do you have doubts about your faith? (part 1)   « back to shepherd’s corner list by Chuck Davis   “Do you ever have doubts about your faith in God?” Perhaps you have never been asked that question. I have – I’ve even been asked to respond to the question in writing -- possibly because a good portion of my professional life has involved reading books and writing. The question is an important one, but it is a question that must be addressed on three levels – not just one. The first level has to do with God’s very existence. The second level concerns God’s Sovereignty, or the superintending of His creation. The third level calls into question the uniqueness of Jesus as the Incarnate Word and Savior of mankind. In this brief space today, I propose to address only Level 1: “Do you ever doubt God’s existence?” The short answer to this question is: “No, I consider it eminently unreasonable to doubt the existence of God.” While Christians have recourse to the Bible in defining faith (e.g., Hebrews 11:1), a secular world must adopt a definition similar to that of Harvard psychologist William James: “Faith means believing in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.” At this juncture I lay aside personal experiential evidence and summon only secular reason as the basis for belief. In this realm the two most compelling arguments for the existence of God are: 1) the necessity of a “first mover;” and 2) the argument from design. Many wise men have made note of these arguments, but perhaps the best known proponent of the notion of a “first mover” was Thomas Aquinas, the 13th Century Christian philosopher. The argument is disarmingly simple: all that we see around us is the result of forces brought to bear on our surroundings. Tracing that logic back in time as we reckon it, there very evidently had to be a “first mover” to set things in motion. That mover is God. The second argument – the argument from design – was best explicated by William Paley, an 18th Century English philosopher. This argument has actually been around for centuries, but it is interesting to note that bearing a very slightly modified name -- “intelligent design” – the argument is now gathering unusual attention in the academic world of science. The logic of the argument can be illustrated by this simple example: While walking along the beach you look down and notice a small gadget with uniform curves, it ticks, the “hands” move, and there are numbers engraved on the face of a dial. It may even begin to “buzz” whenever the hands reach a specific point on the dial. The “gadget”, of course, is a watch, and you do not for one second entertain the notion that it materialized through random processes in nature unguided by intelligence of any sort. This is a key concept in the argument from design, because the makeup of even the simplest elements of life – tiny cells – is complex beyond imagination. This notion is often referred to as irreducible complexity. At this point, it should be noted that even the most hard-boiled atheistic skeptic believes in a god of sorts – it is the god of “randomness.” To my mind, this is an eminently unsustainable hypothesis because it is simply unreasonable (for the reasons sketched above). To lay claim to the god of randomness is to insist in the very strongest terms on one guiding major premise: the existence of a supernatural god is impossible. Of course, if that is by definition one’s starting point, no amount of “evidence” to the contrary is admissible. In an Alice in Wonderland world of law, this is equivalent to “sentence first, verdict later.” Many of the more thoughtful scientists and others who eschew any and all belief in the supernatural nevertheless recognize a certain illogic in their thinking. The brilliant physicist, Stephen Hawking, for example, deals with the issue by saying, “I don’t answer God questions.” A wise answer, indeed, for a skeptic. So… no, I never doubt God’s existence. The Christian might point to the first chapter of Romans in defense of his belief in what our surroundings testify concerning at least God’s existence, if not His character. In the context of a secular discussion, however, I’ll just note that doubting the existence of an intelligent “first mover” – God – is simply unreasonable. But, what about the existence of evil in the world? (Sometimes phrased as: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”) Doesn’t that give pause to a believer in God? Ah, that’s a question for Level 2, and one which will be dealt with in a subsequent column.     « back to shepherd’s corner list © 2006–2008 Fellowship Bible Church. Web development and hosting provided by Drewa Designs.