The Existence of God
Stories
THE WONDER OF WORDS: BOOK 2
ONE-HUNDRED MORE WORDS AND PHRASES SHAPING HOW CHRISTIANS THINK AND LIVE
Robinson Crusoe is an imaginary story about a sailor, who was marooned on a desert island. One day, Crusoe saw, in the sand, a footprint that was not his own. From the existence of that footprint, Crusoe reasoned there was another person on the island. Finding out what the other person was like had to wait until they met, and the other revealed himself to Crusoe.
In a similar way, human beings have reasoned that One they have called God exists, because they have seen his footprint, as it were, in the order and power of the world around them. In 1957, the world's most complicated astronomical clock was exhibited in the Town Hall of Copenhagen. The clock had ten faces, fifteen thousand parts, and was accurate to two-fifths of a second in three hundred years. Yet, that clock had to be regulated by a more precise clock, the universe itself. If the clock in Copenhagen had a maker, how much more the clock of the universe with its billions of moving parts, from atoms to stars?
Another reason men have detected the existence of God is because of evolution in the universe. Merely stretching out the creative process from six days to eighteen billion years doesn't eliminate the need of a first cause. To think otherwise is like saying if the handle of a brush were long enough, it would paint by itself!
Still another reason people believe God exists is because of the correspondence between our needs and their fulfillment. The eye needs light and there is light. The ear is made for sound and the environment meets that need. The body hungers for food and sexual gratification and those hungers do have their fulfillment. Is it unreasonable, therefore, to hold that mankind's ancient need for God points to a cosmic companion who can fulfill that longing? It seemed perfectly sensible to an early Christian to write: "Every house ... is built by someone - and God is the one who has built all things." (Hebrews 3:4)
In a similar way, human beings have reasoned that One they have called God exists, because they have seen his footprint, as it were, in the order and power of the world around them. In 1957, the world's most complicated astronomical clock was exhibited in the Town Hall of Copenhagen. The clock had ten faces, fifteen thousand parts, and was accurate to two-fifths of a second in three hundred years. Yet, that clock had to be regulated by a more precise clock, the universe itself. If the clock in Copenhagen had a maker, how much more the clock of the universe with its billions of moving parts, from atoms to stars?
Another reason men have detected the existence of God is because of evolution in the universe. Merely stretching out the creative process from six days to eighteen billion years doesn't eliminate the need of a first cause. To think otherwise is like saying if the handle of a brush were long enough, it would paint by itself!
Still another reason people believe God exists is because of the correspondence between our needs and their fulfillment. The eye needs light and there is light. The ear is made for sound and the environment meets that need. The body hungers for food and sexual gratification and those hungers do have their fulfillment. Is it unreasonable, therefore, to hold that mankind's ancient need for God points to a cosmic companion who can fulfill that longing? It seemed perfectly sensible to an early Christian to write: "Every house ... is built by someone - and God is the one who has built all things." (Hebrews 3:4)
