Wednesday, July 26, 2006

MY FAVORITE ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

Dear Joe---

Please understand I am not trying to convert you from your atheistic ways, but our conversation the other day made me realize I don’t get a chance to talk about the existence of God as much as I’d like to. People I mention it to on the subway just don’t seem that interested.

For me, creation remains the central mystery. Where did all the stuff come from? All the galaxies and chemicals and atoms---all the stuff that went into the big bang---where did it come from? Your answer, I think, was that it just appeared, or that it was always there, somehow.

This idea runs counter to everything you and I and everybody else in the history of the world have ever observed. Causes and effects are everywhere---nothing comes out of nothing. And yet, you think that at the very beginning, at the very first moment, it did. There was no particular reason for it. It just happened. At the very start, there was matter, or a creative event, or a coming into existence, or something, and then this magical process ceased forever as we were thrown into a universe of cause and effect. Why? How? And if you don’t know, can you at least point to SOMETHING that would justify your faith in this scenario?

My problem with it is that I cannot make the leap of faith you find so comfortable and certain. The idea of an effect without a cause is not only alien to my experience, I can’t even conceive of such a thing. I don’t know how to start thinking about it. In other words, it’s not that I have “faith” and you don’t. It’s impossible for a human being with a mind not to have “faith,” because there is no natural process that explains creation. You have faith too, but it’s in a process I find so outlandish and weird and irrational that I can’t imagine it.

While your theory contradicts our knowledge of the physical world, positing the existence of God contradicts nothing. My God is the Creator. Everything in the universe I am familiar with has a cause, and He is the first cause. That’s the definition of God. There can be no proof, in any scientific fashion, of His existence, but He fits. He makes sense.

I would add that I can find hints of God’s existence in my own observations, and in wisdom that has come down through the centuries, and in the Bible. It’s possible that all us believers are just kidding ourselves, of course, but your alternative offers nothing---no evidence, no hints, no explanation. In addition, we must believe that everything we see and understand is false.

Love,

Joe

Copyright 2006 Michael Kubacki