Does God Exist? (Crucial Questions)

by R.C. Sproul

We start with four basic possibilities for explaining reality as we encounter it. The first is that our experience of reality is itself an illusion. The second is that reality as we encounter it is self-created. The third possibility is that the reality we encounter is self-existent. And the fourth possibility is that reality is created ultimately by something else that is self-existent.

clear. However, Calvin also argued that because man is so ill-disposed toward the things of God and has such a profound bias against the truth of God, he will never be sufficiently convinced until or unless God the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of his heart.

We are not called to convince people, but we are called to give a reason for the hope that is within us, and we are called to be faithful to that responsibility.

job. But the truth is, there is no such thing as chance—even though the greatest myth in modern society today is the myth of chance.

the whole process or progress of our lives is a constant cycle of generation and decay, a continual change. Change is the supreme characteristic of contingent beings.

ground and rolls to a stop. If things at rest tend to stay at rest and things in motion tend to stay in motion, then the biggest question about the Big Bang is this: What caused the bang?

If there’s no objective ground for what is right, then everything is simply a battle over preferences—my preference versus yours. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes, and that creates conflict and warfare between groups and between individuals.

The driving passion in contemporary culture is escapism through hedonism, and the whole philosophy of hedonism is that we find meaning through pleasure. Maximize pleasure; minimize pain. It’s an escape from the pain of having to consider what popular music, the film industry, and the high priests of science are telling us: that we are beasts in human clothing with no ultimate significance.

The real reason that anyone denies the existence of God is simply this: that we too are naked, and we know it.