From: belal@engin.umich.edu (belal  khalid)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Existence of God
Date: 26 Jan 93 08:32:39 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

Assalam-u-eleykum,

The existence of God looks like an obvious truth to the believers, but
to the nonbelievers it is, as if covered with seven veils. I have gathered
some points from every day logic and some from historical prospective 
to provide a base to prove existence of God to the nonbelievers. 
I understand that each point that follows could be a topic for discussion, 
but I have tried my best to squeeze as much as possible in a limited space. 



       		      ********************	
		      *	EXISTENCE OF GOD *
		      ********************
1. All RELIGIONS BELIEVE IN GOD
Its an undeniable fact that all the religions on this earth claim to be from 
GOD. Muhammad (SAW), Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Budha, Baba Nanak  and every 
religous leader taught people to believe and worship GOD. Although all 
religions have slight differences in the attributes they ascribe to God, but
 all the religions hold the common view that there is a God who has created 
this universe. History tells us that even those ancient religions that no 
longer exist in this world, they also held the view of God, whether they 
were in ancient America, or in jungles of Africa or in England, or in Jawa or
Samatra, or in Japan and China or in Siberia or in India. It is an important 
point that what's the reason for this thought provoking unity among so varied
 religions? In the ancient times people were not linked together through any
 means of communication or transport, then how is it possible that people 
living in isolation thousands of mile away from each other, held the common 
view about the existence of God? Many of the lands were even not discovered 
at that time.Even now it is difficult for two persons to completely agree on 
any issue, then how come this universal unanimity regarding existence of God? 
All these facts lead us to the only possible conclusion that not only there 
is a living God but also that God has always manifested Himself through some 
means to his men to make them believe in Him. Historians agree that if there 
is such universal unanimity about any issue then there is no reason to 
disagree with it. Another fact worth noting is that there have been a small
number of athiests all the times, this proves that the 'existence of God'
is not related to any psychological need of human beings. In this world, one
can lead ones life without acknowledging the existence of God, though he will 
be attempting to close his eyes to the very obvious and clear truth.


2. WHO ARE THOSE WHO CALL PEOPLE TOWARDS GOD?
If we look at the life of all those men, who have called other people towards 
God, we find a surprising common thing about all of them, that they 
were very pious and righteous men. They were the people who were respected 
in their nations. They were true people, who spent their lives to guide people 
to the right path. They pursuaded people to shun opressing others. They 
taught to look after the poor and needy. They fought all their life against 
the unjust rulers of the time. They were invariably opposed by the people in 
power at that time, although They were highly honoured and valued for the 
purity of their character, even by those who later, on the announcement of
their claims, became their enemies. It is inconceivable that those who did 
not lie about men, began suddenly to lie about God. They were the people 
whose lives were exemplary for others. Whether it is Indian Krishna, or Irani 
zoroster or Egyption Moses, or Israelite Christ or Punjabi Babananak, or 
Leader of the righteous Muhammad (SAW) who was given the title of TRUTHWORTHY 
by his nation from his very youth and who challenged his nation that he had 
led all of his life among them and Could they point out to any single lie or 
felony in his life? So all these righteous persons who came to this world at 
different times and places, all of them say one thing in common... "There is 
a GOD.... There is a GOD...." Not only they claimed that there is a God but 
also they claimed that He talked to them. 

One may find great philosophers or scholors in the world who have done great 
works, but their work cannot be compared to the work of those righteous 
persons. Actually if we study the lives of those philosphers we find that 
no great deeds compared to their lofty sayings. Why is it that
these great philosphers were not able to exhibit that righteousness which was 
shown by people from GOD? The people whose names I have mentioned above, all 
of them faced great hardships in the life due to their teachings but nothing 
could lead them astray from the true path. Their killings were planned, they 
were exiled from their homes and they were bycotted, but they never gave 
up their beliefs. Why did not they tell lie and relieve themselves from those 
hardships that were imposed on them just because of their true belief in God. 
Their lack of interest in material desires proves it that they were selfless 
people. When such truthfull and trustworthy people are saying it in unisonon, 
that they have met with God, they have listened His voice and they have 
experienced his manifestations, then it really leaves us with no doubte. Even 
in this material world the people whom we know that they are habitual liars, 
when they go to a court and speak something under an oath, they are believed,
then why don't we believe in those righteous persons? 

3. EVEN DISBELIEVERS IN THEIR HEART ARE AFRAID OF GOD
Human nature in itself provides us with a strong inclination towards a belief 
in God. There are certain sins which human nature does'nt like to get 
involved in. For instance, relationship with Mother, sister and daughters, 
uncleanliness owing to certain discharges from body. These are certain things
which even a athiest will not like to do. But if there is no fear of a 
superbeing, Why not to lie all the times?, why not to steal and commit 
adultery? What are the reasons that keep them away from these evils? If they 
do not feel the power of some unseen, then they should do whatever pleases 
them. Then truth and lie and justice and opression should be all the same for 
them. Its only God's fear that is ruling on their hearts. Although their mind 
does not acknowledge the existence of God but the human nature created by 
God cannot defy it. So even an athiest at heart holds some view about God and 
judgement day. While in distress, everybody pray to a super-Being for relief. 
Why so, if they do'nt believe in that super-being, whom we call God?
 
4. EVERY THING IN THIS UNIVERSE HAS A CREATOR
If we deeply study this universe, we see that every thing culminates in a 
Creator. He is the ultimate and every thing is working under his guidance. 
If we look at different stages of human birth and growth, we see that as we 
go backward, we find we are moving towards weaker and weaker stage. Eventually
we shall find that the growth starts from a clot of clinging substance. So 
human beings who themselves start from such a weak stage, how can they be 
their own creator. So it proves without any doubt that human beings are not 
their own creator. We see that if we start studying the birth process 
minutely, ultimately we will find ourselves at the limit of human knowledge. 
At that stage, all the worldly knowledges will reach their limit and will be 
totally exhausted about what had actually happened? So that is a stage where 
divine hand is working. Every scientist have to believe that all the processes
of this universe ultimately reaches a point where their knowledge becomes 
inadequate or insufficient to describe them. Once somebody asked a bedouin 
that what proof does he has about the existence of God. He replied that if he 
saw shit of a camel in the middle of a jungle, he could tell that a camel had 
passed through that jungle. Then after seeing so many different creatures in 
this universe, could'nt he tell that there is some creator of them?

5. IS THIS UNIVERSE CREATED JUST BY CHANCE?
Some of the people believe that this universe was created just by chance 
and they also try to prove it through science. But God says that all those 
things that happens just by chance, they don't have such an order in them. 
Different colors are used together to make a picture. If we just throw the 
paints on a paper, will they ever make a picture? Houses are made of bricks, 
but if we just throw the bricks in a pile, will they form a house? It is true
that sometimes some of the things are made by chance, but a close analysis of 
the universe clearly refutes this 'by chance' theory. Alright, for a moment, 
if we believe that matter was created by chance, and this world also came into 
being by chance, I will ask the readers to study deeply the creation of human
beings, Is it possible that such a perfect being was created by chance? See 
the stars, the planets, sun etc. and then the creation of day and night. 
Every thing just fits so nicely in a finely woven net, does'nt that 
orderliness speaks of a powerful creator?

Even in this world we can easily judge the power and wisdom of a creator of 
anything by closely examining his creation. A good picture is painted by an 
excellent painter, a powerful computer is made by an intellegent team of 
researchers. Looking at the orderliness of any things tells us that how 
intellegent its creator is. God has given to every being an appropriate body 
and shape, so that it can sustain itself. God kept the food for trees in 
earth, therefore he gave roots to the trees, so that they can get their food. 
God made flesh as food for tiger, therefore He gave strong nails and teeth to 
the tiger, so that it can kill its prey and eat it. God made grass as food 
for horses and camels, therefore He gave them long neck, so they can graze it.
God created lungs for human beings, therefore He also created air, so that 
they can breath. Human beings depend on water, so God created Clouds, so that 
they can take water to them. Such an enormous and perfect order could never 
have been created just by chance? Only a super-being could do it.

6. TRUE BELIEVERS ARE ALWAYS EXALTED ON OTHERS
God said that he would always exalt His true believers on others. True 
believers are always triumphant on nonbelievers, they always overcome them. 
If there is no God then how are they successful.All the founders of different
religions were men of weak means. When Moses called Pharaoh towards 
God, Pharaoh replied that which God was he talking about? "I am GOD" So
God ruined Pharaoh, and made Moses as the King of that time. Incidence of 
Pharaoh has become an example for this world and also for the next world. 
Same happened with other prophets. Same happened with Muhammad(SAW). All of 
his enemies were defeated. All those nations of that time, who opposed him were
conquered by him or his followers. The founders of religions did not posses 
those powers and means which ordinarily make for successful 
leadership. Yet it is inconceivable that an innocent person of ordinary 
accomplishments, as soon as he begins to lie about God, should come to have 
such tremendous powers that his teachings dominate all other teachings 
current in his time. Such a development is impossible without the help of 
a powerful God. Why were their prophecies and their promises fulfilled? No 
doubt there have been others, generals and dictators, who have attained to 
apparently similar sucess. But it never lasts for long, but the sucess which 
is foretold, which is attributed to God from the beginning, success on which 
is staked the Prophet's whole moral reputation and which is achieved in spite 
of the tough opposition endures for ever.

7. GOD LISTENS TO THE PRAYERS
God has always listened to the prayers of the righteous people of all the 
times. A nonbeliever may say that it might have been by chance that those 
incidents happened that were prayed for. But the accepted prayers are 
different from the other ones. God not only listens to the prayers of 
his chosen one, but also He informs them about their acceptance. Many 
prophets have claimed about a number of things, and all those claims had been
fulfilled, e.g their ultimate success is always foretold when apparantly 
they were very weak and opressed, but all of them succeeded ultimately. 

8. REVELATION
It has always been God's practice to communicate to people of every age. Not 
only He talks to the choosen ones (Prophets) but also to other righeous 
people and sometime even to very mean and filthy people, just to show his 
manifestations. Sometimes, God foretells people news about future and 
sometimes also about next world. Many times He has revealed news about the 
events, that are to happen hundreds of year later. God told in Quran 
some fourteen hundred years ago about the great progress of Christians, which
 was to occur sometimes later. It was fortold that a time will come when 
camels would be no longer used. Even it was told that the transportation that 
will be used in future would work with fire. It was foretold that a time 
will come when people would die in large numbers by earthquackes, storms 
and rains, and wars would also bring large number of fatalities. And such 
large scale destruction would have never happened before on this earth. Islam 
is a religion, about which God has said, that there will be people in every 
century, with whom God would communicate, and this has come true. How it can 
all happen by chance?

9. UNIVERSE IS NOT FROM EVER
Some athiests claim that this universe is in existence from ever and it will
last for ever. If this universe is in existence from ever, then it must have 
infinite source of power and energy, but we see that no material thing is 
infinite in this universe. The temperature of Sun is falling down, even the 
earth is cooling off. All the sources of energy in this universe are being 
consumed up and exhausting. So the world is approaching to its end as was 
prophecied by all the religions. It proves that the universe came into being 
a finite time ago and it also has a definite end. We know from our whole
life's experience, that if we consider any process, there are only two
possibilites, that a process is either started by some human beings, or
it might be a result of some other process. If we move back in this tree
of processes which are a result of some other process, ultimately we shall
come across a process, which could not be attributed to any other process.
At that place, we are left with no other argument, except to believe
that it was started by some Super being. We refer to that superbeing
as 'GOD', some athiests  call this SuperBeing by the name of 'nature'.
Actually just giving a different name to this SuperBeing really does not
make much difference, they believe in GOD, and all they need is just a little
fine tuning.


10. PRAYER FOR GOD's MANIFESTATION
All the nonbelievers should think that if there is a God then they will be in
deep trouble on the day of Reckoning and in the next world. So if anybody is 
interested in geting the true knowlege about God, then he should pray 
earnestly that if there is a God with infinite powers as the people claim 
then may GOD manifest Himself on him. May God show him the right path. If 
anybody does such prayes earnestly for 40 days, then we believe, whatever his
origin, religion and country is, God will show him the true path and he will
have no doubt about the existence of God.

I realize that it's been a bit lengthy article, and I appologize for that,
but I hope this will help some truth-seekers to find the right path to 
follow in this world.


Belal