I am continually humored by people's statements that there is no God. To make a dogmatic statement regarding any topic, the person must have proof.
Okay, I hear you. You now ask if I have proof that there is a God. There are two responses I can give. 1) Yes, there is a God, but I cannot prove it. Therefore, it is called faith. 2) Yes, there is a God, and I can prove it. But with that response, I better come up with some hard evidence to back up my bold and confident statement. I'll get to that later.
But listen now. In order to make the statement that there is no God, the person must go through the same logical process. 1) There is no God, and I cannot prove it. Therefore, it is called faith. 2) There is no God, and I can prove it. But with that response, the person better come up with some hard evidence to back up the bold and confident statement.
Before I go any further, did you see that word "faith" regarding belief in God? It takes a deep-seated faith to believe that there is no God. Why? Because there is absolutely no proof that there is no God. And the phrase "absolutely no proof" is fundamental to the discussion. So if you say there is no God, you have made a statement of unfounded faith.
Allow me to give a light-hearted story to help you understand what I said.
An instructor was having a difficult time explaining to several students that nature does not need a creator. In some frustration, she finally told Tom to go to the window. Then she asked, "Tom, do you see the tree outside?" Tom said he did.
"Do you see the grass out there?" Tom agreed that he did.
"Look up, Tom. Do you see the sky?" And Tom saw the sky.
"Okay, Tom. Did you see God?" To that, Tom said that he did not see God.
"That's my point, class. You can't see God because He isn't there!"
Another student asked for permission to speak, and the teacher agreed.
"Tom, do you see me?" Tom wondered what she was getting at but said yes.
"Tom, do you see my brain?" Tom said no and asked her what her point was.
The student turned to the teacher and said, "Just because we cannot see my brain does not mean I don't have one. In like manner, just because we cannot see God, does not prove He does not exist."
That's simple, but deep.
The Bible says in II Corinthians 4:7 that we walk by faith, not by sight. But let's get back to point #2 above.
It is absolutely impossible to prove there is no God. There is no data base of information and not one shred of evidence to conclude that there is no God. Therefore, the statement is based on ignorance, pain because God didn't answer our demand, refusal to accept a Higher Power than humanity provides, or any other humanistic rationale. But we do have an amazing data base of information to prove that there is, indeed, a creator.
We'll start with pure logic.
Lawn mowers cannot create themselves. The computer I am typing on cannot self-create. The coffee I just finished did not make itself, nor did the cup holding the coffee self-materialize. The first plant life had to have a ready-made root system to dissolve rock and dirt and absorb it as food. The first animal life-form had to have a ready-made system of recreating itself. Same with the first humans.
But let's get even more basic.
I challenge any self-proclaimed atheist, agnostic, humanist, pagan, idolator, Buddhist, Hinduist, Communist, or anyone else in the universe to answer these two questions: 1) How did stuff materialize out of absolutely nothing? And 2) How did dissolved rocks become organic? No other evolutionary debate matters until those are answered.
The so-called Big Bang doesn't hold water because that is based on stuff creating itself out of absolutely nothing. And something that science agrees with is the concept that matter can be neither created nor destroyed. That negates the big bang.
But untold billions of galaxies with untold trillions of stars exist. And we haven't even discussed DNA, genetics, and all that.
So, either admit that your denial of God is based on faith or admit that Someone created all this.
That Someone is God.
-- S. Eugene Linzey is the author of 'Charter of the Christian Faith.' Send comments and questions to [email protected]. Visit his website at www.genelinzey.com. The opinions expressed are those of the author.