Article from the February issue of Defending the Faith
There are several ways to answer this question. Firstly, you need to come to the realization that you need to have as much faith to believe in God as to not believe in Him. You cannot prove to an atheist that God exists, but the atheist cannot prove that He does not exist. It has been said that there is no such thing as an atheist because everyone has a god. Everyone places their faith and trust in someone. It may be Allah, Buddha, Krishna, or some other “god.” If your god does not have a name, then usually the god an atheist believes in is himself. He loves and trusts in himself, and therefore, he/she is god. Money, power, or fame can be a god. Whatever a person loves becomes their “god.”
You can look at this amazing universe and wonder where it all came from. Its beauty is extraordinary. The diversity of animals and plants and how they can survive is incredible. The complexity of the human body and mind is staggering. The miracle of birth is unfathomable! We know it had a beginning. The scientists can explain the beginning of the universe back to less than a split second (< 10-43 of a second) after it began known as the Planck scale, but what happened before that? Can anyone truly believe that all this was an accident? This is harder to believe than God. The mathematical probabilities that this was all an accident are astronomical!
A third explanation in support of the existence of God is our experience of morality. Everyone has a sense of right and wrong. Most people do not seem to agree on what is right or wrong, but everyone believes there is a set of behavioral rules for us. If there is no God, there would be no need for any rules. Why is it wrong to cut in line in front of others, rather than waiting our own turn? Why is it wrong for someone to take something that belongs to me? What makes anything mine anyway? Why do we even have laws? Who said I have to follow someone else’s rules? True, the obvious answer is that without rules and laws there would be chaos. However, why are these actions thought of as “wrong?” Rules may be expedient, but why feel guilty about not following these rules. Why do we experience guilt? Why do we find criminals “guilty” of their crimes? There is a moral component to rules and laws. This moral component is our conscience.
From where did our conscience originate? God blessed us with a conscience to guide us toward what is right, toward good, toward love. Nonetheless, our conscience can be silenced by repeatedly ignoring it or by rationalizing our behaviors. Yet, we all have experienced the pangs of conscience. That is God speaking to us.
If this is enough to convince someone that there is a God, then the next question is which God is the real God? Great, at least this is a step forward. If this is not enough, then one may declare himself an “agnostic” and say that we cannot prove either way whether God exists or not. Fantastic! This is still a step forward! In the next issue of Defending the Faith we will address the agnostic.
Helen Kamenos
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