In my book, I’d Like To Believe In Jesus, But… I make the point that God’s existence cannot be proven or disproved. Instead of claiming to prove the existence of God, Christians and other theists should offer evidence. I define evidence as that which points to a high probability that a given claim is true. I define proof as something we can observe with our own senses. In science, nothing is proven unless it is repeatable. Since none of us were there when the universe came into existence, we cannot prove or disprove God.
There is, however, another definition of proof, that of an observable, working equation. Let me say this as carefully as I can: If we want to use this mathematical definition, then there is a proof for the existence of God. At the moment we are not talking about the God of the Bible. That’s a whole different subject and we would have to study historical evidence for those kinds of conclusions, but the proof for some type of deity? Sure! Absolutely! In fact, it’s really quite simple:
Something had to always exist. You can’t get something out of nothing. This something had to be a personality, not a human, necessarily, but some kind of thinking, feeling, sentient being. Why do I say that? Because otherwise there is no explanation for the origin of personality. This is the fundamental hurdle in the field of artificial intelligence. Can a computer ever become self aware? Is it possible to recreate the brain with its ability to think? Can sentience be produced in the laboratory? Only time will answer these questions but meanwhile they beg the much bigger question. Since stars and rocks and dust cannot think and since chemicals (outside the chemicals of the brain) cannot think, where did personality come from? Do we get the personal from the personal or do we get the personal from the impersonal?
Now we can add it up like an equation: 0+0=0. The alternative equation goes like so: If something had to always exist, if you can’t get something out of nothing, and if the personal must come from the personal, then this something which always existed is some kind of eternal personality. We have offered a proof for the existence of God.
This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
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