On the off chance that a god or gods exists. What would be the reason?

Answer 1

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1. The existence of the universe. Even deists (those who believe in a 'Creative force' but deny God) accept that the universe seems to have been created. However, looking scientifically at the universe, the universe cries out 'design' rather than 'chance'. The universal constants (e.g. the Gravitational constant, Boltzman's constant, Planck's constant, masses of an electron and proton, the sizes of their charges and over 200 other parameters of the universe) that were put into place at the Big Bang are precisely the right size to allow a universe to exist that supports life. A miniscule fluctuation either way of any of the constants would mean that the universe could not support life. Some have tried to criticize this principle by postulating 'multiple universes' but this idea, by its very nature, cannot be scientific as it cannot be tested. So, this universe is all we have to go on, and it seems that it was designed with life in mind. Speaking about this so-called 'Anthropic Principle', the atomic physicist, Prof Russell Stannard, once said 'The universe knew we were coming. It seems it's bent over backwards to make it possible for us to exist'.

2. Time. Despite its failings, Genesis begins 'In the beginning' - literally 'at the beginning of time'. It wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that the radiation from the Big Bang was finally found by Wilson and Penzias confirming that the universe began with a Big Bang. More than that, Einstein and Hawking showed that time itself had to be created at the Big Bang. Therefore Genesis' assertion 'at the beginning of time' is just that. There was no 'before' the Big Bang as time did not exist. In the same way we are told, also in Genesis, that God is eternal - ie that he exists outside of time yet can interact with it, much like a light ray traveling at the speed of light and hence not experiencing time because of time dilation, yet it can interact with our retinas by allowing us to see.

3. God pursuing us to come to him. If there indeed is a Creator then he must have created us with the intention that we would know him. He has surrounded us with evidence of himself and he keeps the question of his existence squarely before us.

4. Jesus Christ. Why Jesus? Look throughout the major world religions and you'll find that Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius and Moses all identified themselves as teachers or prophets. None of them ever claimed to be equal to God. Other religions have an aloof God - an old man in the clouds - who must be appeased. However, for the Christian, Jesus proves a divine heart of love, meeting our needs, drawing us to himself. Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, he has had a profound effect on literally billions of people all over the world.

5. Many educated people feel there is more evidence of a creator/originator, or God, than there is for evolution. The different theories of evolution do not always include origin of life scenarios as a result of scientific experiments that rule out the idea that life evolved from nothing. As a result of this, even many scientists have taken on a form of "deism" as the cause for life beginning. We, as humans in general, know but a fraction of knowledge when it comes to the universe. Many feel that the more we learn, the more it points to a designer.

Answer 2

There are tens of arguments for God's existence. These have been recorded for centuries and are easy to look up. However, this subject is ultimately one of personal belief, since our possession of free-will mandates that it be possible to put forth arguments (fallacious or not) against every one of the proofs.
Here are a few.
1) Teleological Argument: The universe has definite and intricate design, order, and arrangement which cannot be sufficiently explained outside a theistic worldview. From the complexities of the human eye to the order and arrangement of cosmology, the voice of God is heard. God's existence is the best explanation for such design. God is the designer.Is there evidence against Evolution

God's wisdom seen in His creations

More about God's wisdom

2) Anthropic Principle: The laws of the universe seem to have been set in such a way that stars, planets and life can exist. Many constants of nature appear to be finely tuned for this, and the odds against this happening by chance are astronomical.

3) Sensus divinitatus: The innate sense of the divine exists within all people. People and cultures of all time have, by nature, sensed a need to worship something greater than themselves. No ancient society ever existed that did not believe in a supernatural power.

4) Tradition: There are events in human history which cannot be explained without God. Many people have their subjective stories that bend them in the direction of theism, but there are also historical events such as the Giving of the Torah to over two million people at Mount Sinai, which are underpinnings for the belief in God.

5) Pascal's Wager: Belief in God is the most rational choice due to the consequences of being wrong. If one were to believe in God and be wrong, there would be no consequences. However, if one were to deny God and be wrong, the consequences are eternally tragic. Therefore, the most rational choice is not agnosticism or Atheism, but belief in God.

6) Logic. Why is there reality rather than nothing? Aside from God's creating it, there are only five options:
a) The universe is eternal and everything has always existed.
- Even atheists have abandoned this possibility, especially because it would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

b) Nothing exists and all is an illusion. There is no reality. There is only nothing.
- This possibility, it should be obvious, is completely self-defeating. In order to even make such a proposition, the subject has to exist in some sense. If all is an illusion, where did the illusion come from? Even the solipsist, who does not believe in the existence of other minds, has to explain the genesis of his own mind.

c) The universe created itself. This is the idea that the universe and all that is in it did not have its origin in something outside itself, but from within.
- Like with the previous two, this makes a logical absurdity. It would be like creating a square triangle. It's impossible. A triangle by definition cannot be square. So creation cannot create itself as it would have to pre-date itself in order to create. The pre-dated form would then need a sufficient explanatory cause, ad infinitum.

d) Chance created the universe. The odds of winning the lottery are not very good; but given enough time, everyone will win. While the odds of the universe coming into existence are not very good, given enough time, it could happen.

- This option is a dishonest sleight of hand that, like "survival of the fittest," amounts to nothing, because it implies that "chance" itself has quantitative causal power.
The word "chance" refers to possibilities. It does not have the power to cause those possibilities. It is nonsense to speak of chance being the agent of creation of anything, since chance is not an agent. "What are the real chances of the universe being created by chance? Not a chance. Chance is incapable of creating a single molecule, let alone an entire universe. Why not? Chance is no thing. It is not an entity. It has no being, no power, no force. It can effect nothing because it has no causal power within it. It is a word which describes mathematical possibilities which, by the curious flip of the fallacy of ambiguity, slips into the discussion as if it were a real entity with real power, the power of creativity." (R.C. Sproul, Not a Chance. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999.)

e) The universe is created by nothing. Simply put, nothing created the universe.
- The problem here is that it is either a repetition of option "a" (the universe is eternal) or fails due to the irrationality of "d." In our current universe, the law of cause and effect cannot be denied by sane people. While we often don't know what the cause of some effect is, this does not mean that there was no cause. When we go to the doctor looking for an explanation for the cause of our neck pain, we don't accept the answer "There is no cause. It came from nothing."

Now, the other side of the Question: why might people notbelieve in God?

1) Peer influence. In high school, for example, the one or two religious believers in a class may be subject to ridicule.

2) Convenience; desires. No one wants "bothersome" rules, or limitations to their personal pleasure. We see how lack of self-discipline has led to epidemic obesity, drunkenness, divorce rates, violence etc.

3) Lack of proper information. People have inaccurate notions about God, religion and belief. They've picked up tidbits, jokes, and "sound-bites," and on such solid authority they dismiss the entire topic.

4) Unfortunate experiences. Many have had personal hardships, or a harsh religious upbringing or education, and as a consequence may retain an unhappy feeling towards belief, without realizing that emotions and proofs are two different things.

5) Many think that science, and specifically Evolution, have proved that there is no God. They don't comprehend that even if Evolution was an unquestionable fact, it would not automatically follow that God isn't there. They also seem unaware that there are a significant number of highly-qualified scientists who do not believe in Evolution.

6) Intellectual laziness. Many people have simply never delved into the subject, to see if God's existence can be convincingly demonstrated.

7) Stereotyping. People call us "religious nuts," "Bible-thumpers," etc.; so the average layperson may get a negative feeling toward all belief, not realizing that he/she should first look into the existence of God in principle, before necessarily looking into religion.