The German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, considered the father of contemporary atheistic humanism, argued that the idea of God is nothing more than a projection of man. In short, Feuerbach claimed that God does not exist and that He was created by the human imagination. Although I do not agree with the first part of his theory, I do share his view that religion was a human construction. However, this concept is not new. Psalm 53 says: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” This skepticism is not a modern phenomenon, but a struggle that has accompanied humanity since ancient times.
The human being—deeply material—struggles with the idea of an invisible God. For that reason, it is difficult to conceive that man could have “created” an incorporeal being such as God. The human inclination toward what is tangible is so strong that even in religious circles, where God’s existence is affirmed, people pray to sculptures or images of men called saints, despite the biblical warning:
“You shall not make for yourself an image, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath… You shall not bow down to them or honor them; for I am the LORD your God…” (Exodus 20:4–5).
It is contradictory to think that man—an entirely physical organism—could have conceived the idea of a spiritual being. The existence of God cannot be physically proven, nor can it be physically refuted. His spiritual nature escapes our senses. If someone asks us to show God, we cannot point to Him the way we would point to a tangible object. Yet the believer does have tools to invite the unbeliever to consider the possibility of His existence.
These tools include the evident order in nature, which suggests intelligence; the Word of God, which is living; and the wonders He performs in those who love Him. Even though we cannot see or touch Him, God can be felt. He is like a warm breeze: we do not see it, but its presence surrounds us.
Critics of faith—often driven by prejudices or by errors committed by religious institutions—attempt to discredit the idea of a higher Being. They use sarcasm toward the Bible and toward the church as arguments to destroy belief in God. Sadly, the church as an institution has often contributed to this unbelief through certain actions that have led many astray. Instead of freeing faith, some of these actions have obscured the true Word of God.
In the end, the existence of God is not something we can prove physically, nor refute with certainty. But beyond institutions and doctrines, the personal experience of God—through His work in the human heart and in the world around us—remains the most powerful testimony. His existence does not depend on human belief or unbelief, because God is, has been, and will be.
We know that there are tiny organisms, invisible to the human eye, that we can observe only thanks to an instrument called a microscope. This device expands our vision beyond what physical senses allow us to perceive. If the microscope did not exist and someone told you that there are beings so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye, would you believe their word? In a similar way, the Word of God functions like spiritual lenses that allow us to glimpse the spiritual world—a dimension the unbeliever cannot perceive and therefore dismisses as a human invention.
An intelligent soul, free of emotional blockages such as bitterness toward God, can observe the beauty and order within creation. When we reflect on what it would take to correct chaos—that is, confusion and disorder—we realize that it would require a well-designed and well-executed plan. Only an intelligent mind can transform chaos into order. It is not accidental that disorder gives way to harmony; behind it there is a being with purpose and intelligence.
Scripture teaches that, in the beginning, everything was chaos. This disorder did not arise at random, but as a consequence of the rebellion of celestial entities that challenged God’s authority. When our first spiritual parents fell from grace and were expelled from the Kingdom, just as the fallen entities were, God intervened to order the visible creation. He did so so that humanity could have a measure of comfort in its place of exile—an earth that was originally inhospitable and affected by chaos.
In the Book of Adam and Eve this transition is described. God says to Adam regarding the fallen angel:
“When he was in the heavens, in the realms of light, he did not know darkness. But he transgressed, and I made him fall from heaven to the earth, and this darkness is what came with him.”
This is the chaos that existed before man’s exile to the planet. Yet once man was here, God, in His love, began to provide him with greater comfort. According to the same text:
“By their own free will they transgressed, moved by their desire for divinity, greatness, and an exalted state like Mine. Therefore I deprived them of the bright nature they had and made them go out of the garden into this rough land full of troubles.”
Despite this fall, God did not abandon them. Seeing their suffering, He decided to ease their pain:
“And Elohim looked at them, for they were lying on the ground as though dead, because of their great sorrow. And He decided to increase their comfort.”
We know that for a creation to exist, the creator must exist first. If we see a work of art, there necessarily had to be an artist who conceived it and produced it. It was not Picasso’s painting that created Picasso; it was Picasso who created the painting. Without the being—the artist—there would be no work. First, the creator thinks of what he wants to make, then he brings it into form, and only afterward do we see it. In the case of such artists, their purpose was beauty, or art for art’s sake. Similarly, God’s purpose in creating the material universe was to provide a physical place where humanity—His child—could live with a measure of comfort after the transgression of its first parents.
Just as there are invisible microorganisms that we can see only through a microscope, there is a spiritual world we cannot perceive with human eyes. To help us understand it and to protect us, God gave us His revealed Word. His commandments function as guidance, showing us the laws that govern the spiritual world of good and evil. They are boundaries that human beings should not cross, because when they do, the consequences affect both the individual and society, destroying them from within. The practices God forbade corrupt the human being in a manner similar to how malignant cells invade a body, destroying it slowly until no life remains.
In modern times, humanity has not advanced much spiritually. Some scientists claim that the universe arose by chance, without cause or purpose—as an accident that turned chaos into order without any intelligent intervention. Yet this idea is incoherent. All of nature shows us an established order, and that order should indicate the presence of intelligent thought. If man, with his thinking mind, can alter the natural order and generate anarchy, why not recognize that the order we see in the universe is the product of an intelligent Mind?
Atheistic scientists, by denying God’s existence, claim that the universe created itself and has no purpose. If they admitted that there was a purpose, it would imply that the universe is a thinking entity, a living being—and by inference, God. Yet this position leaves a void that cannot be filled without acknowledging the existence of a thinking Mind that gave origin to all things. No matter how hard they try, they will never be able to prove the nonexistence of God—not only because He exists, but because they lack the tools necessary to approach an immaterial, spiritual reality.