I Think, Therefore…

There are numerous arguments for the existence of God. The following is to me the most compelling. It goes like this: “I think, therefore…God.”

Allow me to explain, and I think by the end this simple statement will make sense. The fact that I can think implies that there is a source of intelligence. The atheist will object and say that our thoughts are just the synapses in our brains firing. This assumes that the synapses are the cause of thinking, and not the result. Of course, if you are to believe this, how can you be certain that there is no God? How can you rely on those synapses, which by your own admission, tell you what to think? Taking this approach, there is no way of truly knowing anything, and the whole field of science is a contradiction of itself. Anything assumed to be true is only assumed as such because the one who assumes has no control over his assumption. He could well be assuming that which is the furthest from the truth. The mechanics of the brain controlling the thoughts is a belief of determinism. There is no such thing as free will from this perspective. Taken to its logical conclusion, determinism assumes that all things are the result of no cause. If every action is the result of another action, what about the first action? If there is a line of dominoes tipped over, do we not assume that it began with a first domino being tipped? If not, did the first domino somehow break the rules and act out of free will? Or do we assume that there is an infinite line of dominoes stretching back that tipped over, but never a first domino responsible for the others falling?

The theist, on the other hand, assumes that there is at the very least an initial action responsible for the actions that followed. Applying this to the universe, there must have been an initial action that resulted in the universe. The universe cannot explain itself because it is an effect that needs a cause. If there is an initial cause, then free will must exist, at least somewhere, because there cannot be a cause by itself without it making the choice to be a cause. Christians like myself call this cause God. The atheists always object, “Then who or what made God?” This is where faith is required, because you cannot scientifically explain an eternal being. We believe that God exists outside of the constraints of time, so no cause is required for His own existence. But consider the alternative. If there is no God, you have to believe that either the universe itself is eternal and doesn’t require a cause, therefore time doesn’t exist, or there was an effect without a cause, and time began at that point. None of those explanations are scientific.

Now going back to my initial statement, there cannot be a thought without a cause. Assuming godless evolution occurred, where did the first thought appear? How did such a thought evolve? How do you go from being brain-dead to brain-active? Does life come from death? If this universe existed without intelligence, how did it get to be intelligent? To assume that it wasn’t is to assume that I am greater than the universe that created me. I am smart. The universe is dumb. How did something so dumb make something so smart? You can’t create something from nothing, especially if you are as dumb as the atheist would make the universe out to be. This is why it is irrational to believe in a godless existence. We are intelligent because there is a source of intelligence. “I think, therefore… God.”