Does God Exist? Have You Given God a Fair Hearing? | Face of

There is a question that sits underneath almost every conversation about God:

Does God exist?

It is a reasonable question. In fact, it may be one of the most important questions we can ever ask.

If God exists, then reality is very different from what we might assume. Our lives have meaning beyond what we create for ourselves. Morality may have a foundation beyond human opinion. Consciousness may be more than simply the product of matter. And death may not be the end.

If God doesn't exist, the implications are equally profound.

So yes — “Does God exist?” matters.

But perhaps there is another question we don't ask often enough:

If God does exist, have I actually given Him a fair hearing?

We All Have Assumptions

Most of us like to think of ourselves as open-minded.

We listen to different opinions. We consider evidence. We change our minds when we discover that we were wrong.

But when it comes to God, many people have already made their decision before they have seriously investigated the question.

For some, Christianity brings memories of a strict upbringing.

For others, it brings images of boring church services, outdated traditions or people telling them what they can and cannot do.

Some have encountered Christians who were hypocritical or judgmental.

Others have looked at suffering in the world and concluded that a loving God cannot possibly exist.

And some simply grew up in a culture where Christianity became something that was assumed to be irrelevant.

These are understandable reasons to be sceptical.

But there is an important distinction:

Rejecting a distorted version of Christianity isn't necessarily the same as rejecting Christianity itself.

What if we have rejected something we haven't actually investigated?

What Does “Fair Hearing” Mean?

Giving Christianity a fair hearing doesn't mean forcing yourself to believe.

It doesn't mean switching off your critical thinking.

It doesn't mean accepting every claim simply because someone tells you it is true.

Quite the opposite.

A fair hearing means being willing to investigate the claims honestly.

If Christianity makes claims about history, examine the historical evidence.

If it makes claims about Jesus, investigate Jesus.

If it makes claims about morality, consciousness, the beginning of the universe and the nature of reality, consider the arguments.

And if Christianity claims that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, don't dismiss the claim simply because miracles seem impossible.

Ask what evidence there is.

You don't have to start with belief.

You can start with curiosity.

Christianity Stands or Falls on Jesus

One of the most important things to understand about Christianity is that it isn't ultimately about being a “good person.”

It isn't primarily about attending church.

It isn't about becoming religious.

It isn't even about following a set of moral rules.

Christianity makes a historical claim:

Jesus Christ lived, was crucified, was buried — and rose from the dead.

The apostle Paul understood just how important this claim was.

He argued that if Christ had not been raised, Christian faith would be futile.

That's an extraordinary position for a religion to take.

It means Christianity isn't asking us to believe something that doesn't matter whether it happened.

It puts an event at the centre of its entire message.

And that gives the sceptic something very important to investigate.

Who was Jesus?

What did His earliest followers believe?

Why did they become convinced that He had risen?

Why were they willing to suffer for that belief?

What happened to the movement after His death?

And why did Christianity spread so rapidly in the very place where Jesus had been publicly executed?

You may still reject the Christian explanation.

But shouldn't the question at least deserve investigation?

What About the Problem of Suffering?

For many people, the biggest obstacle to belief isn't science.

It's suffering.

If God is good, why do children suffer?

Why do innocent people experience terrible diseases?

Why are there wars?

Why does God allow evil?

These aren't silly questions.

Christians shouldn't pretend they are.

But notice something interesting.

The existence of suffering is often presented as an argument against God — yet our outrage at suffering also raises a deeper philosophical question:

Why do we believe some things are objectively wrong?

If morality is ultimately nothing more than personal preference or evolutionary conditioning, on what basis can we say that cruelty is genuinely wrong rather than simply something we dislike?

Christianity provides an answer.

It says goodness isn't merely a human invention.

Goodness ultimately flows from the character of God.

That doesn't make suffering easy to understand.

But it gives us a framework in which our longing for justice, goodness and redemption actually makes sense.

And Christianity doesn't respond to suffering with a distant philosophical argument alone.

It points to a God who entered His creation.

A God who experienced rejection.

A God who wept.

A God who suffered.

A God who was nailed to a cross.

Christianity doesn't tell us that God watches suffering from a safe distance. It says that, in Christ, God entered into it.

What If Science Explains Everything?

Another common reason people dismiss God is science.

But science and Christianity aren't necessarily competing explanations.

Science is incredibly powerful at explaining how the natural world works.

It can describe the expansion of the universe, the mechanisms of biological processes and the physical laws governing matter.

But science cannot necessarily answer every philosophical question.

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Why does the universe exist at all?

Why does the universe appear to be governed by consistent mathematical laws?

Why does consciousness exist?

Why do human beings experience moral obligation?

And perhaps most importantly:

Why should we expect the universe to be understandable through human reason in the first place?

These questions don't prove Christianity by themselves.

But they demonstrate something important:

The God question hasn't been defeated simply because science exists.

The question isn't necessarily science or God.

It can be:

What best explains the reality science reveals?

What If Christianity Is Actually True?

This is where the question becomes personal.

Imagine, for a moment, that Christianity is true.

Not culturally true.

Not “true for some people.”

Actually true.

Imagine that there really is a Creator.

Imagine that human beings really are more than biological machines.

Imagine that our moral instincts point towards an objective moral reality.

Imagine that Jesus really was who He claimed to be.

Imagine that His resurrection really happened.

And imagine that the invitation of Christianity is exactly what Jesus said it was:

That God knows you, loves you and wants you reconciled to Him.

Wouldn't that be worth investigating?

The stakes are enormous.

Yet many people have never seriously opened one of the accounts of Jesus' life.

They haven't read the Gospels.

They haven't listened to the arguments.

They haven't examined the historical evidence.

They haven't honestly asked God to reveal the truth.

They have simply inherited an assumption:

“Christianity isn't for me.”

But how can we know that without investigating it?

You Don't Have to Pretend to Believe

Perhaps one of the most encouraging things about Christianity is that you don't have to begin with certainty.

You can begin with a question.

You can say:

“God, if you're real, show me.”

You can open the Gospel of John and simply read.

You can ask difficult questions.

You can investigate arguments from people who believe and people who don't.

You can challenge Christianity.

You can wrestle with the difficult parts.

You can admit when something doesn't make sense.

Faith isn't supposed to require intellectual dishonesty.

The Christian faith has been examined, criticised, debated and challenged for two thousand years.

You don't need to be afraid of questions.

Truth has nothing to fear from honest investigation.

Perhaps We're Asking the Wrong Question

“Does God exist?” is still an important question.

But perhaps it shouldn't be the only question.

Perhaps we should also ask:

What evidence would I expect if God existed?

What would I do if I discovered that Christianity was true?

Have I genuinely investigated Jesus?

Am I rejecting Christianity itself — or a version of Christianity I was taught to dislike?

And perhaps the most uncomfortable question of all:

If God does exist, am I genuinely open to finding Him?

Because sometimes the greatest barrier isn't a lack of evidence.

Sometimes it's that we don't want the answer to be true.

If God exists, then He isn't simply another fact to add to our knowledge.

His existence would make a claim on our lives.

It would mean we are not ultimately our own.

And Christianity goes even further.

It says that the God who created us isn't simply demanding something from us.

He came looking for us.

Give Jesus a Fair Hearing

You don't have to walk into a church tomorrow.

You don't have to suddenly call yourself a Christian.

You don't have to have all the answers.

But perhaps give Jesus a fair hearing.

Read His words.

Look at His life.

Examine the historical claims surrounding His death and resurrection.

Listen to the strongest arguments from both believers and sceptics.

And if you're genuinely searching, try something surprisingly simple:

Ask God to reveal the truth.

Not “Give me what I want.”

Not “Prove Yourself according to my conditions.”

Just:

“God, if You are there, I want to know what is true.”

Then start looking.

Because perhaps the greatest question isn't simply:

“Does God exist?”

Perhaps it's this:

“If He does… have I actually given Him a fair hearing?”

And if Christianity is true, the person waiting at the end of that investigation isn't merely an answer to an intellectual question.

It's Jesus.

And He may be closer than you think.

A Final Thought

Face of Faith exists for people who are asking these questions.

Not to pressure you.

Not to pretend every question has an easy answer.

And not to tell you to switch off your brain.

But to encourage an honest search for truth.

Ask the difficult questions.

Follow the evidence.

Challenge the assumptions.

And give Jesus a fair hearing.

You may be surprised by where the search leads.