Do you find Christianity appealing, yet keep hitting a rational wall at "God exists"? This article approaches two questions from a fresh angle: Is "it was designed and created" a reasonable explanation for the vast, intricate system we call the universe? And if a Creator exists, what grounds do we have for saying that Creator is the God of the Bible (the handbag parable)? Links at the end lead to dedicated articles answering common follow-up questions such as "Who created God?", "How does Genesis line up with science?", "Do demons really exist?", and "The Chinese people and God."
Speaker: Pastor Yunfei Lu · Scripture: 罗1:20
Dear friend, let me ask you to honestly consider a question that may feel uncomfortable, yet is absolutely crucial:
If the Christian faith is true, would you be willing to believe?
Don't answer too quickly. What holds us back is not always the evidence — it may also be a question of who governs our lives: if God is real, am I willing to let him into mine? If true faith is true, it is not merely adding one more idea to our worldview; it is an invitation to see ourselves and the world afresh, and to face the One who is Lord over all creation.
This article is written for those who are willing to search seriously — not for those who have no more questions, but for those willing to face their questions honestly and be led by truth. I am not trying to "argue you into submission" with one or two proofs. Faith is not an equation you work through and then have no choice but to nod at. But I do want us to consider together: is believing that God exists a reasonable, defensible choice? If you are not yet sure whether you are willing to believe, that is perfectly fine — you can read on with that honesty intact. Many times faith does not begin with "I already believe," but with "I am willing to take a genuine look."
Perhaps in a sleepless night, or at some crossroads of life, you have asked yourself:
Does God really exist?
This is not an idle philosophical puzzle. It touches the very foundation of our lives: Where do I come from? Am I loved? What is the meaning of my life? Where do I go when I die?
You may have encountered enthusiastic Christian friends who share their stories: "After I believed, my serious illness miraculously healed," or "I used to have a terrible temper, and believing changed me completely." These experiences can be real and moving. But as grounds for concluding that God truly exists, you probably still feel uncertain — because almost every folk religion in the world has its own abundance of "miracle" stories: countless people testify to prayers answered at a Buddhist temple, legends of the sea goddess Mazu and Guanyin "appearing" have never ceased, and people who turned from drink and gambling through devoted practice are everywhere. Moreover, many Christians still get seriously ill and still die. Basing the argument on "I experienced this" to prove "my God is real" is not enough for a thoughtful person. You will naturally ask: what, exactly, is the difference between one person's miracle and another's?
You may also have heard someone say, "Don't overthink it — just believe." That only makes you more resistant: so Christianity requires you to switch off your brain before you can enter? More and more people have come to think of the Christian faith as "anti-rational." This is a serious misunderstanding. The Christian faith has never been hostile to reason, because reason and emotion were both made by the same God. How could the God who created the minds of Newton and Einstein demand that we switch off those minds in order to know him?
So how does the Bible itself answer the question of whether God exists? The answer points back to the "creation" of the universe. The very first line of the Bible states it plainly:
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)
And the apostle Paul says it again with unmistakable clarity in Romans:
"For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse." (Romans 1:20, WEB)
In this article, following the path the Bible itself provides, and bringing with us reason, logic, and the picture of the cosmos that modern science has revealed, we will look together at whether believing in God — the Creator — is actually reasonable.
Before we can discuss "whether God exists," we need to do something that is often overlooked but is absolutely essential: clarify what the word "God" actually refers to. Many people feel resistance to the Christian "God" not because they have genuinely investigated the claim, but because they have placed "God" into the old mental framework of folk religion.
In Chinese, the words for "deity/spirit" (神, shén) and "ghost" (鬼, guǐ) are deeply intertwined — they appear side by side in countless idioms: 神出鬼没 ("appearing and vanishing without a trace"), 鬼斧神工 ("craftsmanship beyond human skill"), 神鬼莫测 ("unfathomable to all"), 鬼使神差 ("driven by some uncanny unseen force"). In the instinctive imagination of most Chinese people, "gods" and "ghosts" belong to the same realm — gods are simply more powerful. The Earth God (土地公) oversees a local area; the Dragon King rules the seas; mountains have mountain spirits; the God of Wealth brings prosperity; the Kitchen God watches over the stove. Notice: all these "gods" are beings within the universe and nature. Each has a "post" and a "jurisdiction." They cannot explain why the universe exists at all, because they themselves are merely part of it.
Many people assume instinctively: Eastern people worship Eastern gods, Western people worship Western gods — it is essentially the same thing under different names, and the Christian "God" is just "the Western version of the Jade Emperor." This is a very serious misunderstanding.
The biblical texts use two entirely different categories to distinguish two completely different kinds of beings:
| English | Hebrew original | Common Chinese rendering | What it refers to |
|---|---|---|---|
| God (uppercase, singular) | אֱלֹהִים (Elohim, plural of majesty, referring to the one God) / יהוה (YHWH, the personal name "Yahweh") | 上帝 (God), 耶和华 (Yahweh) | The Creator of time, space, matter, and natural law; transcendent over and beyond the universe |
| gods (lowercase, plural) | אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים (elohim acherim, "other gods") | 神明 (deities), 偶像 (idols), 众神 (many gods) | Supernatural beings within the universe and nature; dependent on the universe for their existence |
The Earth God, the Dragon King, Guanyin, the Jade Emperor, Zeus, Apollo, Norse Thor — these all belong to the gods tier, at best "components" inside the great machine of the universe, unable to explain where the machine itself came from. "God," in the biblical sense, belongs to an entirely different category: he is the one who drew up the design, built the factory, and established every operating rule — he himself is not part of the machine. So when we speak of "the God of Christianity," we cannot place him alongside the "gods" of folk religion. One is a minor character inside the universe; the other is the Creator beyond it — much like comparing a character inside a story to the author who wrote it.
Look around at the world you inhabit. Green leaves convert sunlight into chemical energy each day, feeding animals; the remains of animals become nutrients for plants — a complete, closed material cycle. Go deeper still: everything in the universe, from subatomic particles to entire galaxies, spontaneously follows an extraordinarily precise set of physical laws and constants, laws that can be expressed, calculated, and predicted using elegant mathematical equations.
Notice that these laws are not themselves material — you cannot see or touch them. They are like the rules of a football match: unlike the ball or the pitch, you cannot lay eyes on them, yet every player must obey them. The trillions upon trillions of particles in the entire universe ceaselessly and meticulously "follow" this set of rules. What scientists do is not "invent" these laws — they discover them, laws that existed for over thirteen billion years before humans appeared, before the earth was formed.
As a physical system so vast and so precisely ordered — why does the universe exist at all?
Someone might ask: isn't the universe a product of the "Big Bang"? Indeed, "the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old and began expanding from an extremely hot, dense early state" is the mainstream model of modern cosmology — even in settings dominated by atheism, natural history museums display it.
But notice something remarkable: the universe did not unfold into meaningless chaos. Instead it became a precise system — one that can be described by mathematics, one that gave rise to galaxies, stars, planets, and even life. The "Big Bang" is nothing like a conventional explosion; it is what modern cosmology calls the universe's early expansion. That is precisely why we must ask: why did this universe, unfolding from its earliest moments, come to have such profound order and intelligibility? The universe is not incomprehensible noise — it is more like a score of music that can actually be read and understood. This alone is worth asking: is there a wise Author behind it?
The distinguished Chinese-American physicist and Nobel laureate C. N. Yang (杨振宁) once shared this view openly in a public interview:
"You ask me whether there is a God. If by 'God' you mean something in human form — like the idols in a temple — then I think not. But if you ask whether there is a Creator, then I think yes. Because the structure of this entire world is not accidental. Look at Maxwell's equations — they are wondrous beyond words. Something like that cannot be accidental. Accidents cannot produce anything so marvelous."
He draws a clear distinction between two tiers: "idols in human form" and "a Creator." This at least shows that serious engagement with science does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that "the universe is simply a cosmic accident."
If "the universe is precisely ordered" still sounds too vague, consider what modern physics calls "fine-tuning." Physicists have found that the universe runs on a set of "fundamental physical constants" — like the fine-tuning knobs on the universe's instrument panel. Scholars debate the exact numbers, but one thing is quite clear: if certain key conditions differed even slightly, the stable universe and life-sustaining environment we know would be extremely unlikely to exist. In other words, the universe we inhabit does not look like a random pile of scattered parts; it looks like a home — precisely configured for life to dwell in and for reason to explore.
This is not to say that a handful of constants alone can "prove" God. It is to say that the deep order and habitability of the universe makes "there is a wise Creator behind it" a genuinely compelling explanation. The celebrated astrophysicist Paul Davies has said: "There is sufficient evidence to convince me that behind everything there is an agency which, in creating the universe, has fine-tuned the numbers of nature to just the right values. The concept of design is hard to resist and impossible to dismiss."
Here is a simple analogy. Glance around the building you are in right now — it may be an ordinary apartment block. Where did this building come from? Logically, only two explanations are possible.
Option one: there was once a hillside here, and over tens of thousands of years of wind, rain, and floods, it accidentally "evolved" into this building — complete with its plumbing, electrical wiring, fire-suppression system, and telecommunications infrastructure.
Option two: this building was designed and constructed by people. Even if you have never met the architects, you can infer their skill and taste from the structure, layout, and function of the building itself.
Which explanation do you find more reasonable? Now consider the universe — billions of times more complex than any building.
Notice my wording: I said "a more reasonable explanation," not "the only possible explanation." Strictly speaking, "this precise order is purely the result of chance" is also a theoretical possibility — but probabilistically, the chances are so vanishingly small they approach zero.
Consider an analogy: you wake up in a city of one million people. You step outside and find that every single person is wearing a red shirt. How do you explain it? Option one: one million people independently and coincidentally chose red on the same day. Option two: there is a large community event today, and everyone planned to wear red. Instinctively you would not hesitate — the first option is too improbable to take seriously. Yet the universe is far more staggering: the observable universe contains roughly 10⁸⁰ atoms, and every one of them follows the same set of physical laws. These atoms have held no meeting, signed no agreement — yet without a single exception they all operate according to the same precise rules. If a million people wearing matching shirts tells you "someone organized this," then 10⁸⁰ atoms all following the same rules clearly points to something set in place, not mere coincidence.
Some invoke the "multiverse" to dilute this probability: perhaps there are infinitely many universes, and we simply happen to live in the one suitable for life. But that is like saying: the million red shirts are neither coincidence nor planning — they exist because there are infinitely many parallel cities. Does that make things clearer, or more mysterious? And it incurs an even larger debt: where did all those infinitely many parallel cities come from? Others invoke the "anthropic principle" — we can discuss this question only because we happen to exist in a life-friendly universe. True enough, but that only describes the phenomenon; it does not explain why such a fitting universe exists at all. By contrast, acknowledging a Creator is a remarkably simple and coherent response to this entire tapestry of precise order.
And this judgment is far from trivial. It touches everything: What is the meaning of our lives? On what foundation do we build our sense of right and wrong? Does death truly mean "it's all over," or is there really a soul, a judgment, an eternity? If a Creator truly exists, the cost of ignoring him is immense.
If you have come this far and are willing to grant that there is a Creator behind the universe, you may still ask: why should that Creator be the God of the Christian Bible? Could it not be the deity of some other religion, or some Creator we know nothing about at all? This is an excellent question. The universe itself can point toward a Creator, but it cannot tell us his name, whether he loves us, or whether he wishes to be known. If this Creator wants people to know him, he would need to reveal himself. Let me explain with a parable — the Handbag Parable.
One afternoon you find a bulging handbag in a busy shopping centre. You are an honest person, and you are determined to return it to its owner in person. You stand at a crowded intersection, hold the handbag high, and call out: "Did anyone lose a handbag?" For the next three hours, thousands upon thousands of people pass by, see the handbag you are holding — and not one comes forward to claim it. What does this mean? It means that none of those thousands of passersby has any connection to this handbag at all.
Now replace "handbag" with "universe." Different religious and philosophical traditions today offer different accounts of the universe's ultimate origin: Buddhism is oriented toward suffering and liberation; Daoism speaks of the Tao and the movement of all things; Hinduism contains a rich diversity of cosmologies. We need not dismiss any of these in a few sentences. But the Bible has a distinctly unique quality: from its very first sentence it clearly declares that heaven and earth are not self-existing and eternal, but were created by a personal God. And it does not begin with the story of how humanity searches for God — it begins with God creating the heavens and the earth, and God actively speaking to humanity.
Continue the parable. Suppose that during those three hours, five different people come forward, each claiming to be the owner of the handbag. Which of the following is possible? One of the five is the true owner and the other four are not — possible. None of the five is the true owner — possible. All five are simultaneously the true owner — impossible. A handbag can have only one true owner. This is not a matter of attitude; it is a matter of logic.
While the argument continues, one of the five suggests: "Let's not quarrel. For the sake of peace, we'll each count as an owner and split the contents five ways — everyone goes home happy." That sounds admirably "inclusive," but the true owner would have a hard time agreeing — because if the handbag really is his, "splitting it evenly" is not inclusion; it is giving away what rightfully belongs to him.
People often say today, "All religions are good; they all lead to the same mountaintop." This sounds gentle, and it expresses a genuine wish for mutual respect. But logically, if different faiths hold contradictory views about God, the world, humanity, sin, salvation, and eternity, they cannot all be simultaneously true in the same sense.
Of course, someone simply declaring "this is my handbag" is not enough — they may be mistaken, or they may be making a false claim. The most effective verification is obvious: ask them to describe what is inside the handbag. How much cash? How many bank cards? Which banks? Anything else? Only the true owner can confidently and accurately describe the contents before the bag is opened. That kind of "hidden information" is very difficult for an impostor to fabricate out of thin air.
So what "hidden information" does the Bible — especially its opening book, Genesis — reveal? More than 3,500 years ago, the very first page of Genesis makes several profoundly important declarations:
These are not sentences that can be directly weighed in a laboratory — yet they address precisely the questions laboratories were never designed to answer: Why is the world knowable? Why do human beings have dignity? Why do we ask about meaning, goodness, justice, and love? This is not to say that a few sentences prove the entire Bible true. But it does show that the Bible's account of the universe, the world, and humanity deserves serious investigation. It is like someone who, before the handbag is even opened, accurately describes the key details that only the real owner is most likely to know. You may not resolve every question on the spot — but you will at least stop and listen carefully.
"For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse." (Romans 1:20, WEB)
Let me push the parable one step further. When the handbag is opened and an enormous sum of money is found inside — is it possible that the person who found it suddenly changes attitude and refuses to acknowledge the true owner? Yes, this is entirely possible, and it happens all the time. Many people's resistance to God is not primarily because the evidence is insufficient. Sometimes it is because, once God is acknowledged, "the handbag" is no longer theirs — they must face this God's call to repentance, trust, and a reorientation of their entire life. So let me ask you an honest question today:
Is my doubt about God really a question of evidence? Or does it also include, somewhere deep inside, an unwillingness to surrender?
Many people today assume: those who follow Jesus are "superstitious," and those who trust science cannot believe in God. But history tells a different story. Many of the greatest minds who laid the foundations of modern science — Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Newton, Faraday, Mendel, Pasteur, Maxwell — did not believe because they stopped thinking. They believed in a wise Creator of the universe, and that conviction gave them even stronger reason to expect that nature has laws, has order, and is worth understanding.
Science investigates the marvelous rules the Creator designed; the Christian faith answers the purpose and meaning for which everything was made. The two are not natural enemies. The real conflict is not between science and faith — it is between a worldview that presupposes "the universe could not possibly have a Creator" and the Creator revealed in Scripture. So, friend, the Christian faith is not asking you to shut off your reason. It is inviting you to bring your reason with you, and to use it to know the One who gave you that reason.
This Creator who made you — he loves you, and he has come to find you himself. Christians believe he did not merely leave traces in the universe; he made his love and his salvation personally and unmistakably known in Jesus Christ. You can begin reading about Jesus in John 1. You do not need to pretend you already believe — just ask honestly: if God really exists, is it possible that he has already come to me in Jesus?
Will you begin knowing this Creator God by getting to know Jesus?
— In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
By this point, you may already have several common follow-up questions rising in your mind. Each one deserves a careful answer, so we have written a dedicated article for each. Click through to read:
Further reading: 1. John 1: Meeting Jesus, the Word Made Flesh 2. Faith Foundations Course · Lesson 2: "Everything Has a Source — Was the Universe Carefully Designed and Created?" 3. Bible Encyclopedia · Genesis 1
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💬 After reading this article, if you have any thoughts or questions, you are welcome to ask Pastor Bond:
- "I want to believe, but I can't get past the rational barrier of 'God exists' — what do I do?"
- "Even if there is a Creator, why should that Creator be the God of the Bible?"
- "How do you answer 'Then who created God?'"