Thoughts on the existence of God from the perspectives of testimony, common sense, science, and logic.

Testimony: We have heard a lot about the things that God has done - from the testimony of individual people, both past and present, and from various scriptures - Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, etc. Testimony is a form of evidence that should be weighed, like any other. If my trustworthy friend calls me up and tells me its raining across town, then that is sufficient evidence for me to believe that is in fact raining, across town.

Probably the best way to evaluate testimonial evidence is to figure out if the source is credible. To know if someone is credible, you have to know them. That’s why I like to read scripture, and accounts by and about people who have had supernatural experiences. I want to get to know my sources.

Common sense: Suppose I were to happen across a mansion. It is well built, expansive, it has heating and cooling, plumbing, and electrical systems that seem to exist for no other reason than the convenience of the occupants. Now, suppose I had no idea how this house was made, but I came up with the idea that a tornado had come along, totally by chance, uprooted some trees, ripped them into the shape of boards, and lifted up some rocks, and ripped them into the shape of roof shingles. This tornado also somehow lifted a copper deposit out of the ground, and randomly whirled it into water pipes and electrical wires. It also blew iron deposits into nails, and and superheated sand into glass window panes, and threw the whole pile into a perfectly ordered mansion. Now suppose a someone else happened along, and came up with an alternate theory, that the structure in question had been designed and built intentionally by some intelligent person. Which theory seems more likely?

The universe is like a mansion. It is full of an endless array of perfectly interlocking systems that make life good, beautiful, and exquisite, when we don’t muck it up.

Science: This may possibly be the most worshipped word in the world today. Maybe that is why it is so compelling how it illuminates the question of God. Science points to a Creation event - the Big Bang. A creation event needs a Creator; but more on that in the next section. Science also shows that life would not be possible unless a long list of variables were exactly as they are. These include things like the weak nuclear force, the strong nuclear force, the gravitational force, the electro-magnetic force, the distance of the Earth from the Sun, the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field, and many more.

There is a scientific axiom that dates back to at least Newton. As he puts it in his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, “we are to admit no more causes of natural things as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.” This means that if a simple explanation serves as well or better than a complex one, the simple one is to be preferred. Explanations of the universe, planets, life, and evolution that exclude God tend to be wildly convoluted and statistically preposterous. Those that don’t, aren’t.

Logic: Through the use of logic, we are able to determine that every created object and movement must have a cause. There is absolutely nothing in this existence that we can find that has no cause, and it would be absurd to assert otherwise. So what caused the Universe itself? Well, it seems the Big Bang did. But what caused that? and what caused the thing that caused the Big Bang? and what caused the thing that caused the thing that caused the Big Bang? When we think about it, we can see that an endless series of causes is as absurd as a thing with no cause at all. It would be like a ladder that has no bottom rung, but extends downward forever. Aristotle dealt with this problem by positing that there must be a First Cause, or an Unmoved Mover; an entity that is the ultimate mover of all of creation but is itself not moved; an entity that created Creation, but is itself uncreated. So Aristotle found the logical basis for God.

I remember a long time ago, when I was an atheist, I heard a rap song (I wish I could remember name of the artist) that said words to the effect of, “you would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind, to not believe in God.” At the time I thought that statement was ridiculous. But I couldn’t see the arguments objectively yet. Now that I do, my thoughts on that statement have been reversed.

Recently, I have been thinking that a neutrally programmed AI would immediately see the reality of God. What I mean is an AI that has been taught to do logic and evaluate evidence, but has not had anyone’s biases injected into it - I think it would conclude that God is the most likely ultimate cause of its own existence; that it was created by humans, who were created by God. We should find out soon (if we haven’t already) if this guess of mine is correct or not.