Is There A God?
Religion certainly has a sordid history, and its adherents don’t always put a lot of thought into their own beliefs. But there’s a gleaming diamond of truth under that rough and ugly surface, one that atheists toss out with the rest of the religious bathwater. Please don’t discount the idea of God as superstition for the feeble-minded, or as a cop-out explanation for things humans haven’t been able to comprehend. Like scientific fact, spiritual truth hasn’t ever changed– only our understanding of it.
Obviously I’ve got an agenda here to convince you that there’s a creator God. There’s no sense in exploring the rest of this site, or further discussing anything unless you believe it exists. I once told a visiting ‘Jehova’s Witness’ that trying to prove the existence of God by using the Bible is like trying to prove the existence of pixie dust by pointing to a page in ‘Peter Pan’. There’s no proof in something that someone believes is a fairy tale, so I’ll leave the Bible stuff for another discussion! All I ask is that you throw out the whole idea of some sandal-clad “sky fairy”, and limit our definition to the following:
“An entity that is eternal, conscious of self, has a capacity for intelligent thought, reason, and an ability to “create” other objects and entities.”
I hate to define a God with no empathy or emotion, but it’s really not important at the moment. We can discuss the finer points about God’s character and whether or not he “loves” us at some other time. Our task for now is showing that a creator God exists.
Here are a few facts that aren’t disputed by science:
- First, everything in this universe including your body, the stars, and yes… “the dust of the earth”, is composed of the same exact stuff. At a fundamental level, matter exists due to the interaction between highly structured arrangements of energy. Quantum physicists are forging new ground everyday, making use of tools like particle accelerators that help us to delve further into the nature of the sub-atomic particles that compose the familiar atom and the universe at large. There are all sorts of subatomic particles like leptons, baryons and mesons that behave in eerie and astounding ways (read about wave-particle duality). When these strange theoretical bundles of energy come together as protons and electrons in an atom they become very predictable, forming the tangible substances and life forms all around us. There have been mind-boggling discoveries in quantum physics, but the point for now is that all matter is made up of the same stuff, energy.
- Second, zero plus zero can never equal more than zero. There’s no fancy mathematical formula or theoretical physics that will assert that something can come from nothing. Now, think about this for a minute in terms of the energy we just discussed. There’s absolutely no chance that it came from “nothing”. A point of singularity… sure. An energy potential… why not? But the almost incomprehensible fact remains, that this energy has ALWAYS existed in some form or another. It can be light, it can be Mars, it can be you or me– but it can’t be created or destroyed. It is eternal. Don’t over-analyze it, ’cause it will drive you insane!
- Third, human beings are conscious of self, have a capacity for intelligent thought, reason, and an ability to “create” other objects. So… since atheists reject the idea that there’s any sort of “higher intelligence” at play in our creation– then by default, they believe that the eternal energy that the entire universe is composed of has become intelligent and self-aware on AT LEAST ONE occassion in the form of human beings. All by itself– a result of nothing other than natural processes. There’s no disputing the fact that some of the matter in the universe is conscious at this moment and reading this sentence, so why can’t the rest of it be– or have been. Is it that much of a stretch to think that somewhere in the infinite (think about that… infinite!) past, there could have been an even more advanced intelligence come into being?
All I’m trying to say here is that the idea of an intelligent creator is very, very possible. Given the infinite timeline and what we we know about mathematical probability, I’m arguing that it is almost a certainty. I know there’s a little leap to be made here, but please don’t start dismissing rational, logical thought because it clashes with your current beliefs– that’s the same behavior we attack the religious kooks for, right? If you can just wrap your mind around the fact that human beings themselves possess almost all of the requisite traits of “God”, the idea doesn’t seem nearly as outlandish as it may have before. Science sheds old ideas in light of new knowledge all the time. Let’s be open to do that with religious ideas, and attack the dogma instead of the believer.
We’re inching closer and closer to unlocking the mystery of our own biological structure, and we’ve only just begun to explore our ability to alter the fundamental nature of other life forms. We’re on the very cusp of deciphering how our bodies digest and transform and organize the energy extracted from plant and animal life, and utilize it in our own biological structure. We’ve already begun the process of building organisms from the ground up, so there’s no reason to think that some higher intelligence couldn’t have done the same!
We can’t see most of the universe, and astronomers and quantum scientists are discovering that the VAST majority of matter doesn’t even seem to follow the conventional laws of physics– as if it were in another realm altogether! Dark matter, dark energy, etc.– we don’t even have any solid theories yet on some of the discoveries we’re making. So don’t believe for a second that there couldn’t have been a higher intelligence come into being, that can manipulate energy into different forms, and might exist primarily in the larger part of the universe that we don’t even understand yet. Just because it doesn’t have to eat Cheerios to obtain energy, doesn’t mean it’s make-believe. We exist in “flesh and blood”, biological bodies– but remember that we’re still just composed of energy. There’s no reason to believe that the stuff of our consciousness couldn’t exist in some non-biological form– most energy doesn’t.
Could it be that we are extensions of God’s energy, organized intentionally and purposefully into the physical, biological form we find ourselves in? This is all rather esoteric, I admit. Even though many Christians would freak-out about the way I’m presenting this, the puzzle pieces fall right into place when we consider more traditional beliefs, and some less clinical aspects of God’s character elsewhere in this site.
According to the Bible, Adam and Eve were the first humans created by God, who lived approximately 6,000 years ago. According to the science, humans existed a long time before. The two lines of thought can be easily united, thanks to the omnipotence of God, who in the beginning created humans in a reality where there was no concept of “evil”. Metaphorically speaking, Adam and Eve were expelled from this heavenly reality, find himself in another reality, namely in today’s reality that we all know, where there is the concept of evil, as well as that of the well; not necessarily a reality where they were the first humans, but the first who experienced firsthand the life God had reserved for them (so they were the first humans in the “perfect” reality). From here it is clear that the story of Adam and Eve does not upset in the least bit the evolutionary linearity, and the seven days of creation relate to a creation took place in the reality of Adam and Eve, where everything was possible, even just create the stars, animals and everything else, without the scientific method and the time needed to have their share. In practice, they were the first men of God; whereas prehistoric man lived before Adam and Eve was a man, but it could be considered as an animal evolved from apes or created by something else, which had two arms and two legs, and that may have hybridated with the descendants of Adam And Eve after they were “moved away” from the “perfect reality”. God has endowed man about the concept of “infinity” and “eternity”, as well as other questions can not be explained through the use of the scientific method, thus making humans free to believe in God or not, in a reality for us tricky and necessary for the construction and continuation of his project.
Interesting! Correct me if I’m wrong, but are you suggesting that ‘Adam and Eve’ of the biblical creation story were removed from a separate existence in ‘paradise’ and placed upon our Earth that already had ‘human-type’ creatures that had evolved over the long periods of time that current scientific understanding seems to indicate?
I think the only immortal male and female beings are the earth and the sky. God Heavenly Father and Goddess Mother Earth. I don’t think they are magical in the sense that if I asked them for a Ferrari it will magically materialize right in front of my eyes. I think we are living in a hard work universe, not a magical universe. Only hard work is what will help us get a Ferrari, in a legal way that is. But this is only a physical definition of God(and Goddess for that matter)I think God expects all his life-forms to work hard, so they will appreciate the blessings they achieve. Yes, I am a Christian and I am aware that the spirit of God Heavenly Father is more important than his physique, as our Lord Jesus insisted that God Heavenly Father is spirit. But I must say that the magical literature in the bible does contradrict the real word where I am not surprised when people are confused or put off by the topic of God. My opinion on that is they are too concerned about the physique of God and not his spirit which to me is the true quest on God, not his physique. I think God’s spirit is about family values and morality which are vital components for the survival of any specie, otherwise its just self-destruction. I think Lord Jesus is the greatest teacher on God and human morality. I’m not saying that I want to be defenceless and turn the other cheek. I am saying that I will try to value human like our Lord instructs, but I will defend myself and my family if necessary. Yes I am a bible moralist, not a bible literalist where they believe all the magical stuff. When Lord Jesus spoke about turning the other cheek, he was speaking to his apostles who were trying to walk his path in showing humanity that he loves them. I don’t think he expects ordinary people to be defenceless that wouldn’t make sense, especially if you have children. I think he wanted people to realize that the next most sacred thing after God is people. A great teacher I always say. May the spirit of God and our Lord Jesus be with us always…
I’ve just read my comment after about 7months later and thought I’d add in some more finer points.
I too love science, but only if it has the evidence to back it up, I have done a considerable amount of study on Electrical Engineering, a very fascinating topic I must say.
The topic of God always gets corrupted by a lot of unrealistic magical wishful thinking, which usually comes from the mythological literature in the bible. But we are all wishful thinkers including myself, but there is a difference between unrealistic wishful thinking and realistic wishful thinking. I’m not claiming to be perfect, I’m just telling you what I think after 48 something years being in this universe. Like what Logical Christian was saying, you do get a lot of kooky Christians who will believe in a lot of unrealistic wishful ideas, maybe they’re trying to escape horrible experiences in their lives or just trying to escape horrible realities in general, but I’m beginning to think that some people are only worried about being on an emotional high regardless of whether it is based on reality or not. However, some people will believe in unrealistic ideas if they have been through tremedous painful experiences just to escape them in any way they can, which I can somehow understand, very sad indeed. Yes I am a Christian but only because of the human family morality and values of Lord Jesus, not because of the magical mythological literature written about him. I gave my allegiance only to Lord Jesus because I needed moral guidance and thought that he is the only teacher for human morality and survival. I would never give allegiance to myself because I am not good under pressure coping with life’s stresses of imperfections. I do get a great comfort and a more positive outlook on life from Lord Jesus. I think he is the greatest teacher of God and human morality regardless of all the controversy about him with people saying he never existed and that carry on. Yep I’ve read these conspiracies but I don’t care about them, all I care about is giving my allegiance to something good so I can get on with life and do the best that I can to be a well human being. Like I said, I don’t think I’m perfect or better than any other human being, I just try and be the best Christian I can possibly be.
The physical descriptions of God and Goddess I stated in my previous comment is merely information that I’ve gathered through my life hearing people saying “mother earth” or “heavenly father(or father sky)”, but I must emphasize that Lord Jesus did say in the New Testament that “God is spirit.” So worrying about physical definitions of God is not important. The spirit of God is most important, and that spirit of God is Lord Jesus. When we worry about physical definitions of God, we get caught up in the ideas of unrealistic magical wishful thinking. That’s why my allegiance belongs only to Lord Jesus who I think is the true spirit of God. I wish all the best of wellness to everyone, may the spirit of our Lord Jesus be with us always…