"Proof God Exists"

Some people enjoy reading accounts of Near Death Experiences, probably because they seem them as proof that God exists and they enjoy sharing them with believers whose faith is shaky.

It may seem odd to some, but I find people trying to "prove" God exists to be...well, wasted effort.

The problem with relying on logical-proofs to demonstrate God exists is that you are unwittingly saying that God can be proven to NOT exist using logic. That implies that logic is greater than God and God is subservient to a cunningly crafted argument.

Still, some people take comfort in believing they are logical and rational. It is an important part of their core-identity. They are uncomfortable with child-like faith and demand  "Where does the Bible say THAT?"

The Bible telling us that God is greater than logic

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.     -Genesis 1:1-5  KJV

In popular lingo, God created order out of chaos. Chaos proceeded order and logic. God existed before there was order and logic. Therefore, God created logic...If He created it then he is not bound by it. Just like I created this blog-post and have the authority to change any detail in it at any time.

The Bible telling us that God exists

And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.   Exodus 3:13,14  KJV

God undoubtedly anticipated questions about his existence. When Moses asked God His name, God responded "I AM", a laconic version of "I am He who Exists and Always Existed and will Always Exist."

The Bible telling us that God's existence and powers transcend time as we know it

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.     -Genesis 1:14-16

I need to have the reader put themselves in the sandals of a person living in the time of Abraham. The old man stands at the well and watches the sun-rise above the rim of the basin that houses their winter camp. He marks where the sun rises. Perhaps he built a rock cairn that he moved every day to mark the new spot where the sun rose. When he no longer has to move it, then the end of the solar-year is at hand. The season was divided.

In a similar way, the farmer in his field watches the distance the sun is from the horizon to mark the end of his work day. When it reaches a certain point, maybe a hand's-breadth, he knows it is time to pick up his tools and walk home...and he will still have a little bit of light for his nighttime domestic chores.

A key point is that the word "rule" is not meant in the sense of "boss around", it is meant in the less common sense of "to mark in increments".

A scholar of Ancient Greek or Hebrew could take me to task for assuming this less common definition, but the Bible also claims that "counting" or "taking a census" was the equivalent of asserting dominance over a people in the sense that it was to extract taxes or a levy of soldiers to send to the far corners of the empire. Internally, the Bible does not seem to differentiate between "counting" and "asserting dominance".

4: (1) to mark with lines drawn along or as if along the straight edge of a ruler

4: (2) to mark (a line) on a paper with a ruler  Link

 

Given the technology available to people in 4000BC-to-2000BC, I cannot think of any way the concept that "God existed before "time" existed" could be communicated. Not only that, but the text clearly states that "God created time" because God created the means by which time is measured. Every scientist knows that abstract entities that cannot be measured really do not exist.