GlocalNet

When I grew up in East Texas - the idea was that there were two reasons for the existence of God.  First, the Bible says so.  Second, you feel him in your heart.  That may be fine in a Christian culture - but that doesn’t cut it in the world today.  You can’t start with the Bible and what you feel because everyone has books and everyone has feelings.  The question is what is it that makes you believe - philosophically - that there is a God.  Any one of these is cause to pause - but taken together they are all powerful and hard to deny. 

1.  Creation.  The fact that it is here, points to something starting it.  Regardless of what you believe about how the world came into being - something had to start the push.  The odds of this happening on accident are simply too huge. 

2.  Form and Order.  The creation isn’t random, in an airplane, on maps, the way bodies are put together, etc., there is form and order - things aren’t random - they all fit.

3.  Diversity but interdependence of life forms.  From human, to plant, to various forms of energy - there are multiple forms and different kinds of life - but they are not independent of each other - all are critical to one another. 

4.  Complexity.  There is simply too much complexity in all things from how the planets are positioned to water and solar systems and all of it being held in check in order allow life.

5.  Uniqueness of Man.  Biologically man may be an animal - but mentally, emotionally, morally, leadership wise - he is like no other animal.  His ability to create, order, and dominate the world is unlike any other animal.  This implies man is beyond randomness.

6.  Morality of Man.  Granted, there are various types of morality in men, but there is a generally accepted moral code among all tribes of man that they are expected to follow - whether they do or not - no murder, no stealing, no lying, familial fidelity - are just a few of those.  How can there be so many cultures and so much similarity of moral expectations.  There must be a single source from which that springs.

7.  Spirituality of Man.  Man is a spiritual creature - all spirituality comes from something greater than biology - something beyond it.  All cultures of man have always believed in some form of god(s) regardless of what and how that is defined. 

People that have impacted my thinking a lot on this are Francis Shaeffer (He is There & He is Not Silent, Reason Enough), Clark Pinnock, Yandall Woodfin - With All Your Mind, C.S. Lewis - numerous writings.