Thoughts With Dalt

As promised, here is week one of my first series, “God by Logic”. This is a product of my own internal reasoning over a few years, and I summed it up into a paper sometime earlier this year. We will take around 4-6 posts to work through this. I hope it leads to positive discussion and, of course, critical thinking. Something to break up our mindless scrolling and exercise the brain. Best case, maybe I can help convince someone of the necessity of God. Ready? Me too! Let’s go.

Before I begin, I would like to explain the purpose of this paper. For much of my life, when questioned on the reason for my belief in Creationism, I would respond simply with, “Faith”. In a conversation among fellow Christians, that reason will suffice as we share a common set of beliefs. However, the majority of humans do not align with the beliefs of Christianity. Actually, many “Christians” do not even align with the beliefs of Christianity. My ultimate goal would be to bring anyone in question into a similar faith as me. As a Bible believing Christian, I know that is God’s work and that I am just lucky to be caught up in the middle of it. So, my initial goal as discussed in this essay is simply to prove God within the bounds of Logic. I will show God to be the only way any of this around us makes sense. Once that is accepted, we can move on to learning and applying His teaching through scripture. As for now, I’ll attempt to logically show God as the Creator. 

A Few Words on … Words

The term understand is diverse in its meaning. One definition of the term involves mentally grasping a concept or idea. This has to do with knowing a truth and knowing why it is a truth. Most humans would be comfortable saying, “Yes, I understand” if they were told that 2+2=4. That is rudimentary math. They can grasp the concept that 2 of anything added to another 2 of anything is now 4 of those things. It is an objective truth that can be proven by placing 4 sticks in a pile, dividing them into 2 groups of 2 sticks and making a visual representation to support the claim. I am no professional mathematician, but I feel confident I could explain to a field mouse that 2+2=4.

A second definition for understanding is more of an acceptance of an objective truth without utter certainty. This has to do with knowing a truth while not knowing why it is a truth. Let’s stick with math to flesh out the meaning of this definition. Bear with me, math haters. I promise I am going somewhere with all of this! I understand that the function y=sin(x) produces a line on a graph that starts at (0,0) and moves right in a wave shape forever, bound between y=-1 and y=1, crossing the x axis precisely at every whole integral of π. I have reached this understanding for two reasons.

• A few math teachers in my past education have drawn it on a board.
• My graphing calculator produces the same graph every time I type in the function. 

I am confident that although I understand this to be true, I am not able to explain why it moves in this manner. I am confident that my high school Calculus teacher can. I accept this truth without an understanding of why it works, because it is beyond my current knowledge of math. Even though my level of understanding varies between 2+2=4 and y=sin(x), I am still credited with knowing both subject matters as a fact. It’s worth mentioning something at this point as a nod to where we are headed. My lack of utter certainty in dealing with why the Sin function produces a wave on a graph has no effect on the fact that it does indeed ride a perfect wave into eternity. Facts aren’t contingent upon our understanding. 

Hopefully this explains the difference between varying degrees of the concept of understanding.

Understanding The Existence of God

With all of the math jargon out of the way, I want to pose a question. Can you understand that God exists? Sure, we can say that we do. But can we really?? Professing to believe in the existence of God will warrant several questions from those around you.

• Who is God?
• Why is God a necessary being?
• Who created God?
• What about the guy that created the guy that created God?
• How do you know something exists that you can’t see, hear, or touch?
• Have you considered any of the other possible solutions as to how we got here?
• Don’t you think we are just in a computer animated simulation controlled by aliens???

These are just a few I have heard. Humans are curious and imaginative, so I am sure the list goes on. You have likely heard these and/or additional questions on the subject.

The questions are prompted because faith doesn’t typically categorize within logic. I know that I am not alone in saying logic makes my world go ‘round. I enjoy finding solutions to problems or having them presented to me. However, just knowing the solution isn’t enough to satisfy me. The only way I am satisfied with the solution is to find an explanation as to why the solution works. I am sure some of you can relate to this.  This has led to a repetitious thought of mine. If I really believe what the Bible teaches about God, creation, salvation, and eternity, shouldn’t I be able to fully explain God’s existence from a logical standpoint?

A presuppositional will argue that Gods word says God is true, so God is true. Their authority lies within scripture. I absolutely support that. I believe a Christian must have absolute faith in the God of the Bible. I want my ultimate answer to be in the hands of the Creator, not my mind. However, I am also aware of Classical and Evidential minds that desire a more brick and mortar answer for God. To be honest, I am ok with both. God put in us a desire to know, and ways to do so. I have no issue with seeking truths rationally after you have established them through faith. I believe it is a form of seeking God. After all, Jesus IS the Truth. John 6:14

I accept the truth by faith ultimately, but if God is the true father of science and reasoning, then I should have no trouble proving Him using science and reasoning. This is where the problem, or as a former teacher of mine would correct me, an opportunity arises. By nature, the term logic brings with it several objective requirements. One definition asserts that logic is “the science of deductively valid inferences”. (Wikipedia) In layman’s terms, logic requires true, provable conclusions that are supported with evidence.

As stated previously, there is a plethora of logic in 2+2=4. Here is the question. How do we justify the existence of The God of the Bible within the boundaries of logic, when God is “Spirit”? (John 4:24) A simple answer that would suffice for some would be found in John 1:1, “In the beginning was The Word, The Word was with God, and The Word was God”. The Word, λόγος, is a Greek word (logos) from which we derive our term “logic”.

As the great philosopher Michael Scott once said, “Boom, roasted!”. The Son of God is logic, so I don’t have to jump a large hurdle to prove His existence within the boundaries of logic. That satisfies one side of my brain, and it rests my soul in the matter, completely. It is “by grace through faith” that I can understand that God always was. He never was not. The Being that started everything required no start for Himself. Praise God. It is the other side of my brain that keeps thinking and wanting to “deduct some valid inferences” as our definition stated above. It is the questions of those not yet convinced that prompt a deeper dive into that second definition of understanding that lacks utter certainty.

Any explanation of God that starts with faith tends not to satisfy the intellectual appetite of an unbeliever. It’s not a case of only needing a few more bites of pie to finish a great meal. It’s more like starting a meal with raw chicken. The whole meal is ruined because the meat of the meal is unacceptable to the consumer. My friend who believes we are characters in an alien video game could not convince me of any truth to that claim. Why? His reasoning. “Well, it just makes sense to me”. So, it makes sense that someone unconvinced of The God of the Bible would need more explanation than “It’s what I believe” or “Well, I have just experienced God”.  

So, what alternative answer(s) and explanations do I have confidence in today? We will dive into that next week! This seems like enough to get thoughts and conversations going for a week while waiting on the next post.

A few talking/thinking points:

• Are there other areas in life you know truths about, but don’t understand? Does your lack of understanding negate those truths?
• If you are a Christian, have you been asked any questions about your belief in God that really made you question yourself?
• If you are not a Christian, what is your main conviction that God isn’t real?

Thanks for your time this week. See you next week!

–Dalton

Proverbs 4:5-7