How can I know for sure that God exists when I cannot see him?

Take a look around you. Maybe you are at a computer screen, and you have just flicked through emails or various websites. Outside it’s pouring with rain but there’s a glimmer of sunshine in the distance. Cars going past, police-sirens wailing, something’s cooking in the kitchen and the waft is seeping up your nose. You feel a little anxious because you haven’t done that assignment and there’s something good on telly in ten minutes’ time.

A typical experience for many of us! But how has it got anything to do with the existence of God?

Thinking it through...

"How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?" Woody Allen once asked. An extreme example to illustrate a quite serious point: we are not always thinking about God's existence. Everyday (or not-so-everyday!) occurrences constantly crop up that stop us thinking about such 'big questions' as "Who am I?", "What is the purpose of my life?", "Is there purpose in my life?", "Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?".

But the fact that you have been able to even ask these types of question tells us a very important thing: we are able to think and reflect about our surroundings. Even apes can’t do that...

And doing so means that we can think about how we got here in the first place.