2
Ne 2:12 for there is a God, and he hath created all
things
Reynolds and
Sjodahl expounded on the grand philosophical question, “Is there a God?”:
“Only
a ‘fool’-that is, one who is deficient in moral qualities (see Rom.
l:22)-contradicts this self-evident truth, and his negation is determined by
the heart rather than the intellect; that is to say, he wishes that there were
no God, and he talks accordingly. ‘The fool has said
in his heart, There is no God.’ (Psalm 14:1) That is his wish, his
desire.
“Such
an individual may, perhaps, find comfort in the conclusion of Kant, that the
existence of God, a First Cause, cannot be proved by any argument known to
logic, since every cause seems to require a previous cause to account for it,
wherefore a First Cause can never be located. But St. Paul does not agree with
this conclusion. His assertion is that all that which can be known by mortal
man concerning God has been made manifest by our Lord himself, for ‘God has showed it unto them.’ Paul is also of the
opinion that his eternal power and Godhead ‘are
clearly seen in the creation.’ (Rom. 1:19, 20) The Hebrew poet expresses
the same thought:
“The heavens declare
the Glory of God. And the firmament showeth his handywork. Day unto day poureth
forth speech, And night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor
language; Their voice cannot be heard. Their line is gone out through all the
earth, And their words to the end of the World."
(Psalm 19:1–3) (Reynolds and Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon,
vol. 1, p. 245)
“It
is also recognized by a majority of the great scientists that there is a God
and that he is the source of truth. As
Albert Einstein said, ‘The harmony of natural law reveals an intelligence of
such superiority that compared with it all the systematic thinking and acting
of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection’ ("Search for
Truth" 7). Similarly, the great
space scientist Wernher von Braun has written,
“Anything
as well ordered
And
perfectly created as is our earth
And
universe must have a Maker
A
Master Designer
Anything
so orderly, so perfect,
So
precisely balanced, so majestic as
This
creation can only be the product of a Divine Idea…
‘There
must be a Maker; there can be no other way’ (“Creation” 21)” (Book of Mormon
Symposium Series, edited by PR Cheesman,
MS Nyman, and CD Tate, Jr., 1988, p. 348)
Ronald Reagan has
been quoted as saying, “sometimes when I’m faced with an atheist, I am tempted
to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve. And
when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner to ask him if he believes
there’s a cook.” (Quote Book #4, compiled by James H. Patterson, p. 5)