I thought you would enjoy this article written by my son Sam…

Throughout the history of Christianity, many great apologists and philosophers have attempted to develop logical arguments to rationally demonstrate that God exists. One of the most notable of these attempts is that of St. Thomas Aquinas, who laid out several persuasive arguments for God’s existence in his multi-volume work Summa Theologica. No argument can really prove God’s existence, but cumulatively they can be very compelling and persuasive. One of the less well known of them but one I think is among the most deeply engaging is the argument from desire. The premises of the argument are laid out below:

#1. Every natural, innate desire in us corresponds to some real object that can satisfy that desire.

#2. But there exists in us a desire which nothing in time, nothing on earth, no creature can satisfy.

#3. Therefore there must exist something more than time, earth and creatures, which can satisfy this desire.

#4. This something is what people call “God” and “life with God forever.”

(Argument outline borrowed from Peter Kreeft)

Two of my literary heroes, C.S. Lewis and Peter Kreeft, both have named this argument as their favorite. Many former atheists and agnostics, while finding ways to rationally get around the various arguments, have suddenly stopped dead in their tracks when they ran into this argument, unable to ignore its penetrating profundity.

What makes this argument stand out from the rest is that it doesn’t point to the universe, science, biology, history, or any other study to find evidence for God’s existence. Instead of directing the gaze of humanity to that outside of itself, it points directly into the human heart, revealing its deepest longings and desires. Its simple but keen insight into human nature is seemingly irresistible. Following is my own interpretation of the 4 premises of the argument as laid out above.

#1. Every natural, innate desire in us corresponds to some real object that can satisfy that desire.

All of us as humans are born with a set of built in needs and desires that have natural satisfactions in this world. We are born with hunger, which corresponds to food. We are born with a desire for fellowship and community, which corresponds to friendship and social interaction. The list goes on. The point is that all of our innate desires have corresponding satisfactions in this life. A desire like a child’s longing to fly through the air like Superman does not apply because that kind of desire is not innate in human beings but is rather produced through cultural conditioning (i.e. movies and comic books).

#2. But there exists in us a desire which nothing in time, nothing on earth, no creature can satisfy.

There is a desire inside all of us that nothing can fulfill. We all long for a kind of “ecstatic happiness” that we never even get close to achieving in the realm of time. We try to fill this void with various things this world offers us, but in the end, we are left emptier than before. As my Dad would say, every one of us has a fundamental feeling of “homelessness” that we can’t get rid of, try as we might. In short, everyone is ultimately unhappy. The greatest pleasures we get in this life often only make us more aware of our persistent unhappiness. They only leave us with echoes of an ultimate satisfaction far beyond anything this world can offer.

#3. Therefore there must exist something more than time, earth and creatures, which can satisfy this desire.

This premise follows logically from the first and second. Its implications are mind-boggling. Is there really something that can bring the restless human heart to peace? What possibly could be out there that can completely satisfy this ubiquitous longing for a better country? What can fill the gaping void? It must be something more than anything and everything we have in this world.

This premise does not mean that all of our desires are always met, but it does mean that some kind of satisfaction must exist to meet those desires. C.S. Lewis makes this point well:

…we remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness can satisfy. But is there any reason to suppose that reality offers any satisfaction to it? “Nor does being hungry prove that we have bread.” But I think it may be urged that this misses the point. A man’s physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation of a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist.

#4. This something is what people call “God” and “life with God forever.”

Although this last premise does not declare the existence of the Christian God, or any God in particular, it still awakens the heart to begin searching for the truth about reality. Because the satisfaction for the desire must be outside of time and space, the simple answer is that it must be what people call “God.” He is the only thing that can give us the ecstatic happiness we all long for.

The Christian God certainly does offer ultimate joy and satisfaction to all who desire it. Ps. 16:11 says: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Our God freely gives eternal joy to those who trust Him for it, and that joy is found in Himself. A relationship with Him provides eternal happiness beyond all imagination. The only true home for the human heart is in Him.

God is different from us.  Let’s get that straight. We are not God!

Let me give an illustration how different God is from us.  In Romans 12.19, Paul commands us to not take revenge, but to leave room for the wrath of God, and he quotes Deut. 32.35:  Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

What I get from this is that God, because of his infinite perfections, can act righteously in actions which we are not permitted to do… and cannot do without sinning.  I suspect that hate is another example.  Can we hate someone (or something) without sinning?  I don’t think so… But I AM sure that God can hate without sinning (while remaining pure love… see Romans 9.22f).  So… Jesus commands us to love our enemies, but does that mean that God must always love his enemies (one root of Universalism)?  I don’t think so…  Let’s ponder on these matters!!  Just because we cannot take revenge does not mean that God must not!  Just because we must love our enemies does not mean that God must not!  Let me say it again, God can do things that we must not do…   God forbid that we exercise wrath! And God forbid that we overlay our experiences and feelings and expect God to conform to those. This is where we get those irrational statements like, “The atonement is like divine child abuse.” Let’s get over it and remember that God is outside many if not all human categories.

God, due to his infinite perfections, is ALWAYS holy and pure in motive and action.  We are not.   So let’s be careful of elucidating on the nature of God premised upon what we by human experience think he should be like..  Or due to cursory glances at scripture.  We need to think!   Let us not say in essence,  “If I were God, I would… etc etc.”  That sounds ludicrous, but in effect we do just that by superimposing our limited existence or experience over God’s.  God is beyond our categories and we need to accept that…. because we are not God.  Let’s get that point clear.  So let’s be careful of declarations that are based upon what theologians call Anthropomorphisms or Anthropopathisms or based upon laws of logic like the “law of contradiction.” Just because God declares that he will reveal his mighty arm does not imply he HAS an arm!  Or as in 1 Sam 15.11 (see also 1 Sam 15.35), God declares that he repents doesn’t follow that he changes his mind.  Can it be that scripture sometimes “stoops to use human categories to tell the truth about a God far beyond our categories?”

Another way of saying all this is:  “Exegesis should control our theology, rather than our theology controlling our exegesis.”    Hoehner,  Commentary on Ephesians

Let us learn to rejoice in paradox.  That God is beyond our catagories….