For most religious people, the fact that God exists is something to take on faith alone. To believe otherwise would be blasphemous. Most require no proof.
Surely scientists must find the religious argument absurd: Accept God’s existence because of faith in God—a circular argument if ever there was one. Evolutionists dismiss this type of argument, and how can you blame them? For someone who doesn’t already believe in the Almighty God, the idea that they should accept it on faith is preposterous!
Yet a similar scenario exists among academic circles. Most scientists have accepted the idea that the universe formed by spontaneous generation. Unlike some creationists, they do seek concrete evidence of their claims, yet such proof cannot be found. After all, if the evolutionary theory were proven, it would no longer be called a mere theory. Since evolution is unproven, scientists too must believe their theory with unseen evidence—what the Bible calls “faith” (Hebrews 11:1).
Some of our greatest scientific minds are actually asking the religious of the world to dismiss their God and their faith for an unproven theory. The price for failing to comply is the label of being scientifically incompetent, if not altogether ignorant.
Obviously, neither of these two stances deserves our support.
But this fundamental question of supreme importance warrants serious attention and thought: Does God exist?
If you believe in God—or “Providence” or some “higher power”—and you base your belief on faith alone, I ask you to question it. After all, if you expect anyone to take seriously your claim that God exists, shouldn’t you be able to offer concrete evidence and proof?
By the same token, if you do not believe in a Creator God, I ask you to consider His existence, not based on the notion of faith, not based on invalid claims, but based on evidence—on rock-solid proof!
Proven Before
Of course, as many of our readers will already know, this proof has been given before. Herbert Armstrong, author of the eye-opening booklet Does God Exist?, proved the existence of God many years ago after receiving a challenge himself.
“‘Herbert Armstrong, you are simply ignorant!’ accused Hertha [Mrs. Armstrong’s sister-in-law]. Her words stabbed deeply into what was left of my ego. ‘One is uneducated, and ignorant, unless he believes in evolution. All educated people now believe it’” (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 1).
Mr. Armstrong knew that there were only two possibilities—special creation or evolution—and was determined to prove which was correct. He realized that the two subjects must be studied together in order to reach a true, factual conclusion—yet they rarely are! True evolutionists were almost exclusively “dyed in the wool” atheists, he quickly discovered. Though some creationists do try to reconcile the account in Genesis 1 and evolution, they simply aren’t compatible.
Lest you think that Mr. Armstrong’s was simply another one-sided study into the origins of man, like so many before and since, think again. Actually, “very early in this study of evolution and of the Bible, actual doubts came into my mind as to the existence of God!” (ibid). On the surface, the claims of evolutionists can appear convincing. They appear quite scientific. Yet they lack facts to support their claims.
Mr. Armstrong’s study was long and thorough, and in the end his conclusion was clear. So let us examine the proof he offered in the booklet Does God Exist?
Don’t Assume
Mr. Armstrong summed up the proof that God exists this way: “Creation is the proof of God!” That does not mean that we simply look at the birds and the trees and look starry-eyed into the heavens, realizing from the mere existence of the world that there just has to be a God. The creation around you does provide scientific proof of its Creator, as we will show.
The evolutionists do not study this proof in that context, because their purpose is to attempt to explain a creation with no Creator. They combine a myriad of theories of natural selection and mutations and spontaneous combustions that all have a ring of validity. Yet they offer only unproven theories. When offering their speculations, they suppose, hypothesize and guess.
Rather than hypothesize, let us confine ourselves to the scientific facts at hand and prove that the Creator God does exist! As Mr. Armstrong did, let us do so by evaluating the creation and the laws of science.
Proof That Matters
By studying radioactive elements, Mr. Armstrong learned that there had to have been a time when matter did not exist; that there has been no past eternity of matter. Every 1,590 years, for instance, half of the existing radioactive element radium disintegrates into lead. Eventually, there will be no more radium! If these elements had always existed, there would be no radium left today. Yet radium and other radioactive elements clearly still exist. Since these elements only exist for a set period of time, we know that there was a time when there was no matter. That means there was a time when matter came into existence.
The evolutionary theory postulates that radioactive elements come about gradually out of nothing. Try to wrap your mind around the concept of something coming from nothing—it isn’t easy! Ironically, it takes a great deal of faith.
If, then, we know that radioactive elements do not come from nothing, that they in fact disintegrate over time, then we know that there must have been a “first cause,” a “higher power,” or super powerful Being of some kind that brought these elements into being.
The Proof of Life
Something or someone brought matter into being. And yet, even if we do know that something brought about matter by special creation, where did life on Earth come from? Many theories presented by scientists give possible scientific explanations that offer absolutely no proof, and, even worse, faulty evidence.
Now, however, we remind the reader of an irrefutable scientific law: the law of biogenesis—that life can only come from life! A rock can’t come alive. Not immediately; not in a billion years—it cannot happen. This law also states that living things can only produce more living things like themselves. In other words, horses don’t give birth to elephants. This is quite a sticky point for evolutionists. But there are no exceptions to this rule.
Mr. Armstrong pointed out that “No fact of science stands more conclusively proved today. Life cannot come from dead matter” (Does God Exist?). Much as the law of gravity guarantees that everything is held down, the law of biogenesis tells us that life comes from life, and not from anything else. If a species becomes extinct, it doesn’t spontaneously generate again—it’s gone!
Of course, in recent years, some evolutionists have asserted that biogenesis is not a law, that it too is only an unproven theory. However, all the relevant scientific data, all of it, disproves that assertion. Evolution, on the other hand, does not even meet the qualifications for a theory (for proof, request our reprint article “There Is No Theory of Evolution”).
Knowing that life only comes from life, you cannot account for life without a Lifegiver! This scientific law requires a living Creator!
Now we know two things: that something had to have created matter, and something had to have created life.
Yet simple observation proves that life comes in many different forms. For example, it is not always intelligent. Plants do not think, as we do. Even animals do not have the reasoning power that mankind does. Can we prove the supreme intelligence of God as Creator?
Man’s Limited Creative Power
There is nothing in the physical universe superior to the human mind. Even the vast expanse of the heavens—with all its splendor, with the planets hurtling through space, with billions of stars in the cosmos, with nebulae, black holes and other cosmic phenomena—is inanimate. It cannot reason or think.
Despite man’s intellectual superiority to the rest of creation, there is one thing that even he cannot do: He cannot produce anything superior to himself.
You might build a house, or a computer, or a car, but your intelligence and power of invention will always be superior to that which you created. It would surely be insulting to tell someone that he could make something superior in intelligence and ability to himself.
That is what evolutionists are asking us to believe—that something less intelligent and less sophisticated than man, produced man! It postulates that unintelligence—dumb, inanimate matter without purpose—brought about intelligence.
Alternatively, consider that the presence of the human mind is proof of a mind superior to our own—proof of a supremely intelligent God!
Consider, also, your own ability to create. Although mankind is able to reason, plan and design, we have no actual creative power. We can only “create” from already created materials. If you tried to create—really create—you would have to design, from scratch, all the forms of life on this planet. You also would have to design and create matter, all the way down to particles so small that they cannot be seen even through the most advanced microscopes.
Mr. Armstrong asked, “Is it rational, then, to believe that any power or force lacking even human intelligence could have planned, designed, created, formed, fashioned, shaped, put together and set in motion the awesome universe we behold? The First Great Cause who created matter, then, stands revealed as the supreme intelligence and architect of the universe!” (ibid).
The Watchmaker
Read this passage from Does God Exist? where Mr. Armstrong clearly shows the intricacy of God’s design and the absurdity of the evolutionary model:
I needed an accurate watch with a very plain dial for timing broadcasts. The only kind that filled the need was a railroad watch. I have one—the very finest railroad watch made, a 23-jewel watch.
But it does not keep perfect time. Once or twice a week I have to adjust it a second or two, if I want to be sure it is accurate to the second. I set it by the master clock of my city …. But even this clock does not keep perfect time. Once or twice a week it must be adjusted a second or two by the master clock of the nation, by telegraph, from the Naval Observatory, Washington, d.c. There at the Naval Observatory is the master clock of the U.S. But this great master clock of the United States is not perfect, either. It, too, must be adjusted and corrected occasionally.
Yes, it is corrected by the master clock of the universe—up in the skies—by astronomers! Up there in the heavens is the great master clock that never makes a mistake—is always on time—never off a fraction of a second—the heavenly bodies coursing through the skies!
Now you, sir—my doubting friend! If I show you my fine precision 23-jewel railroad watch and tell you that it was not made in these factories after all—in fact, it was not designed, planned, put together, by any watchmaker at all—that it just sort of happened—that the iron ores just brought themselves up out of the ground, refined themselves, formed and shaped themselves into the delicate little cogs and wheels and other pieces; the silicon just came of its own accord out of the Earth and turned itself into the glass crystal; the gold case just refined itself, shaped itself; the cogs and wheels and scores of little parts just assembled themselves together in that case, wound themselves up, and started themselves to running and keeping almost perfect time—well, if I should try to tell you anything like that, you’d tell me I’m crazy or a fool, would you not?
Certainly! You know that the presence of that watch is rational and positive proof of the existence of a watchmaker, or watchmakers, who thought it all out, planned it, formed it, shaped it, put it together and started it running.
But then you, Mr. Skeptic—you look up into the great vast sky at the master clock of the universe, which never misses a second—the perfect watch by which we must constantly set all our imperfect man-made watches—and you tell me, “That all just happened! There was no Great Watchmaker! No Master Mind thought out and planned that vast universe, brought it into being, set each star and planet in its own exact place, and started the myriad heavenly bodies coursing through space, each in its prescribed orbit, in its orderly precision. No, it just fashioned itself, put itself together, wound itself up, and started itself running. There was no Intelligence—no planning—no creation—no God!”
Do you say that to me?
If you can, I answer that I do not respect your intelligence. And the God I acknowledge replies to you, “None but the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God!” (Psalm 14:1; 53:1).
If you can look about you, and observe how intelligently planned and executed is everything in nature and in plant and animal life—everything we see except the bungling, botching, polluting of God’s beautiful handiwork by the clumsy hand of God-ignoring-and-rejecting man—and then say you doubt the existence of an all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator God, then I do not have much faith either in your rational processes or your sincerity as a seeker of the truth!
Holding to Their Faith
Despite the proofs presented here, many will still hold to their “faith.” It surely takes a tremendous amount of faith to believe that the entire physical universe sprang from nothing, that life came from non-life, that intelligence came from non-intelligence, and that the intricacy we see around us is not intricate at all—but random.
Consider God’s explanation and the many proofs you have seen here: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
Those who stubbornly refuse to accept the proof of the existence of the living God have probably stopped reading by this point. But their proof is coming. We are rapidly approaching the time when Jesus Christ will return to this Earth in the full, supreme power and glory of the Creator God; then they too will know that He is God!