_A Shot of Faith To The Head_: Bad Title, Great Book: Conclusion

As Mitch Stokes reasoned in his book, there are three evidential reasons for why belief in God is rational:

1. The universe is rational, and we are rationally able to comprehend and communicate it’s rationality, which reflects a rational being, a perfect form that created the physical world to be rational.
2. The universe looks designed, and not only that—it also has no physical (non-supernatural) explanation for why it looks designed, which leads us to accepting a supernatural explanation for the designed universe.
3. Humanity comprehends and communicates absolute moral standards, concepts of good and evil that have no physical explanation or, more importantly, physical reason for an ought, which points us to a supernatural being that has instilled a sense of morality.
   

If this is overwhelmingly the case, why are some people atheist?

In the words of Stokes, “atheism is a form of cognitive dysfunction” a consequence of moral rebellion against the creator.

But it’s not just atheists who have rebelled against God.  This story is not about picking on them.  It’s about God, and how we must all turn to him.

“All of us are damaged goods,” Stokes concludes.  “God has begun to repair humanity, at an unimaginable cost to himself.
And this is really good news.”

A Rational Cosmos
A Designed Cosmos
A Moral Sentience

These three self-evident truths show that God is real.  This is the simplicity of the rationale for the existence of God.  It is not complicated, nor is it based on our cleverness, nor is it based on hunting and pecking through Bible verses to try and convince someone of God’s existence based on a text that person does not deem divine in the first place.

Now, once theism is established in the heart of an individual, an invitation to the faith itself requires introducing them to the scriptures.  But even the Bible says we should be able to show that God is real without having to use the scriptures.  He has given us rationality (Gen. 1; Isaiah 1:18); his craftiness is shown in nature (Romans 1:20); he has given everyone an intrinsic sense of morality (Romans 2:15).

These three fundamentals about the creation, the cosmos itself and we who live in it, bear testimony to the underlying fact that deity exists, a deity above and beyond who we are.

And so it can be said that to deny that God exists is foolish. Foolish.

I hated that this book was labeled by its author as a “shot” of faith into my head. But it was quite a booster shot to the arm.  It really refined my basic reasoning for my own theism, and helped me reevaluate the groundwork of my own faith in a reasonable way.  I hope what I have shared has done the same for you and, if you are an atheist, I hope it has opened a window for you to see things from the perspective of a theist.