Is There a God? Looking at the Evidence

There is a question that sits beneath almost every other question we ask about life. It surfaces in the quiet moments, in the middle of the night when sleep will not come, in the aftermath of loss, in the restless searching that no achievement or experience seems to resolve. The question is simple to state and enormous to answer: Is there a God?

It is worth noting, before going further, that most people hope the answer is yes. Even those who struggle to believe tend to hope. And that hope itself is worth examining.

At first glance, a world without God sounds liberating. No one to answer to. No standard to meet. Absolute freedom to define your own morality, your own meaning, your own direction. You are in charge.

But look a little closer, and the good news does not stay good for long. If there is no God, we are left to construct morality on our own, and your morality and mine may have very little in common. If there is no God, the question of life's meaning becomes the heaviest burden imaginable. What is the point of a life that simply ends? The Russian philosopher Fyodor Dostoevsky put it plainly: if God does not exist, everything is permitted. And a world where everything is permitted is not a world that flourishes. It is a world that unravels.

Freedom without God gives us options. What it cannot give us is hope.

Scientists who study the deepest structures of the physical universe have discovered what they call cosmological constants, a set of values that have to be calibrated with extraordinary precision for life to exist at all. The gravitational constant, for example, has to be set within an almost impossibly narrow range. Too strong and the universe collapses in on itself. Too weak and matter never coalesces into stars, planets, or anything at all. There are at least a dozen such constants, and scientists openly acknowledge they have no explanation for why they are set the way they are.

The universe did not have to be this way. It just is. And that raises an unavoidable question: what if it is this way because someone chose it to be?

The ancient poetry of Psalm 19 captures this intuition beautifully. The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands, and yet they use no words. The creation itself speaks. Romans 1:20 makes the point even more directly, suggesting that God's invisible qualities have been clearly seen through what has been made, leaving humanity without excuse.

Across cultures and throughout human history, people have recognized that some things are right and some things are wrong. Human life should be protected. Theft is wrong. The vulnerable deserve care. No one had to teach a civilization to arrive at these instincts from scratch. They seem to be written into us.

Where does that come from, if not from somewhere beyond us?

The apostle Paul wrestled with this in his letter to the Romans. Writing about people who had never received the Jewish law, he observed that they nonetheless did by nature what the law required, demonstrating that its requirements were written on their hearts, their consciences bearing witness (Romans 2:14-15). There is something inscribed in human nature that points upward toward a moral lawgiver.

King Solomon was perhaps the most ambitious experimenter in the history of human longing. He had wealth, power, pleasure, projects, and achievement beyond anything most people can imagine. In the book of Ecclesiastes, he documents the results of giving himself everything his eyes desired and refusing his heart no pleasure. His conclusion was devastating: everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

There is a desire in us that the world cannot satisfy. No amount of success, experience, or pleasure fills it. C.S. Lewis, who spent years as an angry atheist before coming to faith, articulated this with characteristic precision. "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water... If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

That restless longing is not a malfunction. It may be the most important clue we have.

The Bible does not argue for God's existence the way a lawyer argues a case. It begins with God as its foundational assumption. In the beginning, God. From the opening line of Genesis to the poetry of Psalm 139, which describes God knitting each person together in their mother's womb, the biblical witness is consistent: there is a God, He is personal, and He is not indifferent to human life.

Psalm 14 offers a striking observation: it is the fool, not in a mocking sense but in the sense of someone who has missed something essential, who says in his heart that there is no God. The Lord looks down to see if any understand, if any seek Him.

The pointers are real. The cosmological constants, the universal moral instinct, the insatiable longing, and the biblical witness all gesture in the same direction. But ultimately, belief in God is a matter of faith. It always has been. Hebrews 11:6 is clear that without faith it is impossible to please God, and that anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists.

The invitation is not to stop thinking but to add something to the thinking: openness. Surrender. A willingness to be quiet and listen.

If God exists, He is more than capable of making Himself known. The question is whether we are willing to receive what He offers.

The question “Is there a God?” is too important to dismiss quickly. Take time this week to consider the pointers around you. Pay attention to creation, to the moral instincts written into us, to the longings nothing in this world seems able to satisfy, and to what Scripture reveals about God.

If you are wrestling with this question, consider beginning with a simple, honest prayer: “God, if You are there, help me to know You.”

Watch Pastor Fred’s full message, “Is There a God?”, from the Important Questions of Faith series to explore these questions more deeply.