Apologetics

Does God exist?

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

There are several convincing arguments showing that God exists.  My favorite is called the Kalam Cosmological Argument.  It’s not as frightening as it sounds.  It is posed this way:

Time is not eternal past.  We know this because if it was, time would have crossed an infinite number of events to reach today.  Because it is impossible to count or cross an infinite number of anything, time would never have reached today.     So, time must have had a beginning.

For time, and the universe for that matter, to have a beginning requires an Agent to begin it: God.  If time had a beginning, the conditions to begin time could not have existed eternally either.  There must have been Someone to start it.

It’s much like striking a match.  You can have the match and the striking pad.  But that will not produce a lit match on its own.  You need an agent to strike the match.

So, if we have an Agent who began time and the universe, we can deduce certain things about the nature of such an Agent:

• He must be intelligent to create the universe and all it’s laws and systems — effectively omniscient.
• He must have more power than the universe as a whole since He placed that power in that universe — efectively omnipotent.
• He must have an extremely long life span since He would be older than the universe and have lived long enough to “strike the match” — effectively immortal.
• He must be consistant since He created consistant laws to govern the universe — effectively never changing.

Doesn’t that describe the God of the Bible?

General Cosmological Argument

The cosmological arguments are the argument that the universe must have a cause or, as William Lane Craig puts it, “If anything came into existence, it must have a cause.”  This argument has existed at least since the days of Aristotle, and it goes like this:

Things are in motion

Everything which is in motion must have a mover

Since we cannot go back through an infinite chain of “movers”, or causes.

There must be an unmoved Mover which started it all.

That Mover would be God since He began moving everything and must stand outside of eveything to do so.

General Teleological Argument

William Paley’s “Watchmaker” argument is the best exaple of the teleological argument for the existence of God:

When you walk through a field and find a watch, you don’t immediately think the minerals and forces over thousands of years created this watch out of the available resources.  Because of the obvious design built into the watch, you know there was a designer, a watchmaker who created the watch.

In the same way, looking at the design in the universe, you should come to the conclusion that there is a Designer which is greater than the universe who designed it.

The Argument from Personal Experience

You may think this argument carries very little weight, but it carries the weight of personal testimony.  Personal testimony is used all the time in court cases to prove innocense or guilt.  So, when you say, “I know God exists because I’ve met Him, He has changed my life, and He has answered my prayers,” you are giving testimony as valid as court testimony.