God’s existence is based on not mathematical probability, but on definitional necessity

Sometimes God’s existence is inferred from empirical observation. From the complexity of material objects and their inter-relationships, and the sheer improbability of such complexity emerging by unguided chance, the mathematical probability of a designing intelligence is posited.

Such arguments for God’s existence can be persuasive, but it’s important to know that his existence is not based on mathematical probability. Suppose some future observations suggest that some material mechanisms could have produced complexity without any guiding intelligence. Of course, the capacity of such mechanisms to produce everything about organized living systems is questionable – these mechanisms are frequently neither verifiable, nor repeatable. Such mechanisms hardly ever comprise coherent, complete explanations; typically, they are atheistic “magic wands” to exile God from the cosmos. They resemble science fiction more than science.

But even if for argument’s sake, we grant that some tenable mechanisms were proposed – all they would change is the validity of inferring his existence from our finite observations; they wouldn’t change the validity of his existence. The Bhagavad-gita (10.39) draws our attention to the fundamental definition of God when it declares that nothing would exist without Krishna. Why? Because he is the source of everything, the cause of all causes, the first thing that is the foundation for all things.

Inference from observation can be a natural starting point for our faith. But the engine for our faith needs to eventually shift from such inference to appreciation of the philosophical coherence of a devotional worldview and the personal experience coming from bhakti-yoga practice.

Then we will understand that God’s existence is not dependent on the probability inferred from the existence of other things – it is the necessity for the existence of anything else. Without his existence, the probability, even the possibility, of the existence of anything else would be zero.