How to Know God Exists: Solid Reasons to Believe in God, Discover Truth, and Find Meaning in Your Life

In this competent volume, evangelist McDowell (Evidence for the Historical Jesus) and artist Williams (Knowing Aslan) find evidence for God in the natural world. Using “reason, observation... and common sense” to dispute naturalist accounts of the universe, the authors posit that belief in God “is rationally defensible” and supported by empirical evidence. They discuss their doubts about evolutionary explanations for human behavior, contending that widespread disapproval of Nazis since WWII indicates a “universal moral sense” that conflicts with a “survival of the fittest” philosophy primarily concerned with protecting one’s progeny at any cost. The authors take issue with the big bang theory and argue that every variation of it struggles to explain how something (a singularity, energy, gravity) can emerge from nothing. Beauty only makes sense if understood as glimpses of the “supernatural,” they suggest, dismissing out of hand arguments about beauty’s subjective nature. McDowell and Williams pose some questions that will give skeptics pause, even if the authors’ shallow presentation of current scientific consensus undermines their persuasiveness. The result provides food for thought. (Nov.)