PROOF
by Brooks A. Harris
How do you prove that something exists if you can not see it, feel it, smell it, taste it, or hear it? This is an argument many atheists have for the existence or non-existence of God. They may ask "Why do you believe in God if you can not prove that God exists?" or they may say something like "Prove to me that there is a god!"
Instead of a believer in God getting flustered about not being able to absolutely, physically or scientifically prove God’s existence, the believer in God should ask those who say they do not believe in God "Can you prove that there is no God?" Non-believers should be able to support their beliefs as well as those who say that they believe in God. Actually there are no non-believers. Everyone believes in something. They either believe that there is a God or they believe that there is no God.
First of all, to "know" that God does not exist, you would have to know everything. For if you don’t know everything then you can never be absolutely sure of what you do not know. The only being which would supposedly "know everything" would be God. Therefore if you know that there is no God, then you must know everything. This also means that if you know everything then you must be God. So if you are God then God does exist. Obviously though no mere person knows everything, so no person can absolutely prove the non-existence of God, or for that matter the existence of God.
So again, how do you prove anything exists? Let me ask you this, "How does a lawyer prove his case in court?" If you could not have seen something happen, then you have to rely on the available evidence. You need to gather as much evidence as you can find, analyze all of it, and determine which view(s) the evidence best supports. That is the job of a jury, to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the evidence supports one view or another. That’s what scientists must do when trying to prove the origins of things in the ancient past. This is also what believers in God and those who do not believe in God must do. We must all study the evidences to see if they support our beliefs.
Also, as we study the evidences our beliefs should grow stronger and we should be better prepared to explain why we believe what we believe. Even in the Bible in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15 it states "... always be ready to give a defense to everyone who ask you a reason for the hope that is in you, ... ." Sometimes too, after seriously studying evidences, people discover that what they have long believed to be true turns out to be wrong. There are numerous recorded accounts of scholars, doctors, lawyers and scientists who did not believe in God. Determined to prove their belief correct, they seriously researched the evidences in many fields of study but found that the evidences overwhelmingly supported the existence of God. They learned that beyond any reasonable doubt the existence of God makes logical sense.
If you are interested in learning some of the evidences which practically prove the existence of God and the reliability of His Word, the Holy Bible, see the article "Evidence for Biblical Reliability" under the topic "Biblical Reliability". Also read books as "The Case For A Creator" and "The Case For Christ" by Lee Strobel, "Many Infallible Proofs - Evidences for the Christian Faith" by Henry M. Morris with Henry M. Morris III, and "Revised and Expanded - The Bible Has The Answer" by Henry M. Morris & Martin E. Clark. There are many web sites with such evidences too, as http://www.family.org/, http://www.answersingenesis.org/, http://www.apologeticspress.org/, http://www.gnmagazine.org/, http://www.equip.org/, and http://www.icr.org/.
