You have come to put your trust in Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. You know your sins have been forgiven, and you want to follow Jesus in every part of your life. You are all excited about this, and as you begin to tell your friends what the Lord has done in your life, you meet with mockery, ridicule, scepticism, etc., because according to your friends you are following some stories cooked up by religious fanatics. For example, they tell you that science has shown that all that you are and see are just a random collection of molecules. Some of them tell you that Jesus never died, let alone rose from the dead, and the disciples took Him away from the cross and hid Him somewhere till He recovered. They say they can point out so many errors in the Bible that it is only old people who still believe in it. Some say that all religions are essentially the same, telling people to be good, even though they call God by different names and describe different paths to reach Him. Questions like these rattle you, because they hit at the core of your beliefs and you don't have any valid answers. Some older believers just tell you to stop thinking about such things and only believe!

But you need answers, and there are answers. God has created us in His image, and His ways must make sense for us. Our faith in God must be based on facts, and not on blind assumptions. God who has created us as thinking creatures knows that we need real answers. So here is an attempt to address these basic, core issues. Once you are convinced about these fundamental truths, you know you are on the right path even if there are a million things which you don't understand, because you know you have the major issues clear.

It is not a sin if we don't know everything. Only God is omniscient, knowing all. As creatures with many limitations, we will never have all the answers, otherwise we will be God. But once we have the knowledge of the core matters, and as we experience more of reality as time goes on, they will give us the stability to face new questions. One major mistake people make when they try to 'deconstruct' their faith is to expect to find all the answers, and they conclude they cannot trust in God if something seems to be wrong according to their understanding.

Question: Can we prove the existence of God?>

When you became believers in Jesus, the experience you have begun to enjoy – the change in your mind, desires, inclinations and interests, and the experience of the presence of God as you read the Bible, pray and worship Him – tell you that there is a God and that He is with you. For many people, this is enough, and they don't look any further. But there is also a real need to satisfy the questions that rise up in your mind and also when others ask you things that make you wonder if you could be intellectually convinced also. That is normal, and it is not the same as unbelief.

People are being told that science has discovered how everything has evolved over billions of years by a natural process unaided by any external agency. Children who have grown up believing in the Bible get thoroughly shaken up when they are taught in high school that evolution is a well-understood fact, and then they begin to think that this proves that the creation account in the Bible is all wrong! They are confused when some 'respected Bible teachers' also refer to the Genesis account as myth. Many begin to move away from their faith at this time. This is very sad, because the theory of evolution is actually only a theory and far from being a fact. In fact, the more people understand science, it actually becomes clearer that things could not have originated nor evolved by themselves. For example, people used to think that life began when a burst of high energy hit a certain combination of chemicals. But now that people have discovered how complex a single living cell really is, hope is fading that says this theory of origin is feasible. In a real sense, the odds of life coming into existence on its own from lifeless chemicals are nil because life is more than a combination of chemicals. The idea of more and more advanced species getting evolved from the first living cell through mutations now appears to be far-fetched because mutations can be seen to produce more damaging results than good. Even though some can argue theoretically that there is always a possibility that something can happen given enough number of attempts over an unlimited period of time, we can actually rule out certain things when we know the practical constraints.

From the point of view of science, it becomes impossible to prove the theory of evolution because we don't know the exact conditions that were there when life started, and then it is impossible to repeat the process now as in a normal scientific investigation. So the theories of the origin of life and the evolution of species remain as flights of imagination, with theories getting discarded or revised as more knowledge comes up.

On the other hand, many scientists have now recognised that the intelligence they see in the organisation of the universe and life here on earth points strongly to an Intelligent Designer behind its creation. What we are doing in science is only to discover what He has done, and the laws that He has established that keep everything going. Christian scientists who believe this keep finding that there are marks of His hand over every detail. But before going to look at some examples to illustrate this, let us look at a more convincing proof of His existence that He has given to us.

On the other hand, the more we understand the complexities of the universe and life, the p ossibility that the world was created by an infinitely brilliant and powerful God becomes a more attractive option. One day we might discover that God created everything just the way He has described in the Bible, because He has the ability to do it. When He was conveying to us how He had created everything, He had no reason to say anything but the truth. Of course, He has not given us all the details, which we are slowly discovering, or which He may tell us at an appropriate time. When we understand that God's purpose for creating the whole universe was to provide a suitable place for man to live in. That is why He prepared everything first and finally created man and placed him on the earth.

One of the many reasons why people cannot believe in God is because they have a poor idea about God. Since many religious stories are built around man-like gods or with just some extended abilities, when we say 'God' they are not thinking of an almighty, all-knowing, ever-present, all-wise Being who can do whatever He wants. So they are unable to accept God creating things out of nothing, or God being Someone with more than sufficient intelligence or power to design the galaxies at the macro level and atomic particles at the micro level. But remember, Jesus walked on water, turned water into wine, fed thousands of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish, raised a dead man to life after four days, gave sight to a man born blind, drove out demons from people, etc. God knows even our thoughts and intentions of our heart, and is able to listen to the prayers of billions of people at the same time. We can go on. Now it should be clear that God is quite able to create the world just as He has told us in the Bible.

We can get to know the existence of God by reading the Bible and also by understanding science.

The fact of the resurrection of Jesus three days after He was killed and buried is the proof that God exists. While many have tried to disprove the resurrection with various theories, this event has undergone thorough investigation by many experts and found to be true. This includes sceptics, agnostics and atheists who set out to disprove the resurrection, but finally turned themselves over to Jesus when they came face to face with the evidence. There were many eye-witnesses apart from the disciples who were still alive when the gospel records were written, who could verify what the disciples were claiming. The disciples themselves got transformed from being afraid to become bold preachers who proclaimed the good news of the resurrection at the cost of their lives. They had earlier locked themselves up in rooms for fear of getting caught after Jesus was crucified, but now they stood by the truth of the resurrection even when faced with persecution and martyrdom.

A subsequent proof that is available now right before our eyes is the transformation that comes on people now who believe and surrender their lives to Jesus, from sinful bondage to God's freedom. Many who have experienced this personal encounter with the living Christ now give their lives fully to serving Him. God who took the form of a man and died for the sins of the world came back to life, showing that He is God and He cannot die.

Now let us look at examples of God's intelligence in the creation of the universe.

We can place them into two broad categories, firstly as the marvels of the design, and secondly as marks of their fine tuning. Let us look at the earth with which we are most familiar. Its rotation around its axis provides us night and day, giving us time for work and rest. The sun gives us light and warmth but the rotation of the earth keeps us away from the heat of the sun half the time. The tilt of the earth's axis provides us the different seasons, when our part of the earth gets nearer or farther away from the sun. We need oxygen to breathe in, and there are trees and plants to take in our carbon dioxide and give us oxygen. Look at the water cycle where the water in the sea gets evaporated, gets carried over to the land by winds where it condenses and falls down as rain, providing us with water to drink, wash and irrigate, and then it flows down as rivers down to the sea, providing water all along its path. Think of all the food that is available to us, which also gives us pleasure in eating! Think of the most soothing colour for us, green, and how we have that colour all around us! How can we think that all this has come about by random chance?

Think of the billions of stars in their galaxies, possibly with their own planets and moons around them, all contributing to the balance of the gravitational pull on each other! Have you thought that that is one reason why our earth is able to go around the sun steadily without too much deviation? Have you wondered about the stability of the whole set up because of which people are able to determine their position on the earth by referring to the stars?

Our body is a masterpiece in itself, with all the different parts carrying out their functions, producing necessary chemicals including enzymes and hormones and releasing them at different times according to our need. Think of the different specialised systems involved in eating and digesting food, absorbing nutrients and disposing waste, supply of oxygen and removing carbon dioxide, an intelligent mind working through the intricate brain, the skin protecting the body from external threats and also disposing waste and causing cooling, the reproductive functions, coping with emergencies, etc. The fact that there are differences between the male and female bodies that are specifically suited for each function again beg the question how this could have just happened by chance. The discovery of the DNA which is behind the programming of all these should cause any honest person to recognise that such an intricate and complex design that we see before us could not have been the result of random natural processes.

If this is not enough, let us look at some scientific factors that are so finely tuned to make human life possible, and where deviations would be catastrophic.

"* The electromagnetic coupling constant binds electrons to protons in atoms. If it was smaller, fewer electrons could be held. If it was larger, electrons would be held too tightly to bond with other atoms.

* Ratio of electron to proton mass (1:1836). Again, if this was larger or smaller, molecules could not form. Carbon and oxygen nuclei have finely tuned energy levels.

* Electromagnetic and gravitational forces are finely tuned, so the right kind of star can be stable.

* Our sun is the right colour. If it was redder or bluer, photosynthetic response would be weaker.

* Our sun is also the right mass. If it was larger, its brightness would change too quickly and there would be too much high energy radiation. If it was smaller, the range of planetary distances able to support life would be too narrow; the right distance would be so close to the star that tidal forces would disrupt the planet’s rotational period. UV radiation would also be inadequate for photosynthesis.

* The earth’s distance from the sun is crucial for a stable water cycle. Too far away, and most water would freeze; too close and most water would boil.

* The earth’s gravity, axial tilt, rotation period, magnetic field, crust thickness, oxygen/nitrogen ratio, carbon dioxide, water vapour and ozone levels are just right." (Quoted from Answers in Genesis)

As we said before, the chances of all this happening by unaided natural processes become smaller and smaller in our eyes, the more we get to know science in all its branches and details. Any logical person will conclude that all the world is a deliberate creation with meticulous design. It is only a deliberate attempt to block out the concept of God that can lead one to reject these proofs of God. There is a reason why people do that, because when you recognise God, it makes you accountable to Him, and people don't want to give up their independence. But look at the evidence with an honest heart and an open mind, and you will be convinced about His existence. To get to know Him more, read the Bible, and ask God to reveal Himself to you.