Do Christians decide if God is real?

A while back, I wrote about whether it is appropriate for Christians put reason above God's Word when it
comes to belief in Christ. You might think I'm repeating myself, here. I assure you, this is a different thing. The other post had to do with prioritizing reason above God's revelation. This one has to do with our role in belief.

In other words, while the previous post discussed whether or not reason should be prioritized over God's Word when it comes to understanding what is true and what is not, today I want to look at whether God's existence is dependent on our own personal beliefs about Him. It is an important distinction to make and hopefully it is one which can be understood properly. It essentially comes down to the question, "Do we create God by believing in Him?"

The fact of the matter is, the whole point of objective truth is that it is independent of anyone's belief. Even if every single person who has ever existed believed that God exists, it would have no impact on the truth of God's existence. Likewise, if no human being had ever believed that there was a God who created the universe, it would not have any affect on whether or not He actually exists. Our beliefs about God can be true, or they can be false. What matters is not the belief, but whether or not that belief actually corresponds to reality.

When it comes to objective truth, we must recognize the fact that, by definition, our own beliefs, whether individually or corporately, do not dictate what truth is or is not. What actually IS (ontology) is not dependent upon how or even whether or not we know about it (epistemology). These are two distinct areas in the field of philosophy...and for good reason.

When it comes to Truth (note the upper-case "T"), the saying that something is "true for you but not for me" is a nonsensical statement. Any time people make mutually exclusive truth claims, they can both be wrong but they cannot both be right. I refer you to earlier writings with regards to the Laws of Logic. So, let's keep our epistemology separate from our ontology and we'll all be fine. And it's OK if you have to look up those words in the dictionary...I did, too.

For more resources:

• True for You, But Not for Me - Paul Copan
• Does God Exist - William Lane Craig
• Is God Just a Human Invention? - Jonathan Morrow & Sean McDowell