Today’s post, continuing our series on the existence of and belief in God comes from Paul at LDSFriends.com. [This post has been edited from the original. We've shortened it to provide some snippets, but you can find the entire post at LDSFriends.com]

Find more posts where Mormon bloggers testify of the existence of God and how they have come to know Him.

Paul first addresses a basic question: “Does God Exist?

There are several ways to arrive to an affirmative answer to this question. One approach is a philosophical method.

Alma, a prophet from the Book of Mormon, wrote, “All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44).

The stars, the moon, the rhythm of ocean tides, and much more evidence of “earthly balance and order did not happen by simple chance—truly “All things denote there is a God.”

…When we look at the earth and out into the universe we see creation, design, art, and order. It is not difficult to see that if all things temporal are associated to a creator, designer, artist, and order-er, that behind this incredibly complex universe that all things eternal would also have a marvelous Creator, Designer, Artist, and Order-er.

But then Paul takes it beyond just the philosophical, for “ just because we can deduce that God exists doesn’t mean He cares.” An artist could very well despise one of his creations. “Therefore,” Paul continues, “it is more important to not only know God exist, but to also know He loves and cares for us.”

You’ll need to read the whole post to see how Paul develops this next thread of thought, but he uses multiple scriptures to illustrate how

Having a knowledge of God requires us to know His promises and to prove the validity of them. The apostle Paul teaches in Hebrews 11:1 that, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The last part of this verse is particularly important “…the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith is not just a philophical belief, but a principle of action.

It is not enough for us to know if there is a God. Simple logic can give us a shallow assurance that there is. However, to have a certainty of God’s existence we must know whether His promises can stand the scrutiny of our obedience. If we do this we will quickly learn that “…he will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers” (Alma 37:17).

Read the full post by Paul here.

What actions have you taken to come to know there is a God?