By Wane Walker
David declared in Psalm 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” There have always been men who have denied the existence of that supreme being whom we acknowledge as Creator and Lord of all. Not only have those who are opposed to religion made such claims, but today men of religion, self-styled theologians, are also saying that God does not really exist except in the minds of those who think He does. Yet, they themselves offer no demonstration or proof for their allegations besides their own philosophy and reasoning. We ought to have more objective evidence one way or the other. Is there any? I believe there is.
First, we have the existence of the universe to contend with. To deny it exists is absurd (although some have tried it) because our own senses indicate it is here. The immediate question that comes to mind is, how did it get here? There is a scientific axiom, called cause-effect, which states that something cannot come from nothing; every effect must have an adequate cause. Christians believe that God was the First Cause. Moses wrote, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). No more reasonable explanation has ever been offered. In addition, the Psalmist affirmed, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). The only power great enough to be the cause of all we see and know can only be God.
Next, there is the design of the earth to be reckoned with. Our wonderful world, with the perfect timing of its revolution around the sun and rotation on its axis, the water-evaporation-condensation cycle, the movement of the winds from the equator and back, and the ocean currents, runs like one giant piece of clockwork. Now we all understand that a well-constructed house does not just spring up out of the ground. Nor does a watch, with all its minute organization, gather itself together from sundry bits and pieces. Why is it then that some try to tell us that the earth, in all its beauty and precision, is the result of blind chance? “Every house is builded by some man; but he that builded all things is God” (Heb. 3:4). The world “build” here means to construct or erect, as of a building. The Bible pictures this globe of ours as a huge, well-planned structure whose architect and engineer is God.
Finally, the nature of man is worthy of notice. It is impossible to deny that man has certain capacities which animals do not. For instance, man has a conscience that helps him determine right from wrong; he can appreciate that which he considers beautiful; and he is rational, having the power to reason and communicate logically. Although animals do have powerful instincts, they do not have these characteristics. So we ask, where did man get them? Science cannot even explain where man came from, much less how he became superior to the animals. If-and that’s a big if-evolution were true, man could not have inherited these qualities from his supposed animal ancestors because they did not have them to pass on. Nor does the environment provide an adequate source as some have hypothesized. The only reasonable answer offered so far is the one that includes God. “So God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1:27). Certain of the characteristics which God possesses such as morality, rationality, and aesthetics, He gave to man in creation.
We believers need never be daunted by the onslaughts of modern, atheistic philosophy, because evidence for the existence of God is there and it is sufficient. We must also remember that when a person makes the claim, “There is no God,” he is obligated to prove it-and prove it he cannot. And while we cannot “prove” that God does exist, as a mathematician can prove 4×2+4xy-y2=(2x+y)2, or as a chemist can prove 2H2+02=2H20 by formulae, we can show from the evidence that it is more reasonable to believe in God than to disbelieve.
Truth Magazine XXII: 13, p. 221
March 30, 1978