Why Believe In God?

It is possible for a person to contend that a poem is nothing but black marks on white paper. And such an argument might be convincing before an audience that could not read. You can examine the print under a microscope, or analyze the paper and ink, but you will never find something behind this sort of analysis that you could call "a poem." Those who can read, however, will continue to insist that poems exist.   -Bruce Shelly, Christian Theology in Plain Language, p. 38.

Someone might ask, "Is there any proof, or why would we believe in God?" Of course, the sheer magnitude of this question alone demands far more consideration then we could possibly offer here today. However, this doesn't mean that I can't, at the very least, present some points of discussion regarding this concern.

Let's begin with the fact that the Bible never attempts to prove the existence of God. From the very first verse (Genesis 1:1); God is presented as a reality. While pondering the concept of God, we can ask: Why do the vast majority of cultures have a concept of God and morality? How do we account for the inherent knowledge of God?

Also, humans differ from the whole of creation in that we possess intellect, moral judgment, self-awareness and the knowledge of God. How can we honestly explain the differences without acknowledging a God of like being?

How about the resurrection? The resurrection validates and proves the existence of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Ultimately, Christianity rises or falls on the reality of the resurrection. The disciples and 500 others gave eyewitness accounts of seeing Jesus risen from the tomb. But then, how do we know they were telling the truth?

In April 2002, the well-respected Oxford University philosophy professor Richard Swinburne used a broadly accepted probability theory to defend the truth of Christ's resurrection. He did this at a high-profile gathering of philosophy professors at Yale University.

"For someone dead for 36 hours to come to life again is, according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable." Swinburne then used Bayes' Theorem to assign values to things like the probability of God being real, Jesus' behavior during his lifetime, and the quality of witness testimony after Jesus' death. Then he plugged the numbers into a probability formula and added everything up. The result was a 97 percent probability that the resurrection really happened. [Emily Eakin, "So God's Really in the Details?" The New York Times, May 11, 2002]

Furthermore, let's not neglect the disciples of Christ. Twelve powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stoning, execution. Every one of the disciples insisted, to their dying breaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead.

Don't you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded or stoned? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did. Men will give their lives for something they believe to be true; they will never give their lives for something they know to be false.

Nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and is Lord. Two thousand years later, nothing less than the power of the risen Christ could inspire Christians around the world to remain faithful - despite prison, torture, and death.

To conclude, I realize that there is an immense amount of available information regarding this topic. My intention today, as mentioned above, is to merely stoke the embers of discussion. Hopefully, in the process, I have provided inspiration and motivation to pursue further inquiry, as desired.

Scripture: Romans 1:20; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Revelation 4:11; Hebrews 11:6; 1 John 4:8; Romans 1:21; John 1:1-2

Prayer: Dear Father, please let what I do make a difference in the world. Amen

-special thanks to Jerry Gifford

Have a blessed day,

Kathleen