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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The long and short of it...

I said on Facebook recently that believing in God is difficult on some days--its not that I don't believe, its just that I struggle with that belief more on some days.

I wrestle with the existence of God--a higher being out there who is completely unique and other. And in my life, this causes some complications. If there is no God, then all of this is meaningless. Life has no point. We are born. We die. And things keep moving on. Add to that: if there is no God, then Jesus could not have been deity.

If I start questioning the deity of Jesus, then I have to question his resurrection. There would be no point in his rising from the grave if no one else is going to rise from the grave.

So if there is no God, and Jesus wasn't deity, and there is no final Resurrection, then this is all meaningless. There's no future hope of all things being made right.

Two things:

1-I can see how some people can get to a point where they become Christian Atheists. They no longer believe in a Creator God or the deity of Jesus, but continue to follow the way of Jesus. They see the teachings and message of Jesus to be of the utmost importance to living a fulfilling life and to making the world a better place, but the concepts of afterlife are gone from their worldview. Their decisions and life choices still matter as they affect the world and the people in it--however, morality has no eternal effects.

2-I still believe in God. As much as I've been wrestling with the idea, I can't get past the fact that I'm here. You're here. We're all here on this planet. We have these ridiculously efficient bodies that breathe this perfect combination of earth's air and drink this water and reproduce in the craziest way and laugh and love and fart and think. There are these mountains and these animals and these rivers and these days that go by with a sun and moon and stars. I just can't fathom that this was all an accident. I just can't believe that something didn't make this happen. There is more of an explanation to life than the Big Bang offers. As simplistic as the anthropic principle is, I think its the only argument I'll never be able to get past when having this discussion.


What about you? Is there a God(s)? If yes, why do you believe in him/her/it/them? If there isn't a God(s), why not? What does that mean for your life? What does it mean for the lives of all humanity?

5 comments:

Eric D said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric D said...

I'll try and only speak for myself, and keep this short. Feel free to disagree. But I think it is easy to doubt God's existence. It is also easy to be confused with the things in life that are not tangible.

Think about time, or how the universe consists of never ending space. These things boggle my freaking mind because I can not see these things, or comprehend them. But once I can get past my inabilities to grasp the concept of God, it is easy to believe in God.

There are many things that I believe exist that I can not see or touch. Love being one of them. Genuine pure love. Love is felt, and while we cannot always see love or show love, it is always there.

I do not believe love is a man made creation. I believe it is a gift from something bigger.

Anonymous said...

I've also had moments of doubt where I fear, "What if we've gotten it all wrong???" I still believe too though.

Anonymous said...

Hey! Last comment was me. Wasn't trying to be mysterious and anonymous, just having technical difficulties posting. :)

Sheffield said...

What a question...is there a God? Wow...I can't answer that question with any certainty, assured that I couldn't be wrong. The difficulty is in the nature of God, something indescribable, unseen, timeless, immortal, omnipotent, relational, etc...

I just can't give an answer, maybe out of reverence or doubt (it changes day to day). Oh the possibilities, and the joy of pondering the meaning of it all. Nice post.