Is it rational to believe in God?

Many people think that faith and reason are opposites, that belief in God and tough-minded

logical reasoning are like oil and water.

They are wrong.

Belief in God is far more rational than atheism.

Logic can show that there is a God.

If you look at the universe with common sense and an open mind, you'll find that it's

full of God's fingerprints.

A good place to start is with an argument by Thomas Aquinas, the great 13th century

philosopher and theologian.

The argument starts with the not very startling observation that things move.

But nothing moves for no reason.

Something must cause that movement.

And whatever caused that must be caused by something else.

And so on.

But this causal chain cannot go backwards forever.

It must have a beginning.

There must be an unmoved mover to begin all the motion in the universe.

A first domino to start the whole chain moving, since mere matter never moves itself.

A modern objection to this argument is that some movements in quantum mechanics, radioactive

decay, for example, have no discernible cause.

But hang on a second.

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