Faith

I recently had a very interesting conversation the other day about faith, religion, and the question, "why do you believe in God?" I really enjoy conversing on this type of thing because it really gets me thinking. It motivates me to question my personal motives on why I myself am a Christian.

I'll start with the key concept of the idea: An accidental universe

I find it really hard to look at the structure of the world that we're living in, the way everything is a heiarchy, and the way everything is perfected in a systemic order or sequence of events that lead to one sole destination, and the way that everything runs itself in the world in terms of nature, science, life, etc, and believe that it was all some accidental series of chain reactions and explosions, and whatever else that evolved into the world as we know it today. I mean think about it. I read an article about the perfection of Earth, and how it's design is correspondent to the presence of life on it:

"The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter. Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life."

I also read another interesting point in the same article on the idea that explosions of specific gases that came together formed the Earth:

"The alternative to God existing is that all that exists around us came about by natural cause and random chance. If someone is rolling dice, the odds of rolling a pair of sixes is one thing. But the odds of spots appearing on blank dice is something else. What Pasteur attempted to prove centuries ago, science confirms, that life cannot arise from non-life. Where did human, animal, plant life come from?"

In all honesty, I think it would be a lot harder to not believe in God, you know? You're basically accepting the fact that if there is a "hell" that you're going to it. I personally like the idea that if I am in fact "wrong" that it won't matter either way. I'd rather be safe than in a lake of fire, wouldn't you? That's not to scare anyone off either. It's just to present the reality of that situation. Atheism is a "religion" because your belief in nothing is...a belief, as ambiguous as that may sound...

Then people talk about how "Well if God is so loving, then why do people suffer? Why do people get murdered?" etc etc etc. Well truth be told... if nothing bad ever happened in the world, if there weren't any crime, or suffering, or pain of any kind, there would be absolutely no reason to believe in God at all. Think about that one. Because then we wouldn't need a law. We wouldn't need a government. We wouldn't have sin. But the fact is, we all live in sin. It's inevitable. So if there weren't a God, there'd be no sin? What? That seems pretty impossible. Because it is. I'm basically saying that if there were no "higher being" there'd be no life in the first place.

Another thing about religion, is that without it our society would be extremely corrupt. When Abraham Lincoln founded this country, and those with him, they based it on Christian principles of moral, and faith, etc. If they didn't base our country on these principles, I bet everyone in the US would be a democrat. No, I'm joking. I don't have a specific oriented political view besides being an "independent."

I'm kind of jumping around here a bit, but when I think about it, I think that I don't want to be an "accident." I don't want to be a subject of evolutionary change. That means that I'm only here to live, pay taxes, and die. How degrading is that? I like knowing that I'm here for something. Anything.

Sometimes I'm a little skeptic about having to "live my life for God." That sounds really selfish. I know. But I'm sure everyone thinks like that. They don't want to have to sacrifice anything for anyone but themselves. That isn't true, of course. But we live in a selfish world full of selfish people. So that said, I'm selfish. But I guess it's hard to be selfish when you know if it weren't for God there'd be nothing to live for at all, right? Okay so I don't know everything there is to know, but I do have faith. That's something.

There are things that I have to think about and wonder though. Like how people come to appreciate things like beauty in nature, beauty in anything. In anyone. You know? Like, that is something that we all come to percieve in our own lives, but there are things that everyone can agree on. And was that an accident? Did we all just happen to like "nice smells" and have some kind of awe for nature and the diversity within it as well as it's beauty? Was that something that came about by chance? Doubtful.

Here's a quote from another article I read:

"Choosing to believe that God exists is a voluntary act of trust. We believe not because we think the reality of God is absolutely unequivocal, but because we judge the evidence to be greatly in its favor. After careful thought, faith puts its trust and confidence in a premise that is seen to be supported by the weight of the evidence. Faced with the ultimate fork in the road, faith understands that a decision must be made, and it responsibly chooses one alternative."

I'm not a "Jesus-freak" or someone who's gonna come knocking at your door or beating you over the head with a Bible saying "YOU NEED JESUS IN YOUR LIFE!!!" But I am someone who lives in faith. I believe in God. I believe that the world wasn't an accident, and I believe that there is some divine purpose to the universe and it's existence. So that said, I have faith, and thought I'd elaborate on why exactly I have it. In many ways, I can't answer that question. But that's understandable, isn't it? Nobody knows everything. Everyone has doubts about something or other in their life. But yeah. I have faith.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." - Romans 1:20

Basically saying there's no reason to not believe in God. :-P But there's my take on it.

I'm not here to judge. That's what God is for. ;-)