Monday, December 19, 2016

Can one prove God exists?

(Related key-words/phrases, topics:- "Does God exist?", "Is Jesus God?")

A zillion+ dollar question has always been - “Can one prove or disprove the existence of God?”. A related very important question is: “Is believing in God an act of blind faith?


Here, I am listing two ways (there are more I believe) in which one can make a strong case for God:-

Via prophecies, fulfilled in history


Many scholars, actually claim that one can make a very strong case for GOD.
They often cite many “prophecies” which they claim to have been fulfilled over the course of human history to make a case for God. For instance, non-trivial prophesies about Jesus’s life made hundreds of years before Jesus came (Book of Isaiah, Book of Daniel found in "dead sea scrolls").


Following two passages from Scriptures are also used to defend why prophecies about future events can be used to make a strong case for the existence of God:-  


- Isaiah 44:7-9: “Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.”
(That is, God of the Bible is suggesting us a great way, via prophesies, to find out if He is real).

- Isaiah 42:9: See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."
(“God” is actually very much expected to prophesy about future events. So, if non-trivial prophecies attributed to “God” are turning out to be true during the course of human history, then one can make a strong case for “God”)

- Also, note Genesis 18:17: "The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do," (Again, it seems God loves to prophesy, which can be used to test Him)


Jesus, also referred to the prophesies in the Old Testament, to justify that He was God (also by fulfilling the relevant ones through Himself) - John 5:30-47.



I believe there is another way of making a very strong case for God:-


If you look around and start studying the “reality” (say, via, physics, chemistry, biology, etc etc), you may end up realizing that it takes lot more faith to believe that there is no God than to believe in One!


As, reality seems to be unbounded and also infinitely complex! (From here one would ask another amazing question - “How does everything work together, to get all the affairs of this world / universe get going?”)  


For instance, where does “space” end? Did time really have a beginning? If yes, then what was before that? - Another time scale? (and before that another time scale, and before that another time scale, … another time scale, …, and so on) Will time keep going forward “infinitely”? What is the smallest indivisible particle? An adult human body has trillions of cells, and each of those seems overwhelmingly complex - How do they all work together, to get a human get going? We realize, our minds are not able to comprehend “all the reality of reality” in our minds :) Our minds seem to be too limited! 


If you keep studying, like this, "all the reality", in and around us, you may at some point conclude that the “reality” seems to be infinitely complex, as a whole. And how “all the reality” comes-together / holds-together, to get all the affairs of this world / universe get going also seems infinitely complex, from an “understanding” point to view. Hence, from here I would jump to the “grand” conclusion that it takes lot more faith to believe that there is no God than to believe in One (who is “behind all the reality”)!


Talking of, “how the incredible complexity of reality around us points to God”, I am reminded of Psalm 19:1-2 - “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”

And, talking of “how the seemingly infinite complex reality in and around us comes-together / holds-together to get all the affairs of this world / universe get going”, I am reminded of Colossians 1:17 - “... in Him (Jesus) all things hold together.”