{"id":6177,"date":"2024-07-11T09:32:22","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T15:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?p=6177"},"modified":"2024-07-11T09:32:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T15:32:22","slug":"chapter-2-does-god-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2024\/07\/chapter-2-does-god-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 2: Does God exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Throughout the summer, my wife \u2014 The Reverend Canon Natalie Van Kirk \u2014 and I have been preaching a series on the subject of doubt.\u00a0 We have been addressing both the subject of doubt itself and the questions that are often the source of trying questions for Christians, as well as others.\u00a0 Obviously, none of these articles are exhaustive but we hope that they will be a helpful stimulus to your own thinking.<\/em><\/p>\n

Frederick writes:<\/em><\/p>\n

When I told friends that my wife and I were working on a series of articles on doubt and that I was going to speak to the question, \u201cIs there a God?\u201d, a number of them made comments that suggested that they were thinking, \u201cBoy you really drew the short straw, didn\u2019t you?\u201d But the truth is, in a fit of insanity I actually volunteered to write a bit about the subject.<\/p>\n

It could be that I made this foolhardy promise because of a childhood experience.\u00a0 The first washing machine that my parents ever owned was this giant metal tub with an big agitator in the middle that slowly went back and forth.\u00a0 Above it, on the back, were two large, hard rubber rollers.\u00a0 You put the clothes in between them after they were washed, a lever pressed the rollers together, and with a hand crank you rolled the clothes through them, pressing the water out, so that you could hang your clothes on the line outside to dry.\u00a0 Then you drained the remaining water from the tub into a hole in the basement floor.<\/p>\n

As a result, my mother was stuck in one place dealing with this machine for hours.\u00a0 And that is where I sprang my first philosophical and theological question on her at the age of five: \u201cHow do we know God exists?\u201d I\u2019m sure my mother\u2019s question was, \u201cWhy hasn\u2019t God come up with something better than this damn machine?\u201d\u00a0 She probably also thought, \u201cWhat is it with this kid?\u201d\u00a0 But those are both different philosophical problems.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember exactly what my mother said but I have thought a lot about the existence of God off and on over the years.\u00a0 As with every other question Natalie and I\u00a0 are discussing, I don\u2019t expect to \u201csolve\u201d the problem or give a \u201cfinal answer\u201d to the question.\u00a0 But I do want to offer some ways of thinking about it that I hope will be helpful.<\/p>\n

The first thing to note is just how complex this question is and how much is at stake.\u00a0 Some people think that the existence of God is a big, abstract issue that has very little bearing on daily life \u2013 a bit like the question, \u201cIs there life on other planets?\u201d\u00a0 Unless aliens show up tomorrow afternoon the answer is likely to be of very little consequence.<\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t the case with the existence of God.\u00a0 When we answer that question we are also answering other questions: Do our lives have meaning and purpose?\u00a0 Is there such a thing as right and wrong, justice and injustice?\u00a0 Do we do endure beyond the grave?<\/p>\n

It is true, that without God you might be able to offer constructive answers to these questions.\u00a0 But the only reasons you could give for your answers would be utilitarian.\u00a0 In other words, you would be forced to say, \u201cGod doesn\u2019t exist, so none of these questions can be answered positively in any sense that will outlive us or that is beyond us.\u00a0 But for the time being we should act like they do because life works best this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

One can\u2019t talk about the inherent dignity of human beings, God-given rights, or in the language of the Declaration of Independence, \u201ctruths [we hold] to be self-evident\u201d, because there would be no such truths.\u00a0 There would only be truths we live by, because things work more smoothly.\u00a0 And, of course, if there is no God, this also means that people who don\u2019t live by those truths aren\u2019t really wrong or immoral. They\u2019ve just broken rules that a majority of people have agreed upon for the moment.\u00a0 This is why, then, that some people and countries regularly do things that are immoral and unjust.<\/p>\n

So all of this \u2013 and much more \u2013 is at stake when we ask the question, \u201cDoes God exist?\u201d\u00a0 But how do we answer the question itself?<\/p>\n

First of all we need to be clear that the question of God can\u2019t be answered in scientific terms.\u00a0 We cannot prove <\/em>that God exists and \u2013 likewise \u2013 we cannot prove that God doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

This shouldn\u2019t bother us.\u00a0 There are many truths about life that don\u2019t submit to scientific proofs.\u00a0 Beauty, love, virtue, right, wrong, justice, injustice \u2014 all this and more lies at the heart of what we value most in life but proving that those values have an existence independent of our perceptions or beliefs is impossible.<\/p>\n

What we can <\/em>do is subject the question of God\u2019s existence to a test of probability.\u00a0 Put in the form of a question, the test of probability asks, \u201cCan the existence of human life and with it \u2013 the world around us, the concept of meaning, and notions of right and wrong \u2013 be better explained by the existence of God or by a natural process like evolution?\u201d<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t be surprised to discover that I believe that the existence of God better explains us, our nature, and the world around us, than does evolution.\u00a0 But let me tell you a bit about why I do.<\/p>\n

One reason has to do with the origin of anything at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n

My first, more detailed introduction to the theory of evolution was as a college freshman.\u00a0 My professor set out the process of evolution, arguing that it all began with the big bang \u2013 a highly concentrated, unique explosive event, that set the whole of the universe in motion.<\/p>\n

The theory cannot offer any reason why this explosion took place or why it took place only once.\u00a0 But most significantly, it cannot explain where the matter and energy that made this explosion possible came from in the beginning.<\/p>\n

This points to one of the limits of science itself.\u00a0 Science is an amazing, descriptive<\/em> tool.\u00a0 It can describe what is and it can give an account of the processes that govern what already exists.<\/p>\n

But it is not an effective explanatory<\/em> tool.\u00a0 You cannot apply it to the moment when nothing existed and explain why something just appeared.\u00a0 In a vacuum where there is no matter, no forces or interactions, no energy present, science is necessarily silent.\u00a0 And when it is forced to pronounce on situations like that,\u00a0 it inevitably exceeds the strength of its tools.<\/p>\n

Religion, on the other hand, offers those explains and can account for the existence of both matter and energy.\u00a0 And the unique characteristic of the Judaeo-Christian tradition is that it does this without excluding scientific explanations for the way in which the world evolved and works.<\/p>\n

We may bristle at the conviction that we cannot explain everything and that there are limits to the knowledge a single discipline like science can offer. \u00a0But humility has always been the key to great scholarship and a lack of it has almost always led to disaster.<\/p>\n

The inherent complexity of creation is the second phenomenon that vindicates a belief in God.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oxford mathematician, John Lennox, is also a Christian.\u00a0 He makes the observation<\/a> that a large part of what prompted him to embrace the Christian faith is the fact the human mind can generate equations that help to describe the universe and the way in which it functions.<\/p>\n

He notes that this is impossible to explain if one believes that a mindless, unguided process produced the human mind and<\/em> made it possible for that mind to grasp the world around it.\u00a0 He notes that if anything, one would be bound to mistrust the human mind, if it arose out of a random process in an equally random world.\u00a0 As he notes, Albert Einstein often observed, \u201cthe only thing incomprehensible about the universe is that it\u2019s comprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lennox observes that the only explanation possible is that a divine mind ordered both existence and the human mind.\u00a0 And that conviction he notes, is why the original pioneers of science all believed God: Galileo, Newton, Kepler, and those who laid the foundations of the scientific method, botany,\u00a0 modern optics; astronomy and physics; the theory of gravity and calculus; modern genetics; soil science; the theory of relativity; physiology; affective Computing; and the human genome project have all been shaped by Christians.<\/p>\n

As C.S. Lewis noted, the great sciences have all been shaped by Christians who \u201cexpected to find laws in nature, because they believed in a divine legislator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without God, the even more improbable result is our sense of morality.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

As different as societies are and as much evil as there is in the world, the vast majority of human beings are convinced that there is right and wrong, justice and injustice.\u00a0 We may debate some of the particulars and our pursuit of the good and the just is less than perfect but without a divine mind or word at the heart of creation, it is very difficult to explain this phenomenon by arguing that it is a better way forward in evolutionary terms.<\/p>\n

Even modern atheists like Brett Weinstein<\/a> and Richard Dawkins<\/a> have been arguing for the importance of cultural Christianity to the survival of western civilization.\u00a0 But they ignore the fact that it is only baptized Christians who make a moral understanding of our world a possibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And that observation brings me to a final point: The case for the probability that God exists will only take you so far, just as reason will take you so far in life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wrongly, atheists assume that the whole of life can be navigated with the help of science and reason.\u00a0 But anyone who has ever navigated the challenges of finding meaning and relationship in life has to know that if those are the only planes of perception that govern your life, you will fail at both.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t believe me, try telling someone that you love that you love them for purely utilitarian reasons \u2013 or because evolution insists you pretend that you love someone.\u00a0 Good luck with that.<\/p>\n

One of the conceits of the Enlightenment has been that reason can unlock every door, solve every problem, restore every relationship, heal every society.\u00a0 But the societies governed by that premise have been murderous and coercive: the French Revolution, Nazi Germany, the USSR, and Red China were all governed by one version of that premise or another \u2013 and they also claimed more lives in the process.<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is that there is another, important, and complementary plane of perception and until you enter into it wholeheartedly, you cannot understand its power.\u00a0 And that plane of perception can only be entered into through faith.<\/p>\n

Ayaan Hirsi Ali<\/a> was born in Somalia, she moved to Holland and then to the United States where she has served as a politician and human rights activist.\u00a0 She was also an outspoken atheist and was considered one of the leading voices for a secularist point of view \u2013 in particular because of her experience of fundamentalist Islam.\u00a0 But recently she became a Christian and her description of her conversion illustrates my point:<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t, like many people who come to faith, see big banging lights. And I didn\u2019t have any of those spectacular experiences that some people share. I wish I did, but I didn\u2019t. I had a personal crisis. I lived for about a decade with intense depression and anxiety and self-loathing. I hit rock bottom, I went to a place where I actually didn\u2019t want to live anymore, but wasn\u2019t brave enough to take my own life. So I was self medicating. I had over a long period of time seen a psychiatrist, other\u00a0 doctors. I was trying to understand my condition and trying to treat it with the help of pure evidence-based science.<\/p>\n

And in January, February of last year, I saw one therapist who said, perhaps it\u2019s something else that you have. And she described it as spiritual bankruptcy. And that resonated with me. And having reached a place where I had absolutely nothing to lose, I prayed and I prayed desperately. And for me, that was a turning point. And what happened after that is a miracle in its own right. I feel connected to something higher and greater than myself, I feel I\u2026 my zest for life is back. And that and that experience has filled me with humility\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My friends, it is that journey into which Christ invites us.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the summer, my wife \u2014 The Reverend Canon Natalie Van Kirk \u2014 and I have been preaching a series on the subject of doubt.\u00a0 We have been addressing both the subject of doubt itself and the questions that are often the source of trying questions for Christians, as well as others.\u00a0 Obviously, none of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":6273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChapter 2: Does God exist?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Throughout the summer, my wife -- The Reverend Canon Natalie Van Kirk -- and I have been preaching a series on the subject of doubt.\u00a0 We have been\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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Schmidt, Jr. is inaugural holder of the Rueben P. Job Chair in Spiritual Formation and a Senior Scholar at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. He is also Vice Rector at Good Shepherd, Brentwood, TN; an Episcopal Priest; spiritual director; retreat facilitator; conference leader; and writer. He is the author of numerous published articles and reviews, as well as several books: A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1998), The Changing Face of God (Morehouse, 2000), When Suffering Persists (Morehouse, 2001), in Italian translation: Sofferenza, All ricerca di una riposta (Torino: Claudiana, 2004), What God Wants for Your Life \ufeff(Harper, 2005), Conversations with Scripture: Revelation (Morehouse, 2005), \ufeffConversations with Scripture: Luke \ufeff(Morehouse, 2009), and The Dave Test (Abingdon, 2013). He and his wife, Natalie (who is also an Episcopal priest), live in Arrington, TN. 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