Polarized Yet Warranted Christian Belief

Abstract

Does the world and our experience of it constitute evidence for God’s existence, or does it constitute evidence against his existence? This question has inspired seemingly endless debate with no rational resolution in sight. To cite some classic contemporary exponents of either side of the debate, on one side, Swinburne (1991a) argues that a variety of aspects of the world and our experience of it constitutes evidence for God’s existence, an argument he summarizes thusly:

Why believe that there is a God at all? My answer is that to suppose that there is a God explains why there is a world at all; why there are the scientific laws there are; why animals and then human beings have evolved; why humans have the opportunity to mould their characters and those of their fellow humans for good or ill and to change the environment in which we live; why we have the well-authenticated account of Christ’s life, death and resurrection; why throughout the centuries men have had the apparent experience of being in touch with and guided by God; and so much else. In fact, the hypothesis of the existence of God makes sense of the whole of our experience, and it does so better than any other explanation which can be put forward, and that is the grounds for believing it to be true. (1991b)