We are still addressing questions that AIF internationals have asked.
Q: Proof that God exists.
A: Everywhere you go, you find religion. You find it in the remotest reaches of Tibet and the busy streets of Manhattan. You find it in ghettos and mansions; you find it in blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, Inuits, Filipinos, Polynesians, you name it. You find it in scholars and simple fishermen, in men and women, in elderly and youth. You can’t escape religion. In fact, many atheists complain of the fact that they can’t escape religion. It’s everywhere they turn, and it frustrates them.
So let’s ask a question. Why is religion everywhere?
Every religion is an attempt to connect with ultimate reality, and different religions say different things about that reality. But every religion has one thing in common. It assumes that ultimate reality lies beyond the physical world. The human race possesses a sense that there is something else out there. This sense lies behind Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Shinto, spirit religions, cults and virtually all nonmaterialistic philosophies, and this sense exists strongly in countries that are officially atheistic. The Soviet Union, in the height of its power, could not squash out religion. Communist China cannot convince masses of its own people that this world is the end game, and the fact that North Korea uses such force to fight against religion suggests that religion’s appeal is strong in its own people. If religion had no appeal, North Korea wouldn’t have to do anything. Why then do most people possess this sense that there is a reality beyond atoms? And why do they so strongly desire to connect with that reality?
I’ll let C.S. Lewis explain: “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chap. 10, “Hope”)
Religious desire suggests that the human race was made for something beyond earth. This is not a proof that God exists. Nor does it necessarily delineate between the God of Christianity and the beliefs of other religions. Religious desire is merely a clue that seems to point broadly away from materialism and toward the existence of a different type of reality.
The fact that some people claim to have no religious desire is no argument against the desire. Some people are asexual, some are heterosexual, some homosexual. But sexual desire is real and nearly universal in the human race. So it is with religious desire.
The fact that religious desire is broad is no argument against the desire. Nor does it mean that all religions are equal. Again, the sexual desire is broad. It produces, adulterers, pedophiles, homosexuals, premarital sex, masturbation, bestiality, pornography, and more. It also produces legitimate marital sex between a man and woman. Sexual desire points to the existence of sex, not to the legitimacy of every act. Religious desire points to the existence of a spiritual reality, not to the legitimacy of every religion.
Now what I wish to argue is that the existence of God is a better explanation of religion than materialism is. If God exists, then religious desire makes perfect sense, but if materialism is true, we have a rather sticky phenomenon. The overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived have a sense that materialism is not true. So if materialism is true, we must have a materialistic explanation for a powerful sense that materialism is not true. In other words, materialism must explain why most people don’t believe it. Again, this is not a proof that materialism is false; it is merely a steeper hill that materialism must climb.
And almost universally, atheists do propose an explanation. Evolution. They claim that religious desires, feelings and beliefs are the result of evolutionary forces, and that at some point in the past, religion helped the species survive. Consequently, religious desires became hardwired inside us, and today, they are merely leftovers from the past. There are, of course, variations on this theme, but within the materialistic worldview, evolution is the great explainer of this religious sense. Religious desires and beliefs exist not because they have any connection to reality but because they helped the species survive.
On the surface, this thinking seems quite plausible. It offers a naturalistic explanation of religion. But philosophers for years have pointed out the self-defeating strategy of appealing to evolution to explain such phenomena. If it is true that people develop desires and beliefs because those desires and beliefs are useful and not because they reflect reality, then evolution produces usefulness and not necessarily truth.
But this argument cuts both ways. If religious beliefs are just the result of evolution, then aren’t materialist beliefs the same? Does Sam Harris believe atheism because it is true? Or because it is useful to him? If materialism is true, then Sam Harris’ beliefs are the result of materialism, but materialism doesn’t necessarily produce truth.
It gets stickier. Atheists claim that the human ability to reason has evolved. Fair enough. I would then ask them to be consistent in their philosophy. If evolution produces usefulness and not necessarily truth, and if our reason is a product of evolution, then our reason may be useful, but it also may have no connection to truth at all. So then. If evolution has produced reason, why should I trust my reason?
The irony of this is that the atheist constantly says he is the rational one. Reason is the bridge he is standing on. But when he says that the foundation for reason involves nonrational forces and random mutations, he blows up his bridge.
It should be quite obvious that the notion of God offers a simple, straightforward foundation for both religion and reason. With God, we can trust our reason because it actually has a rational foundation. And with God, we see quite clearly why people the world over have this sense that there is something like a God. We were made in His image to know Him. It should not surprise us then, if we find people wanting something beyond earth.
Religion and reason do not prove the existence of God, but I believe that God offers the simplest and most common sense explanation of these phenomena.
