Why belief in God is reasonable...

Do you believe in God?

What does that mean?

Recently I've been led to ponder the following quote by Albert Einstein:

“Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."

― Albert Einstein, The World as I See It

In association with this comment one should consider these other quotes from famous scientists:

"It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us." - Stephen Hawking, 'A Brief History of Time', p.127

“Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth - the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient "coincidences" and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be lethal. Fred Hoyle, the distinguished cosmologist, once said it was as if "a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics". 

To see the problem, imagine playing God with the cosmos. Before you is a designer machine that lets you tinker with the basics of physics. Twiddle this knob and you make all electrons a bit lighter, twiddle that one and you make gravity a bit stronger, and so on. It happens that you need to set thirtysomething knobs to fully describe the world about us. The crucial point is that some of those metaphorical knobs must be tuned very precisely, or the universe would be sterile. 

Example: neutrons are just a tad heavier than protons. If it were the other way around, atoms couldn't exist, because all the protons in the universe would have decayed into neutrons shortly after the big bang. No protons, then no atomic nucleuses and no atoms. No atoms, no chemistry, no life. Like Baby Bear's porridge in the story of Goldilocks, the universe seems to be just right for life.” ― Paul Davies

In debating with athiests, typically their initial dispute with belief in God is that there 'is no evidence'.  While there's incompetent theists out there, particularly among Christian "fundamentalists" who will often seek to retort by making seemingly illiterate references to 'young earth' postulations (which serve to encourage rather than upset non-believers), the obvious counterpoint is that EVERYTHING WE OBSERVE IN THE UNIVERSE is evidence of a divine Creator:




In this sense Einstein is wrong.  The "coincidences" we observe in our universe that allow life in the first place are not a way for God to remain anonymous but rather are the calling card that God exists.
While in science there will still be irrationalizations to try and escape the reality of God for the sake of personal reputations and academic tenure (see Ben Stein's Expelled), the truth is that the fundamental premise of religion has always been sound:

There is a God who created the universe that intended intelligent creatures like us to experience and comprehend His creation. Why? It's actually quite simple.
If God is love, then His only being is through sharing with others since love is relational. Thus, God had to create comprehending others to be God.



As for those who continue to refuse to "believe" in God in light of the literally infinite historical evidence, that's their prerogative. However, they have no right to claim that "reason" is on their side....au contraire.

[My only question is: Why is the "good" Lord authoring our story so tragically in the current chapter of collective human insanity?! I, for one, do NOT think we 'deserve it', since, after all, how else could the Creator create? ]