"5 REASONS: Why I Still Believe in God" - DAY 47

Day 47 – multiple questions, one answer

Man cannot find the ultimate expression of his own being anywhere but in God Himself.  –EDWARD SILLEM

The Argument from Human Characteristics states that several human traits cannot be accounted for unless they have a supernatural source. It is a broader version of the Argument from Fairness and the Argument from Supernatural Belief and, like them, tries to explain the qualities humanity as a whole possesses. It comes to the same conclusion as the preceding arguments (that nature alone cannot be responsible) and points toward the same solution (the reality of God).

Let's make a running list of human characteristics that the atheist, given his view of the world, has a hard time explaining. In question form, they are as follows:

-If the universe is irrational and we are rational, what is the source of our rationality?

-If the universe is amoral and we are moral beings, where did our sense of right and wrong originate?

-If the universe is purposeless, from whence did our sense of purpose come?

-If the universe has no sense of fairness and justice and we do, how did we obtain it?

-If the universe has no meaning and we perceive meaning in our lives, how did we find it?

-If the universe is not self-aware and we are, where did we attain consciousness?

-If the universe has no love and we do, how do we explain the feeling of love within us?

-If the universe has no controlling mind and we do, how did we come to possess it?

-If the universe is impersonal and we are personal, what is the source of our personhood?

Remember that even an atheistic skeptic like David Hume (Day 14’s quotation) knew that every effect must have a cause. To be consistent, atheists must be able to explain how nature—their one and only cause—can produce characteristics it doesn't itself possess. To put it bluntly, I don’t believe they can. Taking into account the law of cause and effect, the summary answer to the questions above is that all of these human characteristics (rationality, morality, purpose, fairness and justice, meaning, consciousness, love, cognition, and personality) must come from something that is rational, moral, purposeful, fair and just, meaningful, self-aware, loving, cognizant, and personal. It appears that there is a force behind the universe that is beginning to look less and less like the “blind force” of nature and more and more like a real God. And it begins to look this way because it makes the most sense to us, not just because we wish it to be so.¹

Daily Quotation

Edward Sillem, Ways of Thinking about God, 182.

¹Credit here is given to Greg Boyd for his ideas on cause and effect in Letters from a Skeptic (Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor, 1994), pp. 50-52, 54-57.