Why do you believe in God? Perhaps you grew up in a family of faith or developed an influential relationship with someone who was a strong believer? You may have studied the evidence yourself and arrived at the conclusion that there is a God. For just a moment, I would like to point out some reasons why we believe there is a God.
We believe there is a God because there are significant barriers preventing us from arriving at atheism. Dr. Thomas B. Warren, in his debate with the atheist Antony Flew, argued that there is no way for the world as we know it to exist without there being a God. He listed 5 barriers to atheism based on this principle. For there to be no God, non-human material had to become human material. Non-intelligent material had to become intelligent material. Unconscious matter had to become conscious of itself and its surroundings. In the physical world in which there was no life, something had to live for the first time. Finally, there had to be nothing and then that nothingness brought about something from the nothingness.
We believe there is a God because there are significant reasons propelling us to faith. First, as Thomas Aquinas argued, if the universe is in motion, then there must be an unmoved Mover who put the world into motion. There must be a foundation to avoid a series of infinite effects with no real cause. Second, this unmoved Mover must be efficiently great to cause the universe. Third, if all our universe depends upon something for its existence, then there must be something upon which it all depends. Fourthly, if we are able to make moral judgments and/or value judgments, there must be a perfection by which all these are judged. Nothing in creation is truly perfect, so God must exist so that values can be compared to him as the perfect standard. Fifthly, we see that there is the appearance of design in the universe. That design demands that there is a Designer.
Two bonus reasons to believe. We can add to Aquinas’ list the existence of the Scriptures. The Bible contains characteristics which are beyond human production and must therefore be from God. Finally, we can look to the resurrection of Jesus as a proof for God’s existence. Few doubt that Jesus existed and that his tomb was empty. The appearances of our resurrected Lord and his disciples’ firm faith in his resurrection are proofs not only that Jesus has been raised but also that there is a God who raised his Son from the dead.
