How Do You Know That God Is Real?

Name: Michael
Grade: 5
What is your favorite planet or star? Uranus
What is your favorite rocket? Falcon 9
Question: How do you know that God is real? If you are a scientist you must be really smart about God.

Thanks for your great question, Michael! I also really like the planet Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, although I actually like every planet in the solar system because they were all created by our awesome God on day four of creation week! And I also think the Falcon 9 is a cool (two-stage) rocket, designed by SpaceX, which has the really cool ability to reuse its first stage by having it safely land back on earth after stage separation!

Public domain via NASA

Now to your question, worded another way: is there a way we can truly know or even prove that the triune God of the Bible is real? And do smart scientists know more about God than other people? Let’s tackle this second part first.

Being a rocket scientist, with lots of years in the rocket industry, doesn’t mean I’m smart enough to know more about God than any other person!1 In fact, I was actually an unbeliever (I used to call myself a “solid atheist”) for most of my life, and it wasn’t my knowledge of rocket science (or any other science field) that made me a child of God. Rather, by God’s grace alone, it was through the Good News (gospel message) of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the Bible, that saved me and made me right with God (John 14:6).

Yet, of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go after a career in science! Having a good background in science definitely helps to better study and discover, using real (operational) science, God’s amazing creation all around us here on earth (Isaiah 45:18), in the solar system, and even in the far reaches of space (Psalm 19:1–2)!

Now back to your main question: how can we truly know that God is real? Well, there are actually many ways we can know he exists, such as looking at the loads of evidences for God (like energy in the universe, information in DNA, natural laws, etc.) that confirm the Bible (God’s Word). Understanding why the Bible is true, knowing what truth is, and having answers to questions like why all other (man-made) religions aren’t true or why we can’t see God are all helpful too.

And, of course, these are all great ways to confirm creation and defend faith in God (1 Peter 3:15). But just handing out these facts and arguments for God to someone, like an unbeliever/atheist (who rejects God and his Word), will ultimately fall short. This is because “atheists”2 will always have some sort of “rescuing device” (to explain away the evidence) when presented with any type of “proof” for God, basically coming up with any possible excuse (due to the hardness of their hearts) for why they don’t accept it, often even taking it to mean something totally different.

This is why it’s important we remember that everyone looks at the world through his or her respective worldview (the “eyeglasses” that we use to see the world around us). So, even though believers and unbelievers have the same evidence, both will always look at it through their worldview “eyeglass lens.” This means there’s ultimately only two ways to look at the world: either using God’s Word (biblical lens) or man’s opinions/ideas (unbiblical lens)!

By taking a closer look (pun intended) at each worldview, we can easily see and present the best argument for God. Let’s first look at the unbeliever’s worldview, which usually rests on the evolution story that basically says all of us are just “bags of stardust,” a result of a long series of accidents (like from the big bang), bobbing around in a chaotic universe, where everything happens by chance (random) processes. And that our ancestors were bacteria and fish!

Even worse, evolutionists believe that everything we say (and think) is nothing more than a chain of chemical reactions. This means, in their worldview, our minds are just “brain gas” that’s fizzing or bubbling (like in a soda can) thoughts and ideas! It really is funny that people actually believe in this silly story as an excuse to deny the God that made them (Psalm 139:13–14; Romans 1:21).

On the flip side, the biblical worldview says that God initially created everything very good and in perfect order (Genesis 1). And even though it was all messed up by Adam and Eve’s sin, our first parents who disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), God promises to hold all things in the created universe together in an orderly (not chaotic), logical manner3 by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:3). On top of that, since we’re made in the image of our great God (Genesis 1:27), we can confidently use the laws of logic in our thinking and rely on our five senses (hearing, taste, smell, touch, sight) to explore all of God’s creation, giving us the ability to do real science here on earth (and even in outer space) as part of our dominion mandate. And we all have a God-given conscience (Romans 2:15) so deep down, we already know right from wrong (good from evil).

So, which worldview do you think makes more sense of the world around us and provides a foundation for the important things like logic, science, and morality (good and evil)? It’s, of course, only the biblical worldview (based on God’s Word) that provides a basis for these things! And it’s only by this worldview that we can even know anything at all! (Proverbs 1:7) This means the unbeliever truly has nothing to stand on for their beliefs and instead must rely on blind faith!4 And that’s why the Bible says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’ (Psalm 14:1).

So, all that to say, we can confidently conclude that our God is most definitely real and has always existed according to his Word (Psalm 90:2; 1 Timothy 1:17). Yet the Bible actually says everyone, including atheists, already knows the truth of God and is without excuse (Romans 1:18–20) for that coming day of judgment (Hebrews 9:27) when God will judge everyone that’s not in Christ according to his or her sins (Matthew 12:36; 2 Corinthians 5:10). So that means simply knowing God is real is not enough; we need something more! (See James 2:19.)

What we ultimately need is to receive God’s grace and mercy, provided only through the finished work of Jesus on the cross, by confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9) so we can be saved from the wrath of God to come (Romans 5:8–9). Simply put, the call of the gospel is to repent (turn from sin), trusting alone in Jesus for salvation (to become a child of God), and you will have the promise of eternal life (John 3:16, 5:24) in heaven with God where there will be no more death, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4).

So, in case you’re still waiting for the “proof” that God is real, start with reading (again) all the verses in this article. God has already revealed himself to you through his Word (the Bible), which clearly says that our ancestors were not fish. Rather, we are all created in the image of our almighty God, with our chief purpose to glorify and enjoy him forever, so please do not harden your heart to his voice any longer (Ezekiel 36:26; Hebrews 3:15) for today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2)!

And if you’re already a Christian (child of God), keep standing firm on the Bible, doing good works as thanks to God for his free gift of salvation (Ephesians 2:8–10), and continue pointing your unbelieving friends and neighbors to Jesus, their Creator and Savior (John 1:3, 14), as their only hope of being saved and getting right with God (Acts 4:12).

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