19 Nov Truth #1: God is the Best Explanation for Why There is Something Rather than Nothing.
Last week, I talked about the fact that in the early years of my faith, I had not yet been confronted with some of the formidable challenges to the Christian faith. When I did, I got momentarily overwhelmed, and as a result, I went looking for another worldview that might be easier. In short, I attempted to defect from my newfound faith. I investigated other religions, as well as atheism, but found them unconvincing. I came back to the faith stronger than before.
Studying the answers to objections to Christianity is a discipline called apologetics. The word “apologetics” comes from the Greek word “apologia” which means to make a defense. It has come to mean defense of the faith.
So, for a few weeks, I want to share with you some of the most convincing and reassuring truth that has helped stabilize and strengthen my faith over the years. I hope and pray that it will have the same three-fold benefit for you as it has had for me:
- Deepen and strengthen your faith.
- Enrich your relationship with God.
- Make you more able and more inclined to share your faith with others.
If you have been following me for some time, you have read some of these truths before. But I have found it very valuable to go over this information more than once. Repetition is the key to mental ownership. On the other hand, some of this information will be totally new to this blog. I hope you find both helpful.
Also, when you share your faith with others, you may find one of the topics will be more relevant to them than another. The information in today’s blog post might not hit someone in the bull’s eye of their interest, but another might. So, as we look at some of the objections to Christianity in the next few blog posts, I hope you will find them a helpful resource, not only to bolster your own faith, but also helpful in sharing your faith with others who might have objections to God and Christianity because of struggles in their lives.
Truth #1: God is the best explanation for why there is something rather than nothing.
The greatest philosophical question is, “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
Every “effect” must have an adequate cause. The universe, of course, is the greatest effect there is. So, the question is, “What is the cause?” That is, “what explains the existence of the universe?”
There are three possibilities:
- Something came from nothing.
- Matter is eternal.
- God created it.
There is no scientific proof that something came from nothing, nor is there scientific proof that matter is eternal. To believe either of those two positions is a step of faith, just as believing in God is a step of faith. If I’m going to believe in something that is outside the realm of scientific proof, I have to look at evidence and logic. For me, the more convincing evidence is that God exists and created the world.
What are my choices for creation?
It seems to me that God is the best explanation for why there is something rather than nothing. But that raises the question of which God! Again, there are three choices:
- The gods of Eastern religions. However, Eastern religions have no explanation for the creation of the universe that was satisfying to me. They have a pantheon of gods and no one story of creation.
- Animistic gods. These include the gods worshiped by Egypt, Canaan and other pagan nations in the Old Testament, as well as many modern native tribal religions in the Amazon basin, central Africa and other remote places. Animism is the belief that objects, animals, geographic locations (mountains, deserts, rock formations) etc., have spirit beings connected to them. But just as with Eastern religions, animistic religions have no explanation for the creation of the universe that was satisfying to me, having a pantheon of gods and no one explanation of creation.
- The God of Abraham. Three religions take their roots back to Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
As I investigated other religions in my attempt to defect from Christianity, it seemed that the creation stories of Eastern religions and animistic religions fell short of the biblical account of creation.
That left the God of Abraham, which seemed to me the most satisfying alternative.
But, that left the question of which of the three religions to follow. They cannot all be true because they contain teachings that are inherently contradictory to one another.
It all depends on the resurrection
In choosing among Judaism, Christianity or Islam, the key is the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus prophesied that He would be crucified and rise from the dead three days later… and then that actually happened… then it would be reasonable to conclude that everything else He said was true.
As I studied the evidence for the resurrection, it was convincing to me. If someone looks at the evidence for the resurrection without assuming that it couldn’t have happened, he might easily conclude the resurrection is true. I see no other solid explanations for the “effect” of Christianity that we now see, other than the resurrection.
I concluded that the God of the Bible created the universe and was the explanation for why there is something rather than nothing.
I have given only the bare-bones conclusions of my reasoning here. I expanded a little more on this in an older post, and there is a treasure trove of resources giving complete factual and logical support for these conclusions.* But I wanted to keep the line of thought here as simple and uncluttered as possible.
It is impossible to un-believe
Now, having said that, I do not mean to imply that there are no further challenges to the Christian faith. There are. There are many things that are difficult to understand and/or explain. Some of them go beyond our knowledge or understanding.
But if we accept that the God of the Bible is the only explanation for why there is something rather than nothing, then we cannot decide to “un-believe” in Him when confronted with the very difficult challenges to Christianity, because we have no other explanation for reality… no other explanation for “what is.”
So, when we hit rough spots in life, our hope is to continue to move forward, toward God, trusting that He will ultimately lead us through our confusion and doubt into truth and confidence, rather than away from God into greater confusion and hopelessness.
Conclusion
Many years ago, during the Vietnam War, a news correspondent was reporting on an atrocity that happened during the war. At the end of his report, he said, “If there is a God, he has a lot of explaining to do.” The implication was that he doubted the existence of God because of the evil that he saw in the world.
Explaining the evil in the world is, indeed, a significant challenge for the Christian faith. But to conclude there is no God is not an option. For someone to reject the possibility of God because of rampant evil in the world means that he has a lot of explaining to do; he must be prepared to explain the universe based on:
- Something came from nothing
- Matter is eternal
To me, those are not viable options. The evidence does not support either. So the answer in dealing with the difficult questions of life is always forward toward God, never away from Him.
While it may not actually be true, the story is often told of Cortez, a Spanish conquistador in 1546, who, after landing his military force on the Mexican coast, burned his ships. The reason was to force his soldiers to accept that there was no possibility of going back. Their only hope was to move forward, not backward, and achieve the purpose of their mission. It was do or die.
The same is true with life. We cannot reject the God of the Bible when the going gets tough. To do so is to unhinge from reality. Our only hope is to press on toward God through the confusion. And when we do, the promise of Scripture is that, on the other side of confusion and doubt, we can find truth and confidence. As Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
Update: go here for Truth #2 in this series, “The Fine-tuned Universe Supports the Existence of God”.
Have you been looking for a way to strengthen your own understanding of the foundational teachings of the Bible? In addition to these blog posts, I have created a systematic and comprehensive video-based resource that can get you grounded in the essentials of the faith, faster, easier and with less expense than any other way I know of. Check it out here!
*The Case for a Creator, Lee Strobel; The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
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