God's Evidence

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StephenL

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What is the most compelling evidence that God is real? I am just curious and I would like some evidence to show my fellow classmates at school who are on the edges of athiesm or agnostic.
Thanks and God Bless
 
Mmm, evidence.

It’s a fair statement and observation that the element faith is something that is part of belief in God, as evidence, at least in the way in our western culture applies it, isn’t nearly as clear cut.

As way of explanation, the way we use evidence in a legal setting in order to prove or disprove a case isnt something we can do as neatly as Christians.
 
StephenL said:
What is the most compelling evidence that God is real? I am just curious and I would like some evidence to show my fellow classmates at school who are on the edges of athiesm or agnostic.
Thanks and God Bless
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🙂 To start, show him a snowflake photo, each snowflake in this world has a unique shape, no human or natural, can engineer such beauty except GOD.

 
StephenL said:
What is the most compelling evidence that God is real? I am just curious and I would like some evidence to show my fellow classmates at school who are on the edges of athiesm or agnostic.
Thanks and God Bless
Click to expand...
Take them outside at night and look at the stars and if you live in a northern latitude you may even see the Northern Lights. If that doesn’t convince them it would be hard to say what would. How old are these classmates? Are you in a Catholic or Secular school?
Have they told you why they doubt God’s existence?

Linus2nd
 
Linusthe2nd said:
Take them outside at night and look at the stars and if you live in a northern latitude you may even see the Northern Lights. If that doesn’t convince them it would be hard to say what would. How old are these classmates? Are you in a Catholic or Secular school?
Have they told you why they doubt God’s existence?

Linus2nd
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Actually the chaotic universe and the immense number of stars is a reason for me to remain an atheist, this isn’t a good idea, you have to show them evidences outside the beauty of existence, because as much as there is wonderful things, there is awful things, and none of these prove a god or gods, so how then about a specific god?
 
The priest at our school always says that “God is love”, as if that is proof in itself. A child could see through that reasoning.

I’ve always been bemused (and, sometimes, amused) by those who use the bible to try to prove the existence of god. The bible assumes the existence of god as its premise. You might as well prove the existence of Donald Duck by reading a comic book about him.
The story itself does not offer proof.

There is no proof. No evidence. That’s the whole point. If we could prove god exists, it wouldn’t be called “faith”.

Imagine if we could prove that God exists, and he’s exactly the god from the old and new testaments. All of the mystique would be lost and millions of people would be disappointed (I believe). A large part of the Christian faith is the unknown and the unknowable. If you know it, there’s no mystery.
 
The eternal question, eh?
Socrates; “Being before Action” is evidence & non-refutable, at least rationally. One has to exist prior to a discussion about whether there is, or is not a God. Empirical evidence is itself derived because a preceding act of Faith; that “like causes produce like effects.” How would we know?; we take it for granted. Such is the fundamental assumption of the Scientific Method. We proceed with rational, logical inquiry only because we assume that reality is not accidental or random, but rather, purposeful, intentional and capable of being understood by His creation. Acquinas is a great resource here. Reason and Faith go hand in hand.
 
The “evidence” language suggests empiricist presuppositions on the part of these skeptics. I would take a step back and redirect the discussion to whether reason supports the existence of God. From there it should be clear sailing.
 
Have you ever seen the movie, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed!”? That’s good.

Plus, of course, you have St. Thomas Aquinas’ 5 proofs of the existence of God.

Peter Kreeft actually has 20 in his, "Handbook of Christian Apologetics"!

There is the evidence of miracles, that we had so many people who witnessed the major events willing to be tortured and martyred rather than deny their faith.

If there is no God, where did all this perfect, organized, harmonious universe come from? Chance? Accident? Randomness? Mutation?

It would be like saying my computer just assembled itself, only with something MUCH more complex, the human body and universe! What would the probability of a computer being able to assemble itself be? Well, infinitely more impossible would be that the universe assemble itself by evolution without the guidance of a superior intelligence.

My mother said she always thought the existence of God was “obvious”!
 
I agree. I think it is important to point out, however, that the empiricist must confront the reality that empiricism has validity only within the context of the creation that preceded it.
 
The universe is NOT chaotic! I once took the same anatomy and physiology class that the nurses took. Wow! We had to study and memories nerves, bones, organs AND their function. Let’s take just the kidney. If the pH goes out by JUST a little bit, you die!

With the planet, in order to support life, do you have any idea all the chemicals, minerals and such that would need to be present in JUST the right proportions or else, it would not work?

Look at planet earth. We have just the right amount of oxygen, salts, minerals and everything for our existence The earth just happens to revolve, and rotate, just the right distance from the sun…so it is not too hot to burn us all up, not too cold that we would all die. Yes, we have had ice ages, but still, it has supported life.

We just happen to have a perfect atmosphere that protects us all from the harmful sunrays, cold and emptiness of space. It protects us, like a shield.

We have male and female which JUST happen to perfectly fit together to produce another life? We have intelligence, learning, will.

We have all these thousands, or more, factors…from gravity to immunity, that have to all work together, harmoniously…nervous system…spinal cord, brain, circulatory system, respiratory system, skin…eyes…teeth…which grow, change, replace themselves, protect against infection! We have eyes which blink, automatically, heart which beats, lungs which breathe.

One atheist science teacher I had said if there was one piece of evidence which would be most likely to convince him of the existence of God, it would be the human body.
 
StephenL said:
What is the most compelling evidence that God is real? I am just curious and I would like some evidence to show my fellow classmates at school who are on the edges of athiesm or agnostic.
Thanks and God Bless
Click to expand...
How about the fact that there is something instead of nothing?
 
All the evidence you need is in my video about when I “died” and went to Heaven and heard God’s voice tell me that it was not my time because He still has work for me to do. Then I saw my husband who told me I had to go back, but that he would be waiting there for me. I didn’t want to come back. I felt the greatest love, peace, and joy I had ever experienced. Now I will do anything He wants me to do. I will go anywhere He wants me to go. Now I tell everyone I meet in person or online that God is Real! Heaven is Real!Here is the link:

youtube.com/watch?v=DV_IeRlIWVU

If you want more documentation, search for “near death experiences” on YouTube. There you will find children, atheists, and agnostics who tell of their experience when they “died.”
Some went to Heaven, some went to Hell, but all of them came back believing in God.

May God bless you and keep you in His loving arms today and for the rest of your life.

With all my love as your sister in Christ.
 
Considering the audience, you must use logic to break the mold. There are so many avenues to go down, below is one.

Sometimes people think they are critically thinking, at the same time dismiss avenues they don’t want to consider or learn about.

This means, in reality they are presenting themselves as having faith in an idea.

If they can have faith in an idea, and you can have faith in a different idea, I suppose the next step is hashing out if truth is real. Understanding that truth can only be 1 by definition, if truth exists, only one of these idea’s is real (God is, or isn’t).

To prove truth, a math equation works. Or, my parents gave me a name, that is true. We could list all the truth’s that we know, but at some point we would stop, have none left. At which point, if someone came up to us who we didn’t know and told us their name. That’s another truth, we ‘learned’ something.

Evaluating our two ideas, It’s impossible to learn that God doesn’t exist. By definition for this thought, there is no evidence, therefore, it takes faith alone.

The other is being considered true by some people due to a ‘learning’ process. By definition, no matter the god, people have been informed of something to get to a position of belief.
 
I will just repeat a little joke I heard and have posted before, but it seems apropos to the discussion.

An atheist heart surgeon and a Christian brain surgeon were having a discussion. The atheist heart surgeon said that he had opened up hundreds of human bodies and had never seen a soul. The Christian brain surgeon responded: “I have opened up hundreds of human skulls and I have never seen a thought”.
 
StephenL,

One thing that is important to avoid is the use of emotions or feelings as evidence.
Like some have suggested with pointing the beauty and complexity of nature, the one reason I shy away from such as evidence is it is a way of appealing to emotions/feelings…

Ask any former Mormon, such as myself, positive feelings and emotions are not evidence. If anything, they can lead you astray.

If you approach them with anything the evokes emotion, your evidence is weak. Emotions and feelings are not evidence…

Good luck and God bless you in your search to find a way to evangelize.
 
Marie5890 said:
StephenL,

One thing that is important to avoid is the use of emotions or feelings as evidence.
Like some have suggested with pointing the beauty and complexity of nature, the one reason I shy away from such as evidence is it is a way of appealing to emotions/feelings…

Ask any former Mormon, such as myself, positive feelings and emotions are not evidence. If anything, they can lead you astray.

If you approach them with anything the evokes emotion, your evidence is weak. Emotions and feelings are not evidence…

Good luck and God bless you in your search to find a way to evangelize.
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This is so true. Better to approach it from the aspect of objective truth; the fact that something never comes from nothing; that everything in our world has a cause, and therefore, there must ultimately be an “Uncaused Cause”. As others have said, there are many philosophical arguments you can present (just don’t call them philosophical arguments). But I agree, feelings and emotions prove nothing in the end.
 
Just tell them to read a history book Palestine and the Roman Empire during the time of Christ.

When someone is doubtful that Christ walked the earth I immediately think of St. Helena of Constantinople. She is the one who found the True Cross that Christ was crucified on along with the nails used and his hair. These relics are on display at the Vatican.

Or…you can have them come to Mass with you to feel the presence of God. Or better yet just have them sit in an Adoration Chapel and spend some quiet time with Jesus.

Or…just have them look and the birds, the trees, the sky, the stars, etc. God has provided us with nature.

:twocents:
 
KimberlyCat said:
Just tell them to read a history book Palestine and the Roman Empire during the time of Christ.

When someone is doubtful that Christ walked the earth I immediately think of St. Helena of Constantinople. She is the one who found the True Cross that Christ was crucified on along with the nails used and his hair. These relics are on display at the Vatican.
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The thing is that does not qualify as evidence. St Helena was late 3rd early 4th century, thus a few centuries after Christ. There is no way of showing, in the way of evidence, that they are indeed, relics of the Cross, the thorns the nails. It is legend and tradition, yes, but it’s not the kind of evidence that Steven’s friends are looking for…

Evidence of God is a tricky thing to present.
 
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