Can You Show That God Exists Without the Bible?
[I just wish to state that this work is comprised of various writings and I will give references at the end of this work to the best of my knowledge.]
Question:
Can you prove that God exists today without using the Bible?
And if so, how do you know that he is the ONLY God? And that all of those other 'gods' who others have claimed to be gods aren't real or else fall into the category of demons or djinn?
Answer:
There are three distinct questions here, these are;
a.) Can you prove that God exists today without using the Bible?
b.) And if so, how do you know that he is the ONLY God
c.) And that all of those other 'gods' who others have claimed to be gods aren't real or else fall into the category of demons or djinn? Or else are not just human beings who have taken upon themselves the title of God or else have had it placed upon them?
Each question logically follows from the one before it. But before we start, we need to resolve a background issue.
What is Proof?
In asking this question, we're basically asking "What kind of proof will be good enough? How much proof is needed?". When we talk about proof, we're talking about establishing some degree of certainty about something.
Scientific knowledge is based on repeated observations, but scientific knowledge is only one kind of knowledge.
Other kinds include historical knowledge, philosophical knowledge, moral knowledge and personal knowledge.
These types of knowledge lie outside the bounds of scientific knowledge.
For example, take historical knowledge.
Can you prove that King Henry the Eighth existed? Using the scientific approach of observation and repeatable experiments, this would be impossible. But using historical methods, it is certain that he existed beyond a reasonable doubt. This phrase is the key. While not one person living today has ever seen King Henry the Eighth, we know he existed beyond a reasonable doubt. This is why in law courts, a jury must be convinced of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, not beyond a shadow of a doubt.
So, when we look to prove whether God exists today, a scientific approach will not work. The amount of proof needed is enough so that we can say: "God exists beyond a reasonable doubt".
The Question Restated
We can now restate the questions as such:
Is it reasonable to accept that there is a 'Higher Being' behind this universe? If so, how do we know 'what' or 'who' the Higher Being is? Is There A Higher Being?
a.) Can this Higher Being be proven to exist with using the Bible?
b.) How do you know there is only one Higher Being?
c.) Have there been others who have tried to take the place of the Higher Being?
There are many different arguments for the existence of a Higher Being, none of which rely on the Bible, and none of which can be scientifically proved. Here are a few:
The Argument From Design
When we look at anything which has a design, we rightly conclude that it had a designer. Somebody designed chairs for a purpose.
Let's use this as an example; You walk into an empty room and have a need to sit down, as there is no furniture and have a need then you want a solution - this is emanation. Next you envision that a chair you suit your need and imagine the shape, height and colour of the chair - this is creation. But for your creation to come into being you have to 'blueprints' in order to decide the construction of the chair - this is formation. From that all that remains is the physical action in order to make the chair.
You can add somebody designed a glove to fit over a hand, if one has cold hands or else needs to have them covered then any solution requires a design and has to be practical so it can be used by a variety of human beings and can be replicated if it was designed by human beings for the use of human beings.
We can look at the universe, the complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe but sustains it today through its design. In other words it is the design that sustains itself due to the emanation, creation and formation that is behind the design which could only come from a designer. It would go against the laws of mathematics that the universe came in existence by accident or some random event.
Many examples showing God's design could be given, possibly with no end. But here are a few:
The Earth...its size is perfect. The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter. Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.
The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -20 degrees to +50 degrees . If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible.
The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.
And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents.
And then in particular we have human beings, we show an unbelievable amount of design which replicates. Same anatomy as can be seen in regards to the likes of medicine and surgery, we also have lifespans which governs our biological being. Even though humans try to prolong their lifespan through various means it does not extend 'life' as they knew it. In order to extend their life people will have all manner of surgeries, all manner of implants and take all manner of drugs, but from all this they will change from their personality nature and end up as drug induced robots and zombies without life.
Human beings were not designed to be immortal and neither was any other form of physical life on this Earth. If we were immortal then we would not reproduce as designed, but if we did this Earth would be overpopulated and the likes of murder and utter poverty would skyrocket on a global scale and most (if not all) animal species would be extinct due to hunting caused by hunger.
The human brain...simultaneously processes an amazing amount of
information. Your brain takes in all the colors and objects you see, the
temperature around you, the pressure of your feet against the floor,
the sounds around you, the dryness of your mouth, even the texture of
your keyboard. Your brain holds and processes all your emotions,
thoughts and memories. At the same time your brain keeps track of the
ongoing functions of your body like your breathing pattern, eyelid
movement, hunger and movement of the muscles in your hands.
The human brain processes more than a million messages a second. Your
brain weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the
relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows you to
focus and operate effectively in your world. The brain functions
differently than other organs. There is an intelligence to it, the
ability to reason, to produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take
action, and relate to other people.
The eye...can distinguish among seven million colors. It has automatic
focusing and handles an astounding 1.5 million messages --
simultaneously.8 Evolution focuses on mutations and changes from and
within existing organisms. Yet evolution alone does not fully explain
the initial source of the eye or the brain -- the start of living
organisms from nonliving matter.
The DNA code informs and programs a cell's behavior; All instruction,
all teaching and all training comes with intent. Someone who writes an
instruction manual does so with purpose. Did you know that in every cell
of our bodies there exists a very detailed instruction code, much like a
miniature computer program? As you may know, a computer program is made
up of ones and zeros, as in binary code like this: 110010101011000. The
way they are arranged tell the computer program what to do. The DNA
code in each of our cells is very similar. It's made up of four
chemicals that scientists abbreviate as A, T, G, and C. These are
arranged in the human cell like this: CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on.
There are three billion of these letters in every human cell!!
Just as you can program your phone to beep for specific reasons, DNA
instructs the cell. DNA is a thre9e-billion-lettered program telling the
cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction manual.
Why is this so amazing? One has to ask....how did this information
program wind up in each human cell? These are not just chemicals. These
are chemicals that instruct, that code in a very detailed way exactly
how the person's body should develop.
Natural, biological causes are completely lacking as an explanation when
programmed information is involved. You cannot find instruction,
precise information like this, without someone intentionally
constructing it.
Let us continue...
Water...colorless, odorless and without taste, and yet no living thing
can survive without it. Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly
of water (about two-thirds of the human body is water). You'll see why
the characteristics of water are uniquely suited to life:
It has an unusually high boiling point and freezing point. Water allows
us to live in an environment of fluctuating temperature changes, while
keeping our bodies a steady 37 degrees (Celsius).
Water is a universal solvent. This property of water means that various
chemicals, minerals and nutrients can be carried throughout our bodies
and into the smallest blood vessels.5
Water is also chemically neutral. Without affecting the makeup of the
substances it carries, water enables food, medicines and minerals to be
absorbed and used by the body.
Water has a unique surface tension. Water in plants can therefore flow
upward against gravity, bringing life-giving water and nutrients to the
top of even the tallest trees.
Water freezes from the top down and floats, so fish can live in the winter.
Ninety-seven percent of the Earth's water is in the oceans. But on our
Earth, there is a system designed which removes salt from the water and
then distributes that water throughout the globe. Evaporation takes the
ocean waters, leaving the salt, and forms clouds which are easily moved
by the wind to disperse water over the land, for vegetation, animals and
people. It is a system of purification and supply that sustains life on
this planet, a system of recycled and reused water.
Much of life as a whole may seem uncertain, but look at what we can count on day after day: gravity remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn't change - on earth or in galaxies far from us.
How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable? And when anomilies occur they can correct themselves. This points to a Designer.
"The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs from the recognition that the universe doesn't have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a universe in which conditions change unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a universe in which things pop in and out of existence."
Dinesh D'Souza, What's So Great about Christianity; (Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2007, chapter 11)
Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, said,
"Why nature is mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle."
Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist (New York: BasicBooks, 1998)
We can also compare the universe to the likes of a railway system, at any given time all over the Earth there are thousands of trains on a multitude of railway tracks. There may be accidents and collisions but in comparison to the amount of journeys this is in fact a fraction. Likewise in the universe there may be collisions between comets and rocks of various placements and sizes. Considering the amount of rocks and comets in the universe the mathematical odds that this planet should have been hit and ultimately destroyed defies the laws of mathematics.
As we see we find ourselves with the intuition that random, unplanned, unexplained accident just couldn't produce the order, beauty, elegance, and seeming purpose that we experience in the natural world around us. More notable is that the components within the order have the ability to replicate and reproduce within the segments of the order. Examples are humans reproducing with humans, dogs reproducing with dogs, plants reproducing with plants usually by pollination (which can require division of the sexes) or else asexually as seen in the likes of plant grafts or else by 'splitting'. As we see these days because of political correctness and the continuous redefining of words and terms there are those who claim cross breeding within a species is 'evolution'. It is not, the amount of chromosomes has not changed.
In terms of reproduction there cannot be interbreeding between various species because of the various number of chromosomes between the species. The DNA/RNA of each creature will not ultimately absorb that of any other, it may be 'absorbed' with the aid of various chemicals and drugs. But then the problem will be two fold; the first problem is that the receiver will constantly need chemicals and drugs in order to keep the absorption. The second being that the constant ingestation of chemicals and drugs will either kill the receiver or else have them in a continuous sickly condition.
"Look round the world; contemplate the whole and every part of it: You will find it to be nothing but one great machine, subdivided into an infinite number of lesser machines, which again admit of subdivisions to a degree beyond what human senses and faculties can trace and explain. All these various machines, and even their most minute parts, are adjusted to each other with an accuracy which ravishes into admiration all men who have ever contemplated them. The curious adapting of means to ends, throughout all nature, resembles exactly, though it much exceeds, the productions of human contrivance; of human design, thought, wisdom, and intelligence. Since, therefore, the effects resemble each other, we are led to infer, by all the rules of analogy, that the causes also resemble; and that the Author of Nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man, though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work which he has executed. By this argument a posteriori, and by this argument alone, do we prove at once the existence of a Deity, and his similarity to human mind and intelligence."
- Hume 1779
Design type arguments are largely unproblematic when based upon things nature clearly could not or would not produce (e.g., most human artifacts), or when the intelligent agency is itself ‘natural’ (human). Identifying designed traces of ‘lost’ human civilizations could in principle be uncontroversial or even nearly trivial. If we are confronted with something which nature unaided by an intelligence truly could not or would not produce (e.g., a DVD player), a design conclusion of some sort is very nearly inescapable. The unproblematic nature of such arguments has often been appropriated as a foundation for analogous inferences concerning (things in) nature. But in cases involving design in (or of) nature itself inferences are more problematic. Things actually in nature presumably are among those things which nature could or would produce, the intelligence in question would typically presumably not be within nature, and our everyday types of design inferences would appear to be wide of the mark.
But despite the variety of spirited critical attacks they have elicited, design arguments have historically had and continue to have widespread intuitive appeal—indeed, it is sometimes claimed that design arguments are the most persuasive of all purely philosophical theistic arguments.
Cosmological arguments begin with the bare fact that there are contingently existing things and end with conclusions concerning the existence of a maker with the power to account for the existence of those contingent things. Teleological arguments (or arguments from design) by contrast begin with a much more specialised catalogue of properties and end with a conclusion concerning the existence of a designer with the intellectual properties (knowledge, purpose, understanding, foresight, wisdom, intention) necessary to design the things exhibiting the special properties in question. In broad outline, then, teleological arguments focus upon finding and identifying various traces of the operation of a mind in nature's temporal and physical structures, behaviors and paths. Order of some significant type is usually the starting point of design arguments. Various advocates have focused on different types, levels and instances of order, have suggested different logical connections between order, design and designer and have pursued different levels of rigor
Design Inference Patterns
The historical arguments of interest are precisely the potentially problematic ones—inferences beginning with some empirical features of nature taken as (or argued to be) design-indicative, and concluding with the designedness of, and a designer of, the phenomena in question. A standard but separable second step—the natural theology step—involves identifying the designer as God, often via particular properties and powers required by the designing in question. Although the argument wielded its greatest intellectual influence during the 18th and early 19th centuries, it goes back at least to the Greeks and in extremely clipped form comprises one of Aquinas's Five Ways.
Design Arguments Example:
Entity 'A' (stone) within nature is like specified human creation 'B' (concrete) in relevant respects because it is a product of deliberate design by an intelligent non-human agency. Like effects typically have like causes (or like explanations, like existence requirements, etc.) Therefore it is (highly) probable that 'B' has 'A' precisely because it is a product of deliberate design by an intelligent human agency. But as to item 'A'? If you were in find a stone in a riverbed for example, would you know how old it is and how it was created?
On a theistic level it can be argued that as man was created in the image of God; then man too will create in the image of God. Whether that be by reproduction or replication in relation to animate and potentially animate (such as children) or the inanimate (such as concrete) 'objects'. The fact is that man has never created anything out of nothing, despite the claims of atheists who hold that 'something and everything came from nothing' and no amount of scientific 'theories' will ever make it come true or establish it as fact.
The only fact is that the creations and designs of mankind were and are based on 'objects' that were never designed or created by mankind. Some things in nature (or nature itself, or else the cosmos) are design-like (exhibit a cognition-resonating, intention-shaped character). Design-like properties are not producible by (unguided) natural means—i.e., any phenomenon exhibiting such properties must be a product of intentional design. Therefore some things in nature (or nature itself, the cosmos) are products of intentional design. And of course, the capacity for intentional design requires an agency of some type. An agency of some type would have to refer to a Higher Intelligence or Higher Being or as we commonly say... God.
While mankind may make 'original' inventions or come up with 'original' ideas and concepts, the fact is that these inventions, ideas and concepts did not come out of absolutely nothing or even a basic nothing. It was a need, potential problem or else a 'void' that gave rise to these things. It was instinct, previous knowledge, new knowledge, imagination and practicality that combined to attempt to fill the void. Unless the origin of each factor in this can be traced to its very beginning, as well as the circumstance as to why these factors interact and to what degree. Then mankind cannot claim to come up with an 'original' solution to an 'original' problem because the problem and solution are not original but variants which have changed, continue to change and will change. While the physical components of a problem can be empirically measured, the circumstances behind them cannot be completely measured but only mitigated.
Applying infinite regression will only reveal that mankind is not the original designer or manufacturer of anything. Yet nature still functions and reproduces with design which points to an original designer who would not be a human being and certainly would be a Higher Being in regards to intelligence and ability. The only comprehensible answer to this is ultimately God.
