Evidence of God, of Christ, etc.

Earlier this week I had a student come into the Writing Center working on an assignment from his learning community Philosophy/English class regarding the atheism/theism debate: Is there a God? I happen to know both of the teachers and I don't think either of them is a bad person. To the contrary, I might call them my friends, and I recognize a lot of good in them. But my reaction to the specific question prompt for the assignment was that it was flawed.

The assignment was for the students to create a dialogue that they might have with a child regarding the existence of God based on the philosophy of someone whose name I don't remember, but whose main idea is that we should only teach children to believe things for which there is sufficient evidence. The students were also instructed not to include their own opinion. I'm sure you can see the difficulties already.

Of course I have to acknowledge that I'm not taking the class, so I don't know what the teachers have presented on the subject, nor am I familiar with the philosopher whose name I don't even remember (though I did help the student with the first assignment regarding this philosopher). But, from my background with analysis and understanding of philosophy, the assignments puts forth an impossible task.

First, it would require a definition of God that all can accept--because if I am to teach a child to or not to believe in something, then I need to have specific parameters, but most especially if I am going with the negative route, as this student seemed anxious to do, even though he claimed to be a believer himself. So, to be clear, if I am going to teach someone that they cannot believe in God, I need to specifically outline what they are not to believe is possible. Can we come to a consensus that all can agree to about what God is? Given the number of religions in the world, this is a daunting task. Not impossible, though. The fact that there is a word for this enigma indicates that a general understanding can be come to, but it would take some deep thought.

The next thing the assignment would require would be a definition of evidence and agreed assumptions about what would constitute evidence of God's existence.  Now you understand why the definition of God must come first. For example, if the definition of God included a being who created everything, then I the definition of evidence would be based on fulfilling this definition--there would have to be evidence that a being created everything--without including any opinion. But how can you remove opinion from this? Some people will say the beauty that can be found in the big picture and the little picture, the mountains and hills, the deserts, the great variety the world has to offer of plants, terrains, animals and people--the way the human body functions so well--couldn't have happened by hazard or by some eruption in the universe. But since no one remembers seeing the creation of things and evidence for them is wrapped up only things they've witnessed, they say there is no evidence. How can you remove your opinion from this?

For another part of a commonly used definition: God is all loving. For evidence of their being an all-loving being, some would say that the fact there are hardships in the world is evidence that there is no all-loving being because a loving being wouldn't allow hard things to happen to loved ones. But others would say that the existence of hardships is in itself evidence of a God because without hardships, life would be too easy, too boring, and there would be no opportunities for growth and learning. Then, for some, evidence would be the feeling they have when they pray or when they receive an answer to a prayer that is to them absolutely miraculous. But someone else would say that that's not evidence because they can't feel what the other person felt or they think that there must be another explanation because everything they've thought in the past to be a miracle turned out to have another explanation--or they've been led to believe this. Can you remove your opinion from this?

The fact is that all knowledge and beliefs are based on subjective experiences and acceptances of reality and truth. That's why the question is problematic.

Take this scenario for example. I've never been to China, but I believe there is a place on the earth called China. Why do I believe this? Because I've met people who say they are from China and I've heard them speaking something that isn't French or English. I've seen maps and globes and read news reports and history books and cultural studies. In any case, I've had a lot of evidence that there is a place called China, but none of the evidence I've seen is absolute proof. The fact is that my whole life could just be a dream of some sort by some greater being who's making me feel and think and see things for some unknown reason. Or it could be that there's some force--even a group of people--that are putting me through an experiment to see what people believe, and they've targeted all of my textbooks and news articles and the people I meet to shape me into believing there's this place called China. In my experience, though, it's my opinion that this isn't very likely--to the point of absurdity. Nonetheless, I can't remove the fact that it's my experiences that have led me to believe this. In short, it's really just my opinion that these evidences are sufficient, leading me to believe there is a place called China.

Can you see the parallels to heaven? My whole life has been filled with experiences, things I've read or heard, people that I've met, feelings that I've had, that lead me to believe there's a place called heaven where a loving, all powerful God, who created the universe--and many more, in fact--, and who is my Father and wants me to return home to Him. Can I prove it to you? No I can't give you the experiences I've had or make you feel what I've felt, so I can't give you the evidence that I have. I can explain it all in detail--I kind of have, actually, in 30 years of journal writing--but that won't fit into a five page paper.  And someone else will still say that that's not evidence because their experiences have led them to see things differently.  I can't remove my opinion that these experiences are evidence sufficient to leading me to believe there is a heaven and a God. And at the same time, nothing you show me that you call evidence of the contrary will satisfy me.

There is a God. In fact, there's more than just a god by the most simplest of definitions. There is plenty of evidence that He not only created us, the world, everything, but also that He sent His Son to live and to suffer and to die for us. Read the Bible, read the Book of Mormon, attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Make the changes in your life that He teaches you to make. And then pray sincerely wanting to see the evidence so that your life can be changed for the better. That's how you'll get your evidence, and you will get it. I promise.