That's the question asked in a full-page ad running in the current edition of Time magazine. I noticed it yesterday, and wasn't surprised that it was placed by Unitarian Universalist congregations. It is also no surprise that the National Book Award finalists announced on Thursday include the bestseller by Christopher Hitchens which started this series of essays. His title, "god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" means what it says. How can a theist (one who believes in God) respond?

Our series has attempted to engage the popular attempt in our culture to make atheism intellectually respectable and compelling. We've seen that arguments for God's existence based on creation, design, or morality can be interpreted as evidence for natural evolution or God's creative power. (Of course, theistic evolutionists believe that both are true.)

Atheists can protest that the statement "God exists" cannot be understood by reference to experience (since the supernatural transcends the natural) or its own logic, since it begs the question. But theists can ask how this is God's fault. If he is by definition the greatest of all entities, he must not be comparable to his creation.

Additionally, atheists can complain that God's existence should be obvious, but theists can counter that there's nothing more that God could do to prove his reality to us. The rational arguments for his existence demonstrate that faith is reasonable and logical. He has interacted with our world throughout human history, and entered our race personally. He gave us a trustworthy written record of his creative work. He is available personally to everyone who is willing to trust in him. As a result, you could argue that more evidence exists for God than for Julius Caesar or George Washington.

The biggest problem atheists have with believing in God is that such faith requires them to accept the supernatural. If I am a materialist, certain that supernatural reality cannot exist, no amount of proof or persuasion will convince me of a supernatural being. Once you conclude that the world must be flat, nothing in logic or experience can prove you wrong. The presupposition determines the conclusion.

Of course, believing that the supernatural cannot exist is a belief. Materialism is a faith commitment. A materialist cannot disprove the supernatural, any more than a supernaturalist can prove it. The best we can do is to examine the evidence and then make a decision which transcends it. You'll know God is real when you ask him to be real in you. This is a prayer God always answers, even on a Friday morning.

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