Jim Carrey plays one of his more serious roles in the 1998 movie The Truman Show. It is a fascinating film in which Carrey plays Truman (True Man) Burbank, a young man who was adopted as a newborn by the OmniCam Corporation. OmniCam has created a movie set the size of a city and places Truman in it shortly after his birth. All through his life he believes his life in Seahaven (notice the similarity to the word “heaven”) is normal, even idyllic, but his world is actually tightly controlled. His parents, friends, and even his wife, are actors. There are 5000 hidden cameras in the set which, unknown to Truman, are televising almost every step he takes. He does not realize it, but he has been caged in this make-believe town his entire life for the sake of TV ratings and commercial profits. Truman is the unwitting star of the longest running and most popular “reality” show ever. The show’s director is Christof (notice the use of the name “Christ”), who is a god-like character, is controlling everything in Truman’s world.
Truman’s reality has been manipulated by Christof, and Truman believes himself to be a happy man. The sky is perfect and he lives in a computer controlled climate. It is a false reality, yet it is the only reality Truman has ever known. But after 30 years living in Seahaven, Truman slowly begins to realize that the answers people have given him do not quite make sense, and he starts to question everything about the world in which he lives. In a valiant attempt at escape, which includes sailing across a pretend sea in the artificial hemisphere and facing his biggest fear, he emerges from the structure in which he has lived his entire life. He opens the door and walks outside to the freedom of the real world.
The movie tries to make the point that even though Truman was happy before, he was a tragic figure because his world was based on something that was not real. The things he believed held him captive and he did not have true freedom. The film implies that even though the “true man” is happy with his world, he will be willing to see that much of what he has been told is only fiction — an illusion. Organized religion has used the idea of God or Christ to control people, and to regulate their understanding of reality. But authentic individuals will break out of that world, as safe and comfortable as it may be, in order to experience the freedom of what is real. It takes courage to break out of a make-believe world where God seems to be the director, but authentic and courageous persons who use their minds will escape no matter how frightening the real world may be.
The show’s writers are taking an old philosophical idea and presenting it in pop culture terms. The 19th century philosophy, which gained notoriety through the writings of Sigmund Freud, said that God is simply a product of our imagination. We wished for something like God, so the human race made him up. It felt good to think of a benevolent Being who was in control of the world, so we thought him into existence. In other words, man created God in his own image — not the other way around.
The challenge for Christians is how to answer this kind of thinking in an unbelieving and skeptical world. How do we help people to see that God is not just a product of our collective imaginations, and that a worldview which includes God as the Creator of the cosmos is not make-believe? How do we help them to experience the God we know and love?
There are three answers we offer to those who are honestly seeking to know whether or not God exists. In order to do that, I want to introduce you to what may be new words to some. The three proofs we will use are the cosmological, the teleological and the anthropological arguments for the existence of God. Don’t let those words scare you, they have very simple meanings. First of all, we have: The Cosmological Proof — God’s fingerprint is on the cosmos. The cosmos exists, so we have to ask how it came into existence. Scientists agree that the universe had a beginning. Since that is true, we have to ask how it began. How could something this complex just happen? Something had to cause the world to come into existence. If something made the world happen, whatever it was existed before the world began and is greater than the world. Whatever this force was which caused the world, it must be either personal or impersonal. Either it was something like “The Force” in Star Wars, or this first cause was a personal being with intelligence guided by purpose. Since the overall purpose of the world resulted in life and the world is full of good, we would say that this first cause resembles the God of the Bible. Since there is such a strong resemblance, we claim that it is, in fact, the God of the Bible. The existence of the world implies a God who is capable of creating such a world and that he maintains a continued interest in it.
Here is how the Bible describes it: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The Big Bang theory starts with matter already existing. The question remains to be answered: “From where did the matter come, and what caused the explosion?” The Bible teaches that God created the world ex nihilo, that is, “out of nothing.” The Bible says, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3). It says, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). So we say with the Psalmist: “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2).
Actually, the burden of proof falls on the skeptic. There is not one proof that I have ever read of God not existing. The unbeliever has many questions, but they have no answers. They offer no proof for the non-existence of God. What is their alternative? The alternative is that the whole world came into existence by chance. They believe that everything that exists came from nothing, life came from non-life, order came from chaos, the laws of nature resulted from random acts — even though this goes against the very laws of science. Something never comes from nothing. Something always comes from something else. The alternative which they propose is that there is no purpose or meaning to existence. Life came from chaos — it was merely an accident, therefore it is absurd and without purpose. They believe that given enough time, the material universe and the life upon it simply developed on its own. It is like saying that if you have a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters over a long enough period of time, eventually you will get a novel.
If you find a pencil in your yard, it would be absurd to say, “O my gosh, look at how this tree branch has evolved into a perfect cylinder with lead going through the middle of it, and even an eraser on the end!” No, you recognize by its design that it has been made by an intelligent being — simple as it is. The existence of a complex world shows far greater evidence for an intelligent being behind it. We call that Being God, and we experience him as our Father.
The second argument we offer for the existence of God is: The Teleological Proof — God’s design is seen in the universe. There is a design to the world, therefore there must be a Designer. We do not see chance and chaos in the world, we see order and purpose. The world is not made up of a pile of inanimate objects, it is full of life. All around us there is life in the sea, the earth and the sky. Since there is life, the One who is responsible for this must be living. Since there is beauty all around us, it tells us there must be a beautiful God behind this beauty. Since life has intelligence, God must be intelligent — the most intelligent of all. Since life is good, God must be good. Since there is joy in the world, God must be full of joy. Since there is love in the world, God must be a God of love. Since we have personalities, God must be a personal God. His image is stamped on all he has created.
The Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4). God is speaking to us every day through the sun, moon and stars. He is showing himself in the wonder of nature — a bird in flight, the beauty and fragrance of a flower, the magnificence of a tree, the grandeur of a mountain. Nature exists in perfect balance. Who or what keeps it in balance? The advancement of science has been possible because the nature of the world is so predictable. If the world was chaotic and unpredictable, scientific experiments would be meaningless.
Concerning those who do not believe, the Bible says, “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:19-22).
The third argument we offer for the existence of God is: The Anthropological Proof — God’s character is reflected in mankind. Unlike the plant and animal world, we are not only alive, we have intellect — the power of reason, abstract thought, and self-awareness. We can think in conceptual terms and communicate our ideas with language. We do not just exist, we have emotion — the ability to experience love and joy. We also have the ability to exercise our voluntary will — we can make free and independent choices. We are more than animals, we are moral creatures — we have a conscience, an innate sense of oughtness. We understand the difference between right and wrong. This is what the Bible means when it says we were created in the image of God. It says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).
Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher, said: “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, . . .the starry heavens above and the moral law within.” He was struck by the inner sense of right and wrong in the heart of men and women. From where did this inner moral compass come? How is it that we live in a moral universe if there is not a righteous God who has built moral sense into the world? It is God’s fingerprint on our lives. The greatest proof for the existence of God is the people who have experienced him. Transformed lives point to God more than anything else.
And how do you explain the universal desire for and belief in God? The atheist is the exception in any culture. Look at what happened in Russia. After decades of domination by atheistic communism and the persecution of believers, the Russian people are hungry for God and the government is welcoming Christians into the country to teach Christianity in their schools. Despite all the work of skeptics and atheists through the years, 95% of the American population still believe that God exists, according to a recent Gallup poll. And American’s interest in God and spirituality is on the rise, not declining. The recent events in our country have made people’s interest in God even greater. This is a proof for God in that it tells us that we were made for God, and he has planted a desire for him in our hearts. This also tells us that he has a desire for us. In fact, the Bible tells us that he is seeking us more than we are seeking him.
The Bible says, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’” (Acts 17:24-28).
Augustine put it this way: “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.” Pascal wrote: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart.” Or, to borrow the words of Bruce Springsteen, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart.” Our hearts are hungry for God. Unfortunately, in America we can cover over that hunger with all kinds of things. There are so many distractions; so much to be entertained by; so many material things that we use to cover our spiritual needs.
But, actually, we who believe in God are the ones living in the real world, and those who deny God are living in an artificial, manufactured world like Seahaven. To miss the fingerprint of God on this world is to overlook the obvious. Laurence Peter once said: “The atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman.” If you cannot see God in the world, it is because you do not want to see him. Not only are you not looking for him, you are purposely avoiding him. It is the people who are avoiding God who are pretending. They even have their false gods, like Christof, to whom they look. They live in a make-believe world that is separated from reality. The true man and true woman are those who break out of that world, open the door and boldly walk into reality. It is a world bigger than they could have ever imagined. There is free air to breathe, and a God who loves them more than they will ever know.
We say to the world: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9). For we believe that Love lives at the center of the universe. It means that there is a reason and purpose for our lives, and that even the difficult places in our lives are a part of a plan. God is here and he is waiting to be experienced by us. The greatest proof for God is when you allow yourself to experience him.
Rodney J. Buchanan
October 28, 2001
Mulberry Street UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
HOW DO I KNOW GOD EXISTS?
1 John 5:1-5
“Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5).
The arguments we offer for the existence of God are:
1. The Cosmological Proof — _______________________ on the cosmos.
2. The Teleological Proof — _________________________ in the universe.
3. The Anthropological Proof — ________________________________________ in mankind.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (October 28, 2001)
1. Do you know any true atheists? What are their objections?
2. When you think about your own doubts, what are the most serious ones you have had?
3. If you have resolved some of these doubts, how did you do it? What helped the most?
4. When you look at the world of nature, what is it that convinces you most of the reality of God?
5. Read Psalm 8. How was the writer of this psalm convinced of the reality of God? What does this say to us?
6. Read Hebrews 11:3. Why is faith essential?
7. Read Romans 1:19-22. When the evidence is so clear, why is it that some refuse to accept it?
8. The Bible says that we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). What does that mean, and how is it evidence for the existence of God?
9. Read Acts 17:24-28. Why would God create us so that we would seek him? How does this speak to the reality of God?
10. If there is no God, how do you explain the human conscience and the universal acceptance of certain moral laws?
11. Is it possible that the real reason for unbelief is rebellion, rather than intellectual doubt?
