I was sent the above quote from famed atheist Stephen Hawking this week. It is really interesting to me why people will fight hard against believing in the existence of a God, choosing rather to believe that the universe created itself (to quote the non-quite Christian movie "Anchorman", "60% of the time, this works every time"). This quote also reinforced the rationality of a few key arguments for God's existence, in concise poor mann's terms below...
1. The Cosmological Argument- We live in a cause and effect system. The universe had to have a beginning and a cause. Since it is logically impossible for the universe to be eternal, it must have been started at a certain point. Atheists will claim that this was a spontaneous "big bang," but doesn't it seem a touch more rational to believe that an eternal, personal, powerful God chose to intentionally create? Contrary to Hawking's words above, the universe cannot create itself out of nothing, because then the universe would have had to exist before it existed, which doesn't make sense, you know. Indeed, God is the most rational answer to the question of why we (or anything we see) exists.
2. The Teleological Argument- This is the argument for God's existence from the obvious design seen in our world and in our bodies. Not only must the universe have had a beginning, but it had to have a designer. A supreme lawmaker had to write the "law of gravity" which Hawking references; an Eternal Engineer had to create the processes and systems of life, digestion, photosynthesis, reproduction, energy, and give start to those systems; and only a Divine artist (not an impersonal big-bang) could create awe-inspiring landscapes, feelings of love, beauty, and hope, mellifluous melodies, and even the wonders found in vast corners of outer space. Something with such order and beauty demands an intelligent designer.
3. The Moral Argument- Where do we get morals from? Where do we get meaning from? Without a God who created, we have absolutely no logical reason to believe in right and wrong, good and evil. As CS Lewis reasoned, "A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?" You see, we do have universal morals, values, and meaning. We cannot call rape "evil" unless we know there is real good and real evil. God has given us a "straight line" of morality, so that we can look at rape, murder, and a host of other actions and absolutely call them "evil." The fact that we have right and wrong (in all societies) appeals to a Lawmaker who wrote those values and morals on our hearts.
Many will assume that atheism appeals to science and logic whereas belief in God appeals to "blind faith." Wrong. I choose to believe in God because it is most rational and logical to do so. Belief in God is certainly by faith, but it is not a blind faith. In fact, I would argue that it takes more faith to be an atheist!
As CS Lewis said again, "Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning."
Addendum- A few apologetics resources I use. There are several good ones out there.
- STR Place (apologetics for students)
Hey, Ryan, this makes me think of a friend I have who is a senior in high school. She mentioned God on facebook, and another friend wrote, "Hey, I thought you were an atheist." Her reply was simple but held so much: "I was, but it was boring."
ReplyDeleteI had not thought of what you put in here about from where feelings and love might come. God is a Person and we reflect Him in our personhood.
Cool.
lv,
your Mom