Does God exist?
People disagree about whether God exists.
But consider this. Imagine that you are shipwrecked and washed ashore on an unknown island. Is it inhabited by other people or not?
After walking for an hour, seeing no one, you suddenly come to a house. You search the house but find no one there. But the electric lights work, and there is fresh food in the refrigerator. Outside is a pad where a helicopter can land. Do you think it is likely that someone lives here?
When we look at the world, we see a place of great beauty and elegance, wonder and complexity. We marvel at a rosebud and the neck of a swan, the vast sweep of galaxies and the intricate spiraling of DNA. Then we turn to look at ourselves. Details vary but all people of the earth have certain features in common. We are able to appreciate beauty and to create complex and beautiful things. We have a sense of personal value and worth, and a need for affection and personal relationships. We have a sense of right and wrong. We are able to use reason to a high degree, including complicated abstract thinking, and we can communicate by using languages of great complexity. Many of these languages are not only spoken but written.
What is the best explanation for the presence of such beauty and complexity in the world? From where do we get our sense of value and worth? Why do we have a need for interpersonal relationships? From where do we get our sense of right and wrong? How is it that we are able to reason at such a high level? What is the best explanation for such things?
Basically we humans have come up with two different explanations: that we and the universe come from matter or from God. The first explanation, which is essentially Atheism, says that our value as persons, our ability to discern between good and bad, our love of beauty, our need for meaning, purpose, and hope in life, all come from unconscious, blind, and impersonal forces and materials.
Many people find this explanation highly implausible. Can the personal come from the impersonal? How can you have true value or purpose in an accidental or machine-like universe? Why do you find pleasure in the beauty of a sunset or a bird’s song? Can there be any true justice or morality if its source is only yourself or a lot of other people? If people then disagree, what prevents power from deciding what is right? If there is no God, does it matter how people treat you or how you treat them?
The second explanation says that we and our universe come from a Creator God who has personal attributes or that we are a part of an impersonal, divine oneness. (for more on this explanation, see “are all religions the same?” and “why does science need God?”)
Your own existence, with the distinctive features that make you human mentioned above, points to the likelihood that God exists.
This material was obtained from the ISI web site. For more questions and answers go to http://www.internationalstudents.org/kgp.php .
All material ©2007 International Students, Inc.
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