Why I Believe in the Existence of God

Written a few years ago on my old blogging site:

I watch the branches sway and the leaves flutter. I can’t see the wind, but I know it’s there. I watch people laugh together, help each other, and love one another. I can’t see God, but I know He’s there.

To believe in anything requires faith. God will never be proved by science. Our human science can only measure what can be seen, heard, felt. The existence of God, like love, is something that can’t be objectively measured. Either you put faith that there is more to the world than you can directly observe, or you put your faith in the idea that what we can measure is all that exists. In the end, it all comes down to faith. I don’t write this to inspire debate about the existence of God. Any debates will ultimately go in a circle and arrive at the same conclusion. Either you believe in things you can’t see, or you don’t. This is my personal testimony as to why I believe in the existence of God.

I could start by talking of the majestic grandeur of the mountains, the exquisite beauty of sunsets, or the overwhelming vastness of the oceans. All the beauty in our world is evidence enough to have faith in a Creator. But then, there’s the human being. Where do I even begin? Our intelligence and ability to create is extraordinary. As I sit here and type this, I know with one click of a button that this article will be available to be read BY THE WHOLE WORLD! That just blows my mind. Another thing that blows my mind: Skype. I mean, you do realize that we can see and talk instantaneously with somebody living on the other side of the planet, right? That is AMAZING. I just can’t believe that our incredible intelligence that gives us the ability to create all these amazing things happened by some cosmic accident.

All of that doesn’t even compare to our capacity to love. If there were no purpose, no meaning, no God, then why love? Why do people sacrifice their lives for others? If our lives just happened by randomness, why would you even care if you saw someone suffering in the streets? I believe the evolutionist would argue that back in the day when we were half-apes, we developed this because community was essential to our physical survival. Once again, it comes down to where you put your faith. You can believe that we love because a loving God created us, or you can believe it evolved to be there. Or you can be like some people and believe love doesn’t exist at all. For me, I’ll take the former. 

These things don’t even begin to scratch the surface of the wonder of our creation. One day, I was sitting at Starbucks, pen in hand, ready to write something. I prayed and as I wrote, out came a torrent of questions:

Who is it that causes the thoughts to flow to your hand? To write words that flow together and make sense? A bunch of scribbles on a page form a pattern. Why does it have meaning? Why is music beautiful? How does a bunch of loud noises come together to form a pattern that inspires?

If we were created from chaos, then why is there so much order? If everything is random, why is it that we long for meaning? If it’s all about survival of the fittest, why do we love art? Why do we find things beautiful at all? We could get all intellectual and start tramping out all these scientific theories and studies to attempt to answer these questions. But we would be ignoring the simplest explanation: that we were created this way.

While taking a walk today, I noticed all the trees. I thought it crazy that these tall strong trees started from a tiny seed. That is a miracle. A seed is planted, a little bit of water falls from the sky, the sun shines a little bit, time passes, and abra cadabra, TREE!! What!? Our life-filled world is absolutely miraculous.

I don’t know much about the science of trees. I think they grow by some sort of cell division process. But what causes the cells to divide? If there’s a reason for that, then what causes the reason for the cells to divide? Then if there’s a reason for that, what causes the reason for the reason for the cells to divide. Down that rabbit hole we go until there is a “we don’t know yet.” Then if they find the answer to that, then what causes that ? See! Miracle!

I think it’s funny that the more science studies the observable world, the more complicated it becomes. It seems that for every answer we find, there are hundreds of new questions. Science is great at finding answers but not THE answer. It keeps searching for “why/how does this happen?” but the answer to that always leads to another question. To think that in an invisible force might be at work in all this doesn’t take a huge leap of faith at all. In fact, it might be the only thing that makes logical sense.

So what caused the first thing? One of the ironclad rules in science is the law of cause and effect. Everything that happens was caused by something. As we go back in time to the creation of the universe, we arrive at a quandary. Either something randomly appeared from nothing (an impossibility), or there is something eternal that caused the first thing to happen. In other words, there has to be something unbound by time that exists.

I am purposefully writing this without using any biblical references. You don’t need a text to tell you God exists, you just need to take a look around. There are countless reasons to believe. Ultimately though, the reason I believe can’t be put into words. When my mind is quiet and all is still, everything becomes crystal clear.

I am in the silence. I am always present. I am in the place where there are no words. I am in the stillness. There you will find me. Quiet your heart. Quiet your mind. Quiet your soul. Only through the emptiness can I fill you up.