Arguments for God’s Existence. - The Armor of God Blog

Introduction

The existence of god is an ancient and perplexing question. It stems from the human need for purpose and meaning. Human beings are unique among all animals in that we are self aware. We look around and ask the simple question what is the point of all this, and why are we here? Many have tried to disprove god, but the problem is that we all know that there is more to this existence, than what we can physically touch and feel. Tangible proof cannot be found in this world, because God is not a tangible being. But that does not mean that we cannot adequately prove gods existence. There are logical and rational explanations for His existence. But if you approach these arguments with a heart that is closed off to the possibility that they are true, then there is nothing I can say that will convince you otherwise. But if you were to accept the possibility that it could be true, and ask for god to help you understand, then God will pour out the grace upon you and help you to see the truth. But the choice is yours…, are you willing to accept the possibility?

This document is going to follow two approaches. I am going to start with the long history of biblical scholarship that purports a proof for God’s existence. It will culminate in the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, which in his 5 ways, I believe he unequivocally makes the proof. The second approach will be to list the best of the known arguments against god’s existence, and I will give a brief summary of why they fail to make the case.

Arguments for the existence of God

Lets start will some of the oldest and best known arguments for the existence of god:

Cosmological argument

This argument finds its origin in the Islamic scholarly tradition, before Mohammed put an end to this kind of scholarly work. It ultimately found a foothold in western theology because of its closeness to Aquinas and his 5 ways. the argument goes like this:

“Everything that begins to exist has a cause, and the universe began to exist, the universe must have had a cause which was itself not caused. This ultimate first cause is identified with God.”

This type of argument is what is called a “first things” argument. It is powerful because the alternative is either an infinite line of causations (which is logically impossible), or that there is a multitude of uncaused causes. This is also an untenable conclusion. We will explore this more fully below in Aquinas.

Argument from beauty of the natural laws of the universe.

This argument begins with a deep understanding and respect for the laws of the universe. Be it physics, chemistry, mathematics, or biology. The more and more that scientists uncover about the universe the more and more the mind of a logical creator is revealed. But more than this, these laws and sciences allow us to explore the universe and understand it because everything in the universe absolutely follows the laws without exception. The laws not only govern the infinite interactions that happen every moment between everything in the universe but because of our human minds, and the intelligibility of the known universe, and the beauty of the whole system, we can understand that universe more fully, and in so doing, come to better understand the creator as well.

Argument from intelligent design

This argument asserts that the complexity of the universe, but specifically the complexity of intelligent life, that it is not conceivable that it came about as the result of a random sequence of events. This complexity leads to the conclusion of a designer, and the reality of a designer points to the existence of god…

Argument from consciousness — the soul

This argument can be simply understood as this… Every living human has an essence about them that makes them unique and different from every other living human. My name is jesse, and my person has a “Jesse-ness” that is uniquely my own. It is not tangible, is it not quantifiable, it is the sum total of my thoughts, feelings, hopes wishes and dreams, etc… It is, for lack of a better term, my soul. If you take the complete person of Jesse, and change its quantity by adding weight or height, it is still Jesse. If you change the quality of Jesse, by him becoming smarter, or skilled in something, it is still Jesse, and lastly if you change the location of jesse, by moving him from one place to another, it is still jesse. So the soul is something else, something bigger and fully emcompassing, but it is still something, not a figment of my imagination. But this consciousness, is not something I can give away, take, or otherwise possess in any way. It is attached to this body, and was given to me from birth. nobody understands where it comes from and scientists cannot tell you where it resides. Finally, no one can tell me that my soul is not real, because it is a much a part of who and what I am as my skin hair, and muscles. The mere presence of the soul is confounding to the atheist, because there is no way to explain it without a creator that grants it to us. This soul then, had to be given to me by something greater than all of us, and we conclude that that was god.

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So those are the oldest and best know arguments for god. But in the 1200’s Thomas aquinas sought to gather all of the known scholarship on this subject, reconciling Aristotle and other great philosophers, along with other religious traditions from all over the whole world with Christianity. What he came up with was his 5 ways, and I believe them to be perfect in their simplicity and completeness.

Thomas’ 5 ways.

Thomas aquinas in his magnum opus the Summa Theologiae, wrote what I consider the quintessential 5 explanations for gods existence. They are elegant in their simplicity, and utterly astounding in their magnitude. I would like to introduce you to them here…, but in order to do that, we must start with defining a few terms first. Let us start by discussing the nature of all things, and then how all things in this world, ultimately find the fulfillment of their potential. So lets begin…

Starting with the most basic modes of existence All things in the universe have matterand form.

Matter is the constituent components that make up anything in the universe. Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen, humans are much more complex, but on the most basic level we are all just assortments of constituent parts.
Form is the intangible thing that holds all that matter together and makes it what it is. A dog has a different form than a bird. They might have similar constituent parts, but the form of a bird is distinct and noticeably different than a dog. Form is the guiding principle that holds all things as they are. Water is only water when 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen molecules bond together, but it is the form of water that keeps them in that arrangement and does not allow them to transform into something else.

So what causes the matter to come into a certain form. It is change… All of the matter in the world is subject to it. This is easily observable in the world around us. But things don’t change randomly and without reason, they only do so when they are acted upon by something else. Aquinas asserts that things change in process consisting of four parts, called causes.

These terms come from 800 years ago, and they sound a little weird because their meaning in english is somewhat different today. We moderns understand “cause” as in, I do this thing, and something happens as a result. But Aquinas here, is using the word to describe the process of creation, and why something happens when a creator acts upon his will. He uses these terms constantly throughout the suma, and so we must learn and understand them in the context that he used them. So to help with this understanding, I am going to use the analogy of a baker making a cake to illustrate the four causes more clearly. Imagine your mom is baking you a cake, to celebrate your birthday.

These are the four causes of making that cake.

Formal cause — this is the recipe for making the cake. The structure of all of the elements and how to put them together. This can be an idea in the bakers head, or a written down plan. The cake cannot be made unless you have a plan for its creation, this plan then, is the formal cause.
Material cause — this is the ingredients, or the building materials. In this case, sugar, flour, water, etc. Without all of the ingredients, there is no starting point…, so having everything you need to begin, is the material cause.
Efficient cause — this is the designer putting it all together. The baker actually taking the ingredients and following the recipe to make the cake. Without the actual work of making the cake it will not happen, thus the work, is the efficient cause.
Final cause — The reason for why it was built in first place…, In our example, to enjoy with family, to celebrate the birthday of a loved one. If there is no reason for making the cake, then it will not even start in the first place, thus this reason, is the final cause.

So these “causes” are best understood as not individual reasons for why something came into being, but more as constituent parts of the process of creation, as a whole. You cannot make a cake without wrestling with all 4 causes, and if any of them are missing, then creation will not happen, so they must be considered as a whole. I have many ingredients in my kitchen, and there are many potential ends from that starting point. But without all the other causes being brought into the equation, nothing will happen. But please understand that theses are the same 4 cause needed, whether you are talking about baking a cake…, or God making the universe. The only difference is scope.

So the “causes” show us how we explain the reason why anything is what it is. But it is important, and especially for the sake of my upcoming argument to know that everything we know or experience is just an idea until it is brought into reality. This process is called actualization. Actualization is the full and complete process (using our example with the chef), of making a cake for a birthday party (the final cause) by actually gathering the ingredients (the material cause), and following the recipe (the formal cause) to make something new (the efficient cause). Actualization does not mean that every-time you start with sugar, flower and water, that you are going to end up with cake. There could be many potential actualizations for this starting point, but not infinite. These ingredients can make bread, cookies, tortillas, and pancakes, but it can’t be a puppy.

So, actualization (or creation) requires an intellect and a will in order to come into being. The four causes are nothing until someone sets out to do something about it. Our recipe, ingredients, preparation, and enjoyment are nothing until we set our will and intellect to the task of starting to bake.

So we believe that God is the creator of all things, And we believe that he has a final cause in mind for all things, and when all things are fully actualized, they will achieve the ideal purpose for which He created them.

So with this vocabulary well explained, and in mind, we can now dive into the five arguments for gods existence.

Argument from motion — we know from our physics class that an object in motion, stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest. Next, we observe that things in nature are moving all around us. We also know that things in our world interact with each other, and ultimately cause each other to move and change their motion. Another popular way to look at this is a train on a track. The caboose is moving, but why? Because the train car in front of it is pulling it, but why is that car moving, because the the train car in front of it. But at some point there has to be a train car that is not being pulled, but is doing all of the pulling. So with these examples in mind, Thomas Aquinas simply asks…, at some point in the past, there was a time when nothing was in motion, nothing was interacting…, what started the first thing to begin to move? Our conclusion is that was God!
Argument from efficient causes — This is like the argument from motion, but focuses on actualization… remember from above that actualization is the willing a thing into existence (throught the four cause), designing, if you will, the creation of said thing and actually accomplishing that end. Many, many things are imposing their will on other things. Farmer plant seeds, and water them to create a harvest. Programmers write code to accomplish tasks, engineers build bridges and scyscrapers. And like the chef, in our example above, willing a cake into existence, many things are responsible for actualizing change in other things in our wold… To this premise, of constant ongoing actualized change, Aquinas then asks another simple question…, who actualized the first change, and designed the world and all things in it? Our conclusion is that was God!
Argument from possibility — This argument focuses on existence. All around us things come into existence and fall out of existence. The cake did not exist until the chef decided that it would be good to make it. And this cake, will at some point disappear from existence when it is eaten and enjoyed. Parents beget children, and those parents and their childrens will some day die, and leave this world. Plants create seeds which create more plants, and those plants will all die as well. Nothing has or will ever exist without something to create it. But existence is not infinite, at some point in the past nothing existed, So there must have been a creator that is not created, he must be the source of all existence, and when you ponder this first cause, to it’s logical conclusion, the only rational explanation is that this one first cause is actually existence itself. So who is this first creator, that caused all things to exist, because he existed before anything was ever created? Our conclusion is that it is God!
Argument from degrees of being — there is good and bad in the world. We know this in the depth of our hearts. We know the good, the true and the beautiful just by being in its presence. We know this because it is objectively so. it is not based on interpretation, or by what some claim it to be. It is so because it is, because god willed it that way. If then, these things are objectively so, then we need an example of all goodness, truth, and Beauty, by which we then compare everything, because the only alternative would be the subjective interpretation of individuals, and that will ultimately lead to “great evil” being called good. We only need use the example of the very confused time we live in today in order to see how obvious that is. So we must conclude, that there is an objective perfection upon which we judge all things as either good or bad, true or false, and beautiful or ugly. Who is this perfect example to which we objectively look to? Our conclusion must be that it is God!
Argument from design — this final argument takes the approach that the intricacies and complexities of life are so perfectly designed for life that it seems impossible that it happened by chance. This is often called the “watch and the watchmaker” argument. It goes like this. If you were walking down the beach and you found a fine Swiss watch in the sand. You pick it up and it is still ticking. Do you assume that it ended up on that beach, through the random action of tides and erosion, and through random chance it took the form of a fine precision timepiece? Obviously not. The same is true for human life. The eyeball alone is so incredibly complex and precise that it cannot be the result of random mutation. Expand that to the whole human organism, with a mind, sense, will, and passions. And the odds are astronomical in number. So we argue that this world could only be the result of a benevolent designer, Our conclusion is that designer is God!

So those are Thomas Aquinas’ proofs in a nutshell. Presented here are 5 perfect proofs of God’s existence. They do not require an ounce of faith, they only require logic and reason and an open mind to consider a rational conclusion. Others have tried to improve or build off of these arguments, but if you get these 5 down you will be well prepared for any discussion on the subject.

Other Important Argments

Now there are a couple other proofs that are useful to know, if not at least of reference in later challenges, but also because they do stand up against the simple challenge that they make logical sense, and are easier to explain quickly in a conversation.

Rational Warrant

This argument in sum states that the proof for God’s existence can be found in the faith of its believers. Prehistoric men drew pictures of god on the walls of their caves, there have been mythologies of god and their relation to man for all of time. We argue that all human beings are drawn toward the lord, and that we need to fill that yearning with something, or we will find ourselves wandering lost in the wilderness. We all have a god shaped hole in our hearts, some fill it with mysticism, some fill it with drugs, some with politics and activism. But As Augustine said it best. “Our hearts are restless, oh lord, until they rest in thee. Thus this argument claims that a proof is not necessary because we all know god to be so, and thus the idea of God is rationally warranted.

Lunatic, liar, or lord.

CS. Lewis’ coined this challenge in his book “Mere Christianity”. This argument is brilliant in its simplicity and delightful in its wit. The argument goes like this. Jesus christ came to the earth, and taught groundbreaking ideas and worked unexplainable miracles that are still being discussed today. But more than anything else he did, He is the ONLY leader of a major religion in the history of the world that actually claimed to be God. So that claim is not something that can be easily dismissed. You cannot disregard Jesus’ claim, by saying, he was simply a good man or a wise teacher, or even a prophet…, but not god. If Jesus’ claim is true, that he is truly lord, then yes he is all those things, but if it is false…? If he is not actually god, then he cannot be any of those things…, He would not be good, he would not be a wise teacher and he would not be a prophet. If He is not lord, then he would be a bad man, a false prophet, leading people into lies. So the question of whether or not Jesus really is god, is in fact the crux of the entire argument for christianity, and that question requires a response, and there are only 3 possible explanations for this set of facts. He was either a Lunatic, a Liar, or He IS the Lord of the universe. He could have been a madman, but I truly don’t think that His message of peace, love, poverty and meakness are the work of a crazy person. He could be a total liar, but Jesus, his deeds, and this words are one of the most well documented facts that we have in history. If you take any figure from Jesus’s time be it Caesar, or Herod or any major personality of that era, there is 10 times more historical documentation written about Jesus, than anyone else. Further, much of the scholarly evidence for Jesus comes from Roman and Jewish scholars that had no interest in expanding jesus’ message. So if we thus reject those two explanations, then the only thing left is that He actually is the lord of the universe. There is no other explanation. Modernists have tried to enter another idea into this tri-lemma…, and that is “Legend.” I beleive that they have done this in order to diminish the reall human personhood of Jesus, but it too, falls flat. It fails for the same reason that the “liar” claim does. The scholarship that we have supporting His words and deeds, also completely prove the authenticity of the real person of Jesus actually existing and teaching in Jerusalem at this time. So we must conclude that Jesus was indeed a real person, and that we was indeed the Son of the God in heaven, and the true incarnation of the lord in human flesh. God is real, and he came to this world as the Human being Jesus Christ. that Conclusion is perfectly logical and rational, but it requires humilty to confront this question, and to thoughtfully ponder the revelations.

Arguments against the existence of God

And how they do not hold up.

Thomas Aquinas famously wrote “If you understand…, that isn’t God”. So merely even trying to explain who God is is going to fall short of proving the point. That is why Aquinas almost always spoke of God in terms of what He is not. And so to make this document complete we will need to address the most common objections to God’s existence as well, and refute them.

I will try to follow Aquinas’ lead and address these objections the way he did in the Suma. This means I will do my best to explain the argument, even improve it if I can, and then show why it fails to make the point it is trying to make. Lets begin:

The argument from inadequate revelation.

The atheist argument: Over the past 10 thousand years of human existence there have been many, many religions, from cave men with their gods, drawn on their walls, to the modern big three today…, all of these different religions make many claims, and these claims all contradict each other. Islam and Judaism both claim to be the chosen people descended from Abraham, and they both claim that Jesus was just a man. Christianity claims to be the one true religion, and all the rest are false, but all of the others do the same.

So, how do you know what is the true right religion. From a pragmatic point of view it is very difficult to know. The outside onlooker looks at all of these religions and see nothing but men trying to control other men through the fear of an unknown scary god, or as Dawkins puts it, “the flying spaghetti monster in the sky“. If we are to believe that any of the religions are true and that god is real, why isn’t the message clear and consistent? Thus, since it is not, the atheist must conclude that God is the figment of man’s imagination, and should not follow it. This quote sums it up nicely:

I contend that we are all atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. — Stephen F. Roberts

So, since historical religions have all been proven false over time, so we can further conclude that all modern religions are false too.

The Theists Response: I begin with this argument because I believe that it is the best of the bad arguments against god. I want to start by suggesting that this argument on the surface is pure fallacy…, it basically throws the baby out with the bathwater. A hammer can be used to build a house or repair something that has been broken. But a hammer can also be used to kill someone. So does it make sense to ban all hammers from our lives because someone can misuse it or even hurt us with it? I argue no. The history of mankind has always included God, in our existence, He was just called many names. If there were bad religions, and there were, that does not mean that christianity is a bad religion too.

But no matter what we have called god over the years we have always had god as the pivotal part of our lives. And it is absolutely true that some men have use religion to control other men, but that is no reason to discard all other religions. Why? well every generation for 10,000 years have come back to the same conclusion… that God is necessary and real! All generations have known that there is more to this life than what we can see right now, and that There must be a creator that is responsible for setting this all in motion. And finally, that that creator must have some interest in what is going on in our lives. Why do we know this, or betterstill, how? Because we are made in gods image, and even if we cant see him, in this current place and time, we know he exists in the same way we know that we exist ourselves. And that alone is the proof, in my opinion. Ask an athiest to explain what a soul is and where it comes from. They will capitulate and equivocate, and say that there is a scientific explanation for it, but you and I know in our hearts that this is not true, the soul is metaphysical, but complely real, it is the only thing holding all the cells in your body together… if the soul leaves the body the body disintegrates. But the soul trancends this world…, it was clearly made by something, not of this world. This is truth of the matter and we understand it as such. This is the “rational warrant” argument mentioned above.

So I know that the atheist is screaming at me from the corner saying “those are just platitudes,” and they will claim I have not made any logical arguments yet… And maybe he his right. But doesnt science tell us that to study a hypothesis, that we need to make a conclusion, test the conclusion, and decide if that conclusion was correct. Well for 10,000 years the conclusion has been tested, and for 10,000 years we have not been able to eliminate God from our lives. I compare it to the analogy of love. For the same 10,000 years people have been having the deeply personal experience of meeting another person, falling in love and possibly devoting their lives to one another. Love is not a tangible thing, it CANNOT be measured in a lab. It is not, simply, the random firing of synapses in the brain, it is a real, deeply felt connection between souls that cannot be explained away. Just because modern atheists now come around and tell us that love is nothing more than a series of electrical pulses, or more cynically a societal control mechanism…, Are we to blindly accept that? do we simply to just deny our own real lived experiences? Are we to just say that those feelings are not real, and that the real deeply felt love connections that billions of people have experienced for thousands of years are just wishful, figments of our imaginations. I think not. And so is this connection to god, something that we cannot simply just wish away.

So lastly, I need to address the challenge of “how do we know that my god is the right god?“ Well first we will need to begin with a couple givens… In order to discuss the question of which god is the real god, we must first take as given, the premise that god is real, otherwise we cant ever discuss the reality and perfection of our God if he is not a real thing. Next, I would say that any real god that we are going to seriously consider, would have to have a real nature, and have to be a real person in the same way that you or I are real persons, otherwise we will end up calling mother nature a god, and I think we can agree that would not, strictly speaking, be a god. Finally, my last given, I think it is important to agree that any real God, would have to be loving creator, and ultimately interested in his creation. Otherwise God is just a tyrant, and thus not an all perfect and loving creator of the universe.

So, with all that said, how do we know which is the right god. Well I suggest that we have to use our intellects, combined with our connection to the image of God imprinted on our souls, and look for His presence in the world… For example, when a religion subjugates women or minorities (islam) and kills anyone that does not agree with their view of god, that that cannot be the religion of a good and loving god. If the religion espouses that there are many gods and they are interchangeable (hinduism), as needed, that would grind up against the reality that logic requires a single creator (See Aquinas’ 5 ways). Finally if a religion claims that god does not actually exist, or is everything and nothing at the same time (Buddhism), then that would also contradict the God of the universe as a real being that actually exists. In the history of the world there is only one religion that passes all of these tests and many more tests as well, and that is christianity…, specifically catholic christianity. So with that said I want to drive this point home with an analogy via movie reference.

In the 1970’s there was a Bruce Lee movie called “Enter the Dragon”. I know this may seem like a really strange analogy, but stick with me, it will all make sense. At the end of this movie there is a showdown between Bruce and the bad guy. In this movie the bad guy leads Bruce into a room full of mirrors. Bruce is standing in the middle looking around at his reflection, and the bad guys is hiding in the shadows behind the mirrors. The mirrors are all showing the reflection of the real bruce but they are only a reflection of a side of the real Bruce. During the scene the bad guy, darts out from time to time, from behind the mirrors, to attack bruce, and then immediately retreats behind the mirrors again.

I think that this is scene is a perfect analogy for how the evil one, using all of the worlds religions, attacks Jesus and his Church. Each mirror is like one of the worlds religions, reflecting a side of the true Jesus. but only a side, and not the complete Lord Jesus. But what is worse, is that the evil one is hiding behind that reflection trying to attack and kill the real God Jesus, from the safety of what appears on the surface to be a holy place. Further extending the analogy, the reflections only show a side or a part of Jesus’ message, not the full picture. Imagine all of the religions of the world, there are parts of them that are good true and holy, but only Jesus, the real and authentic god embodies ALL that is good true and beautiful, and there is only one. Everything holy that can be found in any of the worlds religions is most perfectly personified in the one true God, Jesus Christ, and lived out most perfectly in His bride the catholic church.

So unless you have seen the movie you might be asking how Bruce defeats the bad guy. And I think this is where the movie analogy really shines. The analogy perfectly portrays what the Lord has done already, in this world, and what he plans to complete at the end of time. The scene ends with Bruce smashing all of the mirrors, so the bad guy cant hide anymore. When you look at the last 2000 years of christianity, religions have come and gone, false prophets have come and gone, and through it all the Jesus’ church has persisted. It has not been a spotless 2000 years, but the core teachings of Christ are still the same today as they were when the gospels were written down. Jesus has smashed the false, incomplete, copies of Him, and he stands alone in the middle unscathed. and at the end of time this will be completed, and all of the false religions will be destroyed, the good will convert to Catholicism, and the evil will line up behind the devil, for the final showdown. and just like Bruce Lee destroyed the bad guy so will Jesus put all his enemies beneath his feet.

So I can confidently say that Jesus is the Lord God, and his Bride the church is the one true faith, established by God on the eve of his passion in the upper room, and protected by the holy spirit for the last 2000 years, and will stand gloriously at the end of time. Why is it that I can say this? because no other faith has ever come even close to embodying this promise in its fullness…, the fullness of love, and truth, and goodness, and beauty, that is found in Jesus and His church. Others have contained parts of it, but because they are established by men, and are fallible in that way, they have all fallen short, and many have fallen away completely.

So the atheist claims that all religions are the same, and they all have contradictory claims, so they should not be believed. Well the only reason that the other world religions contradict each other is in that they fall short of the one true church created by god himself, and as such they will indeed fail, and should be considered false. But just because they are false that does not mean that the christian faith is too. So while this argument works against all other world religions, it does not work about Christianity.

The problem of evil

The Atheists argument: There is unquestionably evil in the world, You don’t have to look very far for evidence of this. Pain, suffering, persecution, and abuse are everywhere and it touches every one of our lives. If pain were water we would all be drowning in it! But our religious friends claim that the god of christianity is good, and loving. But how can that be? If God was good and loving, why does he allow this misery to happen? The conclusion is clear and simple…, so because, he apparently does allow it, this “good and loving” god must not exist.

The Theists Response: I have chosen to address this argument second, not because it is the second best argument the atheist has, it is not even close, but because it is the most popular one they like to use. This is because it is so effective on the uneducated and uninitiated. But it is easily defeated on multiple levels. First, it is a logical fallacy, where the atheist has to accept the existence of god as true, to call something evil in the first place. There is no such thing as evil if God does not exist, so they essentially remove the foundation of their argument by asserting the premise. David Limbaugh summarized this nicely in his book “Jesus on Trial”:

If an atheist claims that there is no God, because he allows evil and injustice in the world. Simply reply, without a higher power, that is all good, and all love, how could you even know what evil is, and without God, how could you possibly know what is unjust.

The second is another fallacy. This fallacy perpetrates itself when we seem to think that we have some better idea of how things should be run…. To clarify, I ask a simple question, if you were to put wisdom, knowledge and understanding (ie Omniscience), on a continuum from dumber than a box of rocks, on one end. To god at the highest point, on the other end… How much smarter, would we humans, need to be in order to be able to judge that God is doing a good or bad job at running the universe? We would have to be gods ourselves to make that judgement. And we are not God

But exempting those two fallacies, let’s assume for the sake of completeness that the argument is not ridiculous on the surface, let’s address the point that they are actually trying to make. Why IS there evil in the world? That is far more interesting, and I think that you will find it more edifying.

Let’s start by going back to the garden of eden. But we must first agree on one premise, that freely given love is the highest form of love. It is without coercion, it is without debt, and it is without expectation of anything in return. it is a free gift given from the heart… There is no greater gift than that, and it is the misunderstanding and ultimate rejections of this gift that has caused all of the chaos and pain that we all deal with today. Let me explain.

On the 6th day, in the garden, God created man without sin or even the inclination to sin. But God also created man free. Man was created so that he could freely accept, or freely reject the law and love of God. We cannot freely give, without the ability to freely reject. Adam and eve were completely free in the garden. They had everything they could ever need, and they had the unspeakable joy of being directly in God’s presence. But somehow this wasn’t enough. We humans always want more. We want to be autonomous, we want to be unencumbered, and we ultimately want to be god ourselves.

This is human nature, this is the Pride that comes before the fall. And so they fell, as well we all do… We ultimately always seek knowledge and self-reliance, over obedience, and selflessness.

So this act of disobedience and rejection took the form of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But it is important to note that they were not kicked out for simply eating a fig, it came from making a choice. The choice was choosing themselves and not trusting in god, it was the result of striving for more than their station in life allowed.

Any time in life that you make a choice it changes you, and will results in three consequences.

The choice will give you a false sense of power. By chosing, you get to decide what happens to you, no one else.
The choice then leads to desire, and this desire rarely satisfies! Very quickly after a choice is made, the need for something new takes over…, for something else that might satisfy.
Finally, choice leads to pride. St. Thomas Aquinas defines pride as “that frame of mind in which a man, through the love of his own worth, aims to withdraw himself from subjection to Almighty God”. This is the pride that I am referring to. You made your choice, you know that the only thing stopping you from being god is God himself, and so you try to remove him from your life completely…, kill him off if you can.

So what is god to do with us? Adam and Even made their choice, and we all have to deal with the debt of that “original sin.” We are all now unclean, and unworthy to be in God’s presence, yet He still wants more than anything to have us be with Him in heaven for eternity.

And thus the story of salvation begins. God’s sets forth His plan to save us. A plan that would clean our souls, reconcile our consciences and ultimately destroy evil forever. This plan would span the millennia, would consume the lives of billions of people. And ultimately culminate in sending his son to take the form of man, be born of a meek woman. He would live and teach these men about the Kingdom of God, and that finally he would die for these fallen and sinful men on a cross. This incredible plan will ultimately end by showing us a way to reconcile the sin of Adam and Eve, and establish a new covenant between man and God, a covenant that would restore the intimate relationship that was lost in the Garden of Eden. This new path would open a way for us to find our way back into that garden, and to an eternity with God in heaven.

I truly believe that that is what heaven is…, a place of complete freedom, perfect order, and total happiness, where we can walk and talk, side-by-side, with our god, and see him face to face. That is what Adam and Eve lost because of their sin of rejecting God, and choosing themselves instead! But, Jesus, through his sacrifice on the Cross, shows us that the cost, for each and everyone of us, to get back into that relationship with the lord is to finally learn to reject our selfish desires, and to simply put God first in all things. This is what the church calls charity, and it is the point of everything.

Simple to say but really hard to accomplish. This is the miraculous relationship that Jesus initiated on the cross. He gives us his infinite mercy, a gift that that is not owed us in anyway, but freely given. And we justly give him our love in return. A love that is rightfully due to Him. Fulton sheen said it best:

Jesus christ paid a debt he did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay.

So, I know you are asking what does this have to do with the “problem of evil!” But what is more, Why does the devil continue to exist, and why doesn’t god do anything about him? The devil like all living things was created by God. The devil, in fact, was the first living thing that God ever created. Named Lucifer (which means light bearer), he was the most beautiful of all of his angels. He was the highest and most powerful, of all angels in heaven. God only creates what is good, true and beautiful, it is the free will of those that reject God that bring evil into the world. Lucifer rejected God, and lost the loving gift of eternity with the Lord.

For the angels their decision to accept or reject was decisive and for all time. We humans cannot understand this because we live within the constructs of time, and limitation thereof. The angels are outside of time and so their choices are different. Humans have a lifetime, to live and learn about God, and his plan for us and all of the universe. It is truly a gift, that He gives us the time and reflection needed to come to understand the choices we make, and to contemplate the consequences of choosing wrong. The angels on the other hand were given at the moment of their creation, everything they would ever need (knowledge, wisdom and intelligence) to make the choice to accept or reject the lord. And so it was at that moment, after their decision, they either entered into the beatific vision for all eternity, or they chose to reject god, and to suffer in hell forever. But it was a truly a freely made decision for each and every one of them.

If God wanted to make a universe where everyone slavishly adored him, he could easily have done that, but God is love, true love, agape love, and slavish adoration is NOT love. This is the consequence of free will. This is what it costs to give and receive love. It cannot be any other way.

God can only create with love, give with love, and wait with love, it is on us as to whether or not we choose to receive that, and ultimately return it. God loves every one of us completely, totally, and passionately. He knows every hair on our heads by name, and that is also how he feels about Satan. Is he disappointed, certainly, but you see, He can no more destroy Satan, than any of us. It would be like any of us destroying our own children, when they reject us… it is unthinkable.

If god were to setup a universe where the free creatures He made, can be annihilated, simply because He did not like the decisions that they made! That would not only negate the freedom that He gave all of these creatures to begin with, but it would also negate God’s love and goodness… it would make Him a capricious tyrant that does not follow His own rules. And so like I said above the consequence of choice, is that evil arises, and suffering is the result.

But then why is it that Satan is allowed to go un fettered…? Why doesn’t God reign him in…? well that is a bit more complex.

In the beginning of everything, God knew that free will would set forth a cascade of evil into the world, and so he also set forth a plan to counter it. In His beatific vision, he knows the exact number of souls that he is going to create. And he has a plan for how long it is all going to take before it can all be completed. Only the lord knows this!

God sees all of time, at once, and forever. This is hard for us to understand. But consider this analogy from the Micheal O’Brien… In his book “lord of the world” he addresses this question from this perspective. He says to imagine all of time, not as a line of events, but as a sphere. This sphere includes the beginning of everything until the return of Jesus. All time is contained, and like a glass ball the lord can move around that ball on all sides. And with the Holy Spirit he can enter into any time in history he likes, to influence and encourage, but all while at the same time, he can observe all of the history of time at once. This is just an analogy, and it falls short of the true glory of god, but it is still very apropos in giving us an inkling of what being outside of time actually means.

So with that analogy in mind, I want you to consider that at the beginning of everything His plan for the salvation of man was decided and set in motion all at once, that sphere containing everything literally popped into existence at the will of the lord. His plan includes everyone who has ever lived, you me, and everyone that will ever be born between now and the return of Jesus. And every single one of those souls that he created, are dear to Him, and he has a plan for the salvation of each and every one of them. How long will it take for his plan to completely unfold? We don’t know, all we can do is wait “In Time”.

Simultaneously, the devil, having fallen, and intelligent to enough to read the Bible and prophecy for himself…, knows that he loses in the end, and he knows that his eternity is going to be suffering and pain. And this fact enrages him!

The devil is further enraged by that realization of how much god loves all of mankind, and the only pleasure that the devil can find for himself is to deprive God of an eternity with all of his creation. If the devil can corrupt a soul, and get that soul condemned to hell with him, then that is one less soul that God can delight in, in heaven, and this is the devils greatest pleasure, and the only thing he cares about.

So we are in the midst of a Great War. The battle for eternity is being waged in our own midst, and you and I are the battle ground that is being fought for. So you must not relent to the call of the deceiver. You must resist, and you must fight at all times, to not become another one of the devils fallen trophies.

This world is not heaven, and this war is going to involve every single soul that was ever created. There may be suffering and pain here on earth, but it is all in service and participation towards something much greater waiting for us in heaven. So to sum up, we can give three good reasons why a good God would allow evil in the world:

The Argument from freedom — If God created us capable of choosing good from evil, but prevented us from choosing evil, we would not be free, we would be more like robots or servants, but not free. And only free creatures can accept or reject God. So the act of rejecting god is the start of sin, and sin leads to hurting others, and hurting others is the source of evil.
The Argument from Understanding — Just because we cant understand why there is pain and suffering in the world does not mean that there is not a way that god can make good out of it. If I were to take my toddler child to the doctor to get shots. My child is going to cry and look at me scream “help” and wonder why I am allowing this to happen to them. But what they don’t know, and I do, is that those shots could potentially help to prevent that child from getting something way worse, like measles, or a sickness that could kill them. And so evil is just the same way. Just because we cannot understand the plan, does not mean that there isn’t one.
The Argument from Salvation — Malachi 3:3 says “He sit as a purifier of silver.” The process of purifying silver works like this. The impure silver is put in a crucible, and it is held in the hottest part of the fire where the impurities are burned away, leaving the silver behind. But the silver cannot be left in the fire for longer than it is needed to burn off the impurities, or it will bubble over and be lost in the fire. So the smith must watch closely and when all of the impurities are burned away the smith will only pull it out when he can see his own reflection in the Silver. In the same way the lord holds us in the crucible of this world until we are purified and He can see His reflection in us. We often do not know or understand what the furnace is clearing away from our souls, but it is being done, so that when we are clean, we can finally enter heaven and be with Him for eternity. This is why we are here, this is why we suffer, and this is why there is evil in the world. It is the fire that purifies us for our own salvation.

So I hope you now see that the Lord absolutely has the power to crush evil, that is not in question…, but if He did, He would unravel the plan he has for our salvation. And for the same reason, God can no more destroy the devil than any of us. So God allows evil, because his plan must be played out and finished, before we will ever be able to understand how he used that evil for the betterment of all things.

The argument of natural over supernatural explanations.

The atheist argument: The state of the art of science has evolved to the point that all mysteries of this world can be explained by scientific means, and the atheist asserts that all supernatural claims can be now be understood by natural explanations. So now the supernatural is superfluous, and unnecessary.

Science can explain what happens inside the atom, and it can tell us that the whole universe began with the Big Bang. It can tell us what chemicals are on the surface of Mars, and I can predict the weather with alarming accuracy. But in all of the research and study it cannot find any evidence of god, so they conclude that his existence, at best, is unknown, and at worst completely false.

There is an old adage that you cannot prove a negative, (ie. prove you never beat your wife). The burden of proof for something that cannot be proven is impossible to meet. Thus the atheist can only conclude that the burden of proof for the existence of God lies with the theist rather than the atheist.

The theists response: This argument unfortunately also falls into the trap of a logical fallacy. Simply saying that you cannot prove something does not mean it does not exist. For centuries serious people believed the world was flat. Up until the a couple decades ago, people thought that the electron was the smallest thing in the known world. Jumping forward to present scientist still do not know what happened before the Big Bang, and they don’t know what caused it to bang in the first place. Does that mean that it was nothing, and that all of the universe came into existence from nothing?

Leaving the fallacy aside, the argument falls on its face with a simple question. All humans every day have real experiences of love, manifested in the real and daily interaction with goodness, truth, and beauty all around us. These are not tangible testable things but that does not make them any less real. Scientists will tell you that these things are simply chemical reactions in the brain, but I ask you… Do you believe that?

But to extend the argument further, Let’s also set aside these individual experience of the love in the world, and let’s, instead, look at the primary tool of the scientists themselves… Logic! Ken Hensley quite incredibly demonstrates that, not even the laws of logic follow the rules of material or chemical existence. There is no chemical secretion in the brain that makes a thought. You cannot show that if you inject the precise chemical in the precise part of the brain that it will always result in the same thought or thoughts. So, since we all, scientists and faithful alike, agree that logic is a real thing, and that it is the only real tool we have to asses issues and problems that we face in the world, then we must agree that it is real and that we must follow our logical conclusions, where they lead us (ie. if premise a, and premise b, then c follows). So if logic is real, and science cannot explain it through natural means then it follows that we ask a simple question. How does the athiest explain these real intangible things that we experience every day?

So to directly address the atheists claim in this argument, where they claim that they can’t prove God exists, thus he must not exist. But their own logic at coming to that conclusion, cannot be proven or explained with chemical, scientific means. So is something as simple and accepted as logic, can not be proven scientifically, how can they even contemplate the possibility that God does not exist under the same logic.

I assert that GOD cannot be explained scientifically, and as such should not be held to that standard.

Other less important arguments

The next 5 arguments are less interesting, and I think easily dismissible, so I am not going to spend a lot of time on them, but they need to be addressed for the sake of completeness.

Infinite regression

The Atheists argument: If god created the universe, who created god? This question doubles back on itself forever, and in philosophy is known as an infinite regression questioning who created who. (aka. chicken or the egg). Understanding this fact acheives two things. First it shows that god as nothing more than another creature that has evolved from primordial sludge. Second, that since we do not know who created that first things, that this means that the universe is infinite, and self creative. It is certain that at some point all of these things will be understood by scientific experimentation, thus the explanation of God is unnecessary, and no more than a weak mind’s attempt to explain things they don’t fully understand

The theists response: This argument is easily refuted, because infinite regressions are, by definition contradictory and impossible. It is a logical fallacy, to think that time and existence could ever be infinite. There has to be a time when there was nothing and then time began. This is also true for existence. Everything in the universe did not pop into existence out of nothing. As Thomas Aquinas explains it, there must at some point in that infinite regression of creation be a being that was not created. A creator that is the source of all existence because that creator is existence itself. We call that being God.

The OMNI Paradoxes

The Atheists argument: These Omni paradoxes relate to the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent powers of God. Omnipotence means all-powerful, Omniscience mean all-knowing, and Omnipresence means that He is present at all times everywhere. The argument consists of three simple questions…? 1. Can God create a rock so big that He cannot move it? 2. Can God create something unknown to himself. 3. Can God create a place that he cannot go. If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then it means that there is a limit to gods power. If the answer is no, then it means that there is something that god cannot create. But in either case it ultimately means that that being is not “Omni” and thus can not be god.

The theists response: This argument seems very powerful on its surface, but can be easily exposed by just a couple other logical absurdities. Is it possible for God to make a squared circle, or can God make something evil? These questions are no more absurd than the 3 above, but since it does not correspond to the general public’s belief of what it means to be “Omni”, then most people dont notice that the atheist’s Omni questions are equally absurd. William Lane Craig explains it best this way.

“Omnipotence, they say, does not mean that God can do anything at all but, rather, that he can do anything that is possible according to his nature.”

Gods nature consists of laws and truths that allow for all things in the universe to co-exist in a symphony of harmony. Wether it is the orbit of planets around stars, or the composition of hydrogen and oxygen combining to make water. These are examples of gods nature, and this is his will for all things in the universe. So when I ask if god could make a square circle, or create evil, the answer is unclear, but I suspect that god can litterally do anyting he wants, but to do so would mean that he would be doing something against his own nature, and thus the rules of logic and order that holds the universe together. For god to create something that denies the rules and order of the universe, would cause a rupture in that same order, chaos would ensue, and everything would unravel and cease to exist, and so would we. God loves all of this creation, and he wants it all to thrive. It is all created by God, good, true and beautiful, and to deny the laws that hold it together, or to do something that would undo all of that would be like cutting off your own arm. This is NOT his nature. He is a creator, not a destroyer. The omni paradoxes are a red herring, designed to distract you from the real problem…. that most people do not understand who god is, and what his plan is for the universe.

The free will paradox

The Atheists argument: the free will of humanity, and the all knowing nature of god are incompatible, and that any conception of God that incorporates both properties is therefore inherently contradictory: if God is omniscient, then God already knows humanity’s future, thus contradicting the claim of free will. And if we don’t have free will then we are no different than robots. This argument is also know as predestination, and if so, then we need to deal with the obvious contradiction therein. Did god in his omniscience know that some of his creation would do evil and end up in hell? If so, then that God is a capricious and evil God and not worthy of our belief and adoration. Conversely, if God did indeed make us free, but does not know what we are going to do next? Then his omniscience is limited, and thus not god.

The theists response: This is a pretty good argument, but it does betray a lack of understanding of the true nature of God. If God were a creature in time, and subject to the rules therin, then yes this would be a very compelling argument. But God exists outside of time. We cannot easily understand this, because we have no true understanding of existence outside of time. Frank Sheed gets closest to explaining this vast difference between time and eternity It goes like this… eternity is a measurement of perfection. God is perfect, there is nothing he can learn, or understand that he does not already contain perfectly. He is perfect, and thus needs no growth or change or improvement towards perfection. Thus he exists, perfectly in eternity. Humans are very imperfect, and thus not capable of eternity at this point of our lives. We need time to learn from our mistakes, to grow, change and improve ourselves to the point that we are ready to die and be with god. But even there perfection is not possible in this world, so we have purgatory, where we can burn away those last remnants of imperfection. and when we are ready we will then be able to stand before the lord in the perfection of eternity. But this still does not address the paradox. So lets start with this new understanding of eternity, and heaven being outside of time. Further lets review my explanation of “outside of time”, in my explanation of the problem of evil above. With all that in mind, god does not see us in the same timeline we exist in. His omnipresence makes him present at every moment in the past, every moment right now, and every moment that ever happens. C.S. Lewis sums it up best. God sees everything you have ever done, and He sees the result of every action that you might ever take, and it is all “now” to Him. but he just does not know which of the multiple choices that you might take until you actually take it. God does “know” us so well that he likely can predict all of our actions before we do them, but that does not make us any less free to do them, and it does not affect his omniscience and presence at every moment of time.

The “no reason” argument

The Atheists argument: argues that an omnipotent and omniscient God would not have any reason to act in any way, specifically by creating the universe, because it would have no needs, wants, or desires since these very concepts are subjectively human. So if a God with ultimate power, knowledge, and wisdom created anything that would indicate that he was incomplete and lacking in something. So why would he do that, the logical conclusion is that He is bored or incomplete, and thus not God.

The theists response: The answer is love. God IS love. He is omnipotent, and omniscient, and he is perfectly in eternity. and he indeed needs nothing from us. But true love, selfless love (Agape Love), is useless unless it is given away. Love requires three things, A lover, a recipient of that love and the love that is shared between them. St. Augustine described the trinity in these terms, and when you see the Father and the son and the holy spirit in this way it becomes so obvious why a Trinity would be necessary for any being of pure love. No other arrangement of beings makes sense. So if you are the biggest lover in the universe, and you have the biggest heart in the uiniverse, that love is ultimately wasted until you have a recipient to pour it out on. Thus the universe was born. and the greatest love story in history began. So why would he waste his time on us, because it is only among free beings, that pure agape love can be shared, and humans are the greatest and most loved of all of creation. He created the whole of the visible and invisible universe, for humans, and as reflection of his goodness, and his love. The angels he created first. Pure spirit, no bodies, but pure intellect. like God. They are not subject to the trappings of time and of physical needs of bodies, they are intellect only and can only decide to serve or reject god. Next he created the physical world and animals, which are bodies only, no intellect. They don’t have the ability to choose something higher than themselves, they are ultimately slaves to their bodies. Finally he created man, Humans are bodies and intellects. We have to contend with the trappings of time, and physical needs of our bodies, but we also have a higher intellect that yearns for god, but a physical form that prevents us from seeing him like the angels do. So we have to deal with the real needs and wants of physical form, while at the same time dealing with the metaphysical need to get closer to god. We accept and reject Him 100% freely, and as such that acceptance is the purest and deepest form of love and while gods love poured out on us is a undeserved gift, our love back is the reason that God did all of this. It is that love that god not only wanted to share with us, but he wanted to help us to share it with each other. When you have something as good as this pure agape love, it can only be shared, and with as many people as possible. That is the reason for all of this… LOVE!

Conclusion

The Atheist Dilemma

Atheists and Theists are both believers of a religion, one puts their faith in science and other in an all powerful creator. When it comes to how we got here and where we are going, both sides have things they can’t explain.

Atheists look at the past and take for granted the natural evolution of all things, and rely only on what science can prove. The things that they can’t explain they ignore and place their faith completely in science and what it will prove and reveal someday about both the past and the future.

Theists look at the past and conclude that a good and loving god created it all, they trust in the teachings of the church and the tradition handed down by our fathers. The things they cannot explain are called mysteries, and they hope that someday the promise of heaven will be fulfilled and that all-things will eventually be revealed.

The truth is that we are not all that far apart. We both have things we can’t explain, and things we can. So what is the difference then? Well, it is a big one. I contend that it all comes down to pride. The most vicious of all the deadly sins. I am not saying that only atheists are prideful, that would be ridiculous. But what I am saying is that it takes a lot of humility to say that the entire universe, and all of the creatures that are in it, including us, only exists because the Lord wills it. The atheist on the other hand believes that it can all be explained, but just that science has not progress to the point where it is possible yet. But they are certain that they don’t need god in their lives, and they reject that there is anything that god can do for them, and that my friends is the definition of pride.

Secondly, the other big difference is the things that we each take for granted, aka, a leap of faith, if you will permit the analogy. So, what is the greater leap of faith. That everything sprang into being, by itself, ex nihilo (out of nothingness), or that a powerful and loving god Created everything because of a great love. Both are pretty big leaps, but one explanation is actually a cause, and the other is simply inconceivable.

Lets explore each of these leaps further. First the atheist wants us to believe that either the universe always existed or it popped into existence from nothing. Both infinite existence and making something from nothing are totally irrational. It is not scientific in any way to believe this, and is truly below the intellects of most atheists to say so. It has never been shown to be even theorectically possible, They cling to the belief that someday they will be able to explain it, and this is the subject of most of astrophysics these days. But sadly, it is nothing more than a dream of faith, because cause and effect requires a cause and a stating point. Nothingness is not a starting point, and no cause can act upon it. But atheists must believe this nonsense, because if they dont, then the only other conclusion left, is that there was a creator who is the cause, and his omnipotent will that created everything from nothing…, But to them this is not acceptable. So an irrational faith becomes their conclusion.

Now let us consider the creator hypothesis. There is no evidence for this either, and there is no way to go back in time and figure out what existed before the Big Bang. So it too is a matter of faith. But it is not irrational faith. Our human minds understand time, and the procession of creation over time. We struggle to understand how an un-created creator could exists, but if we are being truly scientific and truly rational, the uncreated creator is the only logical conclusion to the understanding of existence of all things and the beginning of the universe.

I think it is clear that the logic is on the side of the believer, we may not be able to prove that the uncreated creator exists, but at least this theory is consistent with the belief in god. The ex nihilo existence of all things from nothing, is neither logical nor consistent with any science ever concieved by man.

At the end of the day, the point of this entire document is to make that one point…, that I believe that it is the Theist, that has reason and logic on their side, and that atheism is the irrational conclusion. It makes sense, that man was created in god’s image, that the logical thinking of the human mind would lead to the conclusion that God exists, and that faith is the manifestation of that conclusion

Thomas Aquinas said at one point (paraphrasing) that god can be understood with pure reason, but that you must ask god to open your mind to the possibility, and then he will pour out all the grace you will ever need to fully understand god. Simply put, that understanding requires an act of faith first. You cannot even begin to understand the mysteries of the universe and of God if you don’t think they exists, just so, you must give your heart to the lord, and when you do, he will give you all the grace you need and more to fully understand all that you have questions about.

There is an old addage that states “The believer has to account for all of the evil in the world, the atheist has to account for everything else.” I think that I have explained the problem of evil (at least I have given it my best shot). Now on the other hand the Atheist has far more to explain. and I contend that they cannot.

They have to explain the 10000 year history of human love and faith. Meaning that humans have participated for millennia, living and fighting, and dying for a thing that cannot be proven, measured, or even understood outside of the human mind and heart… Love!
They have to account for the existence of everything. Where did it all come from, it did not pop into existence out of nothing. If it was created, it cannot be traced back to an infinite line of creation, there must be at some point an uncreated creator… who is that?
They have to give up the problem of evil. I truly believe that if you want us to believe that the universe popped into existence out of nothing which is a completely irrational idea, then you cannot tell us believers, in the same breath…, that the idea that a good and loving god would allow evil in the world is totally irrational. I believe that I have sufficiently explained the problem of evil, and it is not irrational at all, it is, in fact, the quintessence of love. It is the idea of an exnihilo creation of the universe that is not either, logical, scientific or rational in any way.
They have to admit that science cannot explain everything, and never will. There are so many things that science cannot explain, love, truth, beauty, etc., and to say that “if science can’t explain it, it doesn’t exists,” is so lazy that it is embarrassing. This argument has to die, it is just so bad.
They have to admit that logic leads to faith not doubt. Remembering my explanation of how logic itself is not measurable, it is not a scientifically provable reality. Logic is an untestable aspect of human existence, that is absolutely real, and because we are made in gods image, logic naturally leads to Him, and not to doubt.

All that is left is pride. I hate to say it, but if an Atheist is honest with himself, and truly reflects on the logic and reason that is laid out in this document, that the facts, and logic and reason point to God. If after all of that you still reject, this conclusion, the only reason is Pride.

If I believe in God, why is that such and affront to most athiests, Why am I not allowed to believe as I wish. I think that atheists are far more energetic and evangelical at spreading their belief system than any christian. So why do they fight so hard? I think it is because the image of god inside their soul speaks to the truth of God, even though their mind and their will reject and actively suppress it. But try as they might they cannot eliminate that voice in their conscience. Even richard Dawkins once wrote (about himself), that if on a scaled of 0 to 100 where 0 is theism, and 100 is atheism, Dawkins said he was a 99. Even one of the most adamant, atheist thinkers in the world, is not even 100% sure he is right… that should tell you all you need to know about the religion of atheism.

I suspect that in the deepest part of most atheists heart is not a disbelief in god, but a hatred of him, and a rejection of him. But how can you hate something that doesnt exist? And truly, I think that that is the thing that is so difficult for atheists to reconcile… If god does exist, and if god is the loving creator of the universe, and if god put you here so that he could have a loving relationship with you, then you have to confront that reality. When you finally, honestly confront that question of god’s existence…, that question puts a claim on you. You only have two choices…, you either reject it and are condemned to hell, or you accept it and the infinite possiblities of love, and truth become open to you, and you immediately know that you have to change your life. When you finally realize the import of this decision, then you will realize that indifference is not a possibility, you have to either pick one or the other. Most atheists are pretty smart, and most of them have probably come accross this question, and for those that have decided to reject god, despite everything they know to be true…, well that is the quinteccence of Pride. That is what the devil did when he rejected gods plan, and hell is the only logical result of that decision. I think this is why most atheists are so angry…, in the deepest part of their soul, they know where they are headed, and that is not something you can be happy about. I also think that this is why atheism is usually a far easier objection to overcome than indifference. If you are a thoughtful person, and you contemplate, and explore the reasons I have given herein, and you have good and kind heart that is open to the truth, then you likely give up the religion of atheism, and become a christian. But if you are a prideful person and put your mind and intellect above reason and truth, then you will ultimately find yourself in eternal torment. I sincerely hope you make the right decision. Your eternity litterally depends on it.

So that is it, I will let you decide, I hope that at the very least this document will help you start thinking of things that you might not have previously considered. My prayer is that you will allow these arguments to open your mind a bit, and start the journey of searching and understanding. And ultimately find your way to God. He is waiting for you, just make the first step, and the rest of your life will be an unbelievable adventure.