# 86: "Best" Argument for God's Existence?

Sean McDowell [1] surveyed more than 100 Christian apologists, asking, “What is the best argument for the existence of God?” The apologists included John Lennox, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, Os Guinness, Wes Huff, Greg Koukl, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, J. Warner Wallace, and Mike Winger.

You can view McDowell’s discussion of the survey data in this 9.5-minute video: “The Best Evidence for God? Here’s What 100 Apologists Said.”

McDowell grouped the responses into five categories, from most to least cited: Creation, Moral Argument, Evidence for Jesus, Unique Arguments, and Existential Arguments.

Creation

This is a family of arguments that includes the origin of life, the fine-tuning of the universe, and cosmological arguments. These arguments point to aspects of the vast and complex universe as evidence of a Creator. Fifty percent of the apologists identified arguments in this category, including William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, J. Warner Wallace, and Mike Winger.

Moral Argument

This argument moves from the existence of objective moral values and duties to the existence of a moral Lawgiver. Proponents include Wes Huff and Greg Koukl. Nearly 25% of respondents cited this argument.

Evidence for Jesus

This category points to the life, teaching, impact, miracles, and especially the resurrection of Jesus. For example, Gary Habermas believes Jesus’ resurrection is the strongest evidence, while Josh McDowell emphasizes fulfilled prophecy.

Unique Arguments

Examples include near-death experiences (NDEs), the contingency (or necessary being) argument, the argument from reason, and arguments from consciousness.

Existential Arguments

These focus on personal encounters with God. John Lennox, a PhD mathematician from Oxford, did not cite mathematics or science but instead wrote, “A changed life is the most powerful piece of evidence for God.”

It is important to note that many of these arguments point to a supernatural being or “intelligent designer” in general, but not necessarily to the God of the Bible. As we discuss in AoM’s course, it is sometimes necessary first to persuade skeptics that something exists beyond the physical world—that there is a supernatural reality and intelligence behind all of existence—before they are ready to consider who that Being might be. Those holding naturalistic or postmodern worldviews often require this approach.

McDowell noted two apologists who declined to identify just one “best” argument. Os Guinness wrote, “The best argument is the best argument for the specific person.” Douglas Groothuis stated, “I’m a cumulative case guy, so I think we need several to make the case.”

Perhaps I am slightly biased—since Groothuis was my first apologetics professor in seminary—but I agree with both he and Guinness. I find the evidence for the Christian worldview to be overwhelming. One may argue that no single argument or piece of evidence “proves” God’s existence (though one should define what one means by “proof” before making such a claim), but the sheer quantity and diversity of arguments are remarkable. As Psalm 19 tells us, God’s fingerprints are on everything and are clearly evident to those who look with an open mind.

Having a multiplicity of arguments in one’s “hip pocket” is also helpful when engaging a skeptic who raises a particular question or objection.

As is often the case with social media, people responded—many of them—to McDowell’s video. I was particularly drawn to (and impressed by) one person’s comment. He offered an argument not merely for a generic supernatural being, but directly for the God of the Bible: the reliability and unity of Scripture. It is somewhat surprising that none of the surveyed apologists cited this explicitly.

He wrote:

I don't know that it's "the best evidence", but when you study Scripture and you're there to actually try to understand it, it seems clear that the Bible is telling one contiguous story. The way that [the] text is so self-referential and consistent with itself while being written by 40+ different people over thousands of years is just a little mind-boggling. What it tells me is that there is, in fact, an Author (capital A) who transcends the text and individual authors and is trying to communicate reality to humanity, to communicate both the worst and best news ever.

The themes of the Bible are just so rich. Humility, justice, repentance, trust/faith, love, mercy, sin, and so many more things are shown to us both by practical examples in people's lives (Abraham, Moses, David, Ruth, Esther, etc...) and are spoken of directly by God through the prophets or Jesus or the apostles.

I know the Biblical story sometimes grates on us . . . with things like slavery (though it WAS NOT the kind of slavery we think of) or the Israelites being told to wipe out the Canaanites (who were child-sacrificing pagans whose sin, according to the Bible, was foul in God's eyes, the only eyes that matter), but I do believe that if we come to the Bible with a heart seeking after the truth of God it will be found, and in such a way that is staggering in its complexity and consistency, and seems, to me, extraordinarily unlikely given the way the Bible has come to us if there WAS NOT someone like God behind it.

I agree.

In Christ, Doug

AoM Co-Founder; Director of AoM-Military Outreach; Board of Directors; US Army Major General (Retired)

     “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect . . .” 1 Peter 3:15

 [1] Sean McDowell is a Christian apologist, author, speaker, and professor in the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He was one of my professors at Biola. https://seanmcdowell.org