Some reasons I believe in God

If you're reading this blog, it should be obvious that I am a believer in God.  I used to be a doubter, but no longer.  I want to give you a very simple [though not at all exhaustive] explanation of why.

Evidence and the nature of Faith

There is such a thing as blind faith [belief without evidence], but there is also evidence based faith.  It isn't reasonable to conclude that because some people who believe in God have blind faith everyone does.  I do have faith, but my faith is based on evidence, or at least what I perceive to be evidence.  In reality, most faith is really a referendum on evidence.  It tells what people think of the evidence.  If you believe evidence, you have faith in that evidence and the conclusions it leads to, if you don't believe the evidence, you don't have faith.

What is Evidence?

Evidence is grounds for belief; that which tends to prove or disprove something.  There are different types of evidence.  There is scientific evidence like fingerprints and Gun Shot Residue.  There is also legal-historical evidence, like photographs and eye witness testimony.  Sometimes these two interact for instance when an old manuscript is found that gives some type of testimony.  Science may study the type of paper and ink to verify the age of the manuscript - that is scientific evidence.  Once verified, it's testimony is legal-historical evidence.  Sometimes probability plays a part in the credibility of evidence.  That's why in criminal court our standard is not beyond possible doubt, but beyond reasonable doubt.

What is probability?

Probability is the likeliness of something to occur or prove true.  For example, if I were to put 10 coins numbered 1 through 10 in a cup, the probability of

reaching in, without seeing in the cup and pulling out the number 1 coin is 1 in 10. There are 10 coins and you pull out one so that means that you have a 1/10 [10%] chance of pulling out the number 1 coin.  Not so bad eh?  But what if we wanted to do that again so we return coin #1 to the cup and draw the number 2 on the second draw?  The probability is again 1/10 [10%].  To do it a 3rd time and get the number 3 coin is still 10%. So you might conclude that your probability will always be 10%, however the probability of getting those three, on consecutive draws, in that order is much different.  Without getting bogged down in the math [which can be very complex, especially to someone like myself who readily admits I am not an expert in probability], the probability of pulling out the number 2 coin on the next draw is 1 in 100.  The probability of then getting the number 3 coin on the very next draw is 1 in 1000. [this assumes the drawn coin is returned to the cup after each draw.]

Sequentially numbered coins	Chances are 1 out of:
1-4	10,000
1-5	100,000
1-6	1,000,000
1-7	10,000,000
1-8	100.000,000
1-9	1,000,000,000
1-10	10,000,000,000

If everyone alive right now pulled one coin on 10 successive draws, probability says that no-one would draw coins 1-10 in sequential order on consecutive draws [probability does say 6 people would get 1-9 sequentially]

But what if I put the coins in ten separate cups, with the coin number written on the cup. What are chances I could pull them out sequentially? 100% - because there is no chance, or luck involved.  With that backdrop, let's consider 3 facts.

Fact 1: The Universe exists

No-one but a fool would deny the material existence of the universe.  Virtually everyone agrees that the earth does indeed exist.  We actually exist [If you don't believe we exist, I don't have much chance of changing your non-existent mind so you can quit reading now and move on to some other non-existent activity]. With that
truth assumed our problem lies in answering this question “How did [the earth, universe, we] get here?”

As I see it, we have only two options:

First, Christianity teaches this universe got here by design (requiring a designer and creator) – meaning an intelligent being designed and created this universe to work according natural laws that He set in effect.  

There is another option though.  Just two years ago Cornell University came to our rescue with an article answering this exact question.  They suggest three possible answers [which are all just variations on the same answer].

• the Universe was created from vacuum [nothing -mdm]
• the Universe was created by quantum processes starting from "literally nothing", meaning not only the absence of matter, but the absence of space and time as well.
• Or as Stephen Hawkings suggests from his book "A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes", the Universe is a self-contained entity, with no reference to anything that might have come before it. As one looks to earlier and earlier times, one finds that the model Universe is not eternal, but there is no creation event either. Instead, at times of the order of 10^-43 seconds, the approximation of a classical description of space and time breaks down completely, with the whole picture dissolving into quantum ambiguity. In Hawking's words, the Universe "would neither be created nor destroyed. It would just BE."

Really?  Not meaning to be disrespectful here, and I'm obviously not a celebrated physicist, however I do have a nonsense meter and when I read something like the universe hasn't always existed, but it never came into existence...well...

So, which of these options are most reasonable to you?

We all came from a quantum ambiguity that didn't exist, except that it did exist.  Is that possible?  Maybe...but is it probable?  No, not really.  Could it be possible that an intelligent being planned and created our material universe?  Now, you may disagree with me, but the evidence I see [the fact that the universe does indeed exist] leads me to believe that it came into existence, which implies a creator.

Fact 2: The Universe has order

The order that we find in the Universe is our second piece of evidence. Consider some of these basic things we know about our universe.  

• The Sun is about 93 million miles
  
  from earth with a surface temperature of nearly 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. [That's why even at 93 million miles you shouldn't look directly at the sun during the recent eclipse].  If the sun were just 10% closer we would burn up.  If it was twice as hot we would burn up.  If it were 10% further away we would freeze.  If it were half as hot we would freeze.
• The earth has a diameter of approximately 8000 miles, a circumference of 25000 miles — rotation is roughly 1000 mph near the equator.  It moves at nearly 67,OOO mph around the sun and is tilted 23 degrees on it's axis.  Now, if it was spinning half as fast, we would all burn up in summer and freeze in winter.  If it was spinning twice as fast, the growing season would be too short to grow food and we'd all starve.
• Our moon orbits earth every 28 days at a distance of 238,857 miles.  It's
  
  diameter is 2,160 miles (approximately 1/4 earth).  It's gravitational pull causes tides twice per day.  Now, as a result of this, avg. tides in US range from 16 inches in Galveston to over 9 ft. in Boston.  If our moon was 40,000 miles closer, tides would be 35-50 ft., twice daily.  We would have much more frequent and much more powerful earthquakes which would render much usable land useless.
• In our atmosphere, the mix of gasses is just right: 78% Nitrogen; 21% Oxygen; 1% other.  Because of dispersion, the gasses spread out in a roughly equal mixture.  If Oxygen was only 10% human and animal life would be impossible.  If Oxygen was 30% the atmosphere would be flammable, at 40% it would be explosive. Carbon Dioxide is a colorless, odorless, non-combustible poisonous gas that animals breath out, and at the same time, plants breath (take in) Carbon Dioxide and give off oxygen which animal life breathes in. 
• Consider the Human body.  All the DNA, in all 7 billion people on earth would fit in a thimble.  DNA is found in all life, and that DNA determines species as well as endless variation within the species.
• Your circulatory system has between 60,000 and 100,000 miles of circulation, and some of your capillaries are only 1/3000^th of an inch in diameter.  Your Heart pumps sufficiently
  
  (5 quarts per minute) to supply all several hundred trillion cells, while removing waste, supplying amino acids for tissue repair, sugar for energy, minerals and vitamins, oxygen, iodine for the thyroid gland, phosphorus for the teeth, calcium for the bones all simultaneously. Your Hemoglobin trades oxygen for carbon-dioxide and vice versa.  Your kidneys contain 64 miles of piping, filter 180 quarts of blood per day.  30 trillion red blood cells are born and die each day at a rate of 72 million per minute.  White blood cells identify, engulf, and destroy invading bacteria.  All of this is controlled by the Vasomotor Center [VMC] at base of your brain which all but shuts down during sleep, then springs back into action when you wake up. In addition to all this, we are self-repairing.
• The Retina in your eye is the thickness of a standard piece of paper.  The
  
  innermost layer has 30million rods and 3 million cones (for color) in each eye.  Your lens thickness is automatically adjusted for focus. The iris opens and closes to control brightness of light entering your eye.  All these adjustments occur simultaneously and without conscious thought.  Healthy people have perfect coordination between the two eyes which are roughly three inches apart giving us depth perception.

These are just a smattering of billions of interconnected, perfectly functioning truths about our material universe.  So, let me ask you?  Do I seem unreasonable to you to conclude that this much unspeakable, indescribable order insinuates a planner or designer?  Is it possible that we are just 'happy accidents'?  Maybe...but does it really seem more reasonable to you to think that these were all just incidents that happened unexpectedly and unintentionally without intelligent direction?

Fact 3: Man is different
The final fact I'll mention here is that man is different.  Of all the critters [I wanted to say creatures, but that insinuates a creator] on earth, man alone is different.

• Everyone knows this and almost everyone accepts it.  That’s why it isn’t a crime to exterminate mosquitoes, but you would be
  
  imprisoned [or executed here in Texas] for trying to exterminate all the neighborhood children.  Have you ever run over a rabbit, or squirrel, or hit a bird while driving?  What about bugs on your windshield?  Do you stop and have a funeral?  Do you go looking for Peter Cottontail's family to let them know you ran over Peter?  Why not?  Because they are animals, not people.  If, God forbid, you hit a child, that would be different than scraping the bugs off the windshield at the Exxon station.
• You might protest that that one time when you hit a puppy you did go find it's family, and there was a funeral.  But did you go find Fido's mama, or his human family?  As great a story as "Where the Red Fern Grows" may be, animals are not people.
• Why?  What is the difference?  Well, for one thing, animals, all animals, operate primarily on instinct. A wasp will sting a grasshopper in just the right spot to paralyze it, and yet not kill it, leaving fresh food for the baby wasps [How did the first wasp to do this figure it out?  And then how did it teach the other wasps?]  Man, however, has mind.  The power of reason. Animals have never been discovered that can count to 100 much less understand the basic concept of mathematics.  
• Man has a conscience and a sense of morality.  The wasp never asks if it is right or wrong to kill the grasshopper, it just kills.  Man, on the other hand, is constantly in a battle with himself about whether his actions are right or wrong.
• Man also has the capacity to be self-directing.  He can decide his past behavior was wrong and change it.  There has never been a wasp who decided killing grasshoppers was wrong and as a result decided to change his ways and 'become a new wasp'.  

So, is it possible that this difference is somehow just another quantum ambiguity?  Maybe...but with this fact in evidence, what is the most reasonable conclusion?  That this difference is somehow just an imagined difference, or just a lucky thing for us?  Or would it possibly be reasonable to conclude that a creator made man "in His own image" [as the Bible says] making him different than all the animals?  Dare I believe that a man has a soul? That part of a man which will live on after this life?  Or am I just an unthinking robot if I do?

Conclusion:

Think back to our container full of coins. Consider the incredible impossibility of pulling them out in consecutive order “by chance”. Now consider these facts we have discussed.

• The Universe Exists
• The Universe has Order
• Man is Different

We have mentioned just a handful of issues, and there are millions.  What are the probabilities that these are all just the product of chance?  The probability against it is unfathomable, yet many people who believe in that unfathomable probability consider me foolish for believing, based on evidence like this, that there is an intelligent designer behind life and the universe.  Some argue "But this all happened over millions, no billions of years.  Given enough time, those 'random chance happenings' could all happen".  I believe that adding billions of years to an impossibility does not increase the likelihood of that impossibility.  If you were given forever to pick yourself up by your own hair, the laws of physics tell us that is impossible.  You will never do it, no matter how long you try.

There is not one chance in trillions that all these things could come to be just right for our universe and life as we know it to exist.  It just could not happen, that's why brilliant physicists conclude that it's just a quantum ambiguity [uncertain, we just can't know].

If there is no God

Man has no immortal soul.  There is nothing beyond the grave;

you are no different than the grasshopper you wash off your windshield; death is just a great big dead end with no-where else to go.  But you know there is something that makes you different than a grasshopper don’t you?

There is no real meaning to life. The only meaning would be whatever you choose to pursue, because when you’re gone, that’s it. Ultimately at the end of life it’s just over: there was no purpose to life. (and we won’t even be aware of that).  But you know there has to be purpose in life, don’t you? You feel that drive, and that despair when you think you’re missing it.

If there is no God, then morality is a meaningless concept. It is no more immoral to exterminate children than to exterminate mosquitoes.  One famous Atheist, when challenged about morality, says that he rapes all he wants, he just doesn't want to rape.  But that begs the question.  What about the guy who does want to rape?  If there is no God, there is no objective right and wrong, and if that is true, the rapist is no more wrong than the non-rapist.  But you know there is right and wrong don’t you? You know it is more evil to torture and maim a child than to step on an ant. You know it is not right to steal what belongs to others…don’t you?

I have thought about it a lot, as I told you, I was once a doubter.  Far from being blind faith, to me, it seems unreasonable to conclude there is probably no God, but rather there is no other reasonable, rational conclusion than to believe in the existence of God.

So what about you?  I suspect there are doubters who this will make sense to,

others will not be convinced, and still others who will grab on to some minor error in something I said as a reason to disregard this entire line of reasoning.  It's up to you, but whatever you decide, please don't perpetuate the idea that everyone who disagrees with you is just an unthinking fool, that's just not true.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

 (Psalm 139:1-16)