Is The Existence Of God A Metaphysical, Ontological, Or Cosmological One?

The question of God’s existence is essentially philosophical or theological. God is metaphysical or beyond the physical realm in which science and empiricism operates within their parameters. It’s not subject to scientific investigation: God cannot be measured, observed, or tested for hypothesis or validated even by experience in an empirical method because He is not audible, visible, nor tangible but spirit. We can no more measure God for experimental reasons that measure foot of love or pound of justice. God will not submit to our laboratory conditions.

The question of God’s existence may be verified in an ontological scheme of thinking: where did we acquire this knowledge since apes don’t build chapels? How can we conceive of God if He doesn’t exist? God has put the knowledge of eternity and basic awareness of Him in us; that’s why every culture throughout history has had its gods and religions. God has made it plain to us (cf. Romans 1:19-21) so that we are without excuse. 

Seeing God as the First Cause or unmoved mover or uncaused cause is a cosmological rationale. Nothing happens by itself but all events are caused: what caused the big bang, for instance—Christians believe the best explanation is God because He is omnipotent. The law of cause and effect has been very handy in deducing God’s existence. Everything that begins to exist, has a cause; the universe began to exist and must be caused—nothing can create or cause itself. God needs no cause because He is eternal without beginning and is the Creator, not the creature or creation.

In other words, there are many ways to prove or argue for God’s existence including the teleological one in which things have purpose and intelligence or harmony. Purpose, design, plans, and beauty don’t just happen. Design implies a Designer for example. Purpose a Purposer. Intelligence demands an Ultimate Mind. The order of creation must be “Thinker, thought, thing.” Things don’t think on their own initiative but demand a Thinker who designed them so. Soli Deo Gloria! 

Some Arguments For God's Existence

The teleological one or that everything has a purpose. Design implies a Designer; order, and Orderer; purpose, a Purposer; beginning, a Beginner; intelligence, an Ultimate Mind; thought, a Thinker. We know the universe had a beginning and we must wonder who began it. The Big Bang, for instance, begs the question of who “banged” it. We know the universe is not eternal but began to exist and this implies a Beginner. Who got the ball rolling or is the First Cause because nothing can cause or create itself according to the law of cause and effect. An endless series of finite causes is impossible; it's impossible to cross infinity and infinite regress is nonsensical 

The kalam cosmological argument states that everything that begins to exist, has a cause; the cosmos began and therefore has a cause—most likely God. The existence of the harmony of the laws of nature indicate intelligent design or ID. The Anthropic Principle goes further and says that it shows the cosmos is designed for life.

But these are all secular, scientific, or philosophical arguments. The best evidence literally is that God came to earth and showed Himself in the person of Jesus, proving it by rising from the dead. He claimed to be God in the flesh, the very Son of God.  Soli Deo Gloria!

What Are The Most Convincing Arguments For God's Existence?...

 

1. The ontological, cultural, or anthropological argument,, or where did we get this idea from and why do people believe universally; God is not an idea made up.   Do apes build chapels? Do animals pray? God is self-evident. This ethnological proof, that virtually every tribe, tongue, and people-group has had some belief system concerning God or deity is compelling as circumstantial evidence.; where did they get the idea from, if not God Himself?  
2. The cosmological or the that nothing happens by itself and nothing can create or cause itself but needs the First Cause: no First Cause means no beginning because infinite regress is impossible; you cannot cross infinity! A beginning (Big Bang) implies a Beginner. God is eternal without beginning, having no cause but being uncaused!
3. The teleological proof that we see order, harmony, intelligence, purpose, design, and beauty in nature as evidence and this point to the anthropological principle or that there appears to be designed in nature (it is fine-tuned for life), and this may be called the argument from design; design only implies a Designer; order implies an Orderer, purpose a Purposer, and intelligence an Ultimate Mind.
4. The moral argument or that it seems that we have morals and there must be justice for that to make sense. Where did we get our conscience from?  This implies a Judge or Judgment Day. God seems to care a lot about right and wrong and has given man a moral code, compass, or conscience to be culpable. Morals make no sense without a Judge or God to make them universal.   God must be the moral center of the universe and standard of Good as Plato called Him, the Supreme Good.   Morals then imply a moral Lawgiver; also, how can you believe in justice without a Judge?  

Putting God On Trial...

"I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD, and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart" (Jer. 24:7, NASB).
"... 'There is no accountability since God does not exist'" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB).


The Bible assumes the existence of God and is not apologetic; it makes no effort to pander to those who doubt His existence and offer proof. When asked point blank for evidence to support God's existence, put the skeptic on the defensive and ask him what evidence he's found that God doesn't exist! Christians put the Lord on trial all the time when they try to "prove" Him or offer evidence in order to convince the skeptic or to argue someone into the kingdom by rationalization or presentation of proofs. There are indeed several ways to make it seem reasonable to believe in God, but a God who demands evidence isn't worth our worship. The fact should be obvious and people are without excuse for not believing in God (Christianity isn't about believing in a God, but in the God who is there!); people know the truth and they foolishly suppress it (you have to know it to suppress it!).


When we try to prove God the skeptic is in the position of being the judge ascertaining whether there's enough evidence to convince him. The power of witness and conviction is in the use of the Word of God, not in our clever arguments and rationales. People don't realize it but they claim they know that there is no God, when this is a logical contradiction, which cannot be proved (a universal negative). Atheism is irrational and intellectually bankrupt and has no basis in fact--the only reason people deny God is out of moral concerns, not intellectual ones--all their questions might be answered and they still wouldn't believe, or they could witness miracles and still not believe. One must realize that all knowledge begins in a step of faith in which he cannot prove the premise; scientists are people of faith just as much as religious people, they just bet the farm that science has the answer and not God.


Faith is a gift of God and God expects us to use the faith we have if we are to get more; they are all judged according to the God that they did know and the moral principles they were aware of--our works. God can make a believer out of the most stubborn person and melt his heart into godly faith and repentance from stone to flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26), as it were. When we judge God by weighing the evidence we put Him on trial and say He needs our approval and judgment to be legit. Evidence is only for the believer to strengthen the faith that is already there to help him realize the reasonableness of Christianity, as John Locke termed it, just like miracles strengthen and support faith, but note that faith doesn't come from miracles, but miracles from faith! This is a paradox!


No one can disbelieve in Christ due to lack of evidence, and there is never enough evidence for the stubborn and unwilling skeptic, who is on a power trip or mind game and is engaging in intellectual arrogance, not intellectual honesty. God promises to bring faith by the hearing of the Word, i.e., preaching! We should never break faith in the Word as the means to faith, and not our clever proofs. God needs to open hearts and quicken faith within them for the person to come to saving faith. Just head knowledge won't do, because God requires believing in the heart with a love for the Lord. If anyone loves not the Lord, he is anathema, Maranatha, under a curse till Christ comes, according to 1 Cor. 16:26. We must realize that faith is given, not achieved and those who do believe are not smarter, wiser, more virtuous, nor intelligent than the infidel, but brought to faith by the grace of God and not their own merit or pre-salvation work. Grace from beginning to end, as Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith.


When the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit falls on those listening and does a work of grace in their hearts--for we are all given a measure of faith and receive the same faith (cf. Rom. 12:3; 2 Pet. 1:1). Acts 18:27 says that we "believed through grace," and this was not because we were out-argued or intellectually convinced, but our hearts were changed by grace. We have nothing to boast of in God's presence! Faith is not a work or that would be the beginning of merit-based salvation! Jesus said that the "work of God is that you believe" in Him, and we are not saved by works of righteousness that we have done (cf. Titus 3:5), but by His purpose and grace alone. As Paul said, "grace reigns through righteousness," in Romans 5:21 (which means it's irresistible and sovereign).


In the final analysis, God is our judge--we are not His judge! We are the ones on trial and have been found guilty of sin in need of redemption, justification, reconciliation, and propitiation. The only ones who find the truth are those who admit they're lost and could be wrong. Christianity is fact-based and based on historical records, not a fable, myth, hearsay, or man's origin and we don't need all the facts nor all the answers to come to faith, God expects a leap of faith to enter the kingdom and we must trust the Lord for the answers and come to know the Answerer (as Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good," or that the proof of the pudding is in the eating)!


Our assurance is not based on conjecture, but a certainty, as sound as the Word itself. Bertrand Russell was asked what he would say to God, should he be wrong: "Why didn't you give more evidence?" He admits there is evidence, after all! As I said, there is never enough evidence for the hardened, stubborn heart who doesn't want to obey God, for Jesus said, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know..." (cf. John 7:17). The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart! "The fool has said in his heart that there is no God..." (cf. Psalm 14:1, emphasis mine). Where's the skeptic's heart, not how smart is he? Just like Paul said in Romans 1, that people refuse to acknowledge God and be thankful and their foolish hearts are darkened--they became fools!


The fact is that God exists and people foolishly suppress what they know about Him due to the calloused hearts. Paul makes it clear in 2 Tim. 2:25 that repentance precedes knowledge of the truth and Augustine asserted that we believe in order to understand--faith precedes reason! In other words, we don't argue the way to God, but accept Him as a given and proceed from there to make deductions. God is the beginning point, not man as the Word says, "In the beginning God..." Athanasius said it well, "The only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point. Proverbs 1:7 makes my point too: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge..." We commence with God, we don't conclude with Him!


To explain just why we cannot engage in a battle of wits or evidence is because people always interpret evidence in light of their worldview and the evidence they already accept and assume is true--what they do is "file" it away till they can reconcile or answer it to the satisfaction and worldview; they don't want to believe it or God would open their eyes (cf. John 7:17). We cannot reason to God, but with God on our side, we reason from God ("In the beginning God..."), for the Bible and logic are OUR weapon! Remember the ancient axiom: "All knowledge begins in faith." Soli Deo Gloria!


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The Beginning Of Time...

"For by him all thing were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together"  (Col. 1:16-17, ESV). 
"(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God" (Heb. 3:4, ESV). 
"[I]n hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began" (Tit. 1:2, ESV). 
[W]ho saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began" (2 Tim. 1:9, ESV).  

The Bible begins unapologetically "In the beginning God...."  It assumes and does not prove, there is a God behind creation. This isn't just the way the Bible begins but the beginning of all logic, thinking, and rationality or reason.  Any other assumption is incoherent!  In Stephen Hawking's book, The Brief History of Time, he postulates the Big Bang as its origin (the Bible declared this in Genesis).  Just like you cannot have a design without a designer so you cannot have creation without a Creator. This is known as a teleological proof of God's existence.  

Paul says in Romans 1:20 that men are without excuse because of the abundant evidence in nature. Immanuel Kant said that two things amaze him:  The starry skies above and the conscience within.  God is self-existent, in that He owes nothing nor anyone for His existence.  We, on the other hand, owe our very being to Him (cf. Acts 17:28).  He is the sole, primary cause of the cosmos and the uncaused cause, as the Greeks said. Everything that begins to exist has a cause, but God didn't begin to exist, but is eternal and therefore no cause and is not an effect.

Genesis is vital to the Bible because there is only one logical alternative:  "In the beginning matter/energy (quantum)."  The idea of "In the beginning nothing" is a matter of intellectual suicide because the Greeks ventured:  Ex nihilo, nihil fit, or out of nothing, nothing comes. Imagine the negation of everything and nothing existing!   Absurd.  Everything in the time-space continuum has a beginning, but don't jump to the conclusion that all that there is had a beginning because this would be fatal to science, logic, philosophy, and even religion.   If ever there was a time when nothing existed, there would be nothing now.  The theory of an eternal universe, it has been demonstrated, is untenable--evolutionists cannot swallow this bitter pill of there actually being a "beginning."

There has to be something transcendent, they reasoned, because we exist.  God is therefore eternal--the alternative is that matter is eternal, and that is disproved due to the Big Bang, or the beginning of the time/space continuum.  Nothing can create or cause itself--it is illogical!  The order has to be that first there was a Thinker, then a thought, then an action leading to creation or thing.  It is so much easier, to begin your reasoning with God and then explain the universe rather than beginning with the universe and explaining God or the cosmos! Napoleon was asked if there was a God? He replied, looking to the heavens:  "Who made that?"

The existence of God and a Thinker is evident because we are thinkers which necessitates a Higher Mind for our existence and creation.   Life only comes from life because of the genetic and metabolic motor, DNA, only is made from DNA.  That begs the question:  How did the first DNA arrive?  It must be by creation, which is only logical.  There is a required Supreme Being thinking and planning everything--that's why we have a "fine-tuned" (who tuned it?) universe and the earth is made in the Anthropic Principle, or designed perfectly for human habitation--the "Creator" just happened to get things right!

Athanasius Kircher designed a model solar system and when his superior saw it, he asked who made it. Kircher told him, "No one, it just happened!" The man balked at accepting and thought Kircher was trying to pull one over on him.  He said, "Well, you believe the whole universe just created itself!"  In the rules of cosmology, nothing "just just happens" but every effect or event must have a cause:  The Big Bang couldn't have just happened by chance or accident, but someone or something intelligent was behind it to pull the trigger.  The only plausible explanation for our universe is that there is a God behind it who made it on purpose for His purposes--He told us to subdue it. 

God created the time-space continuum and is therefore outside the limits of both being eternal and having no beginning or cause.  He is not confined, limited, nor defined by time, which He created!  NB:  Scripture mentions the so-called beginning of time in two places in the New Testament:  2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2 cited above.  This was before scientists even speculated on the subject and even though there was no beginning, as recorded in Genesis 1:1!   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Ultimate Red Flag

Polls show that only about five percent of people disbelieve in God and this has been consistent since Paul preached at Mars Hill about the Unknown God.  Man is an incurably religious being (Homo religiosus) and must worship something and theism of some kind is universal; there is a vacuum that only God can fill according to Blaise Pascal. There have always been atheists and agnostics, but today we have anti-theists who are militantly and vociferously against God and Christianity in particular and are embittered by some bad experience and on a mission. 

Atheists deny a righteous Judge, a supernatural Creator, and a divine Lawgiver.  However, life is no fluke of nature; God is the moral center of the universe and without a Judge, there is no justice; and God is holy and must judge sin according to His laws. The Bible clearly says that the "fool has said in his heart that there is no God."  Jesus said the Pharisees were "slow of heart to believe," (cf. Luke 24:25).    The Bible assumes and never attempts to prove God's existence: "In the beginning God..." and "In the beginning was the Word." Even the ancient Greeks believed (Heraclitus) that this ancient "logos" always existed and all things are through this "word" or "logic."

The point of creation is that it implies a Creator, and if there ever was nothing, then, said the Greeks, nothing could exist now--nothing comes from nothing!  There are only two possibilities then:  "In the beginning God," or "In the beginning matter/energy."  Science now affirms a beginning to our cosmos called the Big Bang but doesn't know who or what pulled the trigger to get everything in motion and dialed its some 50 universal constants. 

But according to the Second  Law of Thermodynamics (entropy) all matter and energy go from complex or order to simple and disorder and run out of energy in any usable form (we are headed for an ultimate heat death of the entire cosmos someday without any usable form of energy). If we figure out how to intelligibly create life in a "prebiotic or primordial soup" then it only proves that it takes intelligence to create it. Sir Fred Hoyle wrote The Intelligent Universe to demonstrate life couldn't have originated by chance.

We go from logic to confusion or from cosmos to chaos without the energetic input of a mind in action. There could be no science without cosmos and divine order.  You must appeal to some ultimate authority (God) or you are making your own reasoning the ultimate authority and this is per contra reason itself. The chief function of reason is to show that some things are beyond reason! Logic was in the beginning (logos) and is universal, immaterial, immutable, and eternal, of which God is and so you cannot use logic to disprove God.  If truth or the cosmos (the orderly scheme of nature in the entire universe) changed our world couldn't be studied as a science.

Modern science believes everything is mechanical and that matter/energy is all that exists--denying the mind or Higher Mind (God-hypothesis). We are not just a brain encased in a body, but soul, spirit, and body joined together, to be separated upon death, and have an immaterial element that cannot be destroyed.  We don't just have a brain, but a mind that is the real us, and this implies a Higher Mind--something beyond "Mother Nature," just like a person existing implies a higher personality from which it came (God cannot be of a lower nature than or inferior to His creatures). "Mother Nature has no inherent power contrary to the Gaia hypothesis of New Age thinking today.

We could not think, if there was no God, because He is the ultimate Thinker, because thinking requires a thinker:  "Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." We can verify our own existence this way and that we are self-conscious individuals and aware of our surroundings.  The divine order of creation is as follows: Thinker, thought, action, matter/energy.  In the same vein:  Design implies designer and art implies artist.  William Paley, an Anglican apologist, said that if you found a watch in the forest you wouldn't assume it had made itself or had always been there--the analogy is that we are more complicated than watches.  You must begin with and assume reason and logic exist, to have a reasonable and logical conclusion. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (cf. John 1:1).

The weak point or Achilles' heel of believing in evolution is that you can't account for the origin of life itself:  They believe and understand its impossibility, but believe that somehow this miracle took place and despite the laws of nature it must have happened, because, God forbid, the opposite cannot and must not be true--that there is a Creator.  This is what is ironic in my opinion:  They believe in this monumental miracle of nature (spontaneous generation was disproved 150 years ago by Louis Pasteur and biogenesis is the principle that life only comes from life--this begs the question of where did the first life come from and back to our original dilemma of the origin of life without God), but, even though they posit evolutionary life as established and unquestionable, they deny that a resurrection of the dead could happen to the Son of God Himself, who is the Author of life!

There is another problem of evolution or denying God because you have to believe in "matter over mind" or that matter has some power or cosmic energy inherent to create life and design itself and give itself purpose and meaning.  We deny truth by denying God, because truth is what conforms to His mind, the Author.  Jesus claimed to be the Truth, so it is knowable, absolute truth and even Augustine said, "All truth is God's truth."  Christians have nothing to fear from scrutiny and the truth. There can be no knowledge, truth or logic without God because that is what God is to any system of proof--so you cannot prove anything without assuming God and that there are truth, knowledge, and logic. 

C. S. Lewis said, "Unless I believe in God, I can't believe in thought; so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God."   God is the originator and inventor of thought and logic. To claim something is nonsense, you have to believe in sense or absolute truth! You can't make sense of the cosmos without God.  Either you start with man and explain God or you start with God and explain man! The only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point and humanism tends to deify man and dethrone God and believes man is the "measure of all things" (Homo mensura).

Note that the burden of proof is on the infidel.  Don't believe you have to prove God:  It takes faith to be saved. We are not to attempt to prove God (God is not on trial, we are), but make Him known enough to take a leap of faith--we don't stoop to their level.  We go in the direction of the preponderance of the evidence like a jury that doesn't know all the facts to make a decision.  You don't need all the answers to have faith!  The evidence demands a verdict and the unbeliever should be challenged to realize that we haven't kissed our brains goodbye.  

For the person that doesn't want to repent and has moral objections, no amount of evidence will convince him, but for the person who is penitent and believing and wants to do God's will, a proof is necessary--it is a work of God.  "If any man wills to do His will, he shall know ..." God wants us to take the leap of faith to get saved, not become intellectually convinced--it is not belief in the mind, but in the heart.  Our faith must not rest on the power of persuasion, as Paul found out at Mars Hill, but in the power of the Holy Spirit as Paul strove to just know Christ and Christ crucified. We are not sold on an idea or way of life by a salesman!

It is true that Jesus is the Answer and Solution to all our dilemmas.  We don't know all the answers, but we know the Answerer.  "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"..."are hidden in Christ" (Colossians 2:2-3).  With Christ as the starting point and reference, everything is rational.  Christianity is not rationalism, but it is rational.  All thought was originated from the first thinker, God and we know that something besides matter and energy exists: Something immaterial and takes up no space, yet has power over our body to command it--thought. We should never answer a fool according to his folly (not acknowledging God),  but catch him off guard, lest we become like him (Prov. 26:4), and never attempt to prove God  (however, we demonstrate their folly or foolishness) or put God on trial,  but boldly proclaim the gospel, because it is what has power according to Paul in Romans 1:16:  "...[For] it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes...."  If we lose our fulcrum of the power of the gospel and stress our wits or cleverness in the persuasion, the Holy Spirit cannot work, for He uses the Word as a seed, not the wisdom of men.

The fulcrum or weak and pivotal point of advantage is the Bible itself as the ultimate authority and if they say prove its authority, you say, "No, you prove it: Read it and it will read you! God honors His Word.  A lion needs no defense, it can defend itself.  Well, they say:  "Prove God exists!" No, tell them, "No, prove God doesn't exist!"  If he doesn't have evidence, then he has blind faith, not knowing why he believes. They can't prove the designer of a watch never existed! "For what can be known of God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them" (Rom. 1:19, ESV).  You aren't always preaching to the choir:  You should realize the futility of trying to convince someone who doesn't want to believe in God or doesn't see his need of preaching--he just wants to get more reasons to disbelieve or thinks he's got it together. No, you prove He doesn't, the burden is on the unbeliever who is going against the grain and tide of humanity's common faith through the ages. You can't prove God doesn't exist and no one can cite any evidence for this. You cannot prove a universal negative, any more than you can assert there are no green men--you'd have to be everywhere simultaneously! In other words, you would have to be omniscient and omnipresent, knowing all and everywhere, or you would have to be God to disprove Him or be an atheist

For the person who claims he has intellectual problems or issues, pride is not absent (these are known as smokescreens to divert the real issue of Jesus Christ's relevance), he really has moral problems and doesn't want to alter his lifestyle or change his way of life, i.e., repent. John Stott said, "We must cater to intellectual integrity, but not pander to intellectual arrogance."  Mostly they don't want to believe but are just engaging in some power game or mind game to win an argument and make you feel bad.  No one is going to come up with some "smoking gun" evidence to make Christianity come tumbling down after two millennia. The trouble with people is not that they can't believe, but don't want to.  Mark 9:24 says that a doubter (doubt is an element of faith, and not its opposite) said, "I believe, help thou mine unbelief." God gives faith to us as a gift and, if we are honest and seek Him, He will increase it.  Faith comes by hearing of the Word of God according to Romans 10:17.

Scripture says there is no excuse to disbelieve in God because He has given this knowledge to all: You have to practically brainwash or indoctrinate a child to stop him from believing in God. "For when they knew God.." shows they once knew and stayed because they didn't acknowledge God or give Him thanks. and exchanged the "truth" about God for a lie. (Cf. Rom. 1: 18-28).

The Bible is the ultimate authority and only standard to appeal to; it is self-attesting or self-authenticating because if we appealed to any other authority it wouldn't be the ultimate authority anymore but our authority of verification would be.  We just say that "It is written" to answer Satan and to stop him in his tracks. If he says he doesn't believe the Bible, ask him why or if he's read it, and if he has, what its main point is (salvation through Christ) to make him realize the foolishness of his ignorance, for he cannot even account for the concept of knowledge without the necessity of God. Without God we wouldn't have such entities as love, justice, righteousness, fair play, trustworthiness, courage, mercy, grace, altruism, sacrifice, purpose, significance, meaning, good faith, goodness, hope, honesty, intuition, wisdom, or even truthfulness--where else would they come from and one must admit they have always existed and always will:  Does beauty remain after the rose fades? Note that God is love and also good, and the Word personifies Wisdom in Proverbs 8.  Ponder this: Whence rights?  As one secular humanist said, "When, one wonders, in evolutionary history did hominids first acquire natural rights?"  But we acknowledge God as conferring our rights as unalienable.

If the fool repents, God will convince him, for it is written in 2 Tim. 2:25 (ESV):  "...God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth."  Repentance leading to the truth is the gift of God.  This kind of proof the Bible refers to is ontological (we feel a tug towards God and have an innate knowledge of Him) and we don't have to convince the sheep, for they hear His voice, not necessarily our argumentation (John 10:27).

Our ultimate efficacy depends upon our dependence on the Holy Spirit and our testimony that he cannot refute, not our own brilliance--which may convince minds but not win over hearts.  If we just win an argument (and you cannot argue someone into the kingdom) then we will be able to boast that we converted them, not the Holy Spirit. God confirms Himself to us by our experience in Christ that is based upon the objective historical fact of the resurrection, not something mystical, and this is called a "properly basic belief" and is the verification of God:  "His Spirit bears witness with our spirit..." (Rom. 8:16).  Apart from a work of the Holy Spirit no one will believe, God must prepare their hearts for the gospel message.

By saying you don't believe in God is calling God a liar (because the Bible says so), and making yourself the authority and putting God on trial, rather than yourself.  God will judge man, not man God and man answers to God and not God to man.  We all have faith and have presuppositions to our knowledge (which couldn't exist without God), but it takes more faith to be an atheist than a believer and the evidence is stacked up against his disbelief; hence, it is harder to be an unbeliever than have faith as Norman Geisler said, "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist." Atheists begin with the existence of reason to use reason to disprove God--how ironic!  The Bible assumes God unapologetically, and we should follow suit in faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

To conclude:  Paul wrote that "faith comes by hearing, and by hearing of the Word of God," not by argumentation: You cannot argue someone into the kingdom!  If you want to believe, you don't need evidence and if you are stubborn and don't want to, no amount will convince you.  There are positive, informative, telltale reasons to have faith and to be intellectually honest, and they fit the facts better than doubt.  We are not commissioned to win arguments but souls by speaking the truth in love, and witnessing for Jesus by our testimony and the gospel message itself--plant seeds not arguments or controversies!   Soli Deo Gloria!