Today we will talk about whether it is possible to prove whether God and the devil exist or not, about the most striking evidence of the existence of dark and light forces, about what God and the devil look like and what they are like. In our article you will receive proof of the existence of God and the devil.
Before you start reading this article, answer yourself the question - Do you believe in God or not? If you believe it, then why? How do you know He exists? If you don’t believe, then how can you be sure that God does not exist? What evidence do you think exists for the existence or, conversely, absence of God?
Now let’s think a little about the meaninglessness of the devil’s existence without God and vice versa.
All people are divided into several categories: those who believe in God; those who do not believe in God; those who believe in God sometimes...
Why am I not talking about the devil now and about those who believe only in him? Because the existence of the devil without God is absurd, few people believe in the devil without believing in God, except that there are those who recognize the power of the devil, for example, the same magicians, sorcerers, psychics. And they believe in God, in their own way... sort of like “even the demons believe and tremble,” but still they choose the dark power.
If the devil existed without God (even theoretically, without evidence), then our earth would have been dead long ago, like us, or other unfavorable forecasts... And so, as many believers assume, people are the “battlefield” for finding out relations and competitions between God and the devil, who can “entice the people” more, which side you take - you are the warrior, etc., can be called not a battlefield, but more softly, loyally, correctly, but the essence of this is not particularly will change.
Even the short stay of Adam and Eve in Paradise (when everything was fine with people and only God existed for them) quickly ended, because this competition between God and the devil was about to begin, where people, it turns out, are pawns. It ended rhetorically: they say, man himself turned out to be so down-to-earth and sinful that he fell for the serpent’s tales and ate the forbidden fruit... And this duality of human nature is inherent in everyone forever and from birth, and everyone eats this forbidden fruit - so if not for Adam and Eva, we would do it.
But the paradox, according to the same Bible, is that in man himself there is both light and dark - a craving for the divine and earthly, sinful, and these two natures are always fighting, which one will prevail, that is, which one the person himself will choose - on the side of those he turns out to be strong. According to the theory of Christianity, everything begins with a person’s choice, and even though we are pawns in a game of two forces, we are able to choose.
There are 7 million people on earth (already more), everyone has their own opinion about whether there is a God and a devil or not, everyone has their own version of evidence on this topic. Let's look at the main popular ones, and then the more subjective ones.
From the point of view of science, there is not a single reliable confirmation of the existence of God, moreover, there is not even a clear definition of who God is. There are only arguments of philosophers and psychologists.
So, for example, morality did not come out of nowhere: “In our conscience there is an unconditional demand for the moral law. Morality is from God."
“From the observation that most people follow certain moral laws, that is, they are aware of what is good and what is bad, a conclusion is drawn about the existence of objective morality, but since good people commit bad deeds, and bad people are capable of good ones, a source of morality independent of man is needed. It concludes that the source of objective morality can only be a supreme being, that is, God.
The fact that a person has a moral law - conscience (which differs from earthly laws only in greater accuracy and inexorability), and an internal conviction of the need for the ultimate triumph of justice, indicates the existence of a legislator. Torment of conscience sometimes leads to the fact that the criminal, having the opportunity to hide his crime forever, comes and announces himself.”
Conscience is one of the most striking proofs of the existence of God... No matter how paradoxical it may sound, it is precisely with the sprouts of divine power embedded within each person that the desire to do good more than evil is born in us; if the opposite happens to someone, then they say that he has buried his conscience.
From the point of view of scientists, not everything is so simple... he “buried” his conscience... For example, Erich Fromm (German sociologist) argued that the predominance of the craving for evil begins when a person kills his love for life, this happens for various reasons, one of which is psychotrauma, but this switch is turned by the person himself, sometimes he is able to stop, but often he does not.
Cosmological argument for the existence of God (from Wikipedia):
“Everything must have a reason. The chain of reasons cannot be endless; there must be the very first reason. The first cause is most often called “God” by some.
It is found, in part, already in Aristotle, who distinguished the concepts of being random and necessary, conditional and unconditional, and declared the need to recognize, among the relative causes, the first principle of any action in the world.
Avicenna mathematically formulated the cosmological argument for the existence of God as the single and indivisible cause of all things. A very similar rationale is given by Thomas Aquinas as a second proof of the existence of God, although his formulation is not as strict as that of Avicenna. This proof was subsequently simplified and formalized by William Hatcher.
The cosmological argument looks something like this:
Every thing in the universe has its cause outside itself (children have their cause in their parents, parts are made in a factory, etc.);
The universe, as consisting of things having their cause outside themselves, must itself have its cause outside itself;
Since the universe is matter existing in time and space and possessing energy, it follows that the cause of the universe must be outside these four categories.
Therefore, there is an immaterial cause of the Universe, not limited by space and time, not possessing energy.
Conclusion: God exists. From the third point it follows that he is an immaterial spirit, outside of space (that is, omnipresent), outside of time (eternal), and does not depend on energy (omnipotent).”
In general, someone created the Universe, us, forests, trees, rivers, lakes, fish, insects, etc. They couldn't come from nowhere. And the most likely assumption for the appearance of all this is God. Why did He create all this - as an option - assumptions at the beginning of the article. Maybe he was bored in this empty Universe, so he created the crown of creation - man, in order to compete with the proud angel Lucifer.
from Islamic theology: “In the light of the Big Bang theory, the cosmological argument is as follows:
Everything that ever happened has a reason
The universe appeared
Therefore, the Universe has a cause."
This also includes paradigms about eternity, existence and non-existence... In addition to mortal existence and our temporary shell, there is something else, and, perhaps, many understand and feel this, but, unfortunately, the vanity of this world drowns out the call to the eternal within a person. However, the soul is also eternal, as many who have visited the Other World testify, and our planet exists for many centuries, perhaps millions of years... but human life lasts only tens of years.
What is inside a person, if you look deep into yourself, does not agree with the fact that “there was a man and there is no man and there are no traces of him,” I want to believe that there is a continuation of life, I don’t want to believe that our soul will ever stop our existence as if we never existed..
And this is already a paradox: where does this come from in us? Where does this desire for eternity come from?
The theological argument for the existence of God assumes that the world is too complex to arise on its own and if there is a clock that runs, then there must be a watchmaker who created it. Scientists, deriving formulas about the complexity of the world, came to the conclusion that there must certainly exist, if not God, then a Supreme Mind for sure. In Kabbalah he is called the Great Architect, in Islam Allah, in Buddhism Buddha, etc. But the source of everything is a certain deity - this is the answer of many not only philosophers and humanists, but also scientists.
Faith could not come out of nowhere as an independent desire for some newly invented God; it is embedded in the human psyche from the womb. A person not only needs to believe in something, it is vitally important for a person to believe in something, replacing at least some kind of surrogate for the craving for God as the creator. Therefore, all the smaller semblances of faith in God are only compensation for the lack of a person’s connection with God.
There is not a single country, not a single city in the world without religion, without a temple - this already says a lot.
According to Plutarch: “Go around all the countries, and you can find cities without walls, without writing, without rulers, without palaces, without wealth, without coins, but no one has ever seen a city devoid of temples and gods, a city in which prayers were not sent, swore by the name of the deity.”
“The fact that a person is drawn to God, feels the need for religious worship, indicates that the Divine really exists; that which does not exist does not attract. F. Werfel said: “Thirst is the best proof of the existence of water.”
The religious argument, despite criticism from scientists, is one of the most striking proofs of the existence of God for believers. Relics of saints, exorcism of demons, drops of blood on the shroud, visions in the process of clinical death in reality, other languages - prayer in other languages, etc. All this, according to believers, came from nothing other than directly from God...
There is still a long list of evidence and arguments for the existence of God, but there is not a single reliable and indisputable proof. All existing evidence has its own refutations, doubts and other versions.
God gave us the biggest mystery - himself... As if leaving the choice for everyone whom He created, to believe in Him or not...
And if everything were obvious, then there would no longer be God.
What does the Bible say about God? Yes, in fact, the entire Bible is a divinely inspired book, which means that it was written by people who dedicated themselves to God and were in His will; through all the messages these people tell us something important, that is, in essence, God speaks through them.
“The Bible says about the incomprehensible and incorporeal God the Father:
You cannot see My face, because man cannot see Me and live (Ex. 33.20).
And it is also said: no one has ever seen God; The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed (John 1.18).
In the book of the prophet David, the Psalms, there are approximately the following words: The fool said in his heart: “There is no God” (Ps. 13.1).”
The Bible also says that God is love, God is spirit, God is triune...
Why has no one ever seen God in real form? There are versions that a person is too unclean to touch and come so close to such a holy image as God, moreover, God is associated with light and fire, and can both be transformed into a shell and be a spirit, but a person can go blind when looking at Him , burn, etc.
But there was one unconditional appearance of God to people according to the Bible - this is Jesus Christ, who brought salvation to the world. And Christ embodied the essence of God on earth. But it seems like people saw God... well, what did they do with him?? Crucified...
A few words about the devil. Even if we assume without question that the devil exists, what do you think he looks like? A devil with horns and glowing eyes? People often think that this is some kind of image from horror films... In fact, the devil is an angel who has stumbled (proud of his beauty and intelligence), angels are ethereal beings and they are lower in rank than people. The question that will remain eternal: why then does this angry angel, who is simply a ministering spirit, keep the whole earth in fear and dominate people? There is no clear answer...
The devil uses people to fulfill his goals. And his goal is the destruction of everything that God created. He cannot create anything new, remember “The Master and Margarita” (novel)? The devil only copies the actions of God, only with a minus sign, the devil is a magician, an illusionist. To lure a person into his network, he offers temporary benefits, that is, he creates evil through good.
The evidence for his existence is as uncertain as the arguments for the existence of God, but the question of the existence of the devil is not as popular as the question of the life of God. Probably because the devil is a figure dependent on God, and yet this is a very dark niche into which you should not go unnecessarily.
Magicians, healers, sorcerers, psychics know very well, even if they tell you fairy tales, what kind of use of their power they pay a certain price and this price is the sale of the soul to the devil... Of course, while they are alive there is always a chance to repent, but for now they are alive.
Even if you don’t say the word “devil”, you can safely say that there is some negative energy, there is evil in the end, there are troubles, tragedies, there is death, illness, suffering, which is clearly not from God... According to the Bible - after the Fall, the earth was given over to the power of the devil, the earth is cursed, therefore everything on it is mortal, perishable, including human flesh.
Poltergeists, fever from demonic possession, ghosts, monsters in the night - these are “little flowers” compared to the real capabilities of the devil if people are in his power. For example, Hitler is the embodiment of the devil on earth, one of the incarnations...
Summing up the article, I would like to say that there is no unambiguous evidence of the existence of God for crafty minds, however, just as there is no affirmative evidence of the absence of God...
But still, if there is no God, then, in essence, man is an “incomprehensible little animal”, created incomprehensibly by whom, incomprehensibly for what...
Everyone makes their own choice to accept the available evidence as sufficient or to reject it.
Often called "Apologetics".
Did some being really create the universe? Does it know how it did it, and does it have the strength to possibly do it again? Has this being revealed itself to humanity through the person of Jesus Christ and continues to rule the world through the Holy Spirit as the Bible claims? Is the God of the Bible the best possible explanation for existence? These are the main claims of Christianity, and this article will allow you to provide convincing evidence that all of the above reasoning is indeed true.
Steps
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Plans, prescriptions acquired only during life: Encourage people to look around and see the world.
- Does he or she see only the trees and not the interconnected forest? It is obvious that God exists because His creation is not only one thing, but also the instructions for all life in the biosphere of the world, for the galaxy in which the world is located, and the universe in which the galaxy is located - and He is the driving force all this. Living cells that have been designed and engineered to be self-replicating cells or organisms.
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Show how these natural, interdependent systems point to God when you look at the little factories needed in a cell to build and run one of them (or from other cells in the body and nowhere else in nature).
- For example, trace the interdependence of the sequence of events when proteins assemble exclusively in a living cell (which came first: the cell or the laws that work only inside it and nowhere else).
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These proteins, as they should be, become part of the structure of the body and perform many functions, but their formation requires the gradual processing of nucleic acid substances called “nucleotides”, sugar plus nitrogen and phosphates - that’s where they come from. They were all produced by a single cell (or interacting cells of a multicellular organism), following very specific plans. Discuss where the important plans (purposeful instructions) for life to exist came from:
in “living” cells. The instructions only make sense when processed by existing "living" cells, and they only have effect there.
- Realize that complexity does not matter, only the interdependence of materials and instructions (plans) functions for a particular system.
- Why? Dead/non-living cells do not need or use plans, no processes, nothing constructive (cannot read and follow genetic plans).
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Mention that we are all born with the knowledge that there is something right and wrong, with many opportunities to appreciate simplicity and elegance, to communicate, analyze, synthesize and calculate - plus to design and build.
So people tend to enjoy creativity rather than senseless destruction. Read the Bible and find out where the knowledge of good and evil comes from: God. Discuss the fact that each of us has a desire to seek love and acceptance (God is love.
..). Since childhood, we have been trying to fill the emptiness that exists within us. The desire to share life with another person, enjoying communication, comes from Adam and Eve, who dreamed of loving and being loved as complementary to each other and as a means to create humanity. The Christian idea that humanity is God's most valuable creation is quite logical. We need air and it surrounds the planet we call home. We need water, and it falls purified from the sky. We must consume food to live, and it comes from the earth and is found in abundance in water and land. And the family model of parents, spouses and children exists to satisfy our greatest need for love. Consider that the power, beauty and knowledge of one exist for the instruction, development and upliftment of all mankind. No other religion except Christianity argues very convincingly that life is a gift of love from God and our lives should be lived in service to humanity (and attribute this to God). If we believe that everything that happens has a cause, then if things are created, then they have a builder and inventor: the God of creation.
- Check out some thoughts, famous quotes that can be used to prove that the Christian God exists.
- Recognize that God may exist in a form that is significantly different from what you currently comprehend, for God's ways are as high above ours as the heavens reach around and beyond the earth.
- For a more theological/philosophical approach, check out the introductions to Clive Staples Lewis's Mere Christianity and Suffering. For a strictly philosophical approach, one should study the cosmological argument (Thomas Aquinas or later William Lane Craig, Alexander Prus and Richard Taylor) or the teleological argument (Robin Collins). The ontological argument, although it proves that belief in God is rational and reasoned arguments, tends to not convince people due to their complex philosophical reasoning (Alvin Plantinga and Robert Meidol). Beware of distorted arguments (e.g., thorns on roses are not proof that God does not exist).
- Discuss the fact that human beings seem predisposed to believe in God. The human ability to reason means that people are able to recognize the necessity of certain things in order to bring about certain others. Ask if it is in any way logical to conclude that an accidental explosion could lead to something carefully orchestrated. Is space more likely the result of intelligence and planning or blind chance?
- If you hope people will respect your opinion, respect their point of view first on the path to Jesus Christ.
- Show the absurdity of denying the existence of God. What is the probability that a tornado flying over a landfill will accidentally assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials lying there? (Fred Hoyle) What are the chances that life was formed by chance? The point is that there are certain things that irrational forces simply cannot do.
- Be humble and meek, giving clear, consistent answers.
- If people bring up the "Christian Crusades" (1095-1291), during which many people were killed and advanced civilizations destroyed, respond to them by explaining how these actions (although sometimes done in the name of Christianity) actually contradict Christian doctrine. All people are fallen, and thus prone to immoral acts.
- Question the idea that religion is “unscientific.” Gravity is the invisible force that explains why all objects fall to the ground, whereas God is the invisible force that explains the existence of the universe, living beings and the survival, growth as well as reproduction of organisms. Does labeling something as “natural” eliminate the need for God? Explore the mystery of consciousness. How likely is it that matter itself gave rise to mind? Many physicists believe that any theory would be incomplete if it did not take into account the existence of consciousness to some extent.
- Raise the question of why there is something rather than nothing? Asking why involves recognizing alternative possibilities. Can the universe not exist? It is illogical to assume that existence was caused because in order for something to cause someone's existence, it must exist before it, thus denying it the possibility of being the cause of existence. However, opportunity precedes everything. What is the substance of possibility? Affirm that God is the eternal source of endless possibilities.
- Understand that, strictly speaking, if you want your information to be considered knowledge or fact or truth, it must be obtained through your own observation and experience. However, there may be enough evidence relevant to the topic to convince a person to come to a logical conclusion, and in some cases the evidence may be so extreme that it can be said that it is correct to assume that an individual's point of view is accurate. In considering the available arguments, it is best for all concerned to start with the assumption that the existence or non-existence of God is a controversial issue.
- If you are criticized for your belief in God, you might point out that believing that the most incredible thing happened on its own requires more faith than believing that a superhuman force such as God created a superhuman invention such as the universe. This raises the question, who invented God? Some people are of the opinion that if God can exist without a creator, then why can't the universe? You don't have to have all the answers. The universe seems to fit a person like a glove on his hand. Ask is it possible that we could really be so lucky?
- Explain how the theories of creationism and evolution are not mutually exclusive. Discuss the dissimilarity of each individual piece of matter in the spontaneously generating universe. For example, did all the "organic" carbon compounds in the universe really arise without any help, forming by chance? This goes beyond evolution, because how did the interdependent components of the first cell come about? Evolution details how the survival of the fittest leads to the emergence of the fittest, but it does not detail the birth of the first living, self-reproducing, survivalist, purposeful organism.
- Some people may argue, “If the Christian God exists, then where are all the miracles that are talked about in the Bible?” Let them know these miracles are happening and show them examples
Use the Bible as a narrative, faithful and poetic source for understanding divine intervention (influence) in everyday events (but not coercion) and the development of Judaism through early Christianity, and that it is also a spiritual road map of creation and reveals God's ultimate purpose and plan for humanity.
The opening word of the Bible reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Question: “Who or what can say who or what really started the universe?” Modern science - although it is not absolutely sure what, when and how: ~ State scientific theories that postulate that the known universe actually began with what is called the “Big Bang Theory.” It makes no logical sense to say that "absolutely nothing" could have produced that initial explosion or anything else: "something existed" and "caused it" - creating the things we think it all started with. Ask those who do not believe in God to consider the accuracy of the Bible, i.e.
that is, that: He is omniscient (knows everything, observes everything and experiences everything), omnipotent, having an image but not having ordinary physical flesh and blood, omnipresent, eternal, unchanging, indivisible, giving freedom of choice (freedom) with many ensuing consequences/rewards, and all of his cares are the cause of his perfect love. The Bible says, “God is spirit...” (John 4:24), and it says, “God is love...” (1 John 4:8), and that “perfect love casts out fear.” Reverent interdependence/relationship and amazing grace fill the entire universe, suggesting a planner, a creator, a superhuman architect of unlimited knowledge and power. It takes time and perhaps eternity for the minds of humans to learn what the original mind (the divine mind) actually accomplished in creating the universe and all that it contains. The Bible says that God created mankind in his image (Genesis 1:26-27), and it is logical to realize that the human mind is able to advance more and more in understanding the universe because the human mind has similarities to the divine mind.
Discuss how one man known as Jesus fulfilled many of the Old Testament messianic prophecies and did things that no ordinary person could do.
Develop a theme about an imperfect world, but one where the opportunity to focus on a “good” (or optimal) outcome is markedly greater than the hopeless life anyone could imagine, perhaps much worse - if it were simply random or unintentional and dependent on the grace of the material non-living aspects of the universe.
Explain that there are many examples that show the existence of God, but you need to be able to look and realize their truth.
Accept them instead of doubting them, try to see them instead of closing your eyes, and you will believe that God exists. Discuss how the usefulness and attractiveness of human-made things when presented have no accidental qualities, but are the result of our intellectual nature and our natural admiration for order, balance, and beauty. Likewise, it would be unreasonable to say that the exceptional usefulness and attractiveness of things in nature is accidental, but it is probably more reasonable to conclude that they are the result of the existence of a superior intelligence that also admires order, balance and beauty. Creativity is the basis and pinnacle of existence of all living and nonliving things, and it is the business of every individual to try to explain his or her natural reverence for this known state of affairs. The Bible says that God created everything and was completely pleased with his work.
Human characteristics and other thoughts
Georgy Khlebnikov,
Candidate of Philosophical Sciences.
FROM THE EDITOR. By publishing this material, we take a lot of risks. We are taking risks because today many believers and non-believers alike agree that it is impossible to rationally prove the existence of God. True, for various reasons. If the former believe that this is impossible, since God reveals himself to the purity of the heart, and not to the intricacies of the mind, then the latter are convinced that since it is impossible to scientifically testify to the fact of the existence of God, then there is no God, because. only science is objective.
However, not everyone knows that there is a centuries-old tradition in Christian culture. In the Middle Ages, such evidence became popular thanks to Catholic scholastic theologians, primarily Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas.
True, the scholastics, as a rule, did not address their arguments to atheists - what atheists were in the Middle Ages! – and to believers, in order to confirm faith in a rational way. Since the existence of God seemed obvious, “reasonable,” then in the world, in life, philosophers sought to find obvious, reasonable confirmation of this.
It is interesting to note that in the Orthodox tradition no such school of “proofs of the existence of God” arose. Orthodoxy proceeded and proceeds from a different understanding of the relationship between faith and reason (although neither Orthodox nor Catholics, as a rule, oppose reason and faith). The main proof in Orthodoxy was and remains the person himself, who met God in his heart. And if this meeting did not happen, how can you believe? And if it happened, then a loving heart no longer needs any more arguments!
But many of us were trained in Western philosophy. And our thinking itself has acquired such a Western “flavor”. How many times have we heard: prove, rationally justify that God exists! And if, by and large, such evidence is unlikely to lead a person to God (this is the editorial position), this does not mean that they are absolutely useless. After all, for some they can become the first step on the path to faith...
Today we do not live in medieval Byzantium or Rus', but also not in medieval Western Europe. Much water has passed under the bridge since then, but the believing mind has never ceased to inquisitively seek the rational foundations of its faith, finding new and new evidence of the presence of the Creator in the world.
The following article is an attempt to list and (to begin with) a brief description of searches in this area. Of course, not all arguments can be agreed with, and if someone is interested in this or that evidence, the editors are ready to provide both the author and his opponents with the opportunity for discussion.
16 EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
1. The first proof, which can be called “existential” (that is, “proof from existence”), is formulated as follows: Why is everything that exists more likely to exist than not?
After all, both creating something and maintaining the existence of anything is much more difficult than having nothing at all. Try, for example, to design a cottage yourself, choose a suitable place for it, build and constantly maintain order in it... Or, for example, for your vegetable garden to really be a vegetable garden, it needs to be regularly dug up, planted, weeded, watered, etc. If this is not done, the garden will immediately become overgrown with weeds, go wild and turn into an ordinary field without any trace of reasonable care.
In other words, the existence of any thing or structure requires a continuous expenditure of energy; when its internal supply is depleted or its influx from the outside stops, the structure collapses. Therefore, the eternal existence of the Universe contradicts, for example, the second law of thermodynamics, according to which all the stars in the Universe should have gone out long ago and even the atoms should have disintegrated if, as atheistic materialists claim, nature had existed forever.
So why does it still exist as BEING, as a beautiful and wonderful Cosmos? Undoubtedly, only because it was created by Someone and has been supported by Him since then.
This Creator is God, about whom Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who formulated the laws of universal gravitation and motion and discovered differential calculus, said: “He abides forever; present everywhere; It constitutes the duration of time and space.”
2. The second proof is as follows:
Why does everything that exists, is naturally and amazingly ordered, bear the undoubted imprint of a reasonable plan for the structure of the whole? After all, such a plan cannot but presuppose the existence of a Mind that is superhuman in its capabilities, a truly divine Planner (since regularity is a property of the mind)?
Thus, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), who created the theory that the Sun is at the center of the universe, and the Earth only revolves around it, believed that this model demonstrates the wisdom of God in the universe, for “who else could place this lamp ( Sun) to a different or better position?
When a watchmaker assembles a watch mechanism, he meticulously fits one part to another, takes a spring of precisely calculated length, a certain size of hand, dial, etc. The result is a wonderful mechanism, which, by the very fact of the expediency and calculation of its design, indicates the mind that created it.
But how much more complex, harmonious and intelligent is the structure of the entire Universe surrounding us, this beautiful Cosmos!
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who formulated the theory of relativity, expressed this idea this way: “The harmony of natural law reveals a Mind so superior to us that in comparison with it all systematic thinking and action of human beings is an extremely insignificant imitation.”
The Universe, as the ancient Greeks said, is a “Cosmos,” that is, a beautifully ordered and harmonious complex system consisting of interconnected parts, each of which is subject to special laws, and all of them as a whole are governed by a combination of general laws, so that the pursuit of any particular goal contributes in an amazing way to achieving the overall goal of the whole.
Therefore, it is impossible to allow all this to be a matter of chance, and not of reasonable Providence, that is, the Providence of God.
3. The “cosmological proof” of the existence of God was developed by the ancients (in particular, Aristotle) and is most often found in the following form: every thing in the world and everything, the entire Universe as a whole has a reason for its existence, but continue this sequence, the chain of reasons until infinity is impossible - somewhere there must be a First Cause, which is no longer determined by any other, otherwise everything turns out to be groundless, “hanging in the air.”
Not only philosophers, but also many naturalists and scientists speak about such a Cause. Thus, the famous Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), who, by the way, developed the world-famous milk purification process, which has since bear his name, often mentioned the “cosmic asymmetrical Force” that created life. He believed that the concept of CAUSE "should be reserved for the single divine impulse which formed this Universe."
It is clear that such an uncaused cause is God: “God is not a man” - He is spiritual (“ideal”, like a thought), that is, he is outside of time and space, therefore he does not arise, but exists forever, being not a cause in the physical meaning of the word , but the Creator of the visible Universe and its laws.
4. The “anthropic principle of the Universe” as proof of the existence of an intelligent plan for the structure of the Universe and God was, probably unwittingly, put forward by modern science, which suddenly found out that life on Earth, the emergence of man and the development of civilization are possible only in the presence and combination of extremely rigid and paradoxically unlikely conditions that seem to be inherent in nature itself: a fixed distance from the Sun (a little closer to it and living organisms would burn, a little further and they would freeze, turning into insensitive blocks of ice); the presence of the Earth's rotation, without which unbearable heat would reign on one half of the planet, while the other would be bound by eternal ice; the existence of a satellite of a certain size that provides a complex system of circulation of water flows; minerals and resources: coal, metals, oil, water, etc., without which a technogenic civilization could not arise and develop, etc.
Moreover, modern scientists have the impression that the entire Universe is located and oriented in such a way that it can be viewed with human eyes! The existing coordination, interconnectedness and interdependence of these factors is such that the possibility of its “accidental” occurrence is completely excluded.
5. The following proof of the creation of the Cosmos by intelligent will was also formulated at the forefront of modern cosmology and physics, which drew attention to the paradoxical nature of the existence of the Universe in the form in which it exists: it turned out that only according to the four main basic physical constants, without which it could not to exist for a long time as a structurally organized whole, the probability of their “random” occurrence and coordination with each other is approximately 10 to the minus 100th power. But there are not four basic constants, but even more...
6. The following “teleological” (from the Greek “telos” - fulfillment, result) proof of the existence of God has been known in general form since antiquity, when Aristotle first noticed the presence of clearly expressed expediencies in the body of some animals and in nature. However, only modern discoveries in biology have indisputably proven the systemic nature of these teleological mechanisms and their necessity for the existence and survival of almost all types of living beings.
A type of activity of these mechanisms is, for example, the “pre-established harmony” of the development of various living organisms, which, even in the embryonic state, seem to know in advance what they will have to face after birth.
And, which Darwinian evolutionary theory is completely unable to explain, studies of fossil organisms have shown that many of them have organs that anticipate external environmental conditions by millennia, organs that are absolutely useless in the current conditions of existence of these animals, but will really be needed by this species in hundreds of generations, when the conditions of existence will radically change!
A legitimate question arises, to which modern evolutionary theory has no answer: how can a body devoid of intelligence have such amazing pre-knowledge of future changes and how can it itself cause the required favorable mutations in itself?!
This amazing fact clearly indicates the presence in the world of a certain and reasonable development program, that is, Providence, which is called the Providence of God.
7. The “transcendental” proof of the existence of the ideal world and God was partly discovered by Kant and can be presented as follows: there is a world outside of space and time - the spiritual world, the world of intellect, thought and free will - which is proven by the presence of thoughts in every person, which can relate to the past and future, that is, “travel” to the past and future, and also be instantly transported to any point in space.
Each of us, turning our consciousness to the source of the origin of our thoughts, can easily notice that they appear as if from somewhere outside, the thought turns out to be a spiritual ray projected from somewhere, which illuminates material existence like a sunbeam - it is of no use to anyone. and you never manage to cover it with your hand, it always ends up on top...
Thus, human thought, supposedly born in the brain, turns out to be simultaneously inside and outside matter - it supposedly arises due to neurophysiological processes in the tissues of the brain, surrounded by the bones of the skull, but, at the same time, fundamentally exists outside of any matter, outside of space and time.
Thanks to this, a person clearly realizes that he has a spiritual nature, which is fundamentally different from the physical world that surrounds him. But it follows from this that this other nature, this Spirit, the manifestation of which is man, also has reason and free will - like man himself.
8. The next proof could probably be called “creationist” - it is based on the fact of the existence in nature of organisms and living systems that, in principle, cannot develop into such a whole from parts by evolutionary means, as Darwinism believes, but can only be created together, as just such an organic whole.
These, for example, may include the interconnected system of the heart, lungs and blood circulation in living beings: it is impossible to imagine that first, let’s say, only blood circulation without a heart appeared, then the heart gradually “attached” to it and began to pump blood, and only after that The lungs have just begun to develop.
9. Proof of the existence of God and the spiritual world from personal experience - most people have encountered in their lives “strange” manifestations of the divine and superhuman: both beneficial, Divine, and malicious, demonic, or, probably most often, both together.
In order not to touch upon the dubious “legends of deep antiquity” for many, I will tell you about an incident that happened to my colleague. He came from a believing family, but at one time he taught “scientific atheism” at a university for many years and, like most Soviet intellectuals, led a far from pious lifestyle. After experiencing several personal tragedies, he realized the depravity of his life and decided to go to the temple.
“When the priest,” he told me, “read a prayer for forgiveness of sins over my head, and I began to get to my feet, some unknown force suddenly began to throw me from side to side so that I could not stand on my feet: parishioners They supported me on both sides, my knees were shaking and, to top it all off, I was suddenly overcome by a strange weakness. So for the first time I felt for myself the demons that are in a sinner,” he concluded.
Quite a lot of similar examples could be given.
10. Proof of the existence of ALL nations and peoples of ideas about God and superhuman powers in one form or another; Although atheistic individuals are found among many nations, there are no “atheistic” nations on Earth.
11. Proof of the faith in God of most of the outstanding geniuses of mankind. For example, the absolute majority of Nobel laureates.
It should also be remembered that all the scientists who contributed with their discoveries to the emergence and development of modern science (Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Boyle, Bacon, Pasteur, Einstein) believed in God.
Thus, the founder of modern chemistry, Robert Boyle (1627-1691), began every day with prayer; Moreover, 2/3 of the income from his estate in Ireland went to helping the poor and supporting the Church, and 1/3 to spreading Christianity and missionary work among the Indians.
Francis Collins, one of the founders of genetics, said: “When we learn something new about the human genome, I always feel a sense of awe that humanity now knows something that only God knew before. I don't believe that scientific research can threaten God in any way. On the contrary, I think God benefits from our curiosity.”
12. Undoubted proof of the existence of God is also the regular appearance in the history of mankind of great saints and religious figures who directly have spiritual revelations from above and thereby testify to His existence.
These are not only prophets such as Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, who constantly communicated with God, but also righteous people who illuminated and directed the lives of people at all times with their light.
Perhaps it will be enough to simply remind the reader of such great Russian saints as John of Kronstadt in order to understand that God addresses us just as often now as in distant biblical times - if only we had eyes to see and ears to hear.
God is always with us, it is we who, due to our weakness, either move away or try to return to Him again.
13. Proof by contradiction: the tragic fate of projects (and, often, their own lives and fates) of outstanding atheists. The most striking example here may be the example of the “Lenin-Stalin case” and their followers, who for the first time in history tried to build an atheistic state on a “scientific basis” both on the territory of Russia and other countries of Europe and Asia.
For example, the fate of the best materialist philosopher of the USSR, Evald Vasilyevich Ilyenkov, the son of the famous Soviet writer, laureate of the Stalin Prize for Literature, turned out to be tragic. All his life justifying the atheistic thesis about the “self-development of matter,” which does not need any spiritual foundation for its existence, Evald Vasilyevich could not find moral support anywhere in Soviet atheistic reality, fell into deep depression and committed suicide...
14. The “ethical proof” of the existence of the supersensible world, which comes from the objective existence of morality and ethical laws governing the behavior of human beings, is also widely known.
Research by many philosophers indicates that events and environmental influences can only to a certain extent predetermine the behavior of people and force them to certain actions: no matter how strong the external pressure, a person always has the opportunity to break the cause-and-effect relationship, which irrational nature submits and act as a free being, that is, as a being of another, unearthly world!
To illustrate this, a simple example can be given: why do some people give alms and others do not? It would seem that the latter act quite logically and reasonably - why part with your funds, money, knowing that you will not receive any compensation?!
So what forces the former to give alms, sometimes even in significant amounts? There is nothing in the physical world, in nature, that could explain such “illogical” behavior - this explanation lies outside of this, in the supersensible world, where the great moral ideas of love, goodness and mercy are located.
The famous reasoning of Immanuel Kant, who clearly showed that man in his actions and actions is guided by values that do not belong to the material world, also belongs to this type of evidence of the existence of God.
15. The proof of the existence of God called the “aesthetic argument” has also become widespread, which states: in nature there is an amazing supernatural beauty of the starry sky, sunsets and sunrises, the Northern Lights, harmonious pictures of nature, the perfect structure of the beautiful bodies of living beings, etc. , which seems to be specially intended for the aesthetic pleasure of a rational being - man - because besides him in nature itself there is simply no one to contemplate it.
Robert Boyle, already mentioned, was so in awe of the beauty of nature that he often said: “When I study the book of nature... I am often forced to exclaim with the psalmist: Oh, how manifold are Thy works, O Lord, in Thy wisdom Thou hast made them all!”
16. The proof of the existence of God “from real to absolute perfection” was put forward by Thomas Aquinas: in nature there is a clearly observable gradation of perfection within various types of being, which can only be understood in the presence of an absolutely perfect Being, that is, God.
This proof may seem quite complicated at first, but a simple example will help to understand its essence: if you have a ruler, say, 30 centimeters long, and your colleague has a ruler 50 cm long, if there are rolled meters and other means of measurement, then all this exists only because the dimension of space (its extension in different directions) and the idea of length actually exist.
In the same way, similar examples could be given with measures of weight, time, etc. But in nature there are also more complex types of gradations, among which a unique place belongs to the “ascending ladder” of perfection both in inanimate and living nature, and in human society, as well as among people themselves: there are, for example, crooked and ugly trees, There are ordinary, unremarkable ones, there are “simply” beautiful ones, but there are also unusually beautiful, perfect specimens. And so not only among different types of trees, but also among different breeds of fish, animals, within human races, etc. – more and less perfect individuals can be found everywhere. But these different degrees of perfection in inanimate nature (for example, among stones!), between individual types of objects, living beings, etc., could not exist if for them there was no really existing measure of absolute perfection, which, however, we do not find in the material world, but which cannot but exist, and this perfection is God!
This is the essence of this proof.
Thus, we see that no matter where and how we begin to consider the world around a person, all roads inevitably lead to the One who created and adorned him, who constantly supports and guides him, and without whom he could not exist even for a moment - to God.
Here are several indisputable proofs of the existence of God, the Supreme Creator of people, all things and life. I would immediately like to point out that the words Truth, Axiom, Fact, Truth are synonyms, meaning the same thing.
He is the One Who created the heavens and the earth from nothingness... (Quran, 6:101)
Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were one and that We separated them and created all living things from water? Will they not believe? (Quran, 21:30)
4 axioms proving the existence of God
- ⇒ The first axiom that proves the existence of Almighty God is the axiom of laws. Our universe is filled with many physical laws. For example, the law of gravity, the law of universal gravitation, Ohm's law, the law of friction, Newton's law, etc. If you lift something and let it go, it will immediately fall to the ground. But did this object itself establish for itself that it would be attracted to the surface of the Earth, or did the Earth establish the law of attraction? Or maybe someone else established the law of attraction for the Earth and all objects? A similar example can be given with all other laws that operate in our universe. Who made all these laws? Our axiom states: “If there are laws, then there must be someone who established them.” After all, laws cannot be established by themselves. The question arises: who established all these laws of the universe? The only correct answer is God, the Creator of all things, Earth, Heaven and all life.
- ⇒ The second axiom proves the very existence of God. It is called the axiom of orderliness. For example, you came home one day and saw a terrible mess and disorder in your home. The wallpaper on the walls is torn, the TV is broken, books are scattered, the computer is damaged. Of course, you will get scared and leave your home for a certain period. After a break, you return to your home and see complete order in it. A new TV and computer have been installed, new wallpaper and everything is in perfect order. The question arises: can order restore itself? By yourself? The axiom states: if order exists, then the one who established or brought it also exists. Now it’s worth looking into our bodies. Do they have some order, or is everything arranged and functioning chaotically? If you look at the sky, what can you see? You can observe some order: each Star has its own specific place! If you look into nature, you can also see complete harmony! Your heart is orderly, it contracts its muscle at certain time intervals, and the blood flows orderly through the arteries and veins! The entire universe lives in complete order! Therefore, a reasonable and justified question arises: who established order and organized all the celestial bodies and what is inside them? The only reasonable answer is God.
- ⇒ The third axiom proving the existence of the Creator is the axiom of the trace. For example, if there is snow on the road, and then a car drives along the street, then in any case there will be a mark left on the snow. Now we transfer the example to life, the universe and people. Or let’s take any object that surrounds us. Everything around us is a trace of someone’s work or activity. Music is a trace of the composer's activity, a painting is a trace of the artist, a computer is the trace of the developers and engineers who put a lot of work into its creation, a book is a trace of the writers' work. And this list can be continued endlessly. The third axiom, proving the existence of God, states: “If there is a trace, then there must be someone who left it! The trail never appears on its own!” Man, everything that exists, life is the trace that points us all to the presence of the Creator.
- ⇒ Finally, the fourth, most interesting axiom, which is called the axiom of limitation. Our mind is designed in such a way that it can only understand the essence of three things: man, the created world and life. Our mind is capable of knowing only within these three parameters. What is a person, life and this whole world? If we look at a person, we can see that he is a completely limited creature and is completely dependent on the factors that surround him. These are food, water, rest, etc. If we talk about life, then it represents a certain period of time that is given to a certain living creature. And this segment also has limitations. All things, Heaven and Earth are also limited. Life is limited, man is limited, all material and immaterial worlds are also limited. The fourth axiom states: “Limited things and objects are not capable of limiting themselves. Someone has limited them and given them boundaries beyond which they cannot go. The question arises: who limited all things (heaven, earth and all worlds), life and people? There is only one correct and reasonable answer - this is the Lord God. He Himself is not limited by anything, does not eat, does not sleep, does not need anything...
Creation of all things, heavens and earth
Video: “Facts of the Quran”
Think! There is still a lot of evidence that proves to us the existence of the Creator of all that exists. For example, what is more complex in its structure, a picture on the wall, or Heaven and Earth? Of course, everything that exists is many times more complex than a painting hanging on the wall. Question: “Is it possible to think that this picture appears on the wall by itself?” Of course not. So, is it possible to assume that such complex worlds independently appeared and were ordered? There is only one conclusion: someone created all these worlds. And the only reasonable answer is that everything that exists was created by Almighty God, who is not limited by anything and does not need anything.
The video shows very easily accessible information on how to correctly believe in God:
May the Almighty Creator make me and you constantly remember Him.
Koran 21:30
Statements by modern research scientists about God
Anyone who does not want to see anything other than chance in this harmony, which is revealed so clearly in the structure of the starry sky, must attribute Divine wisdom to this chance.
Astronomer Mädler
We have seen the work of the Creator in this world, which is unknown to other people. Look into biology, look at any organ of the human body or even the smallest insect. You will find so many amazing things there that you will not have enough time to explore them. It gives me and many of my employees the feeling that there is something great and beautiful. This Someone is the cause of the creation of the universe, and this Cause cannot be understood by us.
Dr. David R. Inglis,
Senior Physicist National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, USA
I cannot imagine the Universe and human life without some kind of meaningful beginning, without a source of spiritual “warmth” that lies outside matter and its laws.
Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov,
Faith begins with the knowledge that the Supreme Mind created the Universe and man. It is not difficult for me to believe this, because the fact of the existence of a plan and, therefore, Reason is irrefutable. The order in the Universe, which unfolds before our eyes, itself testifies to the truth of the greatest and most sublime statement: “In the beginning is God.”
Arthur Compton
the greatest physicist of the 20th century, Nobel Prize laureate
The meaning and joy of my science come to me in those rare moments when I discover something new and say to myself: “So this is how God created it!” My goal is only to understand a small corner of God's plan.
Henry Schaeffer
famous quantum chemist
In Surah Al-Mulk, the Almighty Creator says to humanity:
67:3 He created seven heavens, one above the other. You will not see any inconsistency in the creation of the Merciful. Take another look. Do you see any crack?
67:4 Then look again and again, and your gaze will return to you humiliated, weary.
Is there evidence of the existence of God in Orthodoxy? How to prove that God exists, that He exists? Read the article by Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev.
How to prove the existence of God?
A lot of them. But they are all tactful enough not to impose themselves on those who have no desire to understand them or simply lack either the experience of life or the experience of thought in order to discern their correctness.
The most traditional argument points to the intelligence of nature as a manifestation of the Creative Mind. Imagine that we found a log house in the forest. Would it even occur to us to say that there are simply frequent hurricanes here and one of them tore out several trees, twisted them, hewed them, sawed them and then accidentally stacked them in such an order that a log house appeared, and the hurricanes of the following years accidentally inserted window frames into it and doors, laid floors and laid a roof? It is unlikely that there is such an “evolutionist”. But the structure is not only cells, but even DNA molecules are incomparable in their complexity, not only with a forest hut, but also with a modern skyscraper. So is it reasonable to persist in the belief that many, many blind hurricanes gave birth to life? It was Shakespeare's medicine man who could say: “Take a little dirt, a little sun and you will get a Nile crocodile.” But today, using reason, trying to prove that there is no Reason in the world is not a very reasonable activity.
By the way, Darwin’s “theory of evolution” proved only one thing - its boundless confidence in its own merits. What did Darwin see as the “engine of progress”? – In the “struggle of species for survival” and in “natural selection”. Both, of course, exist (although modern ecology says that species cooperate rather than fight, and Darwin was too quick to transfer the mores of early capitalist society into nature). But explaining everything by “natural selection” is the same as saying that AvtoVAZ is developing and releasing new models only because it has a technical control department that does not release defective cars outside the plant. It’s not OTK that creates new models! And “mutations” can’t explain much here. They undoubtedly exist, but if they are only random in nature, then they are nothing more than a series of hurricanes. It is more likely that a hurricane sweeping through an airplane graveyard will assemble a brand new superliner than random “mutations” - hurricanes at the molecular level - will create a living cell or a new species. In the end, in “neo-Darwinism” the theory of evolution looks like this: if you punch the black and white “Horizon” for a long time, it will eventually become a colored “Panasonic”. If you beat a roach on the tabletop for a long time, someday it will develop wings and sing like a nightingale.
Does this prove that God exists? No - this only proves that you cannot say with impunity (to preserve your mental abilities) that “science has proven that there is no God.” This proves that there is a superhuman Mind at work in the world. And he proves it by pointing only to the terrible, inhuman absurdity of the opposite statement... And whether a person identifies this Reason with the God of the Bible is already a question of his intimate and completely free choice...
Or here’s another argument – a cosmological one. Everything that exists has a cause, doesn't it? The world also exists. And that means it must also have a reason for its existence. What can be outside the material world? Only the non-material, spiritual world, in which there are no reasons, but there is Freedom, and which therefore itself does not need any higher reason outside of it... To be honest, this is not a mathematical proof. Rather, it is an aesthetic argument. If a person has some philosophical taste, if he feels the aroma of the words “being” and “universe,” he will feel the disharmony, the ugliness of the opposite assumption. In any case, Hegel called the attempt to build an endless series of matryoshka universes, which madly and senselessly, mechanically and aimlessly generate each other, “bad infinity.”
In general, as is easy to see, all arguments about the existence of God are built not on statements, but on reducing the opposite opinion to absurdity.
Have you ever wondered what kind of world you have placed yourself in with your own unbelief? If not, look at the people who thought about it for a long time, thought painfully: they thought not only with their minds, but also with their hearts.
“So what should we rely on? Where is that place in the universe where our actions would not be dictated to us by our cruel need and our cruel coercion? Where is the place in the universe where we could sit without a mask and without the fear of being expelled into the chilly cold of the December hour before midnight? Can there even be such a place in this world for our naked soul, where it can warm up, where we could take off all this baggage that is alien to us and finally give rest to the tired muscles of our body and the even more exhausted muscles of our face? Where, finally, is that place in the universe where we would like to die? For it is precisely this and only this that is the place where we should live.” It was in the seventies that the philosopher Nikolai Trubnikov, who had now gone into the world he sought, wrote not for the press and not for searches.
But for these lines, written in the late twenties, Alexey Fedorovich Losev paid with years of camps: “The only and exclusively original creativity of new European materialism lies precisely in the myth of the universal dead Leviathan, the universal dead monster. You live in the cold fornication of a numb world space and mutilate yourself in the black prison of nihilistic natural science that you yourself built. And I love the sky, blue-blue, dear-native... Incredible boredom emanates from the world of Newtonian mechanics, from the absolute darkness and inhuman cold of interplanetary spaces. What if this is not a black hole, not even a grave, and not even a bathhouse with spiders, because both of them are still more interesting and speak about something human. Then I was on earth, under my native sky, listening about the universe “that does not move.” And then suddenly there is nothing: neither the earth nor the sky “no longer moves.” They kicked me out somewhere, into some kind of emptiness. Reading an astronomy textbook, I feel like someone is driving me out of my own home with a stick. For what?"
The most interesting argument - it is called “ontological” - says simply: God simply logically cannot but exist. That is, to say the phrase “God does not exist” means to say a logical contradiction, because the attribute “to exist” is included in the logical definition of the Supreme Being... You say, you can’t prove anything like that? And you will be wrong. There are three things in the world to which such proof can be applied. First of all, it’s me. Remember Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.”
This was precisely an attempt, contrary to total skepticism and doubt, to prove that at least something really exists and was not just a dream for me (or some space wanderer). If I doubt the existence of myself, then I already exist, for if I did not exist, there would be no one to doubt. To say “I do not exist” is to say absurdity; it means that I really exist. Secondly, this line of argument can be applied to existence as such. To say “being does not exist” is also to say something absurd. But God is Absolute Being, and to say about Him “Absolute Being does not exist” is absurdity to an infinite degree.
Earnestly? Yes, but only for a person with a culture of philosophical thinking. Einstein’s arguments are also understandable only to people with a culture of mathematical thought...
But in the end, no one can be forced to think logically and rationally...,
Now it’s time to say what the participants in the historical conversation at the Patriarch’s Ponds hinted at.
As you remember, Ivan Bezdomny, a worthy representative of a country in which “no matter what you miss, you don’t have it,” advised sending Kant to Solovki for three years. The Kaliningrad thinker deserved such a harsh measure in the eyes of the Soviet poet for his “moral proof of the existence of God.”
Kant begins with a premise already known to us: nothing happens in the world without a reason. The principle of determinism (that is, cause-and-effect relationships) is the most general law of the universe. Man also obeys him. But the fact of the matter is that – not always. There are times when a person acts freely, not automatically forced by anything. If we say that every human action has its own reasons, then it is not people who should be rewarded for their exploits, but these same “reasons”, and they should be put in prison instead of criminals. Where there is no freedom, there is no responsibility and there can be neither law nor morality. Kant says that to deny human freedom is to deny all morality. On the other hand, even if I can see in the actions of other people the reasons why they act this way in every situation, then as soon as I take a closer look at myself, I will have to admit that, by and large, I act freely . No matter how the surrounding circumstances or my past, the characteristics of my character or heredity influence me, I know that at the moment of choice I have a second when I could become higher than myself... There is a second when, as Kant puts it, the history of the entire universe as if it begins with me: neither in the past nor around me there is anything that I would dare to refer to in order to justify the meanness on the threshold of which I stand...
This means that we have two facts - 1) everything in the world lives according to the law of causality and 2) man, in rare moments of his freedom, does not obey this law. And there is one more principle: on the territory of a given state, only those persons who have the right of “extraterritoriality” are not subject to its laws, i.e. diplomatic corps. So, man does not obey the Basic Law of our Universe. This means that the person is not part of it. We have a status of extraterritoriality in this world; we are messengers. We are ambassadors of that other, immaterial world, in which it is not the principle of determinism that operates, but the principle of Freedom and Love. There is a Being in the world that does not obey the laws of matter. And we are involved in it. In general: we are free - which means God exists. Kant’s Russian contemporary, Gabriel Derzhavin, came to the same conclusion in his ode “God”: “I am, which means you are too!”
In general, “proofs of the existence of God” should not be given undue importance. Faith that is pulled out by the pincers of arguments is worth little. The existence of God, as Ivan Kireevsky wrote in the last century, is not proven, but shown.
A person becomes a Christian not because someone pinned him against the wall with evidence. It’s just that one day he himself touched the Shrine with his soul. Or - himself; or - as one Orthodox theologian said: “no one would ever become a monk if he had not once seen the radiance of eternal life on the face of another person.”
The Church does not seek to prove the existence of God. The path of her proof is different: “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they will see God.” That's what Christ said. And after one and a half thousand years, Pascal will advise a skeptic he knows: “Try to strengthen your faith not by increasing the number of proofs, but by decreasing the number of your own sins.”
Theology is an experimental, experimental science. A believer differs from an unbeliever in that the circle of his experience is simply wider. This is how a person who has an ear for music differs from a person who cannot hear the harmony of consonances. This is how a person who has visited Jerusalem himself differs from a person who claims that this cannot happen, because Jerusalem and what is told about it is a myth of ignorant medieval barbarians.
If a person has the experience of the Meeting, how much changes in his world! And if he loses it, how many things fade. One young man wrote at the dawn of the 19th century: “When a person has been granted this virtue, union with Christ, he meets the blows of fate with calmness and inner silence, courageously resists the storms of passions, fearlessly endures the fury of anger. How can you not endure suffering if you know that by persisting in Christ and working hard, you glorify God Himself?!” Then, having renounced Christ, the author of these wonderful lines about union wrote only about alienation for the rest of his life. This young man's name was Karl Marx...
1. K. Marx. The union of believers with Christ according to the Gospel of John (15:1-14). Graduation essay from high school (cited by G. Küng. Does God exist? 1982, p. 177).
Deacon Andrey Kuraev. Does it matter how you believe? M., 1999
