The Enigma that is God

This is a question that has plagued mankind for millennia- we seem to constantly ask, what is He; who is He; where is He and, of course, does He exist? It’s worth noting that although I intend to answer some basic objections I am by no means ‘qualified’ in that I’m only a student, I don’t have a degree in philosophy or anything. I just have a lot of time, a lot of thought, a lot of personal study and a lot of formal study within college. The answers I give you may not accept or particularly like, you may find them ridiculous, and you may find them satisfactory. Within religious studies there are always counter arguments but it is worth noting that there are counters to the counters. Do not look to me for most of these, but rather look at a more complex site- I believe I give you quite a few on www.freewebs.com/teenapologetics (scroll down). Now that is sorted I can move on to answering some of the more common and basic objections to God’s existence. Like I said before, I do hope they’re at least decent.

1) There is no evidence for God’s existence.

An interesting statement, I feel. It all comes down to what one would class as ‘evidence’. Most people when they say this imply a lack of scientific evidence. Believe it or not, I would mostly agree with the notion that God is void of this. Although some of this would exist if we could touch, see and hear Jesus (as Christianity teaches He is God in flesh), this still does not escape the fact that observable and testable scientific evidence for God does not exist. But I wish to add at this point another twist- there cannot be scientific evidence for God’s existence. Why? Well, think about it. What is science? It tests and observes physical matter, i.e. what is tangible (seeing, hearing, tasting etc). Is God tangible? No, because He is metaphysical in nature, as opposed to physical. Therefore how can science test something that cannot logically be tested? How can the finite measure the infinite? It’s logically, technically and philosophically impossible. So it’s no surprise that there is no scientific evidence for God, and we shouldn’t keep banging on about it because that was never the case. The Bible itself says that God is spiritual (John 14) and that He is something you cannot touch and see. It is Atheism that moved the goalposts shorter together, not religion. So I moved them back for us.

So if there can be no scientific evidence for God, what can we have? Well there is only one other possible form- ‘logical’ evidence, something that implies heavily God’s existence. This takes several forms- religious experiences, fulfilled prophecies, Biblical accuracies, apparent design in the universe and scientific probabilities. I can’t go into detail on these for they would qualify a whole issue in themselves, so if you want such details look on the site. But I’ll briefly go over them-

- Religious Experiences are the strongest proof for the believer. Note that this proof is wholly individual as opposed to universal. My religious experiences are not designed to prove God to the unbeliever; rather they merely prove God to myself. I compare them to emotions in that we can be 100% certain that when we experience an emotion that that emotion is real. Even if we call love something like ‘super happy fun juice’ it would still be love but under a different name. The feeling remains the same. This is how it is with a religious experience; we can be certain of their reality and their origin. If having a religious experience is essentially an experience of God, then I can therefore say that as certain as I am that my emotions exist I am certain that God exists because of my religious experiences. Note that I acknowledge that some of these can be explained naturally, but many cannot. Many healings and life transformations have taken place that are still inexplicable and these number in the millions if not billions. If you are a sceptic, are you willing to say that every single person who has had these in every single situation is either a liar or a fool? Do you really have that much of an ego and that much contempt for other people?

- Fulfilled prophecies are incredibly numerous. Although some Biblical prophecies can be vague many are unbelievably precise and definite, and what is even more unbelievable is that history shows that they have been fulfilled. The chances of these hundreds of prophecies being fulfilled on their own accord, over a space of a few thousand years, is astronomical- so much so that mathematicians will tell you that the probability is classed as technically impossible. But look- they have been fulfilled! All of them, in a relatively short space of time! If the God of the Bible tells us that He will do this, and then suddenly it happens, then surely this is good logical ‘proof’ for His existence? Note to see examples of these go on the main site and look among the links and other articles.

- Biblical accuracies include scientific and historical
fields. To see examples look on www.freewebs.com/teenapologetics/objectionswiththebible.htm.

- Apparent design and scientific probabilities are also covered in the first two articles on www.freewebs.com/teenapologetics/objectionswithgod.htm.

So this is the logical ‘evidence’. It’s a good argument, not water proof but nonetheless satisfactory in most people’s eyes. If the only thing we can draw from this point is that God cannot possibly have scientific evidence, so we should stop banging on about it, then it would make me and my chatting fingers very pleased.

2) Why does God allow Evil?

This is something I’ve covered extensively on both the site but also in a previous issue. See www.freewebs.com/teenapologetics/objectionswithgod.htm and http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/tapologetics/message/5.

3) I don’t want anyone ruling my life.

There’s a bizarre stereotype of God running around most youth sceptic circles, and it is that God is some sort of sadistic ruler who wants you to kiss His backside at all times. This is simply not true. God does not want to make you suffer, or make your life boring. He just wants to be with you, and for you to be with Him. He wants you to accept that He created you and as such He loves you. He knows what is best for you and it only follows that believers want to follow His word. He doesn’t want you to unwillingly obey Him; infact the obedience is of secondary importance to Him. It is a natural and logical by-product of accepting Him as your loving creator. Therefore, obedience to God isn’t tiring or exhausting (most of the time!), He doesn’t want you to be His slave, it’s something that you should want to do once you accept that you love Him. It’s not a bad thing. You obeyed your mum and dad when you were little because they loved you, you loved them and you accepted that they knew best for you. There is little difference.

4) Why would God allow people to go to hell?

This is a sensitive issue, one fuelled with emotion and rightfully so. It is worth noting that these emotions easily cloud or logical judgement and just because we may not like something does not make it untrue. I personally don’t like the notion of hell; infact I despise it. But I accept it because it is necessary and it’s something that cannot be helped. Basically, the reason why God allows hell to exist stems from the issue of sin, and the fact that we all have it, from the ‘pope to the pauper’ as I like to say. It also comes from the fact that God is Holy, perfect and righteous. To be in a state of Holiness means that you are the complete opposite of being unholy. Like two ends of a magnet, these two extremes cannot meet, both logically and philosophically. Therefore, if we are unholy because of our sin, and God is 100% Holy because He is God, then He cannot have sinners in His presence. IT would go against His nature, it would go against logic and it would also be unfair. God is just; He is the epitome of fairness. Would you expect such a God to say to someone like Hitler or Stalin ‘Oh it’s alright, you can be with me and all is forgotten’? No of course not. This obviously gives us a nasty cycle, until we get to Jesus- He provides a way out of it and He frees us from sin, bringing us to God and allowing us in His presence. To find out more go to www.freewebs.com/teenapologetics and scroll down to ‘The Gospel’.

So there you have it. Four Common Objections to God answered and (hopefully) done with. I hope this has helped in some way, and I hope the answers have been at least decent