So, my first question is, how do you know God exists?

The following was a question asked by a teenager in our parish. I put some effort into it, perhaps more than she cared to read, but I thought I would post it here. Teens ask great questions and this was her question. 

Here is her question:

 "So, my first question is, how do you know God exists? Why do bad things happen? Lastly, how do you live each day through God's words?"

I sent her a briefer response, but let her know the longer version was here:

My conversations with my mom and dad about faith are still of great importance in my life. I urge you to share our conversations with you parents.

I also want to bring Magis Center to your attention. Magis Center. is the brain child of Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. is an outrageously smart Jesuit priest. It is directed at teens, like I said, but I have enjoyed his approach to these very adult questions. I think it is right up your alley.

So here is the long answer to your short question. First things, first......

What does it mean to know?

But you asked,  “How do you (I?) know God exists?” That is a fundamental question. I am going to tell you why I believe in God and his Son.  First things first:

What does it mean to “know” something. Think of at least three different ways that you can know, the empirical, the philosophical and the moral.

• Empirical: Scientist don’t just know math; they have beliefs about what mathematical demonstrations means.

The empirical way of knowing is characterized as 2 + 2 = 4. The empirical is based on sensory observation – sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Scientists, among other techniques, weigh and count. The empirical world does not rely on feelings. A scientist’s insight might help him understand the significance of what he can empirically demonstrate, but he can’t weigh or count his instinct.

The empirical, however, doesn’t explain itself. So, you can know that you have two oranges in an empirical way. Belief is a uniquely human way of knowing. Your dog can see both oranges, but the concept of ‘two’ has probably not occurred to him.

I can’t know how your dog thinks in an empirical sense, because I can’t actually see and measure how your dog thinks. I can, however, infer that your dog is not as good as you in math.

That is a belief and, I think, a well-founded belief. Believing is a way of knowing but is not the same as mathematical knowledge.  Do you believe your parents love you or can you prove it mathematically. Believing and knowing are related ways that we make sense of the world around us. When asking how we can know something, we have to understand how we all, scientists included, get beyond “I have two oranges” to more profound understandings of the world.  

• Philosophical: the second way we know is philosophical. You can use different words, but facts need to be interpreted, and interpretation is always philosophy.

Philosophy is experience (empiricism) seeking understanding (philosophy).  Call it scientific theory but is the same type of mental process that we have historically called philosophy.  

Mostly when anybody speaks about their personal experience, scientists included, the empirical is often the foundation for belief.  Most of what we ‘know’ as science is interpretation.

A good example is the atom. We all believe atoms exist, but no one has ever seen an atom They are too small. Empirical data is the foundation for, a probably very sound, theory of atoms.

Interpretation ought to have explanatory power. Science is so successful because it is the basis for so many good things in our life – medicine, computers and things that make our life better. Yet, science isn’t only empirical knowledge. Most of what we know as science are well-founded theories that continue to expand and explain.  Still, there is a third way of knowing – the moral.

• Moral: Morality is about what we know we ‘ought’ to do. How should a person behave?

If you poke my eye out, does that mean that I ought to poke your eye out? If that is how we all ought to live, pretty soon we will all be blind.

The moral is a very important way of knowing because it helps to see past our short-term impulses to our long term goals. You are much more likely to have a happy life if you take care of your body and your soul and avoid behaviors that undermine the well-being of both.

Math is based on numbers human beings make up to explain abstract concepts that that we can’t see, hear, taste, smell or touch. Moral concepts also explain realities that are not directly subject to our senses - good and evil, virtue and vice, for instance. Still, we ought to love our parents and respect them. Is that an empirical statement, like 2 +2 = 4? Is your love for your parents a different kind of knowing that is ultimately more important than math? If you can’t explain it mathematically, do you really love your parents?

Knowing and believing is a richer experience than you might first expect. If you are going to ask “How do I know God exists?”, well, clearly you should ask yourself how you can know anything at all. Clearly we can know, but in different ways. Math may be extremely important when balancing your bank account, but it probably will not be the most important factor when it comes time for you to choose a husband. Which decision is more important to you? Do not underestimate the importance of belief and the complicated way that human beings make choices other than merely the empirical.

Now, what does it mean that I know or believe that God exists?

• Empirical: The physical world does not explain itself. If the physical world were only molecules, chemicals  gravity, etc.… How does that explain how a scientist can do her work? Is a scientist just chemicals ‘knowing’ chemicals? Implausible in my judgment. I think physics, chemistry, biology and math are successful because they avoid explaining the human mind. Atheists who surmise that we all are illusions, merely biology, well, I find it unbelievable and unscientific. Scientists count, weigh and philosophy and theories explain. When a scientist interprets, that my friend is philosophy.

Does oxygen, mixed with other elements equal the theory of evolution? No, is the answer. Evolution is more than merely a theory, but it is an interpretation and probably true, but incomplete at this point in time.

If you built a metal detector, went to a baseball field, searched around finding nickels, old rings and lost keys, the metal detector has done what it was made to do. It can’t find trees and grass and bugs, because that is not what metal detectors do.

A universe that produces a young woman that asks “Why do we believe God exists” is more mysterious than 2+2=4, or any complicated formula or algorithm can ever explain.
Science excels at counting and measuring things; that does not mean that the only things that exist is stuff that can be measured and counted. How can science explain how a scientist can come up with explanations? Why can we understand anything? The physical world does not explain itself, so that is why we need philosophy or interpretation and the creature, the human person, that offers the explanation. Our believing ought to be rational and reasonable. Most of what we do in life is not explained by math. So, we use our reason. This is philosophy.

Philosophy: You are using your reason when you ask the question ‘why.’ Scientists ask the ‘why’ question also, but science can only answer ‘how’ something happens, not ‘why’ things are.

When a scientists believes in God or decides not to, she is engaging in philosophy. God is not a thing that can be counted or weighed.

We believe in the Trinity – one God, three Divine Persons. Lousy math, great theology.  The philosophical branch that thinks about God is called ‘metaphysics.’ When you think about God as a believer, we call it theology.   

So, I believe in God, because in my opinion it is more rational than not to believe in God.
You have probably heard of the Big Bang, the explanation as to how our universe came into being. Some scientists accept this theory to explain how the universe came into being, others think it is inadequate. I would say that the idea that there was a point when no thing existed and then, ‘suddenly’ (16 billion years +/-) the universe expanded to what we presently experience, is at least consistent with the biblical account of Creation. Who knows, maybe some scientist will come up with a better theory. A Catholic priest, Fr. George Lemaitre, came up with what became the Big Bang theory, because it was the best interpretation of a universe that was expanding. Einstein didn’t believe it, but to date it is the best explanation. Learn the history and meaning of this a Magis Center. It is a better story than anything on cable tonight.

But what if the Universe always was? Mostly Christians throughout time have believed that the Universe always existed. God is the reason that anything exists. God is not a cause like a rock is the cause of a broken window. God is what it means to exist at all. Someone always was and that we call God.

I say ‘someone’ because I think it highly implausible that you, your question why and your self-consciousness is only a chemical reaction or can be reduced too physical causation, solely.  Maddy’s ability to think and feel and reason is more than empiricism alone can account for. At the foundation of the Universe, is intelligence. That consciousness we call God.

Moral: Why is there a moral law? What does that have to do with believing in God.
Adolph Hitler from 1939 to 1945 killed millions of people in his death camps because he thought that Germans should dominate and rule everyone. He sent warships to shell the east coast of America. If the Germans had won World War II, does that mean Hitler would be right? Is the winner always right? Is there no right or wrong at all? The moral law is how we know right from wrong.

Is it ever right to execute 6 million Jews because you hate them, like Hitler did? If you say yes, because ‘might makes right,’ you live in a world without God. If you say that kind of murder can never be right, then you believe that there is a moral law that makes a claim on each of us.

A moral law is not like the law of gravity, it cannot be measured empirically. You need to be a self-conscious human being to follow or reject the moral law; to be a saint or, whatever kind of human being that doesn’t want to be a saint.

How can you have a moral law without a moral law giver. That moral law giver we call God. Physics studies the order of the physical world, morality studies the order of the spiritual world.

I believe in God, because God is the best explanation for why we exist, can know right and wrong and be St. Theresa of Calcutta, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Francis of Assisi, or the amazing St. Joan of Arc. Mostly, I believe in God because I believe Jesus Christ is the human face of God and I see God in the saints. I can’t imagine anyone more God than the Son of God.   

There is no point talking about why evil things happen if you don’t believe in God. If there is no God, what would the concept of evil even mean?  Why would you think anything was evil? We can only understand evil because first we believe in a good God and so we can recognize real evil. If God doesn’t exist or isn’t good, then Hitler killing 6 million Jews is no better nor worse than St. Theresa of Calcutta helping the poor and dying. Just chemicals reacting. You might like St. Theresa more, but still all this world would be so meaningless if there is no moral difference between killing someone and healing them.

In life, we all make our choices either for God or not for God. You can’t really opt out; life requires a choice. I think you will like Magis Center, but there really isn’t a point to discussing good and evil if you believe that you are just a chemical illusion without a soul or purpose in life. I believe that I see the world clearly. You and I are called to be a saint and are made for life eternal with God. You have to make a choice about who or what you are going to believe in - God or a bowl of sugar. Atheism is pretty grim. I have made my choice and I believe

Sorry if this is too long. But this is what you get by asking "why I know God exists."