What is the reason Christians have a hard time arguing the existence of God?

Question

The Bible tells us that we are to be ready to give an account of the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. Why are most of us so unprepared when it comes to answering questions for non-christians.

Faith and science go hand in hand. Blind faith is not what we are called to. God gave us a brain that can reason and deduct. So why don't we use it.

I believe there is proof out there that could answer the questions of an atheist. Any ideas?

Answer 1

There is no point in arguing the existence of God! Read Romans chapter 1 vereses 18-20,

But God shows his anger from Heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 - 24 says

I now very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognise this message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say,

"I will destroy human wisdom
and discard their most brilliant ideas,"

So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world's brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe. God's way seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven to prove it is true. And it is foolish to the Greeks because they believe only what agrees with their own wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it's all nonesene. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God. This "foolish" plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God's weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength.

So the Word of God has the answers!

Answer 2

The reason Christians have such a hard time defending Christianity, is that the Bible is so easy to shoot full of holes. It is full of contradictions, myths, fables, bad history.

Faith and science do not go hand in hand. Science can never address issues of faith. By definition, faith is a belief in something for which there is no proof. Science requires proof, testable proof, no proof no science.

Have you considered the idea, that many of the people that don't share your faith, "so called atheists", may have a belief in a universal creator. I for one, don't find the concept of a creator out of the realm of possibility. I just don't subscribe to the man made God of the Bible. Believing in the Bible requires turning of your brain and pretending that all of the inconsistencies and silly stories are actually true. Why, would any person living in the 21st. century believe that God stopped the Sun in its tracks, to help one set of ignorant sheep herders slaughter another? This is just an example of the kind of minutia contained in the Bible. The story of the flood is another example. To prove my point, there are people on this forum that believe that they have found Noah's Ark in Turkey. LOL, what, if anything did they find? Did they find the manifest, ships log, name plate, letters from Noah to his departed relatives? Someone finds some pieces of lumber, and instantly it's Noah's Ark, this is the problem with Christianity, it only works if your thinking is fuzzy. By the way, are they sure it isn't the ship Gilgamesh used?

No one to date, can prove or disprove the existence of God. One can easily disprove the existence of the Biblical God.

Answer 3

The question "What is the reason Christians have a hard time arguing the existence of God?". Its a very good question with a simple answer. Christians really do NOT know who God is. They only try to answer the questions using their emotions which will not satisfy anyone when it comes to the existence of God. Since one can not point to a person and say, "there is God", there must be another way. You must use science and reason. Use what you can see - nature, after all did not God create nature. Use our knowledge of outer space, after all God create the universe. No order comes from dis-order. Nothing comes from nothing. Use that and not your emotions. Study the Evolution - Creationism issues. Read everything you can find about evolution and everything you can find on creationism. Then PROVE to yourself first that a God MUST exist (not through emotions though). Now you are really to prove the existence of God.

An example: Proof there is a GOD

The idea that a complex structure or system can somehow be formed by chance is a delusion. Typical naturalistic reasoning supposes that anything can happen if enough time is available. But, this idea is absurd. To illustrate, consider an ordered structure of 200 parts. This is not an unusual number - the human skeleton, for example, contains more than 200 separate bones, all aligned together into a perfectly integrated functioning whole. There are innumerable systems in the world far more complicated than this.

Consider the possible number of different ways 200 parts could be aligned together. A system of one part could be lined up in only one way; one of two parts in two ways (1x2); one of three parts (1x2x3); and so on. Thus a system of 200 parts could be aligned in a number of different ways equal to 1x2x3x4x5x6x...x...x200. This number is called "200 factorial" and is written "200!".

This is a tremendously large number. It can be shown to be approximately 10375, that is, a number written as "one" followed by 375 "zeros".

1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Therefore, the correct alignment of 200 parts has only one chance out of 10375 of being selected on the first trial.

Suppose a new trial can be made every second. In all of suppose astronomic time (about 10 billion years), there have only been 1018 seconds, so that the chance that a correct alignment might be obtained, one in 10 billion years, would be only one out of 10(375-18) or 1 in 10357. This is still practically zero.

Suppose that we try to improve the chances by arranging to have a large number of sets of the 200 parts, all being tried simultaneously. Suppose that each part is only the size of an electron, which is the smallest particle that exists in the universe, so far as we know. Then, let us fill the entire universe (a radius of 5 billion light-years) with solidly packed sets of electrons. It can be shown that the whole universe could only contain, at the most, 10130 such sets of 200 solidly packed electrons. Thus, we now are trying to visualize 10130 sets of 200 parts each, and trying to arrange only one set into the correct alignment by chance, just once in ten billion years, anywhere in the universe.
Suppose also that we invent a machine capable of making not one trial per second, but a billion-billion different trials every second, on every one of the 10130 sets. Surely this is the maximum number of possible trials that anyone could possibly conceive as ever being made on this type of situation. This would permit a total of (10130)x(1018)x(1018), or 10166 trials to be made.

Still after all this, the chance that one of these 10166 trials would give the right result and make the system work is only one out of 10375-166, or 1 in 10209. (Remember, that is a 10 with two hundred zeros behind it.) In other words, the idea that a system of 200 parts could be arranged into the correct order is absolutely absurd.

Most systems, of course, including all living organisms, are far more complex than a mere 200 parts. The cerebral cortex in the human brain, for example, contains over 10 billion cells, all arranged in proper order, and each of these cells is itself infinitely complex.

The obvious conclusion is that complex, ordered structures of any kind (and the world is full of them) simply could never have happened by chance.

Answer 4

Apologetics for the masses is where we are. The same stupid questions come up again and again. By the answers given, it is obvious no one is even aware of what the question is about...
As a Christian, I refer to the bible as the bottom source, since it is the Word of God. If science (read evolutionary world-view) and the bible disagree, I stand on the word.
The problem is not in reasoning and deduction, per se., but in the world-view bias each has. It is like speaking a different language.

I can say, "I think, therefore, I am." and it means different things to an evolutionist and a creationist. Each declares the other illogical.

Answer 5

I love atheist questions. Science and spirituality do go hand in hand. There are so many scientific answers to atheist questions. Honestly, I've just started exploring my faith about 3 years ago. So when an atheist asks a question, it gives me the the opportunity to research and give an answer (thoughtful I hope, but not always ).

How do you scientifically measure love? The best way is to tell stories, and share experiences of your spirituality. A person who has never been in love, can hear the stories, but until they are in love, they cannot fully understand love. Scripture reveal that "God is Love" so, I'm talking about charity, passion, education, discipline, serotonin levels, dopamine levels, and all the area's that love covers.

Thanks to all the atheists who send me deeper into my faith Especially the writers of South Park- who inspired me to find the truth. Giggle am I pathetic for finding spirituality in "South Park" or what?

Answer 6

Because no one can prove the existence or nonexistence of any god. There's no evidence, just faith.

Science is based upon evidence, not faith.

Christians like to think the bible is "proof". Nope, no more than a science fiction novel is proof of anything.

p.s. Noah's ark has not been found, never will. There's no evidence for a world wide flood. It doesn't even make sense.

However, ancient Troy has been discovered, so I guess that proves the existence of Zeus and Aphrodite.:-)

Answer 7

Proof isn't necessarily what the atheists are after -- a lot of us think in theories and hypotheses and are looking for new ideas and a good conversation about these issues. See it more as testing hypotheses and we'll get on fine. ;-)

Christianity used to be based on reason, at least through some of its history. The modern version would be better off if it resumed the practice. I say go for it, even if the hardcore fundies get bent out of shape by it.

Answer 8

If the conscious, rational and personal "God" of the bible truly existed as Christians are taught to believe, he would have done more than produce a couple of stone tablets with scratchings on them, and call up a small group of "inspired" men thousands of years ago to tell stories about him. If there were a real God as described in the bible, he would make himself clearly visible to all, and would communicate openly for the world to hear.

Every Christian secretly realizes the truth of this, I have no doubt.

Answer 9

The existence or nonexistence of a deity is beyond the realm of proof. Neither theists or atheists can prove their point. It reduces down to personal interpretation of available experience and information.

And Fireball226, dear, bella donna, Noah's Arc has NOT been found in turkey. There's a scar on mount ararat (sp) that VAGUELY looks boat shaped. It's been imaged from space multiple times, at high resolution. It's not a boat. If I am wrong, so be it -- show me the documentation. Otherwise, stop spreading lies.

Answer 10

Yes, I agree. You may want to consider some reading about philosophers like Descartes, Pascal, or St. Thomas Aquinas. The proof really is more difficult for saying that something does not exist. Just because no proof exists that there are blue ducks, doesn't mean that blue ducks do not exist. For all we know Blue ducks could be discovered tomorrow. Good Luck in your search.