Does God Exist?

Lately, I had been contemplating the creation of the universe and it got me thinking. Are the atheists really looking carefully enough at the issues? I mean, even if there was a big bang, what caused it, right?

So, I surmised that atheism is at least as highly based on faith as any other religion is, but I figured I ought not make any assumptions without doing a bit of research.

As it turns out, my question is pretty much THE question. If you head over to the Freethought & Rationalism Discussion Board and check out the Existence of God(s) section, you will find that there are over 100,000 posts just on the topic of the creation of the universe.

It truly is the “Chicken or the Egg” question, rephrased.

I strongly believe that it is impossible and will always be impossible to either prove or disprove the existence of God in this existence.

So, I’ve decided that I’m not going to make any point here in this post as to whether there is a God or not, although I will freely admit that I am biased in the belief that there is one and it is likely to be evident in what I do talk about here.

Instead, I would like to contribute some thought provoking questions as well as my own insights and observations (not necessarily answers to those questions) in hopes that this might at least shake things up a bit and with any luck, some truth will fall out in the process.

On being able to logically prove or disprove the existence of God

It seems to me that some of the biggest questions that beg to be answered are the infinity questions.

How could the universe be bounded by time? and yet, how could it not?

What I mean is this. No matter how far back in time you can imagine, you must still imagine that there was a time before that. Even if you subscribe to the big bang theory, you must ask, “Where did the matter that exploded come from?”, “What made it BANG in the first place” and even if you could find the answers to those questions, then you would have the question of “Where did whatever created that matter come from?”, “Where did the process that led to the matter exploding start? What started that? et. al.” At the same time, we must ask the question, “How could there not be a beginning? It seems impossible that time could go on forever.”

How big is the universe?

It seems impossible that it could go on forever, but even if you imagine that it had a boundary of some sort, you must then ask, “What’s outside that boundary?” even if the answer is “Nothing”, you can hardly imagine that “nothing” not extending infinitely outward. Simultaneously, it seems impossible for it to go on forever.

How small is the universe?

So next we go from outer space to inner space. We have seen that no matter how small we go, it seems that we can always find something smaller. Certainly, we are reaching the limits of our abilities to detect smaller and smaller particles, and energy forms, but just because we are unable to measure something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I mean, even if we take the smallest particle known to man, how can we not ask the question “What’s that made of?” “Can that truly not be broken down into an even smaller particle?” No matter how small of a size something gets, it seems that it must be possible for something even smaller to exist. But again, it also seems impossible for this to go on forever.  It reminds me of the question of “How can we move?” If in order to get somewhere, we must first get halfway there, and then we must get from that point to halfway between that and our destination. etc, etc. how do we ever get anywhere. It seems that we must cross infinite amounts of space and time just to move an inch.

Logic can’t explain everything

So, one main observation I would make, then, is this. It seems apparent that there are some things, even in the phenomenal universe that simply cannot be explained logically. Therefore, it is my belief that not all things have a logical explanation.

If God did exist, why would He do that to us?

So, if we presuppose that there’s no way to logically prove or disprove the existence of God, then we maybe we can take another angle. Here are some questions I’ve seen people ask.

If God is All-Knowing and All-Powerful, how come He can’t make it possible for us to prove His existence?

I would like to assert that this question presupposes that God’s reason for not making it possible for us to prove His existence is because he “can’t”. I think it is safe to assume that if God is All-Knowing, All-Powerful and the like, then it is possible for Him to make it possible for us to prove His existence. Some people will immediately take this to mean then, that there either is no God, or that God is not All-Knowing and All-Powerful. My personal opinion is this. God chose not to make His existence that obvious to us.

This, of course, begs another question.

If God is the All-Loving, All-Merciful, Creator that He is made out to be, why would He choose to make it so difficult for us to prove His existence?

I assert that it is possible that God has put us in this situation for a very specific reason, and that reason is to learn to have faith. Faith requires a few elements that could not exist if God were to make His existence obvious and provable. First, faith is belief in something when not all the facts are present. Otherwise it is knowledge. If God made his existence obvious, then you couldn’t have “faith” in his existence. It would be common knowledge.

It is possible that God chose not to make things easy “Because” He loves us

I assert that God loves us so much that he wants us to love Him, too, but of our free-will. Let’s say, for a moment, that instead of being born into this world of trouble, darkness and uncertainty, we were born straight into heaven. Confronted by God’s glory would we truly have any choice but to know and love Him? I assert that we would have no choice, no free-will. And, if we didn’t really love God of our own free will, could it really be called love? If it could, it seems like it would be a pointless kind of love.

Does God Exist?

Obviously I believe He does, and I don’t presume to state that I have answered any of the prevailing questions here. I personally don’t need for anyone else to share my point of view on this, but I feel like I have gotten a lot of peace from these observations and I hope that they bring some peace to others as well.

My own beliefs are constantly evolving in this area, so I would like to also indicate that just because I believe something is valid and true today, that doesn’t mean I will still believe it tomorrow. My eyes have certainly been opened on a number of occasions and I want my understanding of life, God and the universe to be as true as possible, so if you have some ideas to share, I would be happy to hear them.

I look forward to any feedback. I would like to say this, however. I know that issues like this can be real hotbuttons, for some people. I am aware that some people don’t like to add anything really meaningful and just like to tell people that they are wrong or right without actually adding anything meaningful to the conversation. This blog is moderated. If you would like to share your thoughts, please keep the comments clean, please do your best to not insult anyone who would visit this page, and make sure your comments actually add value. Don’t just post a quote from your favorite holy book, or voice and agreement or disagreement without any other commentary.

Thank you