Does God Exist
Does God Exist
Wars have been fought in the names of deities, maladies and weather patterns have caused humans to cry out in praise and condemnation of the divine, and through all that has been endured since the beginning of mankind’s reign the presence of a higher power has always been present, if not in deed then in thought. There has always been that burning need to believe in something, to strive for an answer to life that cannot be grasped by human understanding alone, but must instead be taken on faith where reason does not extend. This alone begs for the existence of a divine being, a creator that looks over what has been wrought, and judges in a just and exacting manner.
The belief of a singular deity, or god, was a foreign idea for a long time, and in fact was punishable as heresy even in the annals of the Holy Bible. Theology within most cultures chose to split divinity between many gods, attributing different aspects of the human world to one or another deity. Every mythos had their more powerful gods and goddesses, alpha males and females as it were, and every religion throughout the world that existed before Christianity had identifiable and reasonable means for creating their own idols and figures of worship. Unlike those many however the God of Isaac and Abraham, the same God that cast humankind out of Eden so long ago, needs no flashy back story or convoluted tale to inspire the faith of His followers.
Men and women throughout history have been persecuted and even tortured for their belief in God, holding fast to their beliefs and their faith in times when such things were considered to be signs of madness and utter despair. Through it all God has shown understanding, guidance, and when necessary, His wrath.
His ways are not our ways, as it says in the Bible, and his understanding is not ours. That is why faith is so vital, to sort out the confusion of human feeling and emotion. Those who deny this attempt to analyze and dissect that which they cannot understand, and for the most part this is harmless, a means to make certain that the world they perceive is in fact real and not a product of mysticism or some other trickery that might destroy the image that most of us hold when we view our surroundings. Some can’t believe in the divine, or simply won’t. These are the individuals that look instead to science and what they can see in front of them, what can be perceived through the senses. Sometimes the most important things in life are the things you can’t see, and have to take on faith.
Many want answers to a life that doesn’t seem to make sense at times, while some just want something to believe in, a guiding force that will give them direction in a world where too much seems to be random happenstance. Many an ancient civilization had a host of differing beliefs to choose from, a veritable cornucopia of gods, goddesses, and other deities and theorized creatures and divine forces that were said to rule and shape the world around them. To this day some of those beliefs hold true still, but they are paid mostly lip service rather than any true belief, as the truth of what has become one of the most defining religions in the world has been felt across the globe. Does God exist? There is proof of this within and throughout this world, and it will be shown here that random happenstance is yet another working of that same God, a miracle given form so that His creations might flourish.
Our universe was supposedly created from what scientists call the Big Bang, an explosion of light and energy so massive that it threw off particles of matter in all directions, forcing them to collide with one another in such energetic fashion that they eventually stuck and formed what we now know as the planets, solar system, and the known universe. One has to question though, what set off that Big Bang?
There is at least a hint of a creative mind behind the Big Bang, a hand that lit the fuse, a mind that thought to set off a chain reaction that might create something so magnificent. Then of course there are the planets themselves, intricate systems bound in place and created in a manner that speaks of a definite purpose, though we may not how or why.
If there is no God then it means that everything that has occurred to this day is not of any particular design, but a cosmic coincidence, a bit of random luck, and devoid of anything that speaks of guidance from a higher presence. To think in that manner is to deny the intricate and undeniable details that have gone into not only this world, but into its inhabitants as well.
There is a burden of proof to claiming the existence of God within our lives, and it lies with both those who make positive existence statements and those who make negative existence statements. No one is “off the hook” as to whether or not proof can be easily found and defined, as the burden is the responsibility of any that deign to open their mouths to voice their opinion. Whether or not there is proof it is well put by author Todd Moody (2013) that the subject of God and His existence is something that is outside of our normal scope, impossible to know but easily taken on faith so long as one keeps an open mind.
This then is the dilemma between the religious and the atheistic, that burden of proof of the adherence to doctrines of both sides that close off any and all lines communication between the two. While both sides have a plethora of data to back up their claims it is very unlikely that the two will ever agree upon much of anything when it comes to the system of beliefs that point to the existence of the divine. Atheists, while not wrong or in any way harmful in their beliefs, are free to express themselves and believe as they will despite the mistrust and vitriolic belief cast by some that they are out to disprove and destroy the tenets of Christianity. Many such beliefs are founded in older times, when the questioning of faith was considered a sin and punishable in many ways, not the least of which was death. At one time atheists were considered inherently evil, a tool used to turn the faithful against God by divorcing the ideas of science and wisdom from the fear of God. As it is stated by novelist George Smith (2010) atheists are not even entirely accepted in this modern age, earning tolerance but little else.
While atheists don’t simply live to attack the beliefs of those who follow His word, they do in fact attempt to make sense of their own world through reason and scientific discovery. Such views are widely accepted as harmless. Such beliefs are not evil, nor even particularly troublesome. Like so many others, those who refuse to believe in the existence of the divine are free to believe as they will. In fact, there are a great many atheists that have come to believe after life-changing experiences, or simply because they had a change of heart somehow.
This is then another bit of proof that God does in fact exist, for it was He that taught man how to forgive one another. To argue that this is a natural quality found in higher-thinking organisms is easily put to rest by the realization that while we are indeed thinking, reasoning individuals, we are also a part of the animal kingdom that was created long ago in Eden, and as such have the same impulses, the same instincts, and the same primal drives that allow the animals of the fields, sky, and seas to continue on. Forgiveness in mankind is not the rule, but a learned instinct, a premise taught to the first humans by a teacher, a guide within the wilds where otherwise mankind might have slaughtered each other until there were none left. If the evidence of a divine hand in the creating of empathy and understanding is not enough proof, then more factual data is what might convince others that God does in fact exist, and did in fact have a plan.
Our world is a another large piece of divinely inspired evidence that is ready and available to explore, providing untold marvels that science would have us believe are little more than natural wonders created by pressure and millions upon billions of years. While this is in effect true, it still begs the question as to how things formed the way they did, why they formed this way, and how it could all come together to form a perfectly blended environment that could support the untold numbers of organisms that have come before and exist now.
It is said that God created the earth and all upon it within six days, and on the seventh He rested. To imagine the billions upon billions of years it took for our world to form and come to be what it is today would deny that thought, but interpretation is a wondrous thing, especially when it is realized that our time is not the same as the time by which God must measure. One day could easily equal billions of years, a span of time in which great change can occur, a world can form, and life can bloom where there once was nothing.
Our world is essentially perfect in size, location, and in its distance from the sun. Too far away and we would freeze, too close and we would all burn. It is in the exact moderation it should be, and furthermore spins upon an axis, providing warmth and cold at alternating times of the year so as to keep the planet in an ideal state. As is put forth by Marilyn Adamson (2010) it is a true wonder that perhaps only a thinking mind could set into motion, especially when considering that our planet is the only known world in our solar system that harbors life.
If that isn’t enough then the discussion of what a thinking mind might create could inevitably lean towards mankind in its entirety. The idea that thinking beings could evolve without any aid of any sort is not hard to swallow, but it is also one that provides a great deal of hit and miss research and theories that do not always adequately describe what came first, how this became that, and how mankind evolved from the muck or monkeys as evolution tells us.
The evolution of our species alone is a marvel to behold, from the differences that set us apart from the animals of the field to the impressive feats of which mankind is capable. While the animals that God gave mankind leave to lord over posses their own attributes, instincts, and means of survival, mankind was seen fit to receive such gifts as our intelligence in the form of a brain that can process millions of mental processes at a time, from the simplest to the most complex.
The thought processes that continually filter through our minds is not only the result of an evolutionary shift, but a design that was put into motion by a hand that was able to create something in His own image. The design of mankind and its continual urge to strive forward is not simple evolution, otherwise it stands to reason that Darwin and his theories are a bit foolish. If we are nothing but evolved apes, then how can one state that the apes of this current day are not showing any forward progress? If it is true that we did indeed evolve from our simian cousins, then when will come their time?
It is easy to lose sight of the workings of God in everyday matters, and easier still to ascribe the wondrous to little more than common phenomena, but when occurrences come along that break all conventional thought and leave scientists and theologians alike wondering what just happened, there is reason to believe without hesitation. Until then there is the simple truth: a thinking being created billions upon billions of other thinking beings in a manner that, while not fully understood, is nothing short of miraculous.
There is no church, no temple, no synagogue or other holy place that could possibly encompass the true reality of God and His works, though each and every place of worship, be it simple or grand, offers at least a chance to stand in the presence and glory of He who once said “I am.” To simply understand the splendor that is so easy to see throughout this world is evidence enough, though many would argue that it is not enough, that it is only the stark reality that we have been given since the dawn of time, a shifting of elements and nothing more.
So many people wish to know the meaning of life, to find a purpose behind each and every day, that they miss the greater picture, the more poignant point of it all. There is a purpose there, a driving force, but we aren’t meant to know it, otherwise life would hold little if any surprises, and would likely be a mundane existence where the unknown was virtually impossible to imagine. A life spent like this would be planned, specified, and ruled in a manner that afforded no faith, no hope, and little of anything else other than cold, measured calculations that governed the lives of the people.
God exists. It is easy to say, harder to prove, and fundamentally true. Evolution might have occurred at some point, but God’s driving will was no doubt the catalyst behind it, as He is most definitely the first and the greatest of all scientists, giving life to all that we might know the joys of His presence and the wonder of the world that He in all His kindness gave us so long ago.
Some see the divine in every aspect of their lives, from the simplest of acts to the most endearing trials known to humankind. There is a touch of God’s will in everything, from the way the winds blow to the manner in which the sun rises in the east in the morning and sets in the west in the evening. Like clockwork, everything comes around according to a design, whether it be one we recognize or not.
More important than anything else given by His hand is the gift of free will. It is that which allows us all to believe as we will, to practice other religions, and to keep an open mind concerning what we believe is right and wrong. God exists, one needs only to look at the world around them and see that His wonders are closer than you think.
References
Adamson, Marilyn. (2010) Does God Exist? EveryStudent.com. Retrieved from
http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
Moody, Todd C. (2013) Does God Exist? A Dialogue on the Proofs for God’s Existence.
Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co. Inc.
Smith, George R. (2010) Atheism: The Case Against God. Prometheus Books
