Tag Archives: anselm

Does God Exist?

It may sound strange that a Christian pastor and teacher would ever doubt the existence of God, but I confess that I have had moments where I stop and ask, “Does God actually exist, or have I been duped?”

For me I suppose it’s more like nagging thoughts or questions instead of a serious crisis of doubt. Nevertheless, I admit that my analytical mind can on occasion find it hard to take in Christian theology.

I believe this is perfectly normal for anyone who believes that faith involves reason and the embrace of mystery. As we learn and move forward in our journey, we often revisit some of the most basic presuppositions of our faith. It’s OK. It’s good. It’s healthy and should be done as needed.

Let’s be clear about this… Jesus never asked anyone to leave their brain at the door in order to have faith. But he does tell us that we must be willing to believe things unseen if we’re going to grow into faith-FULL people.

I have concluded that belief in God makes good logical and scientific sense. I’m most convinced by the historical resurrection of Jesus than anything else.

While this wasn’t the way I first came to believe in God, it has since become important to me as I learn to love God with all of my mind.

I have studied and taught on the classical arguments for the existence of God. If you’re not familiar with them, here they are in a nutshell:

  1. Cosmological Argument – everything has a cause, God is the initial “First Cause” of the universe. Therefore, God must exist.
  2. Ontological Argument – can’t conceive of anything greater than God. Therefore, God must exist not only in our minds but in reality.
  3. Teleological Argument – evidence of design and purpose point to Creator. Therefore, God exists as grand designer and chief engineer.
  4. Moral Argument – our sense of morals and values come from a moral Creator. Our innate sense of morality proves that God exists.

I think that in order to fully appreciate these arguments, we must do good philosophy and theology because they truly go hand-in-hand.

Put on your thinking cap and take a look at the following video on what is known as the Kalam Cosmological Argument, made by ResonableFaith.org

Were you already familiar with these arguments? Which argument do you like best? Do you think these arguments are helpful? What do you think about the Kalam Cosmological Argument? Share your thoughts.

D.D. Flowers, 2013.

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