Ok, so
you’re an atheist. You don’t believe in
the existence of God, and you don’t see how anyone
else could possibly believe in Him.
Or maybe, you’re an agnostic and you believe that there could possibly be a God or gods, but you don’t
see enough evidence to justify that belief.
You’re thinking, “If there really is a God, then why does it look like
He is hiding from us?” Either way, you’re
a rational thinker and you need hardcore evidence before believing in any “old
man in the sky” fairy tales, right?
But the
question has to be asked: What kind of
evidence would you require? What exactly
would it take to convince you of the existence of God? Would you only be satisfied with purely
scientific evidence?
But
appealing to science brings up another issue:
Is science equipped to truly demonstrate God in a laboratory? How would that work? Look, we all know that you can’t measure the weight of something with a tape
measure. And we all know that you can’t calculate
distance with an electrical volt
meter, nor can you measure pressure
with a microscope. In other words, to
measure or test something, you must use the correct tools for the job. But using science
to directly measure something metaphysical or spiritual (like God) is
absurd. Scientific methods are not
equipped to directly determine the
qualities or existence of God. You can’t
find Him in a test tube or see Him through a telescope.
Yet, atheists
and other skeptics will often demand that God (if He does indeed exist) should
make Himself visible so all can
believe in Him… is that too much to ask?
He should “show Himself,” or maybe perform some great miracle, like
giant writing in the sky for all to see.
You know, seeing is believing, right?
Yet no one has ever seen gravity, but no one goes around demanding that
gravity needs to become visible
before we can believe in it, do they? By
that logic, someone could also say that since your mind is not directly visible, it must not exist! Physical visibility is not always necessary
to prove existence. Some things we don’t
directly see, e.g., electricity, force, heat, pressure, energy, etc., but we
can see their effects. This is also true
of God… although He is invisible, we can see His handiwork (Psalm
8:1; 19:1-2), His creation (Romans 1:18-20), and His affecting
of our lives in many ways (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). But we don’t need to directly see Him or
directly hear His audible voice to know He’s there. We can find Him through indirect evidence.
We find an
interesting (and relevant) Bible story in the book of Luke, where Jesus tells
us about two men who die, ending up in two vastly different places - the rich
man in agony, and the poor man in bliss (Luke 16:19-31). The rich man, after realizing the
hopelessness of his eternal mistake, cries out for Abraham to send Lazarus (the
poor man) back from the dead to testify of this horrible place to his
still-living family, so that they don’t end up there with him. But it is important to note that Abraham tells
the rich man that if his brothers will not believe Moses and the prophets
(Scripture), then they will not believe someone who comes back from the dead (v. 31). Notice that Jesus, through this story,
considered the testimony of Scripture as far
more reliable than the witness of the dead coming back to testify! The rich man wanted extreme evidence for his
family to see. But no one can demand the
luxury of such extreme evidence.
Scripture is sufficient.
But the
problem with skeptics, though, is that it seems that they are always able to
“explain away” any evidence produced.
Medical miracles are simply written off as a hoax, and even if God were to visibly appear, they
would claim that it was just an illusion or hallucination, anyway.
They ask for
visible proof of God; but God already
did show Himself, in the person of
Jesus Christ (God becoming flesh), who did many, many miracles and even rose
from the dead, yet many still didn’t
believe! But when skeptics demand
evidence, what they are really asking is, “Why doesn’t He reveal Himself the way I want Him to?” But God is not obligated to reveal Himself to
skeptics, or to anyone, especially to someone who is not repentant nor willing
to serve Him. No one is promised a
dramatic “Damascus Road” experience (Acts 9:1-9).
And God is not
asking anyone to use “blind faith,” but faith resting on reliable historical
evidence. It pleases Him when we believe
what He says – like parents who desire for their children to trust them without
having to prove or explain everything to them – it’s about a relationship. God wants us to learn to trust Him without
having to give us every single detail, because we may not be ready for some details
yet.
It is true
that believers will often be biased, and they are not always willing to
consider all the evidence concerning science.
But extreme bias can also be found in atheist circles. The esteemed Professor Richard Lewontin
(atheist geneticist at Harvard) writes:
“We take the
side of science IN SPITE OF the patent ABSURDITY of some of its constructs… IN
SPITE OF the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated
just-so-stories, because we have a PRIOR commitment – A COMMITMENT TO
MATERIALISM. It is NOT that the methods
and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation
of the phenomenal world, but, ON THE CONTRARY, that we are forced by our A
PRIORI ADHERENCE to MATERIAL causes to create an apparatus of investigation and
a set of concepts that produce MATERIAL explanations, NO MATTER how
counter-intuitive, NO MATTER how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an ABSOLUTE,
for WE CANNOT ALLOW A DIVINE FOOT IN THE DOOR.” (Billions and Billions of Demons, Prof. Richard Lewontin, New York Review of Books, January 9,
1997, Volume 44 [Emphasis added])
In other
words, for the atheist, the existence of God must be kept out of the equation
at all costs, no matter what the evidence suggests.
But ultimately,
the issue is not whether God exists
or not. The answer to that is built into
every one of us, atheists included. Deep
down inside, we all know He’s there (Romans
1:18-20), though some will not admit it. God, in different ways, makes Himself known
to all of us. But are we willing to
reach out to Him and let Him change our lives?
Are we willing to trust Him and submit to Him?
God is not
obligated to provide greater evidence. It’s
not that skeptics need more evidence, the problem is that they are not believing
the evidence that exists already!
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