Why Do We Believe In God?

Watch the above video on why we believe in God. Fr. Robert Barron answers the most basic question, why do we believe in God? To expand our knowledge about the spiritual life, we must begin with the truth. In this video clip, Fr. Barron looks at how each of us is already ‘wired to God’.

I absolutely love the style of delivery, it is clear, refreshing, and visually stimulating and engaging. The background scenes make the presentation alive. The arguments from desire and contingency are so compelling that they serve as perfect tools for explaining the reason for belief in God.

Robert Barron is a prominent theologian in the catholic church. He is the Francis Cardinal George Chair of Faith and Culture at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, and was ordained an Archdiocesan priest in Chicago in 1986.

If we look to God as simply an ingredient among many in a chain of causes and relationships within the mechanism of the universe (e.g. why is it raining, where do babies come from) we have made a category error. Fr. Barron tries to move the conversation about God into a realm where God fits the answer better.

Here are Fr. Barron’s arguments for God in a nutshell:

Argument from desire: You can’t desire what you don’t know. Since we desire something good and just, which we can’t find here (nothing is good enough or just enough), THEREFORE there must be something that has given us the desire for that can fulfill it. That good and just thing is God.

Argument from intelligibility: Science assumes being is intelligible. The world has an underlying logic. There are rules that if follows and we can recognize them. He mentions that the current Pope, Benedict XVI, argues that when we recognize the world we “re-cognize,” we re-think the logic or logos that has formed the systems of this world. That logic is God, who is in nature intelligible.

Argument from Contingency: The world exists but it doesn’t have to exist. Basically put, we can ask why is there something rather than nothing. We don’t have to exist, but we do. To find the cause of the existence of the universe we have to go outside of the universe. That cause is God.

Watch more of Fr. Robert Barron’s videos at wordonfirevideo channel.