Do you believe in God? Why or why not? What reason would you give for your belief? Because the Bible tells you so? What else you got?
“…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” – 1 Peter 3:15
In the previous blog, we made some rather big (as in highly important and critical) “If” statements that require verification. To summarize, here are the abbreviated logical assertions: If there is a God and if God provides us with an eternal life after this earthly life and if our actions in thought, word, and deed affect our status in this future eternal life, then…how should we live our life?
In terms of developing a life strategy, does this even matter? You bet’cha! If the first assertion is false–if there is no God, by logical extension there is no future life after this earthly life–no caterpillar to butterfly experience to place our hope. When it’s over, it’s over. And if there’s no future life, then all that we say, think, do, and believe in this life should be…well, who cares? Do whatever you want to maximizing your fun and excitement–however you define fun and excitement. Thus, the optimum game plan if this life is all there is would be to do whatever you want or can get away with. If it feels good, do it. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may die.
That certainly makes creating a life strategy easy! “Do what you want!” Sadly, it seems many have chosen this path because of its appeal. But “appeal” is not the metric to use for evaluation. Truth is the measuring stick. These are considered to be “Big Ifs” because they have eternal consequences and we need to choose wisely for eternity is a long time to be wrong.
Christians believe that the Bible is God’s Word. It was written by humans inspired by the Holy Spirit. But what if we excluded the evidence of the Bible? Could we still make a strong case for the existence of God?
Absolutely!
In science we know our universe has a beginning. This initial event is commonly referred to as the Big Bang. For something to come into existence, it must have a cause. Things do not spontaneously appear out of nothing. In order to have a big bang or any bang, there must be a Banger.
Logically, the reason this universe came into existence must be either by chance or design. We are either the children from the Mother of all cosmic accidents or we’re the children of a Creator. This is where science and the mathematics of probability come into play. What we now know through science is that not just any universe can support life. In fact, the odds are astronomically low that a “generic” universe would support life.
In physics we observe the atom and the strong and weak nuclear forces that hold it together and enable it to bond to other atoms to form molecules which are the building blocks for life. The precision of these forces as well as gravity and other cosmological constants are all surprisingly finely tuned to support the existence of life. We know from probability that to calculate the chance of multiple events occurring simultaneously, you must multiple their respective probabilities. Thus, if you flip a coin, your chance of getting “heads” is 1 out of 2. To roll a “3” on a die is 1 chance in 6, but to get both a heads and a 3 you multiply 1/2 x 1/6 and you get 1 chance in 12.
When we conservatively calculate these probabilities for all the cosmological constants that are required to support life we get numbers in the range of 1 chance in 10 raised to the 120th power. That’s a 1 followed by one hundred and twenty zeroes! That’s just the physics side. We haven’t even discussed biology and the probability that life could “evolve” from inanimate matter through natural causes i.e. chemistry.
The biggest challenge to naturalists and atheists (same thing) when it comes to living matter is the concept/development of information. As Bill Gates once said about DNA is that it was like a software program far more complex than anything any human had written. Well, Who wrote it? How can an entire language come into existence by chance? How can information (intelligence) evolve from random actions (unintelligence)?
Let’s give a simple illustration. Let’s say you pick up a small, rectangular, flat rock. How long or how many years would you think it would take for it to evolve into an i-phone? If the universe is 15 billion years old, then is that long enough? You laugh, but if there is no God or Creator, then this is similar to how naturalists explain the current universe. Not only must this flat rock evolve into an i-phone, but it must be fully loaded with all the firmware and software to operate.
Now, for a download of reality. The simplest life form is far more complex than any cell phone. If you think a flat rock becoming a functioning cell phone is absurd, then thinking inanimate matter becoming life (spontaneous generation) by chance or mere chemistry is off the charts ridiculous. The math proves it so, but hey, this is the “call” we all must make.
It’s time to make a bold statement and put an end to this innumerate nonsense. The philosophy of naturalism is mathematically untenable. Atheism as a viable explanation of the universe is dead. It has gone the way of the flat earth society. We are all deists now. Everyone should at least be thinking at the X-Files level (if you remember that show), “There’s something out there.”
When you evaluate the facts, the evidence of design and a Designer or Creator is beyond overwhelming. The next questions becomes, “What kind of Creator do we have?” Do we address our Creator as “Father” or “the Force” to be with you? Could there be more than one? We’ll address those questions in our next blog.
