This is the first episode of my new video series, FAITH in FIVE: Short Answers to Big Questions. Each episode in the series will be about five minutes and is aimed at providing a brief but compelling response to many of the questions or objections raised against Christianity. As the episodes are so short, obviously they cannot delve deeply into the issues, but they are an excellent starting point for people who are questioning or searching for faith.
This first episode deals with the question, Is There Any Evidence For God?, and it contains a helpful summary of the major scientific and historical evidence.
MEDIA:
VIDEO LINK: Is There Any Evidence For God?
AUDIO PODCAST LINK: Is There Any Evidence For God?
Alternatively, below is the full transcript of this episode:
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to Faith in Five, a series which provides short answers to big questions in five minutes. In this episode, I’m answering the question: Is there any evidence for God?
I’m staggered when I hear some people claim that there is NO evidence, because the evidence for God’s existence is plentiful and compelling. Here are just a few examples.
- The Origin of the Universe
Even secular cosmologists now concede that the universe had a beginning. Modern science has revealed that our material universe—including time itself—had a finite starting point – before which nothing existed.
The late Stephen Hawking wrote, “All the evidence now seems to indicate, that the universe has not existed forever, but that it had a beginning. This is probably the most remarkable discovery of modern cosmology.”
Common sense tells us that the universe can’t have created itself from nothing. Therefore, the cause of the universe must exist beyond the material universe. Logic dictates that that cause must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, uncaused, immensely powerful, and highly intelligent.
That sounds a lot like God to me!
- The Fine-Tuning of the Universe
There are around 26 fundamental forces and constants governing the universe—such as gravity and the strong nuclear force. These values are so precise and interdependent that if even one were altered by as little as one part in a billion, matter itself would cease to exist.
Given that these constants could have taken any value on an infinite spectrum, the odds that all 26 landed at exactly the right life-permitting values defies statistical probability.
Astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle famously wrote, “A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics … The numbers one calculates seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”
- The Origin of Biological Life
Natural processes have never been shown to explain how non-living matter could give rise to biological life—cells filled with living molecular machines and pulsing with biochemical processes.
Dr Chris Wills, Professor of Biology at the University of California, writes, “The biggest gap in evolutionary theory remains the origin of life itself… The gap between a collection of inanimate molecules and even the most primitive cell remains enormous.”
The living cell cries out for a supremely powerful Creator.
- The Origin of DNA
At the heart of almost every living cell lies DNA—a sophisticated information system containing detailed instructions regulating the cell’s function, and this biological software is millions of times more complex than any computer program humans have written.
But meaningful information CANNOT be generated by random chemical processes. Intelligent information can only come from pre-existing intelligence.
Professor Maciej Giertych of Torun University, Poland, writes: “Every microscopic cell is so precisely programmed that we have to assume that the information contained in them comes from an intelligence far beyond our own…. Evolutionists have no idea how this information system was produced.”
- The Origin of Human Consciousness
Human consciousness presents a serious challenge to a purely materialistic worldview. Consciousness CANNOT be explained by mere chemical reactions or electrical impulses in the brain. There is an essentially immaterial element to consciousness that gives rise to our thoughts, emotions, personalities and self-reflections.
Philosopher of science Dr J. P. Moreland explains:
“You can’t get something from nothing. If the universe began with dead matter having no consciousness, how, then, do you get something totally different—conscious, living, thinking, feeling, believing creatures—from physical materials that don’t have that? But if everything started with the mind of God, we don’t have a problem with explaining the origin of our mind.”
- The Miraculous Life and Resurrection of Jesus
I’ll address this in a separate episode, but it is worth noting that Jesus’ miracles and resurrection are not only recorded in the biblical documents—which are reliable first-century eyewitness accounts—but are also referenced by non-Christian writers of the same period.
If the miracles and resurrection of Jesus are historically true—and I believe they are—then we have extraordinarily strong evidence for the existence of God.
So that is just some of the compelling evidence for God—and there is SO much more. For a deeper exploration of this topic, check out my extended video series Evidence for Belief on my website, smartfaith.net.
Thanks for listening. Have a great day.