Why I Believe

About a month ago, my church did a three week series about the empirical and philosophical arguments for God. It was very interesting to me. About the same time, the new show on Fox called Cosmos started. It looks at the beginnings of the universe, the Earth and humanity. These are the things that interest me also. I am neither a scientist nor a theologian but I find both science and religion to be very important in life. Those who ignore science, ignore facts. Those who ignore God, ignore the world around them. 

There are many people that do not believe there is a God. Many of those people are good people and do so much for society and their fellow man. They are very noble people. There are also many people who believe in God (at least intellectually) and many of those people are not good people. I can say at times in my life that I have been one of those people who believes in God and is not a good person. Those who believe in God many times will demonize those who do not believe in God and label them as terrible people. Those who do not believe in God many times look at those who believe as simpletons or weak-minded. What ends up happening is there is very little dialogue between the two groups. This is never good in society. 

I grew up in church. I grew up around my grandparents and my mother who were and are believers. My grandfather read the Bible to me when I was young. So many would say that believing is my default setting and I would agree with them. This does not mean that my faith is blind. As a Christian, I am responsible to have a reason why I believe and I am suppose to let others know about it. I have plenty of reasons to believe. If I listed them all and went in depth, I probably could write a book. Of course, I ramble and get too distracted for that. I will attempt to skim the surface as to why I believe in God. 

 

One of the things that sticks out most to me in life is the opposable thumb. How handy is this thing for humans? Imagine if you only had four digits or if all four digits were fingers. Life would be so much different. Like most things, I am not concerned with whether we had these thumbs since the beginning or if they evolved over time. I look at them and I am amazed by their design. Those who oppose my belief would argue that in an infinite universe, the thumb was destined to happen. If it had not happened then we would have adapted and lived life without them. We would have created things designed to work with what we have. I would say that this still does not take away the beauty of the design of the thumb. The human thumb is a magnificent machine that had to have had some kind of designer. 

 

Another reason I believe is the human need for rules. For the vast majority of humans, there is a sense of right and wrong. Now that sense of right and wrong does vary from society to society. I would be interested in finding one society in human history that had no rules, do what you want. Kill whomever you want and whenever you want. Have sex with anyone you want, whether they want to or not. Many times those who do not believe in God will focus on the differences in the rules. The focus needs to be that humans make rules and have a sense of right and wrong.  Even those who do not believe in God will say there cannot be a god because of all the evil in the world.  What sets the standards for that evil?  If there is nothing higher than humanity then who cares what happens to everyone else.  Just take care of yourself.  If you are only a product of biological functions and have no spirit then you should only be out for yourself.  You should not even care what happens to those in your family.  There is no point to being a "moral" person if fellow humans have set those morals. 

Another reason that I believe and by no means the last reason is the universe itself. It is massive. It is has been expanding for almost 14 billion years now. It started as small as an atom. It had a starting point. We know that in our physical universe, everything has to have come from something else. We don't look at each other and believe that any us come from nothing. We know that somehow all of the parts of something had to be brought together, even at the atomic level.  Those who do believe in God will ask where was God's beginning. I cannot give a good answer. He is not of our universe so the rules do not apply to Him. He is spirit. I know that's a cop out but it's the best I can do. Just because I cannot explain something does not mean it's not real. I would ask, how in a universe where everything has to come from something, can one believe that the universe itself came from nothing? 

When it comes down to it, I believe because of what I have seen God do in my life. Too many things have come together in my life to get me to this point. I cannot take credit for any of it. I did not choose where I was born. I did not chose my DNA. I did not choose my family. I did not choose the abilities that I do and do not have.

I would challenge anyone who is a non-believer to seek out some believers and spend time with them.  Not to debate religion or the existence of God but to see their lives up close.  You might be surprised.  If you watch TV, you will mostly see stereotypes of believers.  Some made up by Hollywood and some that just fit the stereotype without any help.  Church is a great place for something like this but does not have to be.  You probably work around believers even if they are not wearing a sign.  You will find that believers are very diverse and do not have all the same ideas or the same personalities.  Some are professors, doctors, lawyers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, mechanics, world leaders and janitors.  Some have IQs that are off the charts and others have IQs below your IQ.

I do believe that one day everyone will meet God face to face.  I believe that we will have to answer some questions.  I do not try to do good things in order to impress God.  I know that I can never do that.  I try to do as much good as possible in order to say thank you for the gift that I have already been given.

For those who do not believe, I would ask this question; in an infinite universe with infinite possibilities, how can the door be shut so easily on there being an intelligent being that created it?