Or do we take it simply by ‘Faith’?
Many ask whether God really exists and if God’s existence is detectable in a rational way. After all, no one has seen God. So maybe the idea of God is simply a psychology operating of our minds. Since God’s existence affects our understanding of ourselves, our future, and the meaning of life, it is worth exploring. There are three straight-forward and rationale families of evidences which tests fairly conclusively whether there is a God or not.
Test 1. Scientific Evidence for our Origins attests to a Creator
You and I exist and we find ourselves wonderfully constructed and in a world that supports a diversity of other life that is also interconnected and fine-tuned like machine components fine-tuned to work together. The scientist heading the team that first sequenced the human genome described DNA in the following way:
“As a first approximation, one can therefore think of DNA as an instructional script, a software program, … made up of … thousands of letters of code.
Francis Collins. The Language of God. 2006. p102-103
how [is] the program actually ‘run’ ?… A team of sophisticated translators in the factory [ribosome] then … convert the information in this molecule into a specific protein
Ibid p 104
Another way to think about this … is to consider the metaphor of language. … These words [proteins] can be used to construct complex works of literature…
Ibid p 125
‘Software programs’, ‘factories’ and ‘languages’ only come about by Intelligent Beings. Thus, it seems intuitive that the first and most likely explanation for our origins is that an Intelligent Designer – God – made us. We explore this more in-depth here where we examine this contrasted to the Theory of Evolution, which attempts to explain biological complexity without Intelligence.
Test 2. The Case for the Historical Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead.
Death is the ultimate fate awaiting all human life. Our natural systems, though incredibly designed, always deteriorate. But a very strong historical case exists that Jesus rose from the dead. If true then then most viable explanation points to a Supernatural Power that transcends nature. Examine the resurrection and consider for yourself whether Jesus rose from the dead. If so, this demonstrates a Supernatural Power (God) that works in the world.
Test 3. Prophecies of Jesus points to a Divine Plan, and hence a Divine Mind executing this Plan.
Many events of Jesus’ life are prophesied in various ways, both through word and drama, hundreds of years before he lived. The striking fulfillment of dozens of prophecies show a Mind coordinating events. But since these events are hundreds of years apart, and since no human mind can foresee the future that far ahead in time, that speaks to a Mind transcending time. Examine both the intricacies and the diversity of the prophecies and ask yourself if these can be explained in any other way apart from an omniscient Mind signalling and implementing His Plan. If that is the case then this Mind that can so coordinate in human life must exist. Here are some specific ones to explore.
- How Abraham foresaw Jesus by pointing to the location of his crucifixion – 2000 before it happened.
- How Moses foresaw Jesus by pointing to the day of the year of his crucifixion – 1500 years before it happened.
- How David foresaw the details of Jesus’ crucifixion – 1000 years before it happened.
- How Isaiah foresaw details of Jesus’ crucifixion – 700 years before it happened.
- How Daniel foresaw the exact date of his crucifixion – 550 years before it happened.
- How Zechariah foresaw his name – 500 years before he lived.
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