EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

An atheist challenged me to give him evidence for the existence of God. I quoted former atheist and astronomer Alan Sandage:

* "As I said before, the world is too complicated in all of its parts to be due to chance alone. I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order in each of its organisms is simply too well put together. . . . The more one learns of biochemistry the more unbelievable it becomes unless there is some kind of organizing principle—an architect."

The atheist retorted that this observation wasn't evidence. Instead, I would have to produce scientific findings and peer-reviewed studies. I had to play according to his rules.

I thought about this and applied it to something else I was sure about - my wife's existence! I didn't need a peer-reviewed study to assure me that she existed. It is enough for me to see her and to see the things she had done for me and for our apartment.

Admittedly, I cannot see God, but I can see what He has done for me and also His work, just like Sandage had seen.

What did Sandage see that had made him reject atheism? He observed that an Architect must have been the Designer of this world. How did he know that blind chance could not have accounted for it?

We all have a lot of experience with intelligent causes and non-intelligent causes. We therefore know that non-intelligent causes cannot account for computers, iPads, and even DNA.

Okay, there is a lot we don't know, but based upon what we do know, non-intelligent causes cannot build TVs or telescopes. These require intelligence.

In There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, Antony Flew concluded that DNA required an intelligent cause:

* “It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design.”

* “I now believe there is a God…I now think it [the evidence] does point to a creative Intelligence almost entirely because of the DNA investigations. What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together.”

Flew did not need a peer-reviewed study to come to his final conclusion. However, science had revealed the "unbelievable complexity" of DNA and unable to provide any natural explanation for it. And Flew knew that there would be none forthcoming.

Besides, peer-reviewed studies never conclude, "God did it," but neither do they conclude, "Natural forces did it." It seems instead that science, by itself, is unable to pass judgment on this question, and I told my atheist friend as much.