DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY - Evidence for God In the Things He Has Made

April 3, 2025April 2, 2025

Relationship Stages

Every relationship in life has three stages: the honeymoon stage, the disappointment stage, and the decision stage. We see the relationship stages in marriages. Newlyweds are full of excitement, enthusiasm, and a sense of euphoria. After a while, they begin to see the weaknesses in their mates. They may be disappointed in various things that don’t turn out as planned.

One way to avoid the disappointment stage is to have a long dating and engagement period. Young people have asked me how I managed to stay married to my wife for 49 years until she died. My answer is that we dated for seven years, so neither of us was surprised by the other’s weaknesses. Additionally, we shared a relationship with Jesus Christ, so there was no religious strife between us. Divorce courts often see couples who have been married for a relatively short time but are already in the decision stage. Various country songs express this, such as: “She got the goldmine, I got the shaft”, “She got the mansion, I got the Jeep.”

Churches are guilty of entering honeymoon stages by hiring a preacher who “tried out” based on one sermon and a visit. Once hired, his weaknesses become evident, and people start wanting a new preacher. The average tenure of preachers is about three years. Part of the problem is confusion about the role of a local preacher. For one man to be the “pastor” who runs the local congregation is illogical and unbiblical. Each member of the local church has a role in ministering to the body.

Jesus faced the issue of relationship stages. When He provided miracles, people followed Him, but when He taught them to change their lives, many entered the decision stage and left. (See John 6:60-69.) When I left atheism and became a Christian, I wanted to serve God. I found there was a huge need for young people to see that science supports faith in God and the truth of the Bible. I thought older church members were mature, and the congregation would be like heaven on earth. I quickly discovered there are relationship stages in the local church. Some church members attacked me, and to this day, a large section of the Church of Christ rejects me. However, I have never been disappointed in my relationship with Jesus Christ, and that is what keeps me going.

For more of my story, read “Why I Left Atheism” on doesgodexist.org or watch video programs 31 and 32 on doesgodexist.tv.

April 2, 2025April 1, 2025

Science Without God Is Nil

Is science without God possible? John C. Lennox is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College. In his book “God and Stephen Hawking,” Lennox says, “The more I understand science, the more I believe in God, because of my wonder at the breadth, sophistication, and integrity of His creation.”

Interestingly, science’s growth in the 16th and 17th centuries happened because men like Galileo, Kepler, and Newton believed the universe was built with an understandable, rational, and intelligent design. They didn’t think of science without God, believing the universe was understandable because it was created with purpose, design, and a discernible order.

An atheist must believe that everything that happened in the past and continues today is pure accident. Famous atheists, such as Stephen Hawking and Francis Crick, expressed this belief. Hawking maintained that humans are “mere collections of fundamental particles of nature.” Francis Crick had what he called an “Astonishing Hypothesis.” That is, “You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”

Hawking and Crick possessed great talents in their chosen fields but seemed to lack any reason to trust their minds. Hawking’s “fundamental particles” and Crick’s “associated molecules” cannot be trusted to have any purpose or truth, so how can they contribute to the overall understanding of the cosmos? Science without God becomes an empty shell. We are talking about believing in a creator God who designed the cosmos and us with purpose.

The Psalmist said it well: “I praise you, God, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well… How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them.” (Psalms 139:14 and 17).

March 28, 2025March 27, 2025

Who Created God?

One of our most frequently asked questions from believers and non-believers is, “If God created the cosmos, who created God?” Atheists claim that God is something humans invented to explain what they didn’t understand. It is true that ancient civilizations invented gods or goddesses to explain phenomena such as volcanoes, ocean storms, weather, lightning, and animal behaviors. The biblical concept is that God created everything we see in the cosmos and around us on planet Earth. Asking “Who created God?” reflects a failure to understand WHAT God is.

If your concept of God is that He is an old man in the sky or some variation of that idea, you will be unable to answer the question of who created God. God is a spiritual being, not a physical one. John 4:24 tells us, “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” The Bible tells us that God does not experience time as we do. Acts 1:7 says, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power.”

Genesis 1:1 begins with the Hebrew word “reshith,” translated as “in the beginning.” According to the Hebrew dictionary, the meaning of that word is “absolute beginning point.” The message is that time began when God created it at that point. The verse continues by saying that God created “the heavens and the earth.” God is outside of time, space, and matter/energy. Science can propose theories about the beginning of time down to 10-43 seconds, but it cannot go any further. Quantum mechanics supports the concept of the beginning of time.

The bottom line is that nothing created God. God is outside of time and space and is the creator of all things. Colossians 1:16-17 says it well: “For by Him were all things created whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen – the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities. The whole universe has been created through and for Him, so He existed before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Second Peter 3:8 tells us that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” Verse 9 says that God is allowing humans time to respond to His invitation before the cosmos is dissolved (verse 12). Our doesgodexist.org website has some pamphlets, including “A Help In Understanding What God Is” and “Who Created God?” You can find them at THIS LINK. We all need to deepen our understanding of these issues and strive to study and learn together. Join us!

Reference: The New Bible Dictionary Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8028-2282-7

March 27, 2025March 26, 2025

What It Means to Be Human

One way to trace the history of humans, apes, and monkeys is by studying the footprints they left in various earth materials. Footprints can be preserved if an animal walks across mud or volcanic ash and that material hardens. Some denominational creationists have claimed to see footprints in granite or limestone. Granite is formed deep underground and is only exposed when the overburden is eroded away. Limestone is a chemically precipitated rock that is never soft enough for an animal to sink into, leaving footprints. Sometimes, natural erosion can leave a shape that resembles a human footprint. However, a knowledge of petrology (the study of rocks) is required to determine animal footprints, and what it means to be human is more than footprints.

Researchers found Homo erectus (“erect man”) and Paranthropus boisei, a species of australopithecine hominid. The word “australopithecine” is a combination of the Latin “australis,” meaning “south,” and “pithekos,” a Greek word meaning “ape.” In other words, Paranthropus was an ape from the south. The evidence is that Paranthropus boisei was a plant eater, and Homo erectus was a hunter-gatherer. The tracks are in mud in a lakeshore deposit, so both of them would have been walking along the lake but looking for different things.

Some people interpret the Bible’s account of man’s creation as suggesting that God instantaneously zapped him into an image that looked like modern Western humans. They have used that concept to justify slavery by maintaining that people of a different race were not created in God’s image. Some atheists claimed that their race was superior to others and that survival of the fittest was the rule, meaning that superior ones could exploit inferior races. That is not what it means to be human.

The biblical definition of humans is “those beings created in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26). Since God is a spiritual being, that image cannot be physical. Genesis 2:7 tells us that God “formed man out of the dust of the ground.” It doesn’t say how long that took or what method God used to form the human physical body. The Hebrew word “formed” is “yatsar,” and in other passages, it required a long period of time. In chapter 44, Isaiah uses this word to describe events that occurred over time. (See verses 2, 10, 21, and 24.)

The creation of the human spiritual makeup is unique, giving us the capacity to create art and music or to worship and think beyond death. The fossil record of human history confirms that God formed our bodies from the dust of the Earth (Genesis 2:7). The Bible also tells us that our bodies will return to the dust from which they came (Genesis 3:19). The part of humans that is created in God’s image will live on, being united with Him in eternity. That is what it means to be human.

March 26, 2025March 25, 2025

Christians Using Contraceptives

A conflict among various denominations and the Catholic Church involves Christians using contraceptives. The objection to contraceptives is that by preventing a child from being born, humans are playing God. We are not talking about abortion, in which the embryo has its own DNA and is not an extension of the mother’s body. The root of the pro-abortion/pro-life debate is the question of what a human embryo is. In the question of birth control, we are dealing with what we can do with our own bodies. So, what does the Bible teach about conception?

There is no Bible passage condemning contraception. Some have referred to Genesis 38:8-10 in which a man named Onan “spilled it on the ground.” If you read the context of that incident, it was not because he was practicing contraception, but because he was refusing to do what the Levitical rules required to continue his dead brother’s legacy.

In Luke 14:28-32, Jesus makes it clear that God intends for Christians to consider the cost of their actions. Counting the cost of having a child should certainly be essential. In 1969, Elvis Presley recorded a song titled “In the Ghetto,” written by Mac Davis. The song was a major hit for Presley and begins with a classic demonstration of the problem:

As the snow flies

On a cold and gray Chicago mornin’

A poor little baby child is born

In the ghetto

(In the ghetto)

And his mama cries

’Cause if there’s one thing that she don’t need

It is another hungry mouth to feed

In the ghetto

(In the ghetto)

Those of us involved with the education of the general population must not give bad information or withhold information about contraception. Having a baby should not be an accident but a conscious thought and decision of a married husband and wife. Where the Bible is silent, we should be silent, and an area where the Bible is silent is Christians using contraceptives.

March 25, 2025March 24, 2025

Alzheimer’s Disease in America

A major health issue in America today is dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s kills more Americans than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. One in three seniors dies from Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Of the total U.S. population age 65 or older, about one in nine is living with Alzheimer’s. A total of seven million Americans have Alzheimer’s, and two-thirds are women.

Your author is 87 years old, and Alzheimer’s has touched my family in several ways. I have several friends and business partners battling with Alzheimer’s. One of the tragedies that I have seen is people who chose to end their lives prematurely when they learned they were facing Alzheimer’s disease. In 1998, an American pathologist named Jack Kevorkian was arrested for participating in 130 physician-assisted suicides. His arrest came when he assisted in the voluntary euthanasia of a man named Thomas Youk, who had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and served 8 years in prison. Kevorkian’s records show that many of the 130 suicides were people who found out they had Alzheimer’s and didn’t want to be a burden on their families.

First Corinthians 3:16 tells us, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit has His home in you? If any man desecrates the Temple of God, God shall ruin him, for the Temple of God is sacred, and so are you.” Nothing in that description says that a person’s mental capacity affects the fact that God’s Spirit is in His temple. My son was born blind and mentally challenged, with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and schizophrenia. Was God’s Spirit in him? He brought a doctor and several nurses to Christ and was a significant force in the sheltered workshop he attended.

As Christians, we serve God by how we deal with people, no matter their mental state. Alzheimer’s disease can be challenging, but so was raising a young man who didn’t die until he was 50 years old as a victim of COVID. Treat someone who has Alzheimer’s with love and compassion. That is a ministry that will bring its own reward.

Reference: Alzheimer’s Association for February 2025

March 24, 2025March 23, 2025

The Inconsistency of Atheists

In his book God and Stephen Hawking 2ND EDITION, Oxford mathematics professor John C. Lennox points out the inconsistency of atheists:

“[Stephen] Hawking imagines that the potential existence of other life forms in the universe undermines the traditional religious conviction that we are living in a unique, God-created planet. I find it faintly amusing that atheists often argue for the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence beyond earth. They are only too eager to denounce the possibility that there exists a vast, intelligent being ‘out there,’ namely God, who has left his fingerprints all over his creation. Hawking’s fusillade will not shake the foundations of an intelligent faith that is based on the cumulative evidence of science, history, the biblical narrative, and personal experience.”

An atheist must believe in naturalism, the faith that science can explain everything, and has a monopoly on truth. The fact is that in spite of quantum mechanics, cosmology, and physics, there are a vast number of things that science cannot and never will be able to explain. Why there is something instead of nothing, why morality exists, and how time and space came into existence are examples. There also are many things that science has no answer for, such as why there is color and beauty in animals and plants, sometimes putting the life form at risk while serving no purpose but aesthetic value.

The inconsistency of atheists affects individuals and the culture as a whole in a way that is 100% negative. Who takes care of people with Alzheimer’s? Who addresses the needs of those who are mentally challenged or paralyzed? As the father of a son who was blind, mentally challenged, and had muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and schizophrenia, I found that the caregivers helping us for 50 years were deeply religious people who were living out their religious convictions.

Peter Singer, Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, has the only atheist solution. He advocates euthanizing all of these cases. He says there would be enormous financial gain by eliminating those in prison, mental hospitals, and care facilities. The question is whether anyone, even atheists, would want to live in that kind of world.

March 21, 2025March 20, 2025

All Humans Worship Something

The New Testament Greek word for worship is “proskuneo.” It literally means “to kiss the hand” and can be interpreted as prostrating oneself in homage. All humans worship something, and it can be politics, a cause, a movie actor/actress, a sports figure, the NFL, glamour, sex, or anything else. The New Testament identifies five kinds of worship.

VAIN WORSHIP – In Matthew 15:8-9, Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13, pointing out that vain worship involves merely following human rules and rituals. We see a form of vain worship in Colossians 2:13-23 involving asceticism, flagellation, and some eating disorders.

IGNORANT WORSHIP – In Acts 17:22-24, we find Paul telling the Greek philosophers about the God who was unknown to them. The willful ignorance described in 2 Peter 3:4-5 still exists today as people are unwilling to look at evidence. This is especially true of atheists and agnostics. (See Romans 1:20.)

PERVERTED WORSHIP – We see this in many New Age beliefs, witchcraft, and the drug culture. Worshipping the body and sex is described in Romans 1:21-25.

TRUE WORSHIP – This is the worship God desires. John 4:23-24 and 1 Corinthians 14:15 spell out what productive, useful worship is all about. True worship will involve our mind so we know what we are doing and why. The passage in 1 Corinthians 14 tells readers to “stop acting like children” and think like adults. Worship is not a spectator sport and has no financial component. Every act, every prayer, and every part of being a Christian involves knowing what you are doing and why.

All humans worship something, but true worship gives value to life and reduces fear and anxiety. We urge you to worship as John 4:23-24 calls us to. When we do that, we will find answers to our life struggles.

March 20, 2025March 19, 2025

Ten Excuses People Use

A friend in Dublin, Ireland, sent me a list of ten excuses people use. His article is titled “Ten Reasons Why I Never Wash,” but it is really ten excuses people use to avoid worshipping God and following Jesus.

1) I was forced to wash as a child, so I will not do it now.

2) People who wash are hypocrites who think they are cleaner than others.

3) There are so many kinds of soap that I could not decide which one was right, so I didn’t use any of them.

4) I used to wash, but it got boring.

5) I still wash on special occasions like Christmas.

6) None of my friends wash.

7) I’m too young to wash. When I am older and a bit dirtier, I might start washing.

8) I really don’t have time to wash.

9) The bathroom is never warm enough for me to wash.

10) The people who make soap push washing to make more money.

As I read through the Irish list on washing, I thought of what people would say to Jesus when the end comes. In Matthew 25:35, Jesus talks about people who need food or water, and we have to ask what excuse we will use for not helping people who lack food and water. In verse 36, He talks about people needing clothing, those in prison, and those who are ill. We must consider what excuses we will offer for not addressing those needs.

Humans rationalize their selfish inaction. This list of ten excuses people use should pry us from our inconsistent excuses and get us involved in following Jesus and addressing the real problems facing people today.

March 19, 2025March 18, 2025

Snakebite Antivenom and AI

For most of us living in the United States, it is hard to believe that around 100,000 people worldwide die from snakebites every year. Venomous snakes have a blizzard of toxins in their bite, but the most dangerous are the “three-finger toxins,” proteins that can stop a person’s heart and ability to breathe. Snakebite antivenom is produced today by milking snakes to extract their venom.

Technicians inject a small dose of venom into a horse or other large animal and harvest antibodies later to make snakebite antivenom. When medical personnel inject the antibodies into a snakebite victim, they bind to venom toxins, shutting them down. This process is expensive and time-consuming, so researchers want to find a better answer. The 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry went to three chemists who used artificial intelligence (AI) to design proteins that can dampen and neutralize snake venom.

People have asked us, “Why would God create snakes with venom?” It is essential to understand that snakes control the populations of rats, mice, and other disease-carrying animals. What would happen if there was no predator to eat rodents when they go underground? Rodents above ground are preyed on by foxes, bears, hawks, and eagles and killed by humans. When they retreat underground, they are safe from all of those, but snakes can go after and kill rodents even there.

When a venomous snake bites a human, it is usually because the human has invaded the snake’s territory and deliberately confronted it. I was hiking into geologically interesting areas in a National Science Foundation workshop in Montana many years ago. As we walked down an old wagon trail, I was in the back with 20 people in front of me. Looking ahead, I saw a diamondback rattlesnake coiled and sitting in the middle of the wagon tracks. It had made no effort to strike any of the people within inches of it, relying totally on its camouflage.

Snakebite antivenom is essential to protect human lives, but non-venomous animals can also cause human deaths. The late Steve Irwin showed many beautiful snakes in his TV show. When he died at age 44 on September 4, 2006, it was not from a snake bite. A ray’s barb on Batt Reef in Australia pierced his heart, causing him to bleed to death. Unlike snakes, rays are not considered to be dangerous animals, but nobody has challenged us on why God created rays.

Reference: Science News magazine for February 2025, pages 14-15 or sciencenews.org.