Does God really exist?

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How can I help my husband be more accepting of our Catholic faith?’ We are both cradle Catholics yet I don’t think he really believes there is a God. He’s more of a scientific mind and recently told me the story of Adam and Eve is purely fictional (fables) and is solely based on how a man and woman should live their lives. Another belief is that we (human beings) evolved from the Neanderthals (sp). He’s very scientific and logical minded and unless he can read the FACTS, I don’t think I’ll be able to convince him of anything.

God Bless You

m
 
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MaryP:
How can I help my husband be more accepting of our Catholic faith?’ We are both cradle Catholics yet I don’t think he really believes there is a God. He’s more of a scientific mind and recently told me the story of Adam and Eve is purely fictional (fables) and is solely based on how a man and woman should live their lives. Another belief is that we (human beings) evolved from the Neanderthals (sp). He’s very scientific and logical minded and unless he can read the FACTS, I don’t think I’ll be able to convince him of anything.

God Bless You

m
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Got to get this guy to read some of the great theologians, Aquinas, Augustine, etc. Also get him this book written by Peter Kreeft called “Christianity for Modern Pagans.” Great read about the apologetics of Pascal, a great mathematician and scientist. Also keep praying.
 
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MaryP:
How can I help my husband be more accepting of our Catholic faith?’ We are both cradle Catholics yet I don’t think he really believes there is a God. He’s more of a scientific mind and recently told me the story of Adam and Eve is purely fictional (fables) and is solely based on how a man and woman should live their lives. Another belief is that we (human beings) evolved from the Neanderthals (sp). He’s very scientific and logical minded and unless he can read the FACTS, I don’t think I’ll be able to convince him of anything.

God Bless You

m
Click to expand...
I come from a similar background. I’m a cradle Catholic, and have always been very analytical. I’m not sure there was a point in my life where I didn’t think there was a God, but there was a point where I didn’t think it was rational to believe in one. By this I mean that I knew, sort of, that there was a creator, but with all I knew (or thought I knew) about science, I couldn’t defend that belief. Finally, God came down and smacked some sense into me :o

Anyway, first I should point out that belief that the creation account in Genesis is a myth is an acceptable opinion. The Church states that the faithful are free to believe whatever they want about the historical veracity of the creation stories, so long as they adhere to the following: One, God created the first human beings as perfectly good, in His own image and likeness, and with free will. Two, there was some primordial event which brought the downfall of man from his state of Grace by his own free will.

Belief in some form of evolution (so long as it does not discount the necessity of a Creator) is also accepted by the Church. So I wouldn’t take your husband’s scientifically-oriented opinions as a flat-out rejection of Church teaching. However, I do agree with retina_md that maybe he should read some of the Church Fathers, specifically St. Thomas Aquinas. He was very scientifically minded and sought, in his Summa Theologiae, to use reason to prove nearly every aspect of the faith. His 5 proofs for the existence of God may interest your husband very much.
 
At this point, I would like to suggest a book by C. S. Lewis titled, “Miracles.” C. S. Lewis was an agnostic who tried to prove that there is no God. The more he tried to prove it, the more he found out that there is a God.

I have not read the book but I was told that it details logic, science and history.
 
The Evidential Power Of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet by Fr. Thomas Dubay might also help. I read it and it was great . . . but then everything he writes is.

Here’s a review from Booklist
The physicist who knows nothing about Scripture and the theologian ignorant of calculus may yet see eye to eye on the remarkable power of beauty to manifest the presence of truth. It is this probative force of beauty that drives Dubay’s impressive reflection on how the perception of harmony instills a sense of conviction among honest seekers in both science and religion. With the help of testimony from a wide range of scientists, Dubay discerns a pattern of elegance and symmetry uniting everything from the astrophysics of the cosmos to the biology of the cell. Disdaining the crabbed literalism of creationist science (which he dismisses as fallacious), Dubay uses the metaphysical intuition of beauty to challenge neo-Darwinian dogmatists who deny the existence of design in our curiously fine-tuned universe. Non-Catholics may protest that Dubay overextends his argument when he concludes with a defense of Catholicism as the supreme depository of truth and beauty, but readers need not endorse Dubay’s Catholic orthodoxy to benefit from his philosophic insights.
 
You can buy this book right here on this website !
shop.catholic.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-B0194.html?L+scstore+tcqv5096ff6f7a6f+1097442196

the Handbook of Christian Apologetics offers hundreds of answers to critical questions, such as:
  • Do faith and reason conflict?
  • Does God exist?
  • Is the Bible a myth?
  • How can God allow evil to exist?
  • Was Jesus more than a man?
  • Is there life after death?
  • Are miracles possible?
  • Was Jesus raised from the dead?
  • Is Christianity the only true religion?
The Handbook of Christian Apologetics is ideal for discussion groups (with great discussion questions at the end of each chapter) and with an excellent list of recommended reading in the appendix.

Sensible and concise, witty and wise, Kreeft and Tacelli offer compelling arguments for and defenses of every aspect of Christian belief. This is an informative and valuable guidebook for anyone looking for answers to questions of faith and reason. Whether you are asking the questions yourself, or want to respond to others who are, here is the resource you’ve been waiting for.

Cat.#DescriptionPriceB0194Book, 400 pgs$17.95

.
 
“Theology for Beginners” by Frank Sheed is another excellent book.

I read this book as part of a high school class, and from that day forward I could never doubt the existence of my soul. Once you realize you have a soul, it is difficult to avoid the realization that there is a God.

May God bless you and your husband
 
An important step for me was finding out if Jesus did exist and if so was he the Son of God. There is so much evidence supporting this that I was convinced.

All of this was prophesied, Jesus is the Son of God, the apostles were just ordinary guys who could not have written the gospels without the Holy Spirit, they all wrote similiar accounts, Jesus came here to show us how to live our lives and died for us so that our sins may be forgiven if we follow Him.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church helped alot.

Don’t tell my kids this but I now believe humans were created just as the Genesis says. They think I am going overboard on religion but that is only because they don’t understand the Truth yet.

Anyway, if one believes that Jesus is God, the rest will fall into place.

Fran
 
  1. Evolution can be compatible with church teachings (according to the Vatican).
  2. I doubt if it will help, but I have experienced enough miracles in the right circumstances - some that could not be coincidences - that I could never doubt God’s existence.
 
Will Intelligent Design replace evolution as the accepted scientific explanation for the existence and development of life?

discovery.org/csc/

My personal suggestion would be to go outside on a clear night in the country, and just look up at the sky. If you can’t do that, then go here:

Gravitational Lens Magnifies Distant Galaxies in Hubble Space Telescope Photo

It took the light recorded in this photo 13 billion years to get from its furthest source to us. The light is focussed by the gravity of the star cluster between here and there, actually bent and focussed by gravity to let us see so much farther than we could on our own.

This image is filled with God, but entirely created and contained in Him. He even provided the lens to share this vision with us, and the creatures who built, launched and and operate the telescope. It was there before the earth and will be there long after the sun dies. It represents only a tiny area of the sky (3.2 arc minutes out of a possible 360 degrees times 60 minutes per degree).
 
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MaryP:
Another belief is that we (human beings) evolved from the Neanderthals (sp). He’s very scientific and logical minded and unless he can read the FACTS, I don’t think I’ll be able to convince him of anything.

God Bless You

m
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The question of the specific details of creation is really a question for science, not revelation. The story of Adam and Eve (factual or not) is meant to teach us about what we really are and why we need a redeemer–and that is a question for revelation, not science.
 
I, too, was an agnostic with a scientific bias but a little reading and inquiry changed my mind in a big way. I’d recommend 3 good books on this subject:

The Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ron Tacelli

The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel

God, Chance, and Necessity by Keith Ward

I
 
This is a matter of faith not reason.
The real question is " Do you believe that God exists."?
 
To be able to answer such a question, one should understand why one exists. Why do you exist? What is the purpose of your existence? Question your own existence then you can question God’s.

Blessed are the simple-minded. See, this is one downside with intelligence… misused with pride, we think we can outsmart God. Well, here’s a newsflash. What made you intelligent? Why are you intelligent?
 
Mary, I’m not quite sure why you think he doesn’t believe. Have you talked to him about it? Does he go to Mass?

As others have said, evolution is not contrary to Catholicism. In fact, I think it’s more consistent than the beliefs of a fundamentalist friend of mine, who thinks the evidence was planted by God to test our faith. That sounds kind of gnostic to me (though I suppose this isn’t the thread for it).

I went through a stage where I was an agnostic and I still have various family members who are agnostic/atheists. Based on my experience, I have slightly different advice than some. I’d stay away from the proofs of God as proofs (and especially Pascal’s wager, as stated by him), since what I loved best was to demolish an argument. And I always felt I’d done so successfully.

One place to start is where CatholicSamurai suggested. Does life have meaning and purpose? Is their good vs. bad? If so, what is that based on? If you reason back, I think you ultimately end up with two choices–we just perceive things because we evolved that way, it’s arbitrary, or there is a God behind all.

But I don’t know if it’s possible to convince someone of that. It’s just a simplified explanation of how I came to realize I believed. Now, if you can convince him to pray, I think that could be effective.
 
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MaryP:
How can I help my husband be more accepting of our Catholic faith?’ We are both cradle Catholics yet I don’t think he really believes there is a God. He’s more of a scientific mind and recently told me the story of Adam and Eve is purely fictional (fables) and is solely based on how a man and woman should live their lives. Another belief is that we (human beings) evolved from the Neanderthals (sp). He’s very scientific and logical minded and unless he can read the FACTS, I don’t think I’ll be able to convince him of anything.

God Bless You

m
Click to expand...
Hello MaryP,

It is a scientific fact that if you put a pile of ruber, steel, copper and plastic in the corner, five hundred billion years from now it will not have evolved into a John Deere tractor. Scientist will tell you that things devolve into lower states of organization not higher.

I cannot quote you, I could be wrong, but I think I heard it said that the body has a length of blood vessels that, if laid end to end, would reach the moon (what ever the story was, I know I was impressed when I heard it). We, with all our brilliance, cannot recreate even a human hand. Even if evolution is true, man could not have evolved without God there directing it to do so. It is a mathmatical impossibility.

If there is no God, then we all die and the worms and maggots eat our flesh and we are no more. If there is a God and we go to heaven, we spend a hundred billion, trillion godzillion years (infinite years) in paradice. If there is a God and we are not selected to go to heaven, then, again, we do not get much. Doesent it sound like going to heaven is worth the risk of doing the will of God, even if you think that there is only an outside, against all odds, risk of there being a God?

Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten
www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com
 
Dear Friend

It is perfectly acceptable by the Church for your husband to believe that evolution took place as long as he recognises God’s hand was in it, that creation took place and however we arrived at this point today be it evolution or as laid out in the 7 days of Genesis, (which could be imagery) that God indeed created the world and everything in it and the first man and woman and for every subsequent human thereafter God gives a spirit to and all are His children in, by and through Christ. I personally think God could bring about the world in any fashion He likes, but He brought it about and that is what we have to believe in if we are to believe in God, that He is the Supreme Architect and Creator of this world and all our lives from the first people who were Adam and Eve, whether that was a slow process of evolution thereafter or it happened in 7 days is up to the individual to decide, but either way it isn’t against Church doctrine to decide for either way as long as God is held to be the Creator of all.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you xxx

Teresa
 
Scientists look for data. The data are acquired by measurements, and measurement are possible only with physical equipments. So for them to search for God, they can only consider the physical world, since they cannot do anything with the spiritual world. So far, nobody can perform scientific experiments on the spiritual world, so, I think, they choose to ignore it or just lump it under ‘a form of energy’ which they cannot even prove or define. Therefore, we can see that scientific approaches to find God are very limited in the scope (only physical world) and the capabilities (tools and laws they think they can use).

Now look at the subject they are trying to tackle: God.

By definition, God is the creator of everything in the universe, seen and unseen (scientist knows that there there are things they cannot detect yet. Example, what they called ‘dark matter’), and all the laws that govern the universe. Note that the God is also the creator of time, a component of the universe, and is not restricted by it.

A true scientific approach will have to include two components: 1. To prove that God exists. 2. To prove that God does not exist. Sadly, even with the ‘physical’ world that they can do something about, they cannot prove anything in 1 or 2 above is true or not true. The reason is, even if they can ‘explain’ any physical laws, phenomenons, matters, or, with mathematics, they cannot explain why those ‘truths’ exist in the first place. Yes, E=mC*C, but why is it this way? Yes, there was a big-bang, but why did it happened. How can such huge amount of energy be stored in a tiny atom? Understanding is just a discovery, and nothing else. Our human intelligence is only limited compared to the Creator of the universe Whom some of us claim does not exist. Since we are part of the creation, created in the image of God at best, does not equip us to ‘prove’ or ‘disprove’ God.

Unfortunately, science, for some of the human race, is the best tool they can use to describe God; but yet, the tool itself is so hopelessly powerless. To conclude anything about God with science is laughable.

A scientist proudly displays the life form he created and says: See God, who needs you? And God replies: “Use your own dirt”.

Praise be to God!
 
Writer Amy Welborn points out that if the transcendent God could be analyzed and proved by the scientific method, He would not be God, but an amoeba.
 
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