Proof of the Existence of God from Reason

 

There are many proofs for the existence of God. This is because this universe is His creation, and all of His creations point back to their Creator. Here is just one proof out of many – The proof from reason or logic:

1. REASON EXISTS.
2. REASON REQUIRES A TRANSCENDENT INTELLIGENCE.

Conclusion: A TRANSCENDENT INTELLIGENCE MUST EXIST.

1.     REASON EXISTS.

This hardly requires any support. In fact, any argument against the existence of reason requires reason.

2.     REASON REQUIRES A TRANSCENDENT INTELLIGENCE.

There are several reasons for this. Reason is absolute, universal, and immutable. It must be immutable. If it isn’t, it would be like measuring a building with an elastic band. It must also be universal or it would change from day to day and from town to city, rendering it entirely useless for science or even intelligent conversation.

These qualities cannot be accounted for by a universe of molecules-in-motion. They can only be accounted for by an immutable and universal Cause and Sustainer – something that transcends this universe.

Some claim that reason is a property of this universe. However, the universe is changing. Therefore, reason would also be changing, obviating any conclusion of science. Besides, the things of this universe are impacted by other things, but nothing seems to be able to change the laws of reason and logic. (Admittedly, many things impact our use of reason and logic.)

Similarly, others appeal to evolution. However, there are many problems with this. First of all, they would have to prove that evolution isn't intelligently guided - something they can't do. Besides, evolution or naturalism would also have to account for the allied and immutable, universal physical laws, which it can't possibly do! Naturalism only has explanatory power  after “natural” laws exist.

Besides, Naturalism cannot explain the subtlety and freedom of thought necessary for science and creativity. Naturalism claims that thought is guided exclusively by bio-chemical laws. Laws work predictably and formulaically. However, these would impose such severe limitations on thought that creative and scientific thought would not be possible. It would therefore seem that more is necessary for thought to be what it is, something that accounts for some degree of mental freedom.

Reason is like the operating systems of a computer, all of which had to be intelligently created. While humans created operating systems, humans could not have created the laws of reason, logic, and the laws of science, since these predate humanity. Also, the operating system must be intelligently fine-tuned to the computer if it is to be functional. Amazingly, reason seems to have also been intelligently fine-tuned to this world.

Besides, the humanly created systems are always being improved, while reason remains as is and yet is adequate for all of our enterprises, whether in China or Alaska.

Conclusion: A TRANSCENDENT INTELLIGENCE MUST EXIST.

Praise His glory, all you His creations!

ADDENDUM: Atheists claim that we have to provide a detailed explanation of how God created. Admittedly, we cannot provide this. There is much that we do not know. Nor do we know the basic things like the nature of time, space, and matter. These remain mysteries, but this ignorance does not prevent science. Likewise, our ignorance about God does not preclude any knowledge about God and ID.

Other claim that reason and logic are also in flux. Then I would have to retort that any scientific statement is in flux and therefore must be taken tentatively at best. Nevertheless, we still make solid assertions about this world. Reason is still reason and my measuring stick can still measure the reality of length and depth. They are still rock solid and require explanations that explain this solidity.

Cognition and Thomas Nagel

Can thought and cognition be reduced to a matter of mere chemical-electrical materials? NYU Professor of Philosophy and atheist, Thomas Nagel, reasons that there must be more to thought than just the materials:

·        It is not merely the subjectivity of thought [the experience of thought] but its capacity to transcend subjectivity and to discover what is objectively the case that presents a problem. Thought and reasoning are correct or incorrect in virtue of something independent of the thinker’s beliefs, and even independent of the community of thinkers to which he belongs…There are norms [laws] of thought which, if we follow them, will tend to lead us toward the correct answers to those questions…Mathematics, science, and ethics are built on such norms. It is difficult to make sense of all this in traditional naturalistic terms. (Mind and Cosmos, 72)

It is one thing to accurately perceive the world; it’s another to put the data together into a reasonable, logical, useable and comprehensive package. Somehow, our minds must be amenable to the world around us and they both must be amenable to a set of common logical laws that can enable us to convert the external, material world into accurate ideas about it.

Our minds are more than mirrors or cameras that provide exact reflections of our slice of reality. They are synthesizers. However, in order to function in this way, there must be an “operating system” or set of transcendent rules in place that instructs our mental circuitry about how to organize the data. Besides, the real world data has to also be conformable to these rules.

Without this set of rules, we are no more than firing circuitry leading nowhere. Instead, this glorious package we call “mind” gives every appearance of a grand and intelligent design – the kind alluded to in the Bible:

·        Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Logic: A Needless Hindrance if you’re Trying to Influence

Buddhist and Hindu philosophers tend to quote from the New Testament, claiming its wisdom as their own, offering an interpretation that erroneously coincides with their own beliefs. Eckhart Tolle, Oprah’s guru, quotes liberally from the NT. Here’s one example:

• “The wisdom of this world is folly with God” [1 Cor. 3:19]. What is the wisdom of this world? The movement of thought, and meaning that is defined exclusively by thought. (A New Earth, 196)

What did Paul mean by “the wisdom of the world?” He was contrasting the “wisdom of world” with the “wisdom of the God.” He denigrates the “wisdom of the world,” claiming that this arrogant wisdom is blind and fails to acknowledge God (1 Cor. 1:20-21). However, Paul claimed that he was teaching a godly wisdom – a real wisdom - to the mature (1 Cor. 2:6).

The Bible is not opposed to wisdom, but rather an arrogant, human-based “wisdom.” Even the context, from which Tolle quotes, affirms this fact:

• Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. (1 Cor. 3:18-19)

Tolle wrongly extracts this verse from its context to argue that Paul writes against all wisdom. However, Paul writes only against an arrogant wisdom that thinks itself wise. Instead, such a man would have to humble himself so that he might really “become wise.” Consequently, it is not wisdom that is denigrated but an arrogant wisdom.

In light of the many biblical affirmations of wisdom, Tolle’s interpretation has to be rejected.

However, according to Tolle, there is absolutely no wisdom, because all “wisdom” relies on thought:

• Thinking isolates a situation or event and calls it good or bad, as if it had a separate existence. Through excessive reliance on thinking, reality becomes fragmented. This fragmentation is an illusion, but it seems very real while you are trapped in it. And yet the universe is an individualistic whole in which all things are interconnected, in which nothing exists in isolation. (196)

According to Tolle and many Eastern thinkers, reality is one, and therefore, one part can’t be separated from the rest. In essence, there are no parts but a single unity. It would be like trying to study the function of the heart by ripping it out of the body, of which it is part, to measure its functioning. Likewise, according to Tolle, our thinking is based upon studying parts in isolation – a distortion of reality.

Tolle then applies his concept of oneness to morality, claiming that we can’t make moral judgments about isolated events. We cannot say that one action is “good” and another one is “bad.”

• The deeper interconnectedness of all things and events implies that the mental labels of “good” and “bad” are ultimately illusory. They always imply a limited perspective and so are true only relatively and temporarily. (196)

In order to support his claim, he tells a story about a man who wisely refused to judge “bad” events. At the end, what had seemed to be bad turned out for good. While it is true that many things that seem to be bad really produce good, his conclusion that “good” and “bad” are “ultimately illusory” depends upon making a moral judgment – the very thing that he claims we can’t do!

Besides, if we can’t make moral judgments because of the “interconnectedness of all things,” then we also cannot make judgments about the physical world. Hence, we cannot do science!

Also, if wisdom and thought are ultimately illusory or even “true only relatively and temporarily,” then what can we make of the books he has written. They are laden with thoughts. If these thoughts are “true only relatively and temporarily,” then we shouldn’t take anything he has written seriously.

If his stance seems illogical, perhaps it is. Perhaps Tolle needs to go back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, some Eastern thinkers retort that logic is the “invention of little minds.” However, if this is so, how then can we assess any claim? I guess all that we can do is to eat, drink and be merry. But I fear that logic is required for even these elementary activities.

The Life of the Mind

Our post-modern culture has neglected the mind, apart from material matters like medicine and meteorology. I’ve been told by Washington Square Park/NYU mavens that 40 years ago all manner of political and philosophical opinion were being promoted from the Park by book tables, pamphlets, and preachers. Ideas mattered! One such atheistic observer encouraged me that I am the last Socrates of the Park.

Why the demise of ideas? Well, we’re told that they don’t matter, even worse, that they have no basis in reality. For example, multiculturalism assures us that there are no objective standards by which we can judge other cultures. Consequently, we can’t pass judgment.

This is tragic and prevents us from confronting the problems we find in other cultures. Muslim reformer and former Dutch Parliamentarian, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, laments this fact. In her book, The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam, she points the accusing finger at multiculturalism and Western intellectuals who don’t apply this concept consistently:

• These same liberals in western politics have the strange habit of blaming themselves for the ills of the world, while seeing the rest of the world as victims. To them victims are to be pitied, and they lump together all the pitiable and suppressed people, such as Muslims, and consider them good people who should be cherished and supported so that they can overcome their disadvantages. The adherents of multiculturalism refuse to criticize people whom they see as victims…They are critical of the native white majority in Western countries but not of Islamic minorities. Criticism of the Islamic world, of Palestinians, and of Islamic minorities is regarded as Islamophobia and xenophobia. (xvii)

Ali argues that this unwillingness to judge according to moral universal standards is detrimental:

• Because multiculturalists will not classify cultural phenomena as “better’ or “worse” but only neutral or disparate, they actually encourage segregation and unintentionally perpetuate, for instance, the unsatisfactory position of Muslim women. State subsidies for nonstate schools allow Muslims to have their own schools…in which young girls are indoctrinated…with very conservative Islamic practices. (63

Western self-imposed moral blindness is ubiquitous and has resulted in neglect of the abused:

• But in the bigger countries, no NGO yet monitors the number of times an honor killing is committed in a [Western] member state, or the number of times a girl is circumcised, or the number of times a girl is removed form school and forced into a life of virtual slavery. (170

Meanwhile, many Islamic Study departments in Western universities are more committed to indoctrination than in the things that should characterize the university:

• Yet, in spite of having Arab and Islam faculties, most universities in Europe serve as activist centers to further the Palestinian cause, instead of research and teaching centers for Muslim students. (169)

However, having degraded the life of the mind in regards to moral questions, the West now lacks the heart and rationale to stand against intimidation:

• The present-day attitude of Western cultural relativists, who flinch from criticizing Muhammad for fear of offending Muslims, allow Western Muslims to hide from reviewing their own moral values. This attitude also betrays the tiny majority of Muslim reformers who desperately require support – and even the physical protection – of their natural allies in the West. (176)

Consequently, the pushiest prevail, undermining the West’s claim of being just. It should come as no surprise that the life of the mind is also disparaged within the church. Doctrine and the Biblical teachings of the church have been set aside, allegedly because “doctrine divides.”

Sadly, many churches have replaced the primacy of Scripture with goal of experiencing God – unmediated mysticism – claiming that the mind and our fixation upon Scripture is just an impediment. The deceased but now popular Henry Nouwen advised that we clear our minds by the simple repetition of a single word:

• “The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart…This way of simple prayer…opens us to God’s active presence.”

Never mind that Jesus taught against placing our faith in mindless repetitions:

• And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. (Matthew 6:7)

In The Signature of Jesus, Brennan Manning has given similar advice:

• “The first step in faith is to stop thinking about God in prayer…” “Contemplative spirituality tends to emphasize the need for a change in consciousness…we must come to see reality differently.” “Choosing a single, sacred word…repeat the sacred word inwardly, slowly, and often.” “Enter into the great silence of God. Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard.” (Quoted by Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, 83)

Evidently, Manning is content to overlook the counsel of Scripture:

• Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly…But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:1-3; Joshua 1:8)

According to Scripture, blessedness is not a matter of clearing our minds of God, but rather, of contemplating both Him and His Word!

Spiritual Disciplines guru, Richard Foster, reinforces the errant idea that the mind is necessarily a hindrance to the Christian life:

• Imagine the light of Christ flowing through your hands and healing every emotional trauma and hurt feeling your child experienced that day. Fill him or her with the peace and joy of the Lord. In sleep the child is very receptive to prayer since the conscious mind, which tends to erect barriers to God’s gentle influence, is relaxed. (Celebration of Discipline, 39)

Instead of Jesus’ admonition to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind, Foster would gladly have us dispense with the conscious mind, which “erect barriers to God’s gentle influence.”

In contrast to this, the early church understood that the life of the mind – what we understand and believe – is foundational for every other aspect of the Christian life. There had been a conflict between two groups of “believers.” One group insisted that circumcision to become a Jew and to follow the Law was necessary for salvation. Meanwhile, Paul and Peter argued that this requirement would cause Gentile believers to stumble. They recounted instances of God’s miraculous workings among the Gentiles, proving that God had accepted them without circumcision.

James then confirmed their testimony with Scripture (Acts 15:15-19). Although they might have been concerned that the conflict would cause division, they had a greater concern - the truths of God and the preservation of the Gospel. The Spirit had revealed to them that salvation was purely a matter of the grace of God, and this truth trumped everything else! Consequently, to resolve the confusion they formulated this letter to be sent throughout the Christian world:

•  “The apostles and elders, your brothers, to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings. We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said.” (Acts 15:23-24)

Among other things, this letter reflected the fact that their thought-life was important. As long as thinking was conflicted, they remained “disturbed.”

What we think determines everything else – our self-concept, attitudes and treatment of others, relationships, and even experiencing God! If I believe that He forgives and cleanses me of my sins when I confess them, I am going to feel grateful and intimate with my God. However, if I belief that I must first earn that forgiveness, then I will remain doubtful, depressed and resentful.

The life of the mind is paramount. What we believe is critical to everything we say and do. Consequently, because the Apostles had resolved this theological problem by the Holy Spirit, the church grew:

• As they [Paul, Timothy and Silas] traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.  So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. (Acts 16:4-5)

Burying our confusion will no more “strengthen” us than a house built without a foundation. Without resolving this fundamental truth, our lives rest upon the shifting sands. Indeed, there are many truths upon which our house must find its support. This requires a steady diet of Scripture meditation – the very thing now regarded as counter-productive.