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Tonight I've been asked to address the topic: evidence for the existence of God. Why don't you open up with me to Psalm 14.
According to a new survey done in 2006, nearly half of Americans are not sure God exists. The Harris Poll survey found that 42 percent of US adults are not “absolutely certain” there is a God compared to 34 percent who felt that way when asked the same question three years ago.
If somebody were to ask you “Why do you believe in God?” or “What evidence do you have that He actually exists?” would you be prepared to answer him? This evening I want to share with you four reasons that I believe that God exists.
Someone emailed me a story recently about an atheistic school teacher. Here’s how it went…
An elementary school teacher explained to her class of young children that she was an “atheist.” She asked her class if they were atheists too. Not really knowing what “atheism” was but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands went flying into the air. There was, however, one exception. A girl named Lucy had not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asked her why she decided to be different. Lucy said, “Because I'm not an atheist.” The teacher then asked, “What are you?” Lucy said, “I’m a Christian.” She asked Lucy why she was a Christian. “Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian.” The teacher angrily said, “That’s no reason! What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron? What would you be then?” Lucy paused, thought about it and said, “Then, I’d be an atheist.”
The Bible does say though that believing there is no God is foolish.
Notice what Psalm 14:1 says there in your Bible: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Also see Psalm 53:1, Romans 1:21-23)
If you can go through this life and look at the stars, the sun, the moon, the mountains, the rivers, all of the complex life that exists and think that all of these things came into being by nothing and from nothing, then the Bible says you’re a fool.
In fact, the Bible teaches that the evidence for God’s existence is so clear that all people will stand before God with no excuse for not having believed in His existence (Romans 1:20).
Romans 1:20
“For since the creation of the world [kosmos in the Greek] His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood [How?] through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
The first reason I believe in God's existence is...
1. THE COSMOS
The universe itself is evidence that there is a God. This is spoken about in Psalm 19...
Psalm 19:1-4
“The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display His marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world....” (New Living Translation)
The very existence of the universe itself testifies to the fact that God exists.
Let’s think about this for a minute. There are only three options for the existence of the universe:
1. It has always been.
2. It created itself.
3. It was created by something or someone outside of itself.
Let's walk back through these and see which of these options is the most reasonable to believe. The first option, that the universe has always been (i.e., it is eternal), has been utterly rejected by the scientific community. Why?
The scientific evidence against an eternal universe has demolished this theory. Numerous evidences from the field of astronomy, such as:
• The Background Radiation Echo
• The Second Law of Thermodynamics
• The Motion of the Galaxies
…now overwhelmingly point to the fact that the universe actually began to exist a finite time ago in an event when all…
• the physical space
• time
• matter
• and energy
….in the universe came into being.
We don’t have time to discuss all of these evidences, but the consensus amongst the majority of astronomers is this: The universe began to exist. Stephen Hawking, the very popular and immensely respected agnostic astronomer from Cambridge University, agrees. He says, “Almost everyone believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning.”
That’s interesting. This is in perfect harmony with what the Bible says (in the very first verse!)…
Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The Bible makes it very clear that the universe actually had a beginning, exactly like the scientific community has discovered–more than 3,000 years after Moses penned those words.
Now because the universe had a beginning, that rules out option 1, that the universe has always been. That leaves us with two options for the existence of the universe:
2. It created itself.
3. It was created by someone or something outside of itself.
Option two, that the universe created itself, is philosophically impossible.
The atheist asks, “Why?”
Well, of course, before the universe existed it would not have been around to do the creating. Obviously, a non-existent universe could not have done anything! It did not exist. Ask most atheists, “What was around before the universe came into being?” and they will say, “Nothing.”
Well, we all know that nothing can not do anything. What is nothing? Have you thought about that? Right here; this is what nothing looks like…[fade PowerPoint to black screen]. What is nothing? No - thing. No-thing can’t do anything. It cannot see, smell, act, think, let alone create something. In fact, it sounds foolish for me to even refer to nothing as an “it.”
Even David Hume (1711 – 1776), one of the most zealous skeptics of Christianity ever, agreed that things don’t just pop themselves into existence. In 1754, he wrote, “I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a cause .”
The impossibility of something creating itself is in harmony with a basic law of physics called “The Law of Conservation.” If you’ve ever had a physics class you’ll recall this. It states: “From nothing, comes nothing.” This is a scientific law that has been written in stone. Why? There has never been a single observed instance in which this law has been violated.
Even the well-known atheist, J.L. Mackie said: “I myself find it hard to accept the notion of self-creation from nothing, even given unrestricted chance.”
So, there are three options for the existence of the universe…
1. It has always been.
2. It created itself.
3. It was created by someone or something outside of itself.
Option one and two can be thrown out on scientific and philosophical grounds. (You don’t even need to bring the Bible into the debate to rule out these first two options). Option three, that someone or something outside of the universe (i.e., God) created the universe, is the only reasonable option.
Let’s imagine I have a painting. Question: When you see a painting, what proof do you need to establish the fact that a painter exists? Nothing besides the painting itself. The painting itself is absolute proof that there was a painter. You do not need to see the painter to believe that he or she exists. The painting is all the evidence you need. The painting would not be there if the painter did not exist; and so it is with the universe. The existence of the universe [a giant painting if you will] itself proves absolutely that there is a creator.
I have shared that kind of simple reasoning and logic with people (about the three options for the existence of the universe), along with the simple painting analogy, and you know what they commonly say?
“I never thought about it that way.”
I believe that it takes far more faith to be an atheist than it does to believe in God. Atheists believe that everything that exists (the entire universe) came from nothing and by nothing. That takes a lot of faith!
So the first reason I believe that God exists is the cosmos.
The second reason I believe that God exists is…
2. THE COMPLEXITY OF LIFE
Let’s imagine for a few minutes that you have decided to go on a two week cruise to Tahiti. It seemed like a good idea but someone forgot to check the weather report. And much to your horror, the largest storm that the South Pacific has ever seen capsizes your cruise liner and sends you and the others out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a night.
You awake to find yourself shipwrecked on an island somewhere in the South Pacific. As you walk around the island with one of the other survivors, you begin to wonder if there might be any intelligent life there on the island that may be able to help you get home. As you’re walking along the shore you spot something lying there in the sand. Upon closer examination you discover what appears to be an arrowhead.
Question: After this discovery, what do you think the chances are that human life might exist on the island? Pretty good. It may not be the kind of intelligent life you are hoping for. It may be a tribe of headhunters!
Much to your surprise, the other person who survived the shipwreck with you, suggests that, “Perhaps over billions of years the wind and the waves and the rising and falling of the tides just happened to form a rock that looks like an arrowhead.”
Finding that hard to believe, you agree to remain open-minded and continue searching. Another mile down the beach, you discover what appears to be a canoe anchored up on the shoreline. Now you’re convinced that some sort of intelligent life must exist on the island! But just in time to dampen your enthusiasm, your new friend and fellow shipwreck survivor suggests that…
“Perhaps millions of years of storms and waves just shaped a pile of driftwood into what appears to be a well designed canoe-shaped boat. We need to be open-minded.”
(I think some people are so open-minded their brains have fallen out. That’s the problem.)
Finding that statement even harder to believe than the comments about the arrowhead, you agree to continue searching. A hundred yards down the beach you encounter what appears to be writing in the sand. The letters spell out the simple phrase: “Beach Time!” You look over at your open-minded evolutionist friend only to hear him say:
“Perhaps the wind and the waves just formed that sequence of letters.”
Now, what would you say to this person who thinks that simple things like arrowheads, canoes and letters in the sand may have evolved?
__ A. “You’re probably right. Please forgive me for believing that intelligent life brought these things about.”
__ B. “What have you been smoking?”
I’m sure that most of us here would conclude that the arrowhead, canoe and message in the sand were surely designed by some intelligent life form. Why?
Design is not hard to recognize.
And everywhere we look on planet earth we find amazingly complex life forms that are millions of times more complex than arrowheads or canoes. This amazing complexity that permeates all of life is another reason why more and more scientists are concluding an intelligent designer must exist.
Let’s consider some examples of complex life forms. First, let’s consider the human body. It has an amazingly complex:
• Nervous system
• Cardiovascular system
• Reproductive capability
• Skeletal system
• Muscle system
• Digestive system
• Ability to heal itself
• And fight off diseases
I find it difficult to believe that the human body could have come into existence by some mindless process, apart from an incredibly intelligent designer, even given millions of years.
You could leave the barren side of a mountain exposed to...
• Wind
• Rain
• The forces of nature
• Chance
• And millions of years of time
…and you would never get a Mt. Rushmore, let alone a living, breathing human being. Why? It takes intelligence. You need intelligent intervention. [It took 400 intelligent workers fourteen years (1927-1941) to carve those four faces. And George and Abe just stare at you. They don’t talk. They don’t smile. They don’t do anything. How much more intelligence would it take to create a living breathing human being? Good question.]
It would take great intelligence to create a robot that operates like a human, and it would take even greater intelligence to create a real human being.
No one alive today would believe that the faces of Mt. Rushmore came about by millions of years of...
• Erosion
• Wind
• Rain
• And undirected random acts.
And yet atheists believe that real-life human beings with…
• 206 bones
• 640 muscles
• and hearts that beat over 100,000 times a day
…are the product of a mindless, random series of accidents. This is foolish.
Not only is the body as a whole incredibly complex, the individual parts making up the body are highly complex. The late agnostic astronomer Carl Sagan conceded that the brain alone is a “…machine more wonderful than any devised by humans” and that it holds enough information to “fill some twenty million volumes.” (Carl Sagan, Cosmos, p. 278)
Is it possible that this “machine more wonderful than any devised by humans” came into being from nothing, by nothing, and then evolved via some mindless, random series of accidents, as evolutionists believe?
I don’t have enough faith to believe that.
Consider the human eye. The eye is a ball with a lens on one side and a light sensitive retina made up of rods and cones inside the other. The lens itself has a sturdy protective covering called a cornea and sits over an iris designed to protect the eye from excessive light. The eye contains a fantastic watery substance that is replaced every four hours. Tear glands continuously flush the outside clean. An eyelid sweeps secretions over the cornea to keep it moist. Eyelashes protect it from dust. And extraordinarily fine tuned muscles are attached to the eye that move the eye and shape the lens for the function of focus.
The eye is far more complex and advanced than the world’s greatest auto-focus camera that took researchers and developers numerous years and millions of dollars to design and create. Did this amazing piece of complex machinery (the eye) come together by some mindless process and random series of accidents? Atheists muster up the faith to answer “Yes” to that question. I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.
Even the most well known Darwinist of all time had difficulties believing that the eye came into being by blind forces. Who am I talking about? Charles Darwin. Darwin himself found it hard to accept the notion that the eye could be the product of evolution.
He conceded that the intricacies of the human eye gave him: “Cold shudders.” In his famous book, On The Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin said, “To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable [matchless] contrivances [plans] for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.” (p. 217)
Not only does the body as a whole, the brain and the eye point to an intelligent designer, so does something as small as a living cell. A cell is considered the smallest unit of matter alive and measures less than a thousandth of an inch in diameter. In Darwin’s day, cells appeared to be little unsophisticated globs of jello, mysterious little parts of life that no one could see into.
But now that we have the ability to peer into the cell with electron microscopes, we see that life down at the cellular level is immeasurably more complex than Darwin ever dreamed.
Speaking about the cell, Dr. Walter Bradley, a respected scientist and author of The Mystery of Life’s Origin, says: “A one-cell organism is more complicated than anything we’ve been able to recreate through supercomputers.” According to Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, widely regarded as the greatest chemist of the twentieth century, “Just one living cell in the human body is, more complex than New York city.” I don’t know if you have been to New York city, but it is one complex place. With eight million residents, it is the largest, and probably most complex city in the United States. Imagine for a moment how complex New York City is.
Now imagine packing that kind of complexity into a single cell inside your body. And that is just the beginning. Your body is comprised of thousands of different kinds of cells totaling more than: 100,000,000,000,000. (100 trillion) in number. And your body makes millions of new cells every second and they all work together!
I bought an Ipod Nano a while back. The world marvels at this modern invention. Why? Because of the large amount of information that it can hold (approx. 1,000 songs on the 4 GB model). It has taken mankind thousands of years to figure out how to design something like this. But the storage capacity of this amazing piece of technology doesn’t even compare with the information storage capacity of the DNA inside living cells.
The amount of information that is stored in a pinhead’s volume of DNA found in cells is the equivalent of 500 piles of books stretching from the Earth to the Moon. And DNA does not just contain some simple random information or some incoherent sequence of letters. DNA contains a staggering amount of detailed complex information and instruction that tells the cell how to function.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said this about DNA: “DNA is like a computer program, but far, far more advanced than any software we’ve ever created.” I ask you this then. Where did this staggering amount of complex detailed information in a cell’s DNA (that is “far more advanced than any software [Microsoft] ever created”) come from? Computer programs do not write themselves. A programmer is always involved. Even if you provide lots of time, a computer program cannot write itself. The same is true with the complex information stored in DNA. Somebody had to program the information into the DNA, but who?
Perhaps we should ask this man: Antony Flew. Up until 2004, Antony Flew was widely considered the world’s most influential atheistic philosopher, author and debater. In December of 2004 news came out that Flew had abandoned his atheism and now believed that God must exist. What changed his mind? Antony Flew said: “It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design….What I think the DNA material has done is show that intelligence must have been involved.” Antony Flew is not alone in abandoning atheism and naturalistic explanations for the complexity of life.
Perhaps you caught this story on February 21, 2006. The headline read:
“500 Doctoral Scientists Skeptical of Darwin.” This is the statement to which these scientists are attaching their names:
“We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”
You can see this growing list at: www.DissentFromDarwin.org
This growing list of scientists who are skeptical of Darwinism (which has now grown to more than 700 scientists) includes scientists from such prestigious institutions as:
• U.C. Berkeley
• UCLA
• Cambridge University
• Yale
• Princeton
• Stanford
• MIT
• and The Smithsonian
These scientists, who believe in an intelligent designer of the universe, are joining ranks with some of the most brilliant scientists to have ever lived, men like Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Blaise Pascal, all who believed in God’s existence.
If arrowheads, canoes and simple messages in the sand point to an intelligent designer, even more we are justified in believing that the complexity in living organisms points to an intelligent designer.
The third reason I believe that God exists is…
3. THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE
The Bible is a book unlike any other book. It is a compilation of 66 different books written by more than 40 different authors, over a period of 1,500 years, on three different continents, in three different languages.
Over and over the authors of the Bible claim to be recording events and writing words that they said they were inspired to write by God Himself (2 Tim. 3:16).
And of course, the Bible reveals to us very plainly…
• God exists
• what He is like
• and what His will is for our lives
Skeptic: “Charlie, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the Bible is true.”
Right. But, the Bible doesn’t just make these claims. It demonstrates itself, unlike any other ancient religious writing, to be divinely inspired and historically reliable with…
• Hundreds of fulfilled prophecies
• Its amazing internal harmony
• Its amazing scientific accuracy and foresight
• More than 25,000 archaeological discoveries
• Etc.
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thanks for sharing this i will send it to my friends so they can see this.... God bless
- hinson7169
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