Does God Exist? Yup.

What if reality stretches beyond our concept of cause and effect? What if, like ants who don’t understand reason, human beings don’t understand a specific concept which is vital to having a true understanding of reality and never will, because of the natural limits of their existence? In other words, what if there’s a God (a “first cause” of the universe)?

Atheists would respond “well, we have no proof that reality goes beyond human reason; therefore, there is no reason to believe it does” (this is just a restatement of what they really say:  “we have no proof that God exists, therefore there is no reason to believe it does”).

Yet it’s possible there are some things we can just never have empirical proof of. Meanwhile, in order to believe in a Godless reality, one has to necessarily believe in an infinite regression of causes (in other words, something caused this universe, something caused that cause, and so on). But if there is an infinite regression of causes, and we look back in time to see where it all started, by definition, we keep looking back and back. There is no start. And therefore we never reach the present.

If that’s difficult to grasp, take Tom Woods’s example(35:36) instead:

If I’m at a supermarket and I go up to the deli counter, and I’m about to take a number to get in line. So I go to take a number, and I find out that in order for me to take a number, I have to take a number. So you have to take a number to take a number. So I’m about to take a number to take a number, and I find out I have to take a number. So I have to take a number to get in line to take a number to get in line to take a number to get my deli stuff. Well, suppose this just goes on infinitely, every single time, every single time I go to grab a number. There’s always a previous number I have to get first. Well, if that’s the case, it’s pretty obvious I will never get to the deli counter no matter how much time passes. Millions of year could go on and I will never get to the deli counter; there’s always a prior number I have to grab. But if I’m looking around in the supermarket, I see people are walking around with deli meat, then I know that obviously the string of numbers can’t go on forever cause how did these people get their deli meat?

Likewise, if there is an infinite regression of causes leading up to the present, there in fact is no present. We do not exist.

And so atheists are actually fooling themselves, pretending to be scientific by focusing solely on the empirical sciences but not consulting logic and reason. If they did the latter, they would see two options: a Godless reality and a reality with God. This is identical to the logic argument that, for example, a ball must either be red or non-red. There is no third option; it must be one or the other. A Godless reality (where there is an infinite regression of causes) clearly does not make sense if reason exists. But a reality with God does make sense if we admit that there could be something beyond reason. Therefore, God must exist. There is reason to positively believe in God.

One might argue that I am using a double standard by saying the first scenario is limited by reason and the second is not. But the former is in fact limited by reason: it is a situation only considered because we deny the existence of God. Therefore we must apply that assumption all the way. The second option is considered by accepting the existence of God, i.e. something beyond reason. So the second option allows us to “cheat,” whereas the first does not.

UPDATE:

Crossed out something I think is wrong (thanks Michelle!). Also, when I speak about reason, I’m talking about the human concept of cause and effect, something we often think about in our own actions as means and ends. Every effect must have a cause, by definition, and causes are effects as well. With this in mind, I define God as the “first cause.” For something to be a first cause and have no other cause, it has to be outside and beyond human reason.

Photo Credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center via Compfight cc