This may or may not be a question that you’ve asked before. For some, it’s a really contentious question. Is there a God? Why do some people think that there is a God? What, or who exactly, is God? Is God some “made up” concept that some people believe in just to make themselves “feel good”? Are they deceived fools?
This is really an important question because this speaks to eternity. Our lives here are short, and really, if there is no God, then there is no “eternity” and there is no “life after death”. An atheist believes that life here on earth is as good as it gets. In that case, it’s important to “get all you can’ because you “only live once”. Wow, no pressure there.
If there is a God, then what, or who is God? Monotheistic religions believe that God is the Creator and ruler of the Universe and the source of all moral authority. So, the concept of God is that there is a supreme being, an “intelligent designer” who created everything that exists, including you and me. Some people believe this completely and others have a problem believing this. Why?
If there is a God who created everything, then we are created beings, created for a unique purpose. If there’s not a God, then you and I are cosmic accidents that evolved from an amoeba, and we are just taking up space, using up resources until we die. If there’s not a God, then we have no purpose. It’s pretty much that simple. Atheists may try to argue that there’s more to life than that, but there really is not. This carnal world is very temporary and will vanish away like smoke in the wind.
Belief in God is a choice. We can choose to believe in God, or not. It’s not just a “choice”, it is THE most important choice that you or I will ever make in our whole life. The truth is our ETERNITY rests on this ONE choice.
If non-belief means BELIEVING that there is no life after death, that this sorrow-filled life is as good as it gets, why do many people choose not to believe? Well, there are many reasons for that.
- Many people think God is a “religion”, and that religion is responsible for all the wars, death, and suffering in the world.
- Some say that they’ve prayed, and nothing has happened, so there can’t be a God.
- Others argue that if there really is a God, why would He allow so much disaster, suffering, sickness and death? They just can’t “marry up” the idea of a Creator God and the world in its current condition.
- Still, others believe in the “theory” of evolution, that man evolved out of an amorphous ooze after a big bang, and that leaves no room for God “blowing out of the water”. They hate the “silly story” of the Biblical Creation because they THINK it does not coincide with “science”. God created the Heavens and the earth and everything in it in seven days….yea right…(sarcasm).
- And others are confused because there are many different “religions” with at least three Monotheistic religions that believe in a Creator God (Judaism, Islam, Christianity). There are also other religions that believe in multiple gods (Hinduism). This confuses so many people, that they decide it’s all make-believe, fairy tales, and choose to believe in no God at all.
There’s another really, really good reason why many people choose to not believe in God. It’s human nature to not want to answer to anything or anyone. In-fact, the Bible says that the natural man in the flesh is at ENMITY with God and CANNOT submit himself to God (Romans 8:7-8). We may not want to admit this, but it’s true. If we believe that there is a Creator God, then we also have to accept the fact that the Creator has set up a series of “rules” that we need to “play by” and who likes rules, right? People would rather believe truth, right and wrong, is a variable concept that depends on the person. What is right and true for you, may not be right or true for me, etc. But….there is one problem with this school of thought. It’s the 800-pound elephant in the room. If one person’s beliefs encroach on another person’s life or liberty, we have a problem. For instance, some people believe that it is perfectly fine to kill or steal from another person under the right circumstances. We can see how this could be a problem, especially if you’re on the receiving end of these actions. The moving slide of moral relativity is confusing at best and dangerous at worst.
As for me and my husband, we choose to believe in God. We would prefer to believe that our lives have a purpose and that we are here for a reason. We believe that truth is truth, that 1+1 = 2, and not 3, 4, or 5. We do not believe that truth can be changed, and we do not believe in moral relativity, that the slippery slope of morality changes depending on what generation, culture, or place you find yourself living.
Thank you so much for joining us on our blogsite! We hope that this will be a comfort and a blessing to you as we explore these topics (or at least give you food for thought). Please join us next time, when we discuss which God is the real God? Our hope is to cut through the confusion and get to the real “gist” of the matter. Our world is “Babylon” (means confusion). An important thing to note, God is not a religion, God is the Creator. We will touch on “what is religion” also on our next blog entry.
See you soon!!! 😊
