Can you prove God’s existence? And If I’m a good person, why do I need God?
I was walking down first fridays and I saw I guy with a blue neon sign of a cross upside down with the glowing inscriptions: Let LOVE evolve. I went home that night confounded by the very statement. It sounded heroic and bold. To say, let us throw away our dogmas, forget religion, and let us evolve our understanding of love, and love each other. But then the thought occurred. How do we even know what "Love" is? By what standard or unit do you measure a concept, emotion, existence- of this thing you call, love? I mean I believe in this thing called love, and empirical knowledge would tell me it is worth chasing and fighting for. It is beautiful. It is captivating- the different degrees and facets of this thing called love. So I would presume to measure Love by my understanding of GOOD. But then I am confronted with the same question. By what measurement do I measure "good" or "evil"? Where did this internal consciousness come from? What would allow me to perceive somethings nature to be of goodness? For me to value family, or see goodness in the nature of someones life, or simply to qualify a cup of hot tea on a breezy day? I conclude that it comes from my perception of morality. See, morality by definition is a standard. It is the qualification of somethings goodness. Having a sense of morality is like having a sense of gravity where everything is pulled into it. But to have an absolute force to hold everything up, that itself grounds upon the reality of truth. Here we find ourselves at a crossroad. Because isn't truth relative? One could argue that a persons beliefs, this includes morality and what they perceive as reality, is socially conditioned. If this is so then morality, good and evil, and thus LOVE is a socially conditioned reality and can only be defined by the individual. But that is a problem. If there is no truth, and morality is relative, then a pedophile can presume to consider his abuse of children to be good, and ultimately society must accept it as LOVE. Is this what we mean by letting our LOVE evolve? Or really we mean let it mutate? Another problem arises. If you infer from the social conditionedness of all belief that "no belief can be held as universally true for everyone," that itself is a comprehensive claim about everyone that is the product of social conditions- so it cannot be true, on its own terms. "Relativity relativizes itself." Or, if there is TRUTH in saying there is "no truth" in the universe we immediately disqualify that statement. I propose another path- that there IS absolute truth in this life. That internally, no matter what social background, tribe, language you exist in, there is a virtue and praise for a man to humbly give his life for another. There is in every culture a universal disproval of tyrannical arrogance and boastfulness. This is what C.S. Lewis refered to as the universal law. This is truth. We are bound by it. Like gravity, it is real, whether we externally reveal it in our lives. Internally it keeps us from jumping off a plane without a parachute. Therefore, a realization of truth in the universe, we have to at least accept there is a God. The final question of how we measure truth founds upon the reality of an infinite God, one who has set the standard of life. For there to be absolution, the complete absence of falsehood, and an ultimate reality, there has to be an archetype of ultimate reality, whose word and essence is the complete absence of falsehood, by which we can absolutely discern what morality is, by which we can determine what is Good, and thus truly, TRULY experience in fullness, the entire capacity of LOVE. This is why 1 John 4:16 says, "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."
In conclusion, I believe that God exists empirically and logically because I empirically and logically believe in Love. There is no going around it. The bread crumbs lead unequivocally to a God, who created love, defined love, and is love. And also, if you are "good" why do you need God? Because you have no definition of "good" apart from God. You have no standard or comprehension of goodness apart from a God who is defined as "good". Nizche would cry at The existential notion of "Be good for goodness sake." Existentialism tells us that there is no meaning in the universe, therefore go and do whatever you want at whatever the cost to achieve the highest disposition of self-awareness and self-fulfillment. Nizche would argue that you must trample on whoever you can to achieve it. Only the most intelligent and articulate will survive. Everyone else is meat for worms. There is no concern for being "good" because "good" doesn't exist. It's a matter of achieving happiness and finding as much physical pleasure as possible. Therein lies the problem. What is the value in life? There is no goodness because there is no value. Value is non-existent because there is no meaning or significance in the universe. Only with God is there value. Because if He says there is value in today, how we live in this moment matters significantly. If He says there is value in a person because they are made in the image of God, then how we we view a starving child that in no benefits our disposition changes drastically. If He says something like creation is good, then we understand why a beautiful sunset gives warmth to our souls. If He says pursuing the affections of our beautiful bride is a good thing, then we can resonate in the glorious goodness in holding her in our arms. God is good, my friends. If we have any hopes of obtaining that which is truly good, and becoming good ourselves, our only chances of such an endeavor lies upon knowing God.
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