Does God Exist?

This is the sermon that I preached on Sunday about the existence of God.  Please note that this is a sermon and not an academic lecture.  But I thought people might find it interesting.  If anyone wants it in mp3 format, please contact me.

Introduction
There has been a major change in the ways that atheists are presenting themselves. There have been numerous bestsellers by atheists promoting their views and being very critical of religion. A recent example is a bus campaign where an atheist organization bought advertising space stating that “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy life.” Atheists are organizing and even evangelizing. Of course in our society we value tolerance and we defend atheists’ right to express their disbelief. And anyway, there is nothing wrong with being an atheist is there? There are even some respected religious people who are atheists. The Dali Lama, one of the most respected individuals today and the most exalted figure in Tibetan Buddhism is an atheist. But what about in Christian circles? Pastor Klaas Hendrikse, serves a congregation of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. In 2007 he published a book described as a “manifesto of an atheist pastor.” In the book Hendrikse argues for the non-existence of God, but he insists that he does believe in God as a concept. In his book, Hendrikse recounts how his conviction that God does not exist has become stronger over the years. “The non-existence of God is for me not an obstacle but a precondition to believing in God. I am an atheist believer,” Hendrikse writes in the book. “God is for me not a being but a word for what can happen between people. Someone says to you, for example, ‘I will not abandon you’, and then makes those words come true. It would be perfectly alright to call that [relationship] God.” I have heard of numerous other stories of religious leaders who were also atheists. Does this make sense? In all this we have to wrestle with Psalm 14:1. “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”” (Psalm 14:1, NRSV) Does this mean that you are foolish if you have doubts or questions? No! This is about people’s apparent certainty that God does not exist. It is one thing to question something, it is another to assert the non-existence of something. I have not seen the planet Jupiter myself and in principle I can accept that it could be a conspiracy by astronomers. But even if I questioned whether Jupiter exists, I could not assert that it definitely did not exist. The same is true of God. How is it possible to assert the non-existence of God? Question it if you wish but we must always keep an open mind. What if you are already a believer? This is worth talking about because it is good for us to know why we believe. As our confidence in God is strengthened, we are better able to serve Him. It also equips us to respond to friends and family who doubt God’s existence. Let us take a look at why we believe in God.
I. Universe
One of the reasons that we know that God exists is that the universe exists. Why does anything exist? Perhaps you are acquainted with the big bang theory. This theory suggests that the universe is approximately 14 billion years old and that it started from a primordial dense and hot state that suddenly expanded at an incredible rate resulting in all of our galaxies and was the birth of the universe. This is very important. One of the critiques of belief in God is who created God? But think of this big bang theory which is sometimes used as an attempt to have creation without God. But the big bang theory requires this very small but infinitely dense and hot singularity to exist. Where did that matter come from? How could something come from nothing? If the big bang theory is correct, it actually is explained more easily if God was behind it. If the natural state of all things is at rest, then it is a miracle that anything is moving, much less a universe expanding. This is why the philosophers called God the Unmoved Mover.
II. Morality
Another reason that we know that there is a God is the existence of morality. We call some things good and some things bad. Why is that? And why are these morals found across societies with no apparent relationship? We say that murder is wrong. There is no society that says that it is okay to just walk up to someone for no reason and to put a knife in their heart. There are individuals who may do this but society reacts in horror to such acts. We value people who are loyal and we avoid people who betray and are insincere. We value honesty and truth and reject lies and deceit. Who is to say that murder is wrong and charity is right? There seems to be something inside us that tells us right from wrong. But what about the holocaust? That seems to be an example of a society that turned morality upside down. First of all we have to understand that it was a small segment of society that participated in it. Secondly, notice the feelings we have toward it. We do not look at the holocaust and see it as an interesting but disturbing social experiment. We are overwhelmed with grief and anger that such injustice took place. We can call it injustice because we believe that something can be called justice. This sense of morality seems to point to a reality beyond what we see. Notice that our word God is so close to the word good. God seems to be the measure by which we determine what is good.
III. Instinct
One of the interesting things about belief in God is the fact that it is almost universal. Not that everyone believes in God, but unbelief is a very small percentage. Not only that, belief in some sort of god is found across cultures, societies, levels of education and so on. Even in Buddhism, a religion and philosophy designed to explain life and provide hope without God, has in may of its forms, adopted beliefs in some sort of divine presence. There is something deep within us that makes us long for God to be real. But desire doesn’t not equal reality. Or does it? Ponder this statement by C.S. Lewis, an atheist who converted to Christianity “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures can satisfy it, that does not mean the universe is a fraud…earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” The reason our desire for God is so strong is because there is a God who exists to satisfy that longing.
IV. Intelligent Design
I could spend a lot of time on intelligent design but I will just go over it in brief. Intelligent design is completely separate from the debates between six day creation and evolution. It does not start with the Bible and then attempt to describe nature through a biblical lens. Intelligent design is science and it starts with the data and attempts to find the best explanation. What many people, not theologians but scientists, have discovered is that all life, including human life, seems too complex to occur without outside assistance. To say that all life came about by accident is like saying a tornado could go through a junkyard and assemble a Boeing 747.
V. Beauty of Creation
Say for a moment that Darwin was correct with his theory on the survival of the fittest. That could explain some of the beauty that we see in creation, as that contributes to a species ability to mate and multiply. But what about a sunrise or sunset? What about majestic mountains? What about a brilliant blue sea? There is no utilitarian reason for these aspects of creation to be beautiful. I believe that the beauty of creation points to God.
VI. Changed lives
There are some very sincere atheists out there. Many of them are very good people. But I have never heard of a person converting to atheism who as a result had a radically good change as to who they were as a person. And yet there are thousands and thousands of stories of drug addicts, criminals, corrupt politicians, greedy businessman, and so on, who called out to God and had their lives completely transformed, becoming loving and compassionate members of their community. Transformed lives point to God.
VII. Resurrection
There are many other reasons to believe in God, but I will conclude with one last one. I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a revelation of God. There is much I could say about that, but specifically the resurrection of Jesus points to the reality of God. An atheist could affirm Jesus as a moral teacher and as a man that cared for the poor. But how do you explain the resurrection of Jesus on the third day without God? The apostles died because of their belief that Jesus really did rise from the dead. They would not have done this if they had made it up. The historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection points to the reality of God.
Conclusion
I can not prove to you that God exists. If you have come here as an atheist convinced that God does not exist, you probably will leave the same way. But I do hope that with an open mind that I have given you something to think about. The universe, morality, instinct, intelligent design, beauty of creation and the resurrection of Jesus all point to the reality of God’s existence. None of the individual arguments might be convincing for you but the cumulative effect is a strong argument that God does indeed exist. If you are a Christian, may that strengthen your faith. If you are not yet a Christian, may that give you something to think about.