Does God Exist?

It is probably one of the most pivotal questions in the history of humanity, as a rational, thinking species. Is there a higher power? The existence of God has generally answered 2 primary questions: 1) How was this all created? and 2) What is the objective basis for morality? For now, I will focus solely on God's existence as creator, not judge.

There is an interesting argument called the Creation-Evolution Argument. But here is the irony. "Creation" as defined by Judeo-Christian theology is actually the combination of both the Creation of the Universe and the Creation of Life. While the Bible handles these 2 "events" together - science has 2 distinct theories about these events. The Creation of the Universe is explained by the Big Bang model, and the Creation of Life is described by the Theory of Evolution. Yet the common Judeo-Christian complaints are generally focused more on the Theory of Evolution. Both scientific theories are in direct opposition of the written "Word". But the Theory of Evolution attacks the ego of man as it implies that we are the descendants of a "lower" species. But I digress.

So, for the purpose of this discussion, I will consider the Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory to be related in the sense that they describe the formation of both the universe, and life within it. But there is also another correlation between these two theories that I will address later.

Now - in this discussion it is imperative that we disregard the Bible as a "source" of record. I certainly value the faith others may have - but belief in the Bible is, in many ways, just a symbol of faith. You may have Faith that it is the literal translation of God, and that is fine. But within the realm of a serious analysis, it is no more reliable than a child who believes all good people come from rainbows. And many would be furious at this point After all, if we accept this to be "fair" terms have we not disarmed the Judeo-Christian beliefs altogether??

I say no. Proof of God's existence is everywhere to be found without the Bible. And therein lies the problem. So you see, without the Bible, and its parables - we can find evidence of a grand architect, of a creator. But that does not imply that he created the universe as written in some book. In spite of all the physical evidence, it is just extremely difficult to imagine that all of the complexity of life has been the result of random accidents.

And yet it is that very randomness which is the primary correlation between the Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory. Both theories share a common idea... Within a constrained set of laws, and given enough time and space, randomness will create complexity. The galaxies, and stars, and all of the various types of planets are all creations of random acts within a constrained set of physical laws (gravity, magnetism, etc...). Similarly, all life has evolved through a series of small random changes over billions of years within the constraints of physical (and chemical) laws.

Now - speaking of cop outs... It is easy to state, "Well if this is truly how nature works, then that is how God intended it to work." In the scheme of things, there really is nothing wrong with this premise - and I will be coming back to it. But recently, I'd say "science" has been guilty of the same thing. Recently, Stephen Hawking proposed that the Universe does not "require" a God. What was his premise? Randomness. You see - Hawking theorized that perhaps our universe was only one of an infinite number of other universes. So we are right back to the original notion... Given enough time, randomness will create complexity. So while there may very well be an infinite number of universes out there which have produced nothing more than disparate gases - other universes like ours, have created vastly complex systems of life. The only "soundness" to this theory is that it is consistent with out basic concepts of creation, scientifically speaking.

So where does this leave us? Judeo-Christians may cling to their written Word, but ultimately the Bible is no proof or disproof of a God. Atheists may cling to the science of the random, but again this is no proof or disproof of the existence of a God.

The answer? Faith. Just faith. On the surface, this answer seems to imply that we must have Faith that God exists. But in truth it goes beyond that. The mind is incapable of conceiving of the beginning of time and space. We can theorize about it as a concept, but we are not actually capable of understanding any moment in which Space and Time did not exist...thus we are incapable of fulling understanding how all of this could have been "created". So, from an atheistic perspective, the only answer our minds can comprehend is to simply state that "it has always existed". But even this is difficult to swallow, because the mind has just as hard a time trying to understand infinity. The point is this....science may one day prove how everything began, but I very seriously doubt it. Either way, at this point in our civilization there is no proof either way. Thus an atheist's claims are based on faith just as much as a Christian's claims. In the end, an atheist must rely on faith that the universe was created and runs due to randomness - because there is no way to conclusively prove that it's creation was itself a random act. And what else is Faith but belief in the absence of proof? And of course from a religious perspective, having faith that God created all, does not necessarily imply that God must be an active participant in his creation.

So there it is... Ultimately the question of God's existence is a bit of a moot point with respect to human knowledge and understanding. Science may one day prove itself, and of course there is always the possibility (I guess) that religion may prove itself (rapture, etc...). But until either of those days are upon us, atheists and Christians alike (as well as all other religious beliefs) are resigned to faith for a creation belief.

Then again, I could be completely wrong...