4. From Microbiology (3)
   1. The genetic code of amoeba would fill 1000 sets of encyclopedias
   1. Our brain has enough information to fill 20 million volumes
   1. Language and cell function have a mathematically identical structure

The Moral Argument states:

• Every law has a lawgiver.
• There is an absolute moral law.
• Therefore, there must be an absolute moral law giver.

The following are 12 considerations concerning the moral law:

1. We cannot know what is just unless we know what is unjust
2. Absolutes are undeniable since we affirm absolutes when we try to deny them
3. Moral comparisons demand an objective moral law
4. True progress or regress demands an absolute standard
5. Everything cannot be relative. Relative cannot be compared to relative
6. Moral disputes call for an objective standard outside the dispute
7. We do not invent the moral law; we discover the moral law (like the discovery of gravity)
8. Universal moral guilt shows an absolute moral law
9. The fact that we sometimes choose duty over instinct shows there must be an absolute standard
10. All cultures find some things evil such as genocide, racism, and bigotry. Therefore, there must be a universal standard.
11. Many of the things we do not want others to do to us imply an absolute standard
12. The same basic moral code is found in all cultures.

C.S. Lewis once argued that God had met all our needs. He noted that when we were hungry, there was food; when we were thirsty, there was water. In the same way, he said that because man has an innate longing for God, that need has also been met. Worship and religious behavior are found everywhere we look. Man is an innately spiritual being. We have been created to seek God.

God is:

1. Infinitely powerful- Cosmological Argument
2. Infinitely intelligent- Teleological Argument
3. Perfect- Moral Argument
4. Absolutely Unique (one) because there cannot be two infinite beings, nor can there be two perfect beings. There is only one Mind behind the universe, as indicated by the anthropic principle and the universality of physical and mathematical laws.

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[1] Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, The Foundation for Critical Thinking, Defining Critical Thinking, accessed Jan. 31, 2023, https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

[2] Oxford Language Dictionary, Evidence, accessed Jan. 31, 2023, https://www.google.com/search?q=evidence+definition&oq=ev&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j0i67l3j46i131i199i433i465i512j0i131i433i512j46i131i433i512j0i131i433i512j46i131i199i433i465.7640j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[3] William A. Dembski, No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), xiii.

[4] Oxford Language Dictionary, Teleology, accessed Jan. 31, 2023, https://www.google.com/search?q=teleology+definition&oq=Teleology+&aqs=chrome.1.0i271j0i131i433i512j69i57j0i512l7.5938j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[5] James Anderson, Ligonier Ministries, On Worldviews, Nov. 25, accessed Jan. 31, 2023, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/worldviews

[6] David Johnson, “Is God Dead,” Time Magazine, April 7, 2016, accessed August 24, 2020, at https://time.com/4283975/god-belief-religion-americans/  In this article reviewing the famous 1970 article by the same name, it was noted that a survey by Lou Harris in 1965 found that 97% of Americans believed in God.

[7] Don McLean, Wikipedia Entry,  American Pie (song). Accessed Jan 29, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pie

[8] George Barna, “Perceptions of God: Americans Continue to Redefine – and Reject – God,” American Worldview Inventory 2020 April 21, 2020, accessed August 24, 2020, at https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CRC-AWVI-2020-Release-03_Perceptions-of-God.pdf

[9] Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (London: Vintage, 2010).

[10] John 18:38