Week Three - Day Three: End of Day

Survey the five clues for God’s existence that we have discussed so far.

• The presence of something instead of nothing, that is, the fact that the world exists at all, suggests a primary causer.
• Our universe is so finely-tuned to accommodate our existence that it seems to suggest a designer that had us in mind.
• Our universe exhibits physical relationships and “laws” that are so consistent and persistent that it seems like an overseer or a governor must be behind it.
• We have unfulfilled desires which God seems to satisfy.
• We have a sense of right and wrong that point to a moral framework governing the universe, along with a moral governor.

How compelling a case do you believe these clues present for the existence of God?

There is a Stephen Hawking show on the Science channel called “Into the Universe.” I watched an episode one night called “The Story of Everything.” In this episode Hawking surveyed the standard theory for how the universe developed beginning with The Big Bang and moving to the present. It was fascinating to me that he used the words “fortunate” or “good luck” 14 times as he described the unfolding story. Evidently, at many critical points in the universe’s development, the standard theory resorts to luck as its explanation.

Really? And these are the smartest guys in the class? This is science?

Okay, so maybe I’m being too hard on Hawking and his friends. I’m willing to cut him a break. He doesn’t know everything yet and he knows that he doesn’t know. He certainly hopes that we will one day be able to answer the gaps that are currently filled in by “luck” in the theory. But I think we all need to acknowledge that when you use words like “hope,” “luck,” and “belief” you’re starting to sound like you’re talking about a faith.

Once again, I think R C Sproul is right:

“There are modern theorists who believe that the world was created by nothing. Note the difference between saying that the world was created from nothing and saying the universe was created by nothing. In this modern view the rabbit comes out of the hat without a rabbit, a hat, or even a magician. The modern view is far more miraculous than the biblical view. It suggests that nothing created something. More than that, it holds that nothing created everything – quite a feat indeed!”¹

My hope and prayer is that our minds have been stirred and our confidence has been bolstered through these discussions. Tomorrow we will examine the fire within us. Then we begin the exciting work of examining what God is like. This is the real work of faith and the real point of our offices. I can’t wait!

1. Survey your day. Was God stirring around you in ways that you now need to recognize?
2. End your day by praying this: “Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.”
3. Lights out!