Transcription
I asked 100 leading Christian apologists what they think is the best argument for the existence of God. William Lane Craig, Wes Huff, Nancy Piery, Alan Parr, Trent Horn, Stuart Connectley, and more. Some of the answers were completely expected, and some of them totally took me by surprise. We're going to look at five categories from the least cited to the most cited, most popular, and highlight some crucial apologists along the way. We're also going to look at why Osg Guinness and Doug Grotius wouldn't answer my question.
Let's start with the smallest category, which I've dubbed existential. These are kind of personal encounters or experiences with God. So, for example, this is one that surprised me. The great John Lennox said, "A transformed life, he considers the best evidence for the existence of God." So think about that. Oxford professor, science and philosophy and religious background, says a changed life is the most powerful piece of evidence for God. So by transformed life, we mean somebody whose life is broken in some sense and then is transformed by Jesus. Of course, we see this in the Bible when the blind man in John says, "All I know is I was blind, but now I see." It's someone's testimony or experience of transformation by God.
The next category, I dubbed this one unique arguments. So these are arguments that one or two people held, and I kind of lumped them together. So J. Steve Miller, if you follow this channel, you'll recognize I've had him on a bunch of times to talk about near-death experiences. He's the only one that cited near-death experiences. Now, I think this is a huge, growing field more apologists need to lead into, but he's done some amazing work on that. Trent Horn, a Catholic apologist, was the only one who said contingency. Now, this is a kind of cosmological argument, but it moves from the existence of contingent things like the universe, that didn't have to exist, as saying the best explanation for its existence is a necessary being. Now, two people, Mary Jo Sharp and Rouslon KD, said the argument from reason. And there's different versions of this that C.S. Lewis and Alvin Plantinga gave, but it's basically a move from the reliability of our cognitive faculties to understand truth in the world to the best explanation being not some naturalistic blind process, but that we were built to understand truth in a certain fashion. There's some other arguments: transcendental argument, consciousness, and the argument from desire that people gave as well.
Now, the third category, this was given by 15 apologists that I asked, and this is basically the evidence for Jesus. So this could be the life, the teachings, the impact, or the miracles of Jesus. They consider the best evidence for God. Now, this first one, let's say the least surprising thing in this entire study, is of course Gary Habermas, who's probably studied the resurrection as much or more than anyone who's ever lived, said, drum roll, the resurrection. But Catholic apologists Stephanie Gray Connors and Stuart McCurley also specifically said the resurrection. Now, interestingly enough, my father, Josh McDowell, was the only one who responded with fulfilled prophecy. Now, he's made a case for the scriptures and the resurrection, but fulfilled prophecy being the most compelling evidence for the existence of God. And of course, there's a number of other wonderful apologists that point to Jesus.
The next category is the moral argument. There's different versions of the moral argument, but it's basically a move from the existence of objective morality that we all know and see and expect others to follow to the best explanation being a moral lawgiver. So the moral law points towards a moral lawgiver. So this is actually 23 people gave this. Now, this first one, no surprise, Paul Copan, who's been one of the most able and consistent defenders of the moral argument for God today, but also Wes Huff, Gavin Ortlund, the one and only Greg Koukl. We've got a UK apologist in here, Justin Brierley, and Nate S. also point towards the moral argument.
The number one category, and you could probably know what it is by this point, 52 of the apologists I asked said creation. Now, some just said creation in general. Some said, like, the cosmological argument. Some said fine-tuning, the origin of life, but something about creation pointing towards a creator was the number one response. Creation refers to a bunch of different particular aspects of the universe that seemingly point towards God. So the cosmological argument points to the beginning of the universe to there being a beginner. So whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the universe has a cause. Fine-tuning points towards certain laws of physics and cosmology that exist within a very narrow range where the slightest change in those numbers would make the universe inhospitable to life. So the fine-tuning seems best explained by a fine-tuner. Others would be the origin of life, the amount of DNA you find in a cell, the complexity of information points towards a mind or an author of life.
Now, this first one will not shock you at all. Of course, William Lane Craig, when I asked him, he looked at me with a little smirky and he's just like, "Cosmological. The Kalam argument, of course." But two others kind of surprised me. J. Warner Wallace and Lee Strobel, who both, two of their first influential books kind of investigating the historical Jesus, both said the Kalam cosmological argument is the single best piece of evidence for God. Nancy Pierce agreed. This one slightly surprised me. Titus Kennedy, who's an archaeologist, specifically said the Kalam. Hillary Ferrer with Mama Bear Apologetics, she goes, "That's easy." And she didn't just say creation, she said protein and protein synthesis. That was very specific. Hugh Ross, no surprise, said fine-tuning. And Bible teacher, YouTuber Mike Winger also said creation. And again, there's a bunch of other amazing apologists that pointed towards creation as the best piece of evidence.
Now, I thought it was interesting that two apologists that I just respect and love and have had on this program didn't answer or wouldn't answer my query. But I think there's wisdom in why they don't. Os Guinness said, quote, "The best argument is the best argument for the specific person." In other words, there is no best argument. There's a lot of wisdom in that. Instead of saying, "Here's what I think is the best. I'm going to force it on you," is finding what's interesting for a person and try to present something that might be compelling to them. Doug Grotius said, "I cannot do that. Too simplistic. It depends upon what best means. I'm a cumulative case guy, so I think we need several to make the case." Now, that didn't surprise me because Doug is a careful philosopher and wanted to nuance things. But there's something to be said. I actually think most apologists in this group would agree that it's not just one argument. It's the weight of different arguments, philosophical and moral and experiential and historical, that point towards the existence of God and particularly the Christian God.
And I know some of you watching this might be thinking, what's my argument? I actually really wrestled with this, but if I had to pick one, I think I would go with the moral argument. And I think the reason is because it's not just intellectual, although it is. It's experiential. We feel it. We don't just talk about evil. We've seen it. We've experienced it. And our hearts cry out for justice. I think it's an argument that's not only biblical. We see it in Romans chapter 2, that God has written morality on our hearts and our consciences, but it's just a part of the world and we cry out for justice. And I'm convinced that a biblical worldview offers the best response. So I want to point towards the resurrection, but if I had one argument, I think I would probably use the moral argument.
Now, I tried isolating different groups in the data. I tried to look at female apologists, online apologists, Catholic apologists versus Protestant apologists, and I didn't really see any like regular patterns emerge. But I'd love to know what you think. I'm going to put the data in the notes of the hundred. It's actually 100 plus apologists. And if you look at it and you see any patterns or things that jump out to you, let me know. I really want to know if you see things in this data that maybe I have missed. Let us know what you think. If you're a Christian, what do you think is the best evidence for God? If you're a skeptic or you belong to another faith, what do you think? Really want to know what you think. Is there anything about the Christian faith you find compelling if you had to pick one? And by the way, hey, thanks for watching. Please let me know if this is helpful and interesting and if you want more videos like this from me. Before you click away, make sure you hit subscribe. And if you really want to study apologetics, think about joining me at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.