How Do You Really Know That There is a God?
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How Do I Really Know There Is A God? |
after the thing they don’t believe exists? There is no “I-don’t-believe-in-unicorns
society.” There only can be atheists if there is a God to be named after. Exploring what
atheists say they believe reveals their thinking to be as illogical as their name.
If there is no God, no moral law is possible. We’ve all heard the claims that one can be
a “good person” without believing in God. Yet how can one define good or evil if there is
no Lawgiver, no law, and thus no scale of values by which to define ‘good’ or ‘evil’?
If there is no God, there is no rationality. If God did not create you, you would not have a
brain capable of rationality. That you can observe the creation at all points to His
existence. We know a Creator God exists because everything we see around us would
not exist if God did not exist. Ronald Reagan said, “Serve the atheist a fine dinner and
ask him if he believes in a cook.” Simple logic points to a Maker.
If there is no God, there is no hope. But hope is intrinsic to life. Life itself exhibits
tremendous amounts of hope – think of spring, think of flowers and fruits perpetuating
seeds, think of the potential in a new baby. How could such a thing as hope even exist if
we evolved from slime? Our spirits were created to hope – it is what keeps us going
when life gets hard.
If there is no God, no meaning is possible. Those who reject God lose touch with the
purpose for which they were created. Philosophers used to write about “the search for
meaning” but our godless age has become “the search for pleasure.” However, all the
pleasure in the world does not produce meaningfulness. G.K. Chesterton said,
“Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes
from being weary of pleasure.”
In the end, what the atheist actually believes is not “There is no God” but that “I am
greater than God!” Nietzsche said through one of his characters, “...we have killed
Him... must we not ourselves now become God, simply to seem worthy of what we’ve
done?” What a delusion. Are you self-sufficient, self-originating, self-perpetuating?
God is. Ravi Zacharias says, “God is the only entity in existence, the reason for whose
existence is Himself. All other entities exist by virtue of something else.”
There is no mathematical proof of God’s existence here. Such proofs work with dead
numbers, but not with living relationships. We are looking rather for trails of evidence
that lead to certainty. A trail of breadcrumbs through the woods exists to lead us to the
one who laid them down. Study anything from the heavens above to living creatures to
the moral law within and you will uncover evidence for the existence of God. He is the
one who laid these “breadcrumbs” of evidence in His creation, to lead us to Himself.
God exists... because He meets us where we are.
If you want to be sure about this God you are led to, talk to Him honestly and ask Him to
show Himself to you, wherever you are, whatever life experiences you’re had, whatever
your circumstances are at present. All those who have done this have received an
answer – God Himself. And “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God” (John 1:12). This is the most important relationship possible.
Your question is more life-changing than you know.
Helpful Additional Resources:
Is God real? How can I know for sure that God is real? An article by Got Questions
“Is God a Human Invention?” Sean McDowell from Worldview Ministries answers this question. A short film by the One Minute Apologist