Written by husayn

Tuesday, 07 November 2006

How can you prove God exists?

Many have uttered the words "how can you prove that God exists?" and many will in
the days that follow. Yet very few of these have the intention or even the mildest
inclination to take time to prove it for themselves. For those that care to follow
this through to the conclusion, I would say to them that it is provable, beyond
reasonable doubt, that God exists.

However, if they need to literally see God in order to believe in Him, then they
are going to have a problem, as God is not a physical being like us. The Creator
is not like His creation. A programmer is not like his program. God is omnipresent
i.e. present everywhere...

For analogies sake, if a man sees footprints in the snow, he could conclude that
someone had passed through before him even though he hasn't seen that person with
his own eyes.Using the same reasoning, one does not have to see God in order to
conclude that He indeed exists.

The key to proving the Existence of God lies in using logic to examine the
evidence placed before us.There is no magic to this process and there is no short
cut either. Even a scientist must examine evidence and test theories before he can
reach a conclusion.If he were to draw up a conclusion before examining and
testing, his conclusion would be out-rightly rejected by even the most uneducated
of people.

So, before we can so easily dismiss the existence of God (which would indeed be an
unfounded conclusion), we should examine all the evidence first. So let us examine
this evidence over the next few chapters.

- One Religion, the Same Religion -

Now, lets just say there was a God, an Almighty and we were all His "children".
Then would we not expect Him to teach us all the same thing? i.e. all of mankind,
irrespective of geographical location and irrespective of what era they were/are
living in?

Would we expect a mother to teach her first born that smoking was bad for their
health, yet the 2nd child that smoking was good for their health? Of course
not.What is good for one child remains good for the next.No matter which bedroom
they sleep in or how many years lie between them. So, we should expect no less
from God. Although every man is unique in terms of personality, traits and
characteristics we still have the same physical and spiritual requirements such as
food and water, self-purification and prayers.Mankind indeed needs the same
teachings, the same guidance.

Now, lets assume that God created all of mankind as well as the earth and the
heavens and all that lies between them. Seeing as God has created ALL things then
surely God knows ALL the pitfalls that there possibly are. So, much like a parent
would teach their children right from wrong based upon what they knew.God would
surely do the same thing to guide his children through the "big wide world". But,
God would be in the advantageous position of being ALL-knowing.

Through his Messengers and Prophets, God teaches mankind right from wrong, good
from bad, justice from injustice, pride from humility.So that, in learning what is
wrong, man can avoid making bad decisions in this worldly life that will cause him
distress later. But mankind is stubborn and arrogant and believes that he himself
knows what is best for him. These days man no longer values the guidance given by
God...But this is the free will that mankind has been granted i.e. to accept God's
guidance or to reject it. Much like teaching your children the difference between
doing right from wrong.At the end of the day, they get to choose whether to listen
to you or not. And their actions may be good and approved by you OR bad and
unapproved by you.

{Unfortunately, more often than not, many children ignore advice and this only
leads to their own suffering, as the advice is generally for their own benefit.}

Now, if the above is true and God gives (and has given) mankind continual
guidance, then where, you may ask, is this guidance? And why is it that these
days separate religions are being followed even though God should be teaching us
one teaching?If we can prove to ourselves that indeed one teaching has been given
to mankind throughout time (by God through his Prophets and Messengers) then we
should be open to believing that indeed there is a "Father", an All-Knowing Being
that guides All His children.This, of course, would also necessitate an
explanation into why there are separate religions/teachings today.Obviously,
bringing in every religion by name into these chapters would be ludicrous, but God
Willing, by the end of this, the bigger picture should be clearer. And then
further readings should fill in the rest.

So, let us investigate this further.

An Initial Investigation
Of the main monotheistic religions known today we have:

- Judaism: Jews who claim to follow the teachings of Moses (around 1500BCE -
Before Common Era, equiv. to BC)

- Christianity: Christians who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus (around 1CE
equiv. to AD)

- Islam: Muslims who claim to follow the teachings of the final Messenger of God,
Muhammad (around 580CE)

These 3 religions span over a good 2000 years.This is a sufficiently large time
span to investigate to see if we are being taught one thing from God.

An initial look into the religious texts of Islam, the Qur'an, seems to provide us
with evidence that God has been teaching mankind the same religion throughout
time, via all the Prophets/Messengers mentioned below:

"The same Religion He has established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah
that which We have sent by inspiration to you and that which We enjoined on
Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: namely, that you should remain steadfast in Religion,
and make no divisions therein." Qur'an 42:13

So, at face value at least, it would appear that this religion agrees with the
above hypothesis; that regardless of the passage of time, God has been teaching
mankind the same teachings via all these Prophets and Messengers.

However, to prove this though, we should investigate further.We should see if in

fact the Qur'an is right and that the teachings of Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus
and Mohammad are the same. However, seeing as we only really have certain books
available i.e. the teachings of God (through Moses) within the Old Testament, the
teachings of God (through Jesus) within the New Testament and the teachings of God
(through Muhammad) within the Qur'an, then we will satisfy ourselves with
investigating these religious texts as a starting point. But it will definitely be
interesting to see why it is that the Qur'an tells us that the teachings of Moses,
Jesus and Muhammad are the same, yet there seems to be 3 separate religions today
instead of one? i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam.