How Can I ‘Know’ God Exists?

by Rob Lundberg

I think you and I can agree that one of the most important questions that can ever be put on the table is the question of whether or not God exists.[1] People wrestle with this question when it comes to what God is like. However this question of God’s existence is still in the forefront.

I have had conversations on this subject with a variety of people. Some hold to a foreign worldview while Christians are quick to answer with a loud affirmation of belief. Some of those who embrace a foreign worldview fall in to a pagan category like Wicca or some kind of paganism. Others have a nominal understanding of Christianity. Those who have a skeptical worldview are quick to say, “No!” or “there is no way one can know what kind of God exists if one exists at all.

In fact, the existence of God is one of the most hotly debated subjects from the water cooler to the debate halls of academia. In this posting, I am would like to share with you one approach to answering this question, does God exist and how would you describe Him?

This response will be one that you will be able to bring into an everyday conversation with your coworkers, family members, and anyone else with whom you find yourself involved in a conversation.

Let’s start at the Very Beginning 

The Book of Genesis (Beginnings) begins with “In the beginning God. . . ”  But I want you to know that the Bible does not defend the existence of God. The Bible only affirms the existence of the Judeo Christian God and throughout the Bible it discloses who God is and what He is like.

[Please check out my podcast walking through The Twelve Points that Show Christianity to be True on this subject of God’s existence]

But even though this might be the first verse of the Book of the Beginnings, we are not going to start with the Bible. Please note that I believe the Bible. I believe it is totally inerrant, sufficient and has been protected. So why not start with the Bible?

Without getting into a long drawn out debate on starting points, imagine yourself in a conversation with a person who does not believe the things Christians believe. Or imagine a conversation with a Muslim. Or even imagine yourself engaged in a conversation with someone who is hostile to what you and I believe. And that person has no intention on believing what you and I believe. Many Christians bail on conversations like this. Are you going to start with the Bible in hopes to lead that person to Christ only to shut you down, or are you willing to re-evaluate your approach (not the message) with folks like this in order to “put a stone in their shoe?“

(Many Christians bail on conversations like this. But we can show you how to hang in the conversation, as long as possible and find a way to share your faith with answers that leave your conversant thinking)

So where do you begin?  You begin at the Beginning.

Anything that has any kind of beginning has something or someone that began it.

If you look around you. The computer or mobile device on which you are reading this post or looking around you outdoors, or even looking into the heavens with a telescope, EVERYTHING that we see around us had a beginning. Even you had a beginning!  And even the universe had a beginning.

The Hubble Telescope shows us the universe had a beginning by tracing back through the evidence this expanding universe we reside in, to a flash or big and show us that big explosion happened (Big Bang), way back in time that put things into motion.

Anything that has a beginning has a “beginner” that began it. Despite the fact that atheists seek to debunk the Big Bang, it is because they struggle with how it happened and how something can come from nothing. It takes them to reject a God that is uncaused, who caused everything from nothing to come into being.  Nevertheless the universe has a beginning, and the One that  began it is outside the universe or beyond space/time realities (transcendent). So let me pose the next question. . .

What is the Beginner like? Usually with any huge explosion there is an overwhelming amount of chaos. But this is not the case with the universe or anything else that we see around us. The aftermath of this great explosion shows a great amount of design.

Everything that shows a design, must have something or someone that designed it.

As we look and see the things around us, we often forget that we are observing things that are made up atoms. Each atom has an atomic number. If any of the variables holding these things together changes, you are no longer reading this post and I would not have finished it for you to read. I have just given you a quick thought as to what we see but that is not all.

We can see this kind of design in the vastness of the universe and solar system, where the Earth is so far enough from the Sun so that we don’t burn up or freeze. The Earth’s rotation is just fast enough (roughly 1000 mph) to where we do not suffocate or fall of the surface. The axis of the Earth (23.5 degrees) is just right as well. The Earth’s revolution around the Sun (nearly 30 kilometers per second, or 67,000 mph) should also be taken into consideration, as being just the right speed.  If we were going too fast we would fall out of orbit and drifting out into space.

Speaking of space, has anyone ever told you that Jupiter is located in the solar system in the just the right place. Did you know that Jupiter was a meteor asteroid dump. If Jupiter were not where it is, we would have having those meteors and asteroids crashing on the the Earth. 

We have just the right amount of oxygen in the air (21%). If it were too much we would burn up. If it were less than what we have, we would suffocate. One thing that I think we can all agree on is that breathing is essential.[2] 

What about human language. I remember when my daughter first started learning to talk. Language starts with a noun (person, place or thing) and then moves to a noun/verb construction. From there we hear the direct object come into play. So to give you an illustration, language moves from “Christine” to “Christine wants” to “Christine wants ice cream.”  What do we see with individual human language?[3]  We see order; and order shows design. 

And then there is thing known as the DNA. Anything that is a life system has DNA.  DNA contains a vast amount of information. The estimated number of cells in the human body range between 10 trillion and 100 trillion. Let us take as an example 100 trillion cells as the generally accepted estimate. So, given that each diploid cell contains 1.5 GB of data the approximate amount of data stored in the human body is:  1.5 Gbytes x 100 trillion cells = 150 trillion Gbytes or 150×10^12 x 10^9 bytes = 150 Zettabytes (10^21)!!![4]  

The last example is the idea of irreducible complexity. With this idea of irreducible complexity, there is what is called the bacterial flagellum.  The bacterial flagellum operates like a microscopic motor. Each part of the bacterial flagellum as a unique part to where if one of those parts were to be removed, the system would cease to function the way that it was meant to according to its. . . design. 

So if there is a Beginner who is the Designer, that Being cannot be playing games with our survival. There must be a purpose as to why we are able to be living in this world seeking to  move around and have our being. IF there is a God, and I think we are seeing this to be a great possibility, it means that this God wants us to know Him. And if there is a desire for us to know Him there has to be a sense of morality.  That means that there is a Moral Being that is concerned about the creation that we see around us.

[Please check out my podcast walking through The Twelve Points that Show Christianity to be True on this subject of God’s existence]

The Beginner Has Moral Identity

If someone stole your cell phone, your iPad, or laptop from you, would you say that the person was wrong to do so? Would you say they morally wrong to steal from you? If your boyfriend or girlfriend, other or spouse cheated on you, would you be upset?  Why? Would you agree that this was a moral atrocity against you?

So if we are infused with a sense of moral right and wrong, [5] where do those moral laws come from? If you want to say society?  Which society’s moral law are you willing to accept: one that respects their citizens or one that chooses to beat their citizens for looking at another person wearing a burka or hijab? Are you willing to accept that there just might be an absolute moral standard ingrained in all of us?

It is safe to say that what is right, what is wrong are ingrained in us. The question of absolute morality is rooted and grounded in an ethical framework. If there is a moral law, there must be a Moral Lawgiver that has designed the universe and everything we see around us and has fine tuned it in such a way where we can seek and grope after this Moral Lawgiver and find Him.

I could go on further in this but in order to achieve my goal for this posting, I wanted to give you some thoughts on how you can share with others who will not listen to the Bible, but will listen to you if you listen to their hurt, learn their language and help them along, clearing their intellectual rubble, and helping them think about the existence of God.

[Please check out my podcast walking through The Twelve Points that Show Christianity to be True on this subject of God’s existence]

Conclusion.

So if there is a beginning to the universe and it shows design. If there is an intricate design this Cause of the universe, who designed it, must want us to know Him. And this God has put in each and everyone of us a moral framework to volitionally accept or reject what is right or what is wrong. 

As Christian casemakers you and I can explain to folks God’s existence without arguing in a circle for the Bible. But think of it this way, if God began the universe and spoke it into existence, we can go to Genesis 1:1.  If we understand that there is a design to all that we see around us, and that it is not chaos, we can go to Psalm 19:1.  And if there is a Beginner and a Designer who are One and the same, He must be moral and we can go to the very beginning of the moral law found in Exodus 20:1-18.  

With all that I have shared with you in this post, would you agree me that this sounds like the God of the Bible?  I very well think so.

Notes

[1] When I say God, I am referring the God of the Bible who is spaceless, timeless (eternal), and as the First Cause of the universe.  This is a great description of the God of the Bible who loves you and I enough to send His Son, Jesus Christ to pay for our sins on the cross of Calvary and through His life, show us who He is and draw us to a personal relationship with Him.

[2]Some of these earth science facts are all factors in what is known as the anthropic principle. The anthropic principle brings forth the conditions that explain why the universe is right for life. Atheists try to explain it away, but it is far from coincidence that there are things in our world that are “just right” for our being able to live and move and have our being in this world and cosmos that we live in.

[3] Whether you are in an English speaking nation or in another country and are using a translation tool, see if what I am saying to you about the order of language is true. It starts with a noun (subject), then to subject/verb, and then a fully construction of a sentence with a subject/verb/direct object along with other adjectival/adverbial descriptors.

[4] https://bitesizebio.com/8378/how-much-information-is-stored-in-the-human-genome/

[5] I don’t think anyone will disagree with me that it is morally wrong to torture babies.

___________________________

Rob is a blogger, professor, writer, and public speaker on a mission to equip the believer to articulate what and why they believe to a confused culture in a “brave new world.”

He is available to come and speak to your church, college club, or group. If y are looking for a specific topic to equip your church, here are some ideas click here.   If you would like to know the places that I have spoken click here.  To book Rob to speak to your group or your church, contact him by sending an email.