Introduction
The existence of God in religion is the proposition that there is a supreme supernatural being that is the creator or sustainer or ruler of the universe and all things in it, including human beings. Christianity in particular has been concerned with the question of whether God’s existence can be established rationally or through religious experience or revelation or instead must be accepted as a matter of faith. As a matter of fact, the existence of God can be established on all fronts – be it rationally, religious experience or faith.
The purpose of this article is not necessarily to discuss the many available arguments for God’s existence – the cosmological arguments, arguments of design, teleological, ontological arguments etc. but rather I intend to do a brief reflection on the subject of “available evidence of God’s existence”. I will however in my next article touch on the “teleological arguments for God’s existence”.
Evidence
According to Dictionary.com, evidence is defined as “that which tends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief; proof; something that makes plain or clear; an indication or sign.” From this definition arises the question, can God’s existence be proven, do we have enough plain or clear indication or sign of His existence?
Now, when the subject of God’s existence is raised in many atheistic discourses, most of the time, it’s not really about available evidence, but rather an evidence that is undeniably obvious. In as much as such a quest is appreciated, it is also important to appreciate the fact that evidence in itself does not say anything because every piece of evidence requires human interpretation. And because evidence requires human interpretation, there will always be different conclusions depending on a person’s available information, life experiences and motivations. This presupposes that just because God has not made His existence undeniably obvious, does not necessitate the common atheistic conclusion that He has given us no evidence. Rather it is just that both theists and atheists disagree over the interpretation of the evidence available based on available information, life experiences and motivations. This for me is the crux of the matter.
But is there Enough Evidence of God’s Existence?
What might be enough for one person to believe in God might not feel enough for another person. The question should rather be, what is the best explanation for the evidence available?
Now let me borrow this scenario by Holden (2019):
If you discovered that robbers have broken into your house and have stolen everything in the house. You have no idea who could have done this – there are no obvious suspects. The next step you took was to report the case to the Police Service. The Police come and because they could not find any undeniable evidence of who committed the crime, they wish you luck and leave. Is that what you will expect them to do? Of course not! You will still want them to use the little available information or the evidence that exist and do something about it. The question will not be what kinds of evidence the Police would like to have, but rather what is the best explanation for the evidence they do have.
Similarly, we can draw up our own list of evidence we wish God would give us of His existence, but that is neither here nor there. This is what Apostle Paul has to say in his epistle to the Romans: “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20).
But Why Wouldn’t God make Himself More Obvious?
While it is not logical to conclude God does not exist simply because He has not made Himself known according to every person’s subjective wish, it is however reasonable to ask why God would not reveal Himself in more obvious ways? If our belief and trust in Jesus have eternal consequences, why would God remain hidden – even a little?
The answer is simple. God does that to preserve our free will. Generally, free will is “our ability to make choices without external coercion”. If God wanted us to genuinely love Him, it was necessary to create us with some degree of free will, otherwise, we would be nothing more than robots – lacking the ability to have a genuine relationship with our Creator.
If God had revealed Himself in an undeniable way, He would effectively be taking away our freedom to seek and love Him. Rather than coerce us into belief and trust, He gives us the space to either genuinely pursue or avoid Him. The Bible gives us a hint in Deut. 4:29 to the effect that when we seek Him, we shall find Him, if we seek Him with all our heart and with all our soul. In other words, God will reveal Himself enough to genuine seekers who want to find Him.
Reading Romans 1:18-20 makes me also believe that to some extent, everyone knows that God exists by the things created, but some willfully suppress the truth. In fact, there are some people who will never put their trust in God, no matter how God reveals Himself. A clear case in point is the Israelites in the wilderness. Despite all the numerous miracles God sought to do amongst them in His quest to reveal Himself, they still rebelled, not believing the God who had delivered them from Egypt.
Acts 17:26-28 also reads:
From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
God indeed is not far from us, but it takes those who genuinely seek Him to find Him. God indeed is real, He is not a myth neither is He not a construction of any human being.
References
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2020, June 18). existence of God. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/existence-of-God
Holden, J. M. (2019). The Harvest Handbook of Apologetics, Harvest House Publishers.
