There is a lot of evidence for the existence of God. In my book If God is goodI will just summarize some of these arguments.
The cosmological argument cites the existence of the world as evidence of an uncaused, eternal being that created and sustains it. Either something comes from nothing (an unscientific notion), or a first cause or “first mover” existed before everything else. Francis Schaeffer argued in He is there and he is not silent that a personal First Cause, God, could be responsible for both the material and personal elements of life, whereas a material First Cause could be responsible only for the material elements.
The transcendental argument states that no part of human experience and knowledge has meaning without God’s existence. Without God, we have no basis or explanation for order, logic, reason, intelligence, or rationality. Since Christians and atheists agree that there is order and a basis for reason, this is evidence for God.
The moral argument claims that the existence of universal moral values – that is, what people generally recognize as right and wrong – is neither explainable nor objective without God.
The design argument looks at the universe and notices its clear organizational structures, which suggest a deliberate, complex plan. This argument justifies a more comprehensive summary.
How can such a sophisticated design exist without a designer? To claim that chance is responsible for the order and extreme complexity of the world is irrational.
While the design argument has ancient roots, modern science has given it astonishingly convincing implications. Atheist Richard Dawkins gives in his book The blind watchmaker“A single human cell has enough information capacity to Encyclopedia Britannica, all 30 volumes of it, three or four times.”
Today we know what Darwin could not have imagined and what his theory could not even begin to explain: DNA stores information in the form of a four-digit digital code, with chains of precisely sequenced chemical substances that convey detailed assembly instructions. DNA builds protein molecules, the complex machinery that enables cells to survive.
Think of the most complex software program you’ve ever used. Could it have developed itself, without an intelligent developer? Of course not. And even more ridiculous is the idea that time, chance and natural forces – all on their own – created the far more complex DNA?
Scientists once compared the components of living cells to simple Lego bricks. Today they know that “cells have complex circuits, sliding clamps, energy-generating turbines, rotors, stators, O-rings, universal joints, and drive shafts.” None of these tiny engines work unless all the parts are in place. Therefore, they must have coexisted from the beginning. This is what biochemist Michael Behe says in his book Darwin’s Black Box“irreducible complexity”.
Non-Christian physicist Paul Davies writes: “We now know that the secret of life lies not in the chemical constituents as such, but in the logical structure and organizational arrangement of the molecules… Like a supercomputer, life is an information processing system… The real mystery is the software of the living cell, not the hardware… How could stupid atoms spontaneously write their own software?… Nobody knows.”
I think there is a better answer than “Nobody knows”, namely: The atoms didn’t write their own software. God did that.
For more information, see William Lane Craig’s article “Does God Exist?”
Sean McDowell, who teaches at Biola/Talbot University, has a passion for empowering the church, and especially young people, to advocate for the Christian faith. Watch the videos on his YouTube channel.
These are some of my favorite books on apologetics:
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