Does God exist, and did he create the universe?

For some time now, ‘Kwaku Ba’, has advocated on the Ghanaweb that there is no God and the universe emerged by chance, as result of the ‘Big Bang’ (theory). Kwaku uses some few passages from the Bible to support his claims, and alleges that there are contradictions in the Bible. He recently posted an article about Easter, in which, he stated that Easter is not Biblical. Why I am not a fun of Easter celebrations myself, I wonder why Kwaku has to worry about whether Easter is Biblical or not, since he does not believe in Christ, to start with. The purpose of my paper is to explain to Kwaku Ba and others like him, that his thinking is wrong and that the existence of God is real; and that the manner Kwaku interprets the Bible has caused him to have such erroneous view about the Bible, and having better understanding of how the way that Bible was written will help him.

Understanding the sources of information that were used to write the Bible Firstly, the Bible states in 1 Timothy 3:16 that ‘all scripture is inspired by God, and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness’. However, this does not mean that God in all instances dictated to the authors what they wrote. All Bible scholars know that the authors of the Bible used different sources of information such as messages received from God through revelations, prophecies and dreams, direct conversation with God, eyewitness accounts, and oral tradition. Some of these sources of the information are discussed below.

In Revelation 1:1, the book is introduced as follows ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants …; he made it known by sending his angels to his servant John.’ The introduction and other contents of Revelation clearly show that John, the author wrote the book based on revelations he received from God. Some other books such as the Book of Daniel also contain a lot of revelations from God. In these instances, the authors more or less wrote in verbatim, the information that were relayed to them by God in revelations. In some other instances too, God spoke directly to his prophets. A case in point is in Numbers 12: 1-10, when Miriam and Aaron criticised Moses for marrying a Cushite (Ethiopian) woman, the LORD punished Miriam after talking directly to three of them, by stating that "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses ... With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD...’ I believe the authors who received messages as result of direct conversation with God, or through visions, reported the information exactly as they were received in others, they quoted the information they received.

On the other hand, some authors like Matthew and Mark wrote most of their gospel on the basis of their recollections of what Jesus did. As disciples of Jesus, they were eyewitnesses to all that he did. In contrast, Luke, the other synoptic gospel writer states plainly in the introduction of his book (chapter 1:1-3) that, he wrote his account after careful investigation, and after others who were eyewitnesses had written their accounts. While these synoptic gospel writers wrote a lot of things in common, they also have differences. The differences occur in various ways. For example, some information are reported by only one of the writers, while in some cases they have minor differences in the details of their accounts. In my view, it is just sensible to expect these, as they did not write on the basis of information dictated to them, but on the basis of their recollections of what Jesus did, and in the case of Luke, the investigation he made. Therefore, while for instance, Mark wrote that the women that first went to visit Jesus’ tomb saw a young man, Matthew in contrast refers to that man as an angel. Does this make any of them less credible? No, because none of them personally saw the person, instead the women told them about him. Based on how the women described the man and under the circumstance they saw him, Matthew perceived the man to be an angel of God, and reported it so. In contrast, Mark was mainly interested in the fact that Jesus had risen, and the fact that the person might be angel was not his concern. It is just like when two people describe the same issue, each of them may differ in their emphasis. Thus, the differences in the Bible or what Kwaku Ba calls contradictions do not diminishes the overall usefulness of the Bible.

It is therefore, naïve on the part of people like Kwaku Ba to pick some few minor differences in the Bible to support the argument that God does not exist. In fact, Isaiah (28:10) wrote that ‘For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little’. In other words, Isaiah means that we have to study the Bible as one comprehensive book. Against this background, it is stated on Yahoo Answers that - precept upon precept means laying the foundation, piece by piece, in order to build the theological concepts carefully; and here a little, there a little requires using various parts of the Bible to fill in the whole, in order to come to comprehensive understanding. Thus, you do not use only few passages to make hasty conclusions.

God created, but not created

Kwaku has also consistently argued that the creation account in Genesis is a myth and therefore, there is no God. If Kwaku objectively evaluates the issues discussed below without any preconceived view, he will realise that amazingly, the universe did not occurred by chance (or by Big Bang).

Some common question that some people ask is that if God created the universe, where did he come from or who created him, or if all things need a cause, then God must also need a cause. The conclusion is that if God needed a cause, then God is not God (and if God is not God, then of course there is no God). Since everyone knows that something does not come from nothing. So, if God is a “something,” then He must have a cause?

However, as someone has discussed, God is not in the category of things that are created or caused. God is uncaused and uncreated—He simply exists. How do we know this? We know that from nothing, nothing comes. So, if there were ever a time when there was absolutely nothing in existence, then nothing would have ever come into existence. But things do exist. Therefore, since there could never have been absolutely nothing, something had to have always been in existence.

That ever-existing thing is what we call God. God is the uncaused Being that caused everything else to come into existence. God is the uncreated Creator who created the universe and everything in it including time.

Scientists are convinced that our universe has not always existed and began with one enormous explosion of energy and light, which they call the ‘Big Bang’, but they have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter. Yet, the Bible explains that God created the universe and he has always existed and operated outside our time zone.

Genesis chapter states that ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and earth’. Gen 1:3 shows that time as we know today was defined from the moment God said ‘let there be light, and there was light’, and it was separated from the darkness, and the first day was recorded. Some further references in the Bible to the ‘beginning of time’ are shown below:

• No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. (1 Corinthians 2:7)

• This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (2 Timothy 1:9)

• The hope of eternal life, which God... promised before the beginning of time (Titus 1:2)

• To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:25) • In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. (Psalm 102:25)

• He also says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. (Hebrews 1:10)

Other evidences

Further, Marilyn Adamson, a former atheist, discusses that the complexity of our planet and amazing wealth of objective evidence points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today, as examples explained below.

The peculiarity of the ability of earth as plant, to support life

The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter. Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.

The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible. The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.

And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents.

Water

Water is colourless, odourless and without taste, and yet no living thing can survive without it. Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly of water (about two-thirds of the human body is water).

It has an unusually high boiling point and freezing point. Water allows us to live in an environment of fluctuating temperature changes, while helping to keep our temperature at appropriate constant rate.

Water is a universal solvent. This property of water means that thousands of chemicals, minerals and nutrients can be carried throughout our bodies and into the smallest blood vessels.

Water is also chemically neutral. Without affecting the makeup of the substances it carries, water enables food, medicines and minerals to be absorbed and used by the body.

Water has a unique surface tension. Water in plants can therefore flow upward against gravity, bringing life-giving water and nutrients to the top of even the tallest trees.

Water freezes from the top down and floats, so fish can live in the winter. Ninety-seven percent of the Earth's water is in the oceans. But on our Earth, there is a system designed which removes salt from the water and then distributes that water throughout the globe. Evaporation takes the ocean waters, leaving the salt, and forms clouds which are easily moved by the wind to disperse water over the land, for vegetation, animals and people. It is a system of purification and supply that sustains life on this planet, a system of recycled and reused water. Human brain The human brain...simultaneously processes an amazing amount of information. Your brain takes in all the colours and objects you see, the temperature around you, the pressure of your feet against the floor, the sounds around you, the dryness of your mouth, even the texture of your keyboard. Your brain holds and processes all your emotions, thoughts and memories. At the same time your brain keeps track of the ongoing functions of your body like your breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and movement of the muscles in your hands. The human brain processes more than a million messages a second. Your brain weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows you to focus and operate effectively in your world. The brain functions differently than other organs. There is an intelligence to it, the ability to reason, to produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take action, and relate to other people.

The Eye

The eye...can distinguish among seven million colours. It has automatic focusing and handles an astounding 1.5 million messages -- simultaneously. Evolution focuses on mutations and changes from and within existing organisms. Yet evolution alone does not fully explain the initial source of the eye or the brain -- the start of living organisms from nonliving matter.

The uniformity of laws of nature

The universe operates by uniform laws of nature - Much of life may seem uncertain, but look at what we can count on day after day: gravity remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn't change -- on earth or in galaxies far from us. How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable?

"The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs from the recognition that the universe doesn't have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a universe in which conditions change unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a universe in which things pop in and out of existence."

Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, said, "Why nature is mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle."

What the Bible discloses which took thousands of years for scientists to know Scientist believe that the forces of nature which formed the Earth are not only at work on the surface of the Earth, but the very planet itself is suspended by gravity, floating in the midst of space held by natural forces which are yet to be completely understood. According to the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs or IIP (2008) "in 1972, astronauts on board Apollo 17 captured the first full view of Earth suspended in space, exposed in full sunlight" (U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs, 2008). This wonderful picture clearly shows the Earth suspended in space as has been known and recognised for hundreds of years.

It is important to mention that Job, one of the oldest biblical books, states in 26:7 that ‘He (God) spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing’. Is not amazing that this old Bible book written many thousand years ago identified that the earth is held in suspense in space? Clearly, there is no way that the author of book of Job who lived in such a primitive era would have identified this, without a divine providence. Further, in Isaiah 40:22, the Bible revealed over 2,500 years ago that the earth is round, by stating that ‘He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers...’ In contrast, it took more than thousand years after Isaiah’s revelation, before the scientists reached the same conclusion, when Copernicus made a similar discovery in 1475.

The Bible described the Hydrologic Cycle well before scientists identified it. In various passages, the Bible describes a hydrologic cycle, the process by which clouds are formed, rain is produced and ground water is replenished, as discussed below. • ‘He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight’ (Job 26:8, NIV). • ‘He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind’ (Job 36:27-28, NIV). • ‘The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again’ (Ecclesiastes 1:6-7, NIV). However, it was only 30 B.C that water cycle was fully understood by a Roman engineer named Marcus Vitruvius. Yet every aspect of the water cycle was fully revealed in the Bible around 1600 B.C The Bible stated that the stars cannot be counted, as discussed below. • "I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore" (Jeremiah 33:22, NIV). • He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." (Genesis 15:5, NIV). For centuries, scientists and astronomers believed they could count the precise number of stars in the sky. For instance, Brahe, Kepler Hipparchus and Ptolemy are said to have considered the total number of stars to be 777, 1,005, 1,022, 1,056 respectively. It was Galileo who eventually, concluded that the stars were uncountable. Archeological evidence The Associated Press reported in October 2008 that a tunnel, which according to the Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles, was dug by King Hezekiah of Judea, around 700 B.C. has been found. The tunnel was dug to channel water inside the city walls ahead of a siege by Assyrian armies. In 1993 archaeologists discovered the names of David and Israel in an inscription carved in stone only 100 years after David’s death. The Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1994, p. 26, reports. This was reported in the front page of the New York Times. Later another scholar found the name “house of David” in the inscriptions of the famous Moabite Stone, dated about 100 years after David’s reign. It has been observed that it is hard to understand how David’s name could appear in [ancient] historical records if he were nothing but a legend. Dr. Eilat Mazar in 2005 found King David’s palace exactly where she Biblically expected. King Hiram of the Phoenicians offered to build King David a palace fit for an emperor (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1). Just as Biblically described, Mazar found the trademark of Phoenician builders—cedars of Lebanon and their distinct style of stone masonry. Dr. Eilat Mazar has also discovered remnants of the 5th century BC wall built by Nehemiah as recorded in the book of Nehemiah. The Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire that destroyed Jerusalem in 606 BC taking most of the Jews captive into what is now modern Iraq. Nehemiah received permission from the King Artaxerxes of Persian (now modern day Iran) to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Until 2007 archaeological evidence for Nehemiah’s project has been lacking.

References:

http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/ScientificBible.htm

http://www.christiantrumpetsounding.com/Archaeology/Devils%20War%20Against%20Archaeology.htm

http://www.gotquestions.org/who-created-God.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100731110210AA4Yjb

The article was written by Joseph Annor based mainly on the work of other writers. Joseph has Bachelor of Arts majoring in Study of Religions (Univ. of Ghana); Master of Accounting (University of Technology, Sydney); CPA Australia