Earlier this month, I attended a class on apologetics. At one point, the teacher asked us to list the top five reasons we believe in God, the Bible, and Jesus. Although we all struggled to come up with a full 15 reasons (especially because we were only given five minutes), we had a fruitful discussion afterward. The purpose of the lesson was to help us “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks [us] for a reason for the hope that is in [us]” (1 Peter 3:15).

This is a great small group exercise to prepare Christians for evangelism. When you’re sharing your faith with someone in the airport or someone on the bus, they ask, “Why do you believe in God?” or “Why would you believe the Bible?” Preparing these sorts of answers enables you to say confidently, “Let me tell you my top five reasons…”

So without further ado, I’d like to share my reasons for believing in God:

1. I do not think that matter can spontaneously come into existence. Although I believe in the Big Bang, nothing suggests to me that it could be self-caused. Interestingly enough, the Big Bang was actually once thought to prove God’s role in creation and was anathema to atheists who had previously believed in an eternal universe.

Although I believe in evolution, I don’t buy abiogenesis. That is, I don’t think life could have formed purely randomly in a steaming pond of primordial soup.

2. There are some things that evolution alone cannot explain, like how life came from non-life or what makes man different from the other animals. Even atheist evolutionary biologists recognize that they take some things on faith, I simply chose to put my faith into an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving Creator instead of in completely unguided naturalistic processes.

3. This is very philosophical, but I see no reason that reality should exist as it does. Science can only tells us how the universe works, not why it works that way. Why should the laws of physics be constant? Why should matter continue existing? Science has no answer, but Christianity does, in Colossians 1:16-17:

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

4. Another very philosophical reason is a variation on Aquinas’ cosmological argument, something along the lines of what Joseph Porter wrote a couple years ago.

I also believe in inherent cuteness. The miracle of babies definitely contributed to my conversion. Seriously. How ridiculously adorable is this baby? (These are my maternal instincts kicking in.)

5. I believe in Love and Beauty and Goodness. In the atheist’s worldview, these are simply ideas that man has found evolutionary advantageous and are purely chemical processes in the brain. A total atheist worldview can only feature such ideals as shadows of what they truly are. But I believe there is something more inherent, more real to these qualities; when I say “I love you,” I mean a whole lot more than just “there are these hormones running through my body which signify physical attraction.”

So those are the primary reasons why I believe. What are some of your top five reasons? Share!