How Do We Know God Exists? The Prerequisites For Human Flourishing Prove It
I have often been struck by what people imagine to be the best society for human flourishing vs how the world was created. This is one of those areas that, if you understand what is happening in the world around you, everything just makes more sense. It’s easier to interpret people’s feelings and emotions. It’s just easier to understand the world around you.
And here is why. God created the world in a certain way. And people tend to flourish when they live in that manner. When they live lives that are in accordance with the way God made the world, then they tend to be happier and more content. It tends to be the case that when people reject that, they are not as happy and less content.
So, this is really a discussion of which worldview accords with reality. What worldview is going to lead to the flourishing of people within society. As we will see, it is obvious that the Christian worldview leads to the flourishing of human society and others do not.
The belief today is that if people just do whatever their heart desires, then they will be happy.
If you want to be free of obligations, then be as free of obligations as possible. Then you will be happy.
If you want to be free of children, then don’t have children and you will be happy.
And in an era when it is easier than ever to not have children, many people decide to do this.
If you don’t want to get married, then don’t get married. More people than ever are deciding not to get married. The number of divorces per year is beginning to go down, not because a higher percentage of people are not divorcing. They are still divorcing. It’s just that people are not getting married.
This is also the central theme of much of modern political thought today. One way of looking at this is to consider why Democrats fight so hard for abortion. Why is it the centerpiece of their political machine? What are they fighting for? Or, another way of asking the question is why do most abortions occur?
Here is a summary from the Guttmacher Institute, which is a research and policy organization that is very linked to the Democratic Party. Their research has revealed that these are the reasons women have abortions.
“The reasons most frequently cited were that having a child would interfere with a woman’s education, work or ability to care for dependents (74%); that she could not afford a baby now (73%); and that she did not want to be a single mother or was having relationship problems (48%). Nearly four in 10 women said they had completed their childbearing, and almost one-third were not ready to have a child. Fewer than 1% said their parents’ or partners’ desire for them to have an abortion was the most important reason. Younger women often reported that they were unprepared for the transition to motherhood, while older women regularly cited their responsibility to dependents.”[1]
Notice that the reasons for having abortions listed are not about their health or ability to have a child safely. The reason for it is that they don’t want the child. They believe that their lives will be better without the child.
President Obama said these words while he was still in office that accord well with this thought process. In a discussion about sex education he said,
“But it should also include — it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I’ve got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I’m going to teach them first of all about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.”[2]
I know that his words are specifically about sex education and not abortion, but it does give us a little insight into how children are viewed from this perspective. They are a bother and something that is an interruption to the things that really matter in life.
What is happening?
All of society is moving toward the notion that the thing that will make them happiest and flourish is fulfilling their own desires.
And this makes sense if you believe that you are a walking hunk of meat with no purpose in life. Do whatever your heart desires would be the guiding principle?
Is Self-Centeredness Working?
Is it working?
An interesting study has been done for the last 12 years. It has the rather cheesy name “The Happiness Report”. They use a questionnaire from Gallup to figure out how happy people are around the world.
Here in America, a funny thing has taken place. There is a real generational divide concerning happiness. People over 60 are very happy. It’s the people under 30 that are increasingly unhappy. And this trend is very similar in much of the Western World.
This is the same thing that we have seen reported over the course of the past few years concerning life in America. The rate of depression among those aged 18-24 is the highest of any age group. By percentage, the least depressed are those aged 65 and older.
By the numbers, this new way of thinking about life is not working out for people. At an increasing rate, people are struggling. And much of the reason seems to be their rejection of biblical attitudes toward marriage and family.
People Living Within The Traditional Family Structure Do Better Than Those That Don’t
The argument that I am putting forward here for God’s existence is simply this. Human beings don’t flourish outside of what God has revealed for the family. This is not immediately obvious in an age of Social Media when all of the single people get online and present their self as being completely happy in their self-absorbed lifestyle. But study after study reveals this to be the case. This runs completely counter to what people think should be the case.
The American Family Survey reported that
“Thirty-three percent of married mothers ages 18-55 say they are “completely satisfied” with their lives, compared to 15 percent of childless women 18-55, according to the American Family Survey (for which I serve as an academic advisor).”[3]
This is about the number of people that perceive their lives to be good enough that they would state they are “completely satisfied”. That is a difficult thing to achieve. And it is achieved at a more than double rate when women are married with children than when they are single.
According to another recent study, done by the Institute for Family Studies, not only do married people report being happier but the deaths of despair are far less as well. So, not only do these people report being happier, but they do not commit suicide or overdose as often as their single counterparts. It just signals for us the fact that married people are happier.[4] But according to modern thought, this should not be the case.
And not only is it that happiness can be measured to be greater among those within the traditional family structure. But people’s outcomes in this life are measurably greater when the traditional family structure is upheld in their childhood.
The Institute for Family Studies put it this way.
“What we can conclude is, consistent with a longstanding social scientific consensus about family structure, children are significantly more likely to avoid poverty and prison, and to graduate from college, if they are raised in an intact two-parent family. This association remains true for both black and white children. In the vast majority of cases, these homes are headed by their own married mother and father.
In sum, it is no “myth” to point out that boys and girls are more likely to flourish today in America if they are raised in a stable, two-parent home. It is simply the truth that white and black children usually do better when raised by their own mother and father, compared to single-parent and stepfamilies. Our results, then, also suggest the fraying fabric of American family life, where more kids grow up apart from one of their two parents—usually their own father—is an “equal opportunity tsunami,” posing obstacles to the healthy development of children from all backgrounds.”[5]
Working People Are Happier People
Covid shutdowns forced us to think about people’s happiness and sense of well-being as related to working. People had more time off and through different means were able to get bills paid. But, to most everyone’s surprise, they did not get happier.
It has been believed that people would be happier if they didn’t have to work and they didn’t have bills to pay. That has been the assumption for many years. In a big way, this happened during the Covid lockdowns.
We now understand that working is about more than that. And though people have thought about this for years[6], it has become obvious to everyone that this is the case. People have a need to work. Study after study reveals this to be true. Working people are happier people.
The Christian Understanding Of Family Leads To Flourishing
J.D. Vance recently came under fire for saying that “childless cat ladies” should not be deciding how the country is run. And this is what he was driving at. This was the point that he was making. The people that advocate for singleness and abortion are not the people that are going to lead the country toward flourishing. It is actually the people that uphold Christian values that will lead to the flourishing of our country.
Of course, as Christians we know this to be the case. But year after year more data comes out that proves this to be the case. And that is good for everyone to see.
God created the world and everything in it. And He ordered the world in a way that makes people thrive when they live in it according to His design.
At this moment, let’s go back to the Book of Genesis as we have done repeatedly. It’s a good reminder as to us of how God created the world to function.
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:26-31 ESV)
“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:18-25 ESV)
God created mankind in His image. And He gave them the task of getting married, having children, and subduing the Earth. He created them for these things. And what we find is that as people live in accordance with this, they live happier lives in every measurable way.
I believe that the modern mind is so incapable of thinking in these terms that Vance’s words were completely lost to them. But it really gets to the heart of our current discussion. If our society moves closer to what Scripture teaches, with regard to how we organize our lives, then we will be a happier and healthier society.
Conclusion
God created the world to be lived a certain way. So it only makes sense that when we live in accordance with that, it leads to well-being. And that is what we see over and over again in the world.
As Christians, this gives us a wonderful opportunity. As we discuss the world with people around us we can look at them and show them that living according to God’s ways brings about happiness and well-being. And that is proof for God’s existence that could lead us to tell them the gospel.
R. Dwain Minor
[1] Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives | Guttmacher Institute, accessed 9/25/2024
[2] NBC’s Guthrie falsely suggested Obama’s “punished with a baby” comment was about abortion | Media Matters for America, accessed 9/25/2024
[3] Why Conservative Women Report Being the Happiest—and How You Can Be, Too | American Enterprise Institute – AEI, accessed 9/25/2024
[4] Married People Are Living Their Best Lives | Institute for Family Studies (ifstudies.org), accessed 9/25/2024.
[5] Less Poverty, Less Prison, More College: What Two Parents Mean For Black and White Children | Institute for Family Studies (ifstudies.org), accessed 9/25/2024.
[6] The Devastating Impact of Unemployment | Psychology Today, accessed 9/25/2024.