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Is there a God??  Can you give a proof of your Faith??  (Whether you believe there is or isn't a God??)

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Thomas Aquinas explains the existence of God in five ways. For me, the simplest of these is his explanation of efficient causes:

"In the world of sensible things, we find there is an order of efficient causes. There is no case known (neither is it, indeed, possible) in which a thing is found to be the efficient cause of itself; for so it would be prior to itself, which is impossible." (Summa Theologica Question 2; Article 3)

Look out your window at a tree. The tree exists. It is self-evident to you in that you can see it. How did that tree get there? Let’s say you planted it. Several years ago, you planted a seed and it grew into a tree. You are the reason that tree is there. You are the cause of that tree; the tree is the effect.

Cause and effect are common human notions. We can witness cause and effect easily in the planting of a tree or the bouncing of a ball or any number of other activities. Cause is an action, while effect is the result of that action.

Now, you are the cause of the tree’s existence in your yard. Okay, what caused you? Well, many years ago, your parents got together and caused you in an act of sexual intercourse. In that relationship, they are the cause, and you are the effect.

This type of cause/effect relationship can continue until we arrive at the first man and woman. In fact, we can create a cause for every visible effect until we arrive at the first existence of man and the world itself.

Those familiar with the story of creation in Genesis will certainly argue that God created the world, all the animals, the sun, and everything (Genesis 1:1). Those who ascribe to this story of creation are already convinced both of God’s existence and of the fact that he created everything. In this way, he is the uncaused cause.

But, this answer is not meant to prove the existence of God to those who already believe. The more challenging audience is comprised of those who doubt his existence.

Let’s look to the world of science. The best theory for the creation of the world as we know it now is the theory of evolution. Man evolved from animals. Of course, these animals are things that could be sensed; they are self-evident to us. What created them? Perhaps there was some mixture of basic proteins that caused life to begin. What caused this mixture to occur??

Finally, let’s look to the earth. The earth and the universe itself, according to some, were created in a big bang, caused by an explosion of gases. But, as humans, we must again look for a cause. We don’t know what caused those causes to exist. For that matter, we don’t know what caused them to explode.

Our knowledge of causes and effects leads us to continually seek the cause for that which we can visibly sense now. We can attribute everything that is sensible (by that I mean things which can be sensed in one way or another) in the world to something. But, we are unable to continue this determination of causes to infinity.

Our reason tells us that there was some thing that is prior to all other things. Aquinas says "in all efficient causes following in order, the first is the cause of the intermediate cause, and the intermediate is the cause of the ultimate cause…To take away the cause is to take away the effect. Therefore, if there be no first cause among efficient causes, there will be no ultimate, nor any intermediate cause." (Summa Theologica Question 2; Article 3)

Some one thing must have caused all other things, even if that first thing caused only the existence of a bunch of gases that exploded. One thing, perhaps the essence of existence itself, caused the first effect. There must be an uncaused cause – some one cause that is prior to all other causes and effects. We refer to this uncaused cause as God....the Aplha who is the Omega as well...

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If we know that the creation had a beginning and we know that the beginning was caused, there is one last question for us to answer--what was the cause?  The Bible tells us that God was the cause.  We are further told that the God who did the causing did so with planning and reason and logic.  Romans 1:20 tells us that we can know God is "through the things he has made."  The atheist, on the other hand, will try to convince us that we are the product of chance.  Julian Huxley once said:  "We are as much a product of blind forces as is the falling of a stone to earth or the ebb and flow of the tides.  We have just happened, and man was made flesh by a long series of singularly beneficial accidents.

The subject of design has been one that has been explored in many different ways.  For most of us, simply looking at our newborn child is enough to rule out chance.  Modern-day scientists like Paul Davies and Frederick Hoyle and others are raising elaborate objections to the use of chance in explaining natural phenomena.  A principle of modern science has emerged in the 1980s called "the anthropic principle."  The basic thrust of the anthropic principle is that chance is simply not a valid mechanism to explain the atom or life.  If chance is not valid, we are constrained to reject Huxley's claim and to realize that we are the product of an intelligent God.