Evidence for God and Christianity - The List

 


Throughout the years I've been speaking to those in the secular community, one of the most frequent things I've heard is "there is no evidence for God!".  I hear them say things like 'all you have is the Bible and the Bible isn't the evidence, it's the claim' and other things like that.

When they raise this objection, they typically ask me to provide the evidence for God (which they presume I don't have).  For a long time, I would write out the list of various lines of evidence that I'd found persuasive through the years.  Eventually, I decided to create the list so that I could just re-use it each time I was asked.  Below is the result of that effort.  It's not perfect, and it certainly isn't a complete list.  But it does achieve the goal of showing that there is evidence for God (whether the skeptic is persuaded by it or not).

Be prepared that when you present a list like this, you're likely to hear several things;

  • "That's not evidence!"
    • This means they have a misunderstanding of evidence.
    • According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, here is a good definition of evidence.
      • "Evidence, whatever else it is, is the kind of thing which can make a difference to what one is justified in believing or (what is often, but not always, taken to be the same thing) what it is reasonable for one to believe."
  • "That has been debunked already!"
    • If you hear this, don't despair.  The arguments and lines of evidence below have not been debunked.  And typically if you ask them to back up the claim, they won't be able to.  But even if they attempt it, don't be disheartened.
Or, more likely, they'll either laugh at you or mock you, or perhaps just ignore you.  It's very rare for anyone to actually engage in a substantive discussion.  But that's their choice.  Our job isn't to make them change their minds.  It's to plant and water.  We let God give the growth.  After all, it's His garden.

Evidence for a Creator (not exclusively the Christian God):

1. Evidence from the Beginning of the Universe out of Non-Being (philosophical/logical/scientific)


a. The scientific evidence for the Big Bang

b. The Leibnizian Argument (why is there something rather than nothing)

c. The Kalam Argument (arguing from causality)


2. The Evidence for the Fine-Tuning of the Initial Conditions of the Universe to Allow for Life (philosophical/logical/scientific)


a. The scientific evidence for the fine-tuning of the initial conditions of the universe

b. The presence of apparent design in the initial conditions of the universe (the teleological argument)

c. The presence of information found in the simplest biological structures (this is essentially the ID argument)


3. The Moral Argument (philosophical/logical/experiential)


a. Our awareness of objective moral obligations and duties that we sense innately and which are not mind-dependent

b. The sense of moral "oughtness" (we have a duty to love a child rather than harm that child, for example)

c. The commonality of moral beliefs across cultures around the world, as well as throughout history

d. The presence of libertarian free will (which enables us to fulfill moral duty)


4. The Evidence/Arguments from Reason & Consciousness (philosophical/logical/scientific)


a. The existence of consciousness itself

b. The presence of things like rational inference, qualia, the self, 1st person experience, etc.

c. The presence of self-awareness and rational thought

d. The presence of free will and intentionality


5. The Evidence for the Existence of the Supernatural (philosophical/logical/scientific/experiential)


a. The evidence for the existence of the soul

b. The evidence from near death experiences


6. The Evidence for the Mind (philosophical/logical/scientific)


a. The causal capability of the mind (Placebo Effect, changes to brain structure, etc.)

b. The logical impossibility of the mind being identical with the brain


7. The Argument from Desire (innate desire, such as the desire for water rather than the desire for a new car)


8. The Argument from Evil (if there is such a thing as evil, there must be such a thing as good or evil has no meaning)


9. The Argument from Information (information seems to be just 'put in' at the start of things, and information requires a mind from which it's derived)


Evidence for Christianity:


10. The Evidence of the Veracity of the Bible (historical/archaeological/logical)


a. Historical validity

b. Internal/External Confirmation

c. Eyewitness testimony

d. Archaeological confirmation

e. Fulfilled prophecy


11. The Evidence for the Existence of Jesus (historical/logical/archaeological/testimonial)


a. Historical verification

b. Archaeological confirmation

c. Textual support (the things Jesus said and did were unlikely to be inventions)

d. Refutation of the "Jesus Legend" position


12. The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (historical/logical/testimonial)


a. Historical validity

b. Tests of Authenticity

c. Failure of Naturalistic Explanations

d. Evidence of External Testimony


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