Friday, May 4, 2012

Why I believe

Ultimately at some point in our lives will ask ourselves does God exist? There is really only two possibilities to this question, either were here though natural means or were here through super-natural means. That's it. It's either one or the other.

If we are here through natural means then that leaves us with evolution as the only viable theory. There are however problems with evolution. For one things never move from disorder to order, this would violate the law of entropy. Everything moves from order to disorder... for example people get old and die, lawns will become over-grown if not mowed, your house will move from order to disorder if it is not cleaned, etc. Second the fossil record does not show all the transitional forms that should exist if evolution were true. Darwin admitted that the state of the fossil evidence was "the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory,". Third it remains a "theory" that has never been observed in nature or duplicated in the lab. Other problems exists however the point is there are flaws to evolution which are rarely discussed. It is always presented as fact. Even if it were possible to definitively prove evolution it still would not disprove the existence of a creator.

The second possibility is that God does exist. The question may arise Can you “prove” the existence of God? No. Can you establish strong reasons for believing in the existence of God? Yes. Can an atheist “prove” that God does not exist? No. Can they establish strong reasons for not believing in the existence of God? No. A bible verse comes to mind "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse (Rom 1:20). When one actually observes nature, the human body, DNA we see complexity and more importantly we see organization. Two things that require intelligence. DNA is very much like a program and every program requires a programmer. When it comes to the human body things like the immune system and blood coagulation have to be there from the start or we would die. When we look at the universe and our planet, we discover we are in the best possible place in the universe for life to exist. We have the right type of sun, we are the right distance from it, there are so many minute variables that must exist in order to support complex life that the odds of everything being an accident are astronomical. When one really begins to look at these things and ponder them it then requires more faith to believe in evolution than to believe in God. And there are just some things that atheism just can't offer. It doesn't explain why were here or what happens when we die, it can't give us hope or meaning to our life. Ultimately this is why I choose to believe in God, and yes it comes down to a choice just as Atheism comes down to a choice.

That brings us to the last part. If God is real which religion is right? How could we possibly know? There is so many religions out there it's easy to become confused. What I can tell you is that I am a Christian because it works. I can think of no other "religion" where a person listens to a 30 minute sermon, gets saved, and his life becomes so radically changed afterwards. It's not an outward change but more importantly an inward change. They may have been some of the worst people before, but like the apostle Paul they were changed in an instant. It's the name of Jesus that has saved and changed lives, it's also the name of Jesus that have healed people. There is power in that name. Not only does Christianity transform lives, it transforms society as well. Christianity has had the biggest impact on the world than any religion. In his book "How Christianity Changed The World" by Alvin J. Schmidt, he documents the contributions Christianity has brought to Morality, Education, Science, Health Care and many others that has benefited the world. These contributions came out of the Christian world and never the post-Christian pagan world. It did so because it works, and it changes attitudes and ways of thinking that lay the foundation for such change. But what did it for me was bible prophecy. It is said that one third of the bible is prophecy that has either happened or will happen. Not generalized prophecy like that of Nostradamus but specific prophecies. I will not go into all of that here but the rebirth of Israel is but one example of a modern day prophecy come true. I'm aware I have just scratched the surface here, however this was not meant to be a thorough dissertation on why I believe but a brief overview.