1.1 How Can I Know That God Exists?

Life is an adventure. It's full of highs and lows with many twists and turns along the way. Life is a mystery, some things are hard to understand whilst other parts can take your breath away. We want to welcome you on a journey of discovery to find out what this life is really all about. Welcome to NUA Origins. For a while there, it seemed like every big movie release was some comic book Hero's Origin story. We are totally fascinated by stories that go back to the beginning of a Hero's life and answer the question, 'How did this person become who they are?' and the same is true of all of us, not that we all have a secret identity or fight crime but we all have an origin story that helps explain who we are. We also have different faith origins. For me, I grew up in a home where God was really important to my family. If I'm being honest I didn't see how God had much to do with my everyday life. I knew deep down that God was real but more of an out-there kind of thing. I never knew that God wanted to connect with me. Throughout these eight sessions, we want to be open and honest explaining the origins of our own faith journeys and our relationship with God became the foundation of our lives but first, we want to discuss one of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to faith, 'How can I know that God exists?' We live in a world today where it seems that you have to choose to believe in God or believe that science has all the answers but it's just not that simple. As in science has tons of answers and it gives us the understanding of how things work, like our bodies, the solar system, our weather but we're still left with questions. Questions I believe only our faith can answer. Questions like, Why am I here? What does it mean? Who's behind all this? You see, if you stop thinking of God and science as rivals you can allow science to show you how incredible the universe is and at the same time believe that a powerful designer is behind it. Let me explain. Take the closest thing to you. Well, that's you. You are incredibly detailed and recent scientific discoveries about our bodies will blow your mind. The reason why you can kick a ball, wink at a friend or even why your knee stops bleeding after a bad fall is because messages are being sent to and from your brain along nerves at over 300 Km/Hr. Science also teaches us that if you were to unravel all the DNA in your body that it would stretch 10 billion miles. That's like traveling from Earth to Pluto and back again. Now, this one might gross you out, but science has also discovered that right now there is more bacteria in your mouth than there are people alive today so enjoy your next kiss, or your first. Now, take a look at something much bigger than you. Our planet is just as detailed as you are. We travel at a very specific speed and distance around the sun giving us day and night. Our planet also has a precise tilt giving us seasons. The exact size of our atmosphere allows us to breathe and the right force of gravity keeps our feet on the ground. We learn all of this from science which further tells us that if just one of these mechanisms were to change even just a tiny bit the whole system would break down and we could no longer survive. So, I think all these details whether microscopic like our DNA, or massive like our planet point to the existence of an incredible, creative and powerful God. The bible spoke of this detail long before the first scientific discovery. There's a quote from a very old bible book called Job that says, 'When the ocean was born I set its boundaries, your powerful waves stop here, they can go no further.' The Psalmist also said, 'You made it all with wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations, oh look, the deep, wide sea brimming with fish past counting.' (Psalm 104:24-25) Some suggest that we just got lucky and our world accidentally came to be but these amazing scientific facts lead me to believe that God exists and his fingerprints are everywhere for us to see. We can discover a loving God who had all of this in mind including me and including you.