The Big Question: Does God Exist...

[LittlePilgrim]

Okay. I know it looks a little strange from the title, so let me explain. The question I wrote above is one that I am asked repeatedly as I continue to spread the message through an online ministry (been going for about three years now. Hehe). Many ask me for concrete evidence of God's existence...

Recently, I have been delving into a book called, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" by Dr. Mike Whitmer. Doctor Whitmer contends that our home is not heaven, but is indeed intended to be here on Earth. And I agree. Because that is how God made it. And that is the way it will be on the new earth.

So... This statement (Which I read of in the book) I will make was given by a monk in the 11th century. Perhaps some (Pastor Rodger most likely) have heard it and can understand it. This is a statement that I tend to use when people ask me for proof.

The statement is, "God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived."

Anyone think they can grasp it? Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Hehe

[Shammu]

That is what is known, as a Ontological Argument.

Anything God can think of, God can do. Nothing is to small for God. Nothing is to big, for God. There is nothing greater than God that can be imagined. Then granting that universal usage understands by the name God.  If God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived and what exists is greater than what does not exist, it follows that God exists.

Hope that helps you, LittlePilgrim.

Resting in the hands, of Jesus.
Bob

Genesis 8:11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

[Soldier4Christ]

An ontological argument is the attempt to understand the existence or non-existance of God using logic. In the case of Mike Whitmers use of Anselm’s approach (Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (1033-1109 A.D.) it is in the support of the existance.  Ontology attempts to answer other questions such as "What is real?".

Unfortunately this is using mans logic. Mans logic is flawed and incapable of fully understanding the mysteries and wonders of God including His existance. It is for this reason that faith is of such large importance as is evidenced in the repeated useage of the word faith in regards to this in the Bible.

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

[HIServant]

The image of the watchmaker . . .

When we come to inspect the watch, we perceive. . . that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, or placed after any other manner or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it. . . . the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker -- that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer, who comprehended its construction and designed its use.

Living organisms, Paley argued, are even more complicated than watches, "in a degree which exceeds all computation." How else to account for the often amazing adaptations of aniamls and plants? Only an intelligent Designer could have created them, just as only an intelligent watchmaker can make a watch:

The marks of design are too strong to be got over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is GOD.
 
Quoted from William Paley (1743-1805)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rossuk/Paley.htm

[Corpus]

Pastor Roger is correct about the use of logic vs. faith.

One suggestion though is a book by Mortimer Adler titled How To Think About God. It's a book that attempts to demonstrate the existence of God through plain and simple logic. It's a book for those who are genuinely curious about the answer to Little Pilgrim's question. It is NOT a book for the ardent atheist, but rather for one who is open to the possibility of God's existence. It will never replace the Bible , but could be a good avenue for the logical purist who's interested in the question