This week we are asking and answering the question “Is
belief in God rational?” In other words, is it reasonable or rational to
believe in God? Or is the idea of God irrational? Yesterday we discovered that
many people want to approach the question of God’s existence with the same
approach that they would use to determine something scientifically or to prove
something logically. And because of this reality, for many people, the driving
assumption that drives their search for the answer to the question of God’s
existence is that only what can be known and proven scientifically counts as
being true.
However, we all claim to know that things that are
true that can in no way be proven by scientific methods. As a matter of fact, any
time we make any kind of moral judgment we are making a statement that is
outside the realm of what science can demonstrate as being true. Even ardent
atheists agree with this reality. For example, Richard Dawkins stated “Science
has no method for determining what is ethical”. In addition, is it even
reasonable to expect that science could prove that God exists? After all
science is about understanding what exists in the material universe. However,
no one thinks that God exists as an object in this material universe as
something that can be observed and measured. Instead, God exists outside this
universe. Also, there are other things that we believe exist but cannot be
measured scientifically. Thus, scientific methodology is not equipped to
determine or prove God.
And while there are many philosophers who have tried
to answer the question of God’s existence through logic and philosophy, even
most Christian philosophers concede that there is no singular argument from
philosophy or logic that conclusively demonstrates that God exists. But, if
science and philosophy cannot prove the existence of God, then where does that
leave us?
We discovered that while there is no singular argument
that conclusively proves the existence of God, there are many pointers to God.
In other words, there are many arguments that provide a persuasive and rational
reason for the existence of God. Yesterday,
we looked at the pointer of existence addresses the question “why is there
something rather than nothing at all?” and discovered that there is something
within all of us intuitively that senses that the answer to that question is
no, something does not come from nothing. You see, God is the one necessary
being- God is the uncaused cause of everything that exists.
We also looked at the pointer of design, which addresses
the question “Why do we fit in this world? Why does the universe fit together
and function the way it does?” There seems to be some design to the universe
and how we fit into the universe. Even beyond the arguments that are made by
science through evolution and natural selection, science has not been able to
adequately explain the deep design that surrounds such things as the speed of
light, the force of gravity, and the irreducible complexity of our universe. And in a section of a letter that is recorded for us in
the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of Romans, we see a man that we
know today as the Apostle Paul point to this pointer of design as an argument
for the existence of God.
Today, I would like for us to look at two additional pointers.
The first of these two additional pointers that points us to God is the pointer
of our own consciences, which addresses the question “Why do we insist on
making moral judgments?” You see, throughout continents and cultures, throughout
human history, humanity has lived with an inherent sense that there is a right
and a wrong. And while there are times when humanity has disagreed with what is
right and wrong, humanity recognizes that there is a common ground between us
when it comes to what is right and wrong, what is just or unjust. For example, how often do people use the
phrase, “he or she ought to do something about that”.
But where does that sense of moral obligation come
from? You see, this moral obligation assumes two things. First this sense of
moral obligation assumes some sense of moral freedom. This sense of moral
obligation assumes that we have the responsibility to choose to do something
that we ought to do whether we like it or not.
Second, this sense of moral obligation assumes some
ultimate moral authority. You see, ultimate right and wrong are not just decided
by community standards or by majority rule. Because if that was the case, how
could we stand in judgment of the morality of any culture, say for example,
Nazi Germany.
You see, it is this insistence to make moral judgments
that points us a moral judge. Our desire to have a moral law, points us to a
Moral Law Giver. And a little later in the book of Romans, we see the Apostle
Paul point to this pointer of our own consciences as an argument for the
existence of God. So let’s look at Paul’s argument together, beginning in Romans 2:14-16:
For when
Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these,
not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the
Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their
thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when,
according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.
Here we see the Apostle Paul
explain that when the Gentiles, which refers to those who were not Jewish
ethnically or religiously and who have never read the Bible or attend church
naturally live their lives by a code of conduct or standard that reflects the
message and the teachings of the Bible, they are a Law to themselves. In other
words, the natural impulse of humanity to live according to a similar code of
conduct or a standard serves to reveal the internal presence of God’s Law or
standard within their lives.
Did you know that humanity
throughout history, across all cultures and continents has been guided by
similar set of laws and standards? Without communicating with one another
cultures and societies throughout the world share a common belief that certain
activities and behaviors are just plain wrong. For example, it is universally
viewed as being wrong to steal from someone. It is just not right.
By contrast, there are universal
actions that are viewed as being positive and good. For example, the person who
risks his life to save another is viewed in a positive light as doing something
that is good across all cultures. And it is this intuitive and natural sense of
good and evil that is universally present in humanity that reveals the reality
of God’s existence.
When Paul uses the phrase “they
show the work of the Law written in their hearts” in verse 15, he is revealing
for us the reality that God has written His moral Law on the hearts of all
humanity. Paul then explains that it is the conscience that provides the
practical proof that God has written His moral law on the hearts of all
humanity. The conscience is ones inward faculty of
distinguishing right and wrong. And every human being has a conscience that serves to either
accuse or defend our actions.
And while we can ignore our
conscience; while we can suppress our conscience; and while we can even harden
our conscience to the point that people would think that we have no conscience,
at some point in all of our lives we have sensed our consciences activity in
our lives. At some point in our lives, we have responded to a situation or
engaged in an activity that was good and honorable and felt our consciences
affirmation of our actions. And at some point in our lives, we have responded
to a situation or engaged in an activity that violated God’s moral law that was
written on our hearts, which resulted in us having what- “a guilty conscience”.
And it is the existence of a conscious that points us to the existence of God.
Now that leads us to a fourth pointer that points us
to God, which is the pointer of purpose. This pointer addresses the question
“Why do we long for meaning?” You see throughout continents and cultures,
throughout human history, humanity has lived with a desire to pursue meaning
and purpose for life.
Now most atheists would concede that if there is no
God, then there is no objective meaning to life. And because of that reality,
humanity would be left to subjectively create their own meaning to life.
However, our desire to create a life of meaning is based on the assumption that
something outside of us and our lives that gives meaning to our lives.
In addition, our desire to create a life of meaning
assumes that there is some objective measure, some standard, for assessing what
is really meaningful and worth pursuing and what is not. But this morning, what
is that standard? And where did it come from?
Why do we long for purpose and meaning?
The man who is considered by many as the wisest man
who ever lived, named Solomon, provided the answer to these questions in a
section of a letter in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the book of
Ecclesiastes. Solomon, as he looked in the rearview mirror of his life made the
following observation and statement in Ecclesiastes 3:11:
He has made
everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart,
yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the
beginning even to the end.
That is why no one goes up to a
casket at a funeral and proclaims “oh, so that’s’ what happens, you just stop
breathing and they put you in a box in the ground. Now it all makes sense”. We
would never do that because intuitively, we all sense that there is something
bigger than this life. Intuitively we sense that there is something beyond this
life. Almost every human being inherently recognizes that there is something
beyond this earthly existence. Again this is no proof, per se, but the desire
to experience something beyond this life points to the existence of something
beyond this life, God.
Friday, we will look at a fifth pointer
of God and answer the skeptic’s question “Is belief in God rational?”
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