CAN ANYONE PROVE GOD EXISTS?

This may sound like an attempt to NOT answer the question, there’s a question that needs to be addressed when trying to prove that God exists: How do we prove anything?

HOW TO PROVE THINGS

The reality is that there are very few things you can be ABSOLUTELY certain about. For example, are you absolutely certain that you are awake right now and aren’t dreaming that you’re reading this? Are you totally sure that the sky really is blue, and that you haven’t been brainwashed by the entire world in some conspiracy to trick you into thinking so? Could you prove without any room for any doubt whatsoever that you went wherever you went yesterday and didn’t merely pay off a bunch of people to claim that they saw you and doctor some CCTV footage?

The fact is that proving things with absolute certainty is an impossible standard for almost anything. This is how we live our lives: we don’t go around second guessing everything we can reasonably assume to be true: that our family is our actual family, that we are who we think we are, that we live where we think we do. Even in court cases, jurors are not required to have absolute certainty to pass a verdict. Rather, they must believe it “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

And so there are two questions when it comes to proving God’s existence: 1) Does believing in God make more sense than NOT believing in Him? and 2) Is the existence of God something people should reasonably believe?

The answer to both is an overwhelming yes.

1. BELIEVING IN GOD MAKES FAR MORE SENSE THAN BELIEVING THAT HE DOESN'T.

There are a lot of ways we could do this. However for the purposes of this article, we’ve put a chart below that looks at how Christianity and Atheism answer common questions. Which answers seem more reasonable to you?

	Christianity	Atheism
How did the universe begin?	God made it.	It spontaneously came into existence out of nothing (it made itself).
Is there meaning to life?	Yes! God lovingly created us and gives us a purpose for our lives.	We can choose a purpose for our lives, but we were not created for a purpose. Our existence is purely accidental… the result of random, unguided, natural processes.
Why are some behaviors “good” and others are “evil?”	Good and evil are real. God gave us consciences that are able to discern them.	Good and evil are imaginary or culturally defined. For example, if one culture embraces slavery and another hates it, neither is objectively “right.” The best they can hope for is to influence others with their preferences.
Do we need to love other people?	Yes! God made people valuable and commands us to love them.	No. It might be something you prefer, or lots of people prefer, but it’s not something we need to do.. While many cultures argue for something like the “golden rule,” as was mentioned above, morality is either imaginary or culturally defined.
Is it possible for a miracle to happen?	Yes! We would expect this.	No. Everything has a natural cause. Therefore, all of the billions of testimonies of miracles throughout history are lies or mistaken.

As you can see from this chart, the answers you give if you believe in a God make a lot more sense than the answers you have to give if you don’t.

2. IS THE EXISTENCE OF GOD SOMETHING YOU SHOULD REASONABLY BELIEVE?

Let’s look through the logic of believing in God based on the chart above. If you can reasonably believe that something produces nothing, that there is no meaning to life, that there is no actual right or wrong beyond just personal or societal preference, that you don’t have an obligation to love other people, and that all the billions of testimonies of miracles are incorrect, then you would land on NOT believing in God.
However, just remember how extreme this is. You would have to not pretend that life has any meaning at all, or you’re being hypocritical. You would have to agree that not even the most heinous, evil crimes imaginable are actually wrong. And even a single real supernatural occurrence ends that belief; they all have to be false. Is that something you can reasonably believe?

Or, is it much more reasonable to believe that something rather than nothing made the universe, that life has a meaning, that right and wrong actually exist, that you should love others, and that at least some of the miraculous testimonies out there are genuine?
I know what I think. What about you?

Further resources: While a Christian is obligated to defend why he believes in God, atheists also have obligation as well (watch video).

To learn more about the evidence for Christianity, see our articles IS CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WAY? and DOES BEING A CHRISTIAN MEAN I DON'T BELIEVE IN SCIENCE?

This may sound like an attempt to NOT answer the question, there’s a question that needs to be addressed when trying to prove that God exists: How do we prove anything?

HOW TO PROVE THINGS

1. BELIEVING IN GOD MAKES FAR MORE SENSE THAN BELIEVING THAT HE DOESN’T.

	Christianity	Atheism
How did the universe begin?	God made it.	It spontaneously came into existence out of nothing (it made itself).
Is there meaning to life?	Yes! God lovingly created us and gives us a purpose for our lives.	We can choose a purpose for our lives, but we were not created for a purpose. Our existence is purely accidental… the result of random, unguided, natural processes.
Why are some behaviors “good” and others are “evil?”	Good and evil are real. God gave us consciences that are able to discern them.	Good and evil are imaginary or culturally defined. For example, if one culture embraces slavery and another hates it, neither is objectively “right.” The best they can hope for is to influence others with their preferences.
Do we need to love other people?	Yes! God made people valuable and commands us to love them.	No. It might be something you prefer, or lots of people prefer, but it’s not something we need to do. While many cultures argue for something like the “golden rule,” as was mentioned above, morality is either imaginary or culturally defined.
Is it possible for a miracle to happen?	Yes! We would expect this.	No. Everything has a natural cause. Therefore, all of the billions of testimonies of miracles throughout history are lies or mistaken.

As you can see from this chart, the answers you give if you believe in a God make a lot more sense than the answers you have to give if you don’t.

2. IS THE EXISTENCE OF GOD SOMETHING YOU SHOULD REASONABLY BELIEVE?

Let’s look through the logic of believing in God based on the chart above. If you can reasonably believe that something produces nothing, that there is no meaning to life, that there is no actual right or wrong beyond just personal or societal preference, that you don’t have an obligation to love other people, and that all the billions of testimonies of miracles are incorrect, then you would land on NOT believing in God.
However, just remember how extreme this is. You would have to not pretend that life has any meaning at all, or you’re being hypocritical. You would have to agree that not even the most heinous, evil crimes imaginable are actually wrong. And even a single real supernatural occurrence ends that belief; they all have to be false. Is that something you can reasonably believe?

Or, is it much more reasonable to believe that something rather than nothing made the universe, that life has a meaning, that right and wrong actually exist, that you should love others, and that at least some of the miraculous testimonies out there are genuine?

I know what I think. What about you?

Further resources: While a Christian is obligated to defend why he believes in God, atheists also have obligation as well (watch video).

To learn more about the evidence for Christianity, see our articles IS CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY WAY? and DOES BEING A CHRISTIAN MEAN I DON'T BELIEVE IN SCIENCE?