Case For The Existence Of God Book

As a believer, one might wonder what compelled me to choose to read a book that presents the case for what I already believe. Mortimer Adler, philosophy professor gives a quote that summarizes my motivation, "... if God in whom (I) believe created (me) with intellectual and rational power, this imposes upon (me) the duty to try to understand the creed of (my) religion. Not to do so is to verge on superstition."

And so I read it. It's not an easy read. The arguments are complex… philosophical… scientific. But I trudged through.

In his book, Overman attempts to answer such basic questions as: Why is there something instead of nothing? Why does the something have the particular members and order that it has. Why does the universe have an order that makes it intelligible? For Overman, the answer, in a word, is God. And he spends the first part of the book convincingly giving evidence that points to this inescapable conclusion.

So what is some of this evidence?
• An expanding universe cannot have an infinite past. Anything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.
• Our universe exhibits mathematical order.
• Science like faith is built on the assumption, or faith, that there is a rational and intelligible structure to the universe.
• Science gives supportive evidence to many aspects of faith in God.
• Our universe is so remarkably fine-tuned to allow for the origin of life that one my think of it as a finely sharpened pencil standing vertically on its graphite point in a precarious balance. Accidental processes could not possibly allow for this to happen.
• Our distinctions between good and evil and between right and wrong are absurd if there is no God.
• While some ask why God doesn't prevent evil, it is difficult to imagine a practical basis for how such a prevention could occur without giving up authentic good.
• Why is there suffering? Overman gives no definitive answer but notes that if Jesus is the Incarnation of God, then we have a God who understands and participates in human suffering.

All of us live by faith-- even atheists. Given the evidence, it takes much more faith to be a believer in God than to be an atheist. And while reason and logic point to God they are not definitive, because God can not be defined. Says Overman, we have to recognize that we cannot examine God by placing him in a neat category, because by definition, God is beyond and infinitely above the categories of human reason. Because this is true, some use this as an excuse to reject his existence. And while he offers convincing logical arguments, Overman notes that the most compelling evidence for the reality of God is from personal experience. For example, we gain one type of knowledge about Julius Caesar by reading about him but an entirely different type of knowledge would be gained by (if we could) actually meeting him. Likewise, we gain one type of knowledge by studying Jesus Christ, and a deeper, more personal, more convincing one, when we actually meet, and get to know him. Indeed says Overman, "We can never draw close to God in a merely objective, neutral manner. Our understanding depends in large measure on our relationship to God, our trust in him, and our willingness to ALLOW him to transform our character."

Because this is true, Overman switches the emphasis of his book from scientific inquiry to the testimonies of nine people who relate their experiences as they begin new understandings initiated by a personal encounter with God. These moving testimonies include Aurelius Agustinus, Blaise Pascal, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Clare Boothe Luce, Malcolm Muggeridge, Simone Wiel, Basil Mitchell, & Moritmer Adler,

Overman concludes that both reason and faith are needed to have knowledge of God. "Reason without a faith experience is dead. Experience without reason can be fantasy" An experience of God, has the ability, as some researchers believe, to change the actual physical structure of a person's brain. Perhaps this is why Paul describes those who have had such a transformational spiritual acknowledgment of God as "new creatures."