The Improbability of God’s Existence

Recent photographs taken from the Hubble telescope give us views of the universe that mankind has previously never seen.  You can see the photographs here.  These new cosmic perspectives raise old questions about what may be beyond the view of mankind’s most powerful observational instruments.

When I look at the Hubble telescope photos, I feel like I’m beginning to get an idea of what the Apostle Paul meant when he said that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9.)  However, I have a dyed-in-wool atheist friend who argues strenuously that the whole idea of a God existing somewhere out there in the universe is just too improbable.

To a certain extent, I can understand his arguments.  If I had not been raised in a believing household, my outlook on God would almost certainly be different than it is today.  And even the strongest believers have to wrestle with tough questions.  Questions like: how is it that we can believe in a God who apparently chooses not to intervene in serious matters, (like preventing children from being kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered), but who at the same time cares so deeply about the most trivial details of our lives that he will intervene to help us score better on a spelling test, win a football game, or bless our refreshments to nourish and strengthen our bodies?

But at the end of the day, arguments that it is too improbable for God to exist do not convince me.  Even if a believer discounts and ignores the spiritual experiences he believes he’s had, the fact remains that in a universe as apparently infinite as ours, even extremely improbable things can and do exist.

Take the Earth, for example.  The Earth’s very existence is so extremely improbable when you stop and think about it.  So improbable that even with our most powerful observational instruments, we can’t find another planet like ours anywhere in the universe.  What are the odds of finding a planet that is just the right distance from a star that is just the right size and brightness, which is tilted on its vertical axis at just the right angle, held in balance by the gravitational pull of a moon that is just the right size and just the right distance from that planet, so as to allow for the existence of water and life?  And by the way, because the moon and sun are just the right sizes and just the right distances from each other, another extremely improbable phenomenon–total solar eclipses–can be observed from our extremely improbable planet.  These extremely rare total solar eclipses have enabled mankind to make numerous scientific discoveries.

 The fact is that in a universe as seemingly infinite as ours, things that have only a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,0000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance of existing can and do exist.

So is the existence of God improbable?  For the sake of argument, let’s just say God’s existence is improbable.  Extremely improbable.

As extremely improbable as the Earth’s existence.

As extremely improbable as the fact that you and I exist at all.

And yet we do.