This past week I began a 3-week class at RLC called “Ask Anything.” It’s a Q&A format centered on whatever people want to talk about, but each week I’ll tackle one of the “big questions” lots of people seem to be asking. I’ll post my reflections on those questions here on the blog each week. We started with a question that seems foundational to many: How do we know God exists?
First we have to acknowledge that we don’t know for sure that God exists, any more than we know for sure that he doesn’t. Absolute certainty about whether God exists or not is impossible.
Some say God doesn’t exist because God’s existence can’t be proven “scientifically.” But if anything like what we mean by the word “god” does exist, there is no way science could answer the question one way or another. Others might say that God has to exist because we’ve experienced him; but there is no way to know for sure that our experience matches the reality we’re claiming is behind it.
It is impossible for us to find a place or perspective from where we can look down and determine God’s existence either way. This would only be possible if God were below us, which would make him something other than God.
Instead of certainty, we are dealing with probability. Those who affirm or deny God’s existence are looking at the world, gathering information, and making an educated guess about the best explanation for what they see. Some think the world is best explained by the existence of a God. Others think the opposite. But neither position is inherently more logical, and both involve faith – a risky commitment we each have to make given our limited knowledge and perspective.
Within this, there are many reasons I think it more likely that God exists than that he doesn’t: Continue reading »
