The
greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
Verbal, in The Usual Suspects.
The world today is a
very pragmatic place thriving on cutting edge technology and the powers
inherent in the mind of man. In the West, the idea of God and the beliefs of
the Western fathers have been ‘found’ to be anachronistic and antediluvian and
consequently jettisoned. Religion, particularly mainstream Christianity, is now
considered an enemy of human freedom and expression, a repressing and
depressing institution, worthy of nothing but abandonment.
For almost two centuries
there has been a flare of philosophies and schools of thought transmitting to
us the viewpoint that for humankind to be free to fully express our innate
creativity, we must jettison all idea of God and archaic religion. In the place
of a God in heaven, if we must worship or revere something, then it should be
humanity and our progress, or better still, nature and the universe. Formal atheism
is thus the recommended way to go, as well as humanism and naturalism in their
various expressions.
Atheism, however, is
not without basis. The problem of evil is one reason why many conclude there
cannot be a God. I mean, what kind of God permits Holocausts, September 9-11’s,
and other monumental historical and personal tragedies and evils? Therefore,
there cannot be a God, unless He is a callous brute, according to the atheist. Conflicting
claims of world religions, the moral imperfections of religious people,
including the historical evils perpetrated by the Corporate Church and Mosque
against themselves and adherents of other faiths, all constitute other reasons
for atheism, or at best, agnosticism.
My intention here is
not to present arguments which defend God’s permission of evil in the world,
because I am certain I have no argument, free of theology, which can convince
the average atheist. It is equally not my intention to defend the moral and
other flaws of theists like myself, both in history and to date, as admittedly
there have been actions which only require apologies and not arguments.
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All I
want to do here is state, from my personal musings, observations, and
experiences, that in spite of whatever reasons there might be for doubting the
reality of God, there really is a
God. And I will here present just four simple reasons how I know this:
i.
The
Natural Dependency of Human Beings
Regardless
of our praiseworthy innovations and attempts to be independent, we find that we
can never be completely self-sufficient, whether as individuals or nations.
Take a simple illustration, I have eyes, you have eyes, and eyes are meant for
seeing, yet your eyes cannot see your face neither can mine, except by the aid
of a mirror or somebody else. We all have the responsibility of catering for,
and defending the parts of our bodies, but who amongst us can see their backs,
let alone watch it? I need you to watch my back, you need me to watch yours…but
to my mind, it cannot end there, there has to be someone who can watch my back
when nobody’s around to do so (and even when there are others around). And I
reckon that someone must be God.
This
dependency is not a coincidence in design, it is meant to teach us that we were
wired to live in community both with each other and with divine and spiritual
otherness.
ii.
We
all exercise faith in the unknown
Atheists
and materialists would have us believe that it is senseless to have faith in
God because He is intangible and beyond all sensory experience by which we
derive knowledge. But tomorrow is an unknown because we have not experienced it
yet. Tomorrow, in fact may never come, but yet we take the transition of days
as a given, because it has always been so in all human experience that days
happen and become weeks, which in turn become months, years, decades and so on.
Therefore, we make commitments, plans and projections for the future. If this
is not faith in an ‘unexperienced’, intangible unknown, tell me what it is.
This
universality of faith which we all express, to my mind, is a pointer that there
is something stable, certain and eternal, which we can take for granted, and
believe in. And it can’t be the future, because many will not live to see the
future they projected, thus the transition of days ceases for them. I reckon
that this Being, certain and stable as well as eternal, on which we can repose
our faith, is God.
iii.
The
Mystical and Spiritual needs we all express
Even
those who debunk the Christian God and religion have created new ‘gods’ for
themselves. Some have deified nature and the universe; others deify humankind
and the mind of man.
Deny it or not, we must all believe in
something. Like Susan, in the movie The
Sessions, who claimed not to go to church or think about God very much but
yet admits that she is a ‘spiritual type’ because she believes ‘there’s a mysterious logic or poetry to
life.’ The way I see it, anything is okay to believe, as long as it is not
called GOD or Christ, or whatever. That seems to be the thinking these days.
Is
it any wonder then that most of the illustrious atheistic philosophers and
scientists in history, and to the present moment, are listed as members of
so-called social and philosophical societies and orders which in fact, have
spiritual and mystical underpinnings?
The mystical thirst and curiosity about
divine otherness and the supernatural resides in all of us, unless we choose to
live in denial like the ostrich.
iv.
My
Personal Experiences.
Due
to the subjectivity of personal experience, it is often difficult for others to
accept and believe, in most cases. However, the one who has had the experience
does not need any more convincing on the matter. Those who have had Out of Body
Experiences (OOBE’s) do not need any other persuasion that we all indeed
possess spirits distinct from, but within our bodies.
Suffice
it to say that I have had very few, but memorable experiences that have nailed
my belief in the reality of Christ most firmly into my heart.
In
conclusion, I must re-iterate that the above are not watertight arguments to
argue for the existence of God; they are not even arguments. They are merely my
musings and observations which have been concretised by experiences, some
personal, which have led me to believe not only in a living God and a living
Christ (whom I worship), but also in a real Satan, real angels and demons,
supernatural experiences and occurrences, and I recognize that it’s going to
get ever increasingly dangerous to live without taking a side.
Either
you recognize and serve the devil (there are Satanists all around), or you
recognize and serve the Lord God Almighty. Find out the implications of either
choice and choose one, because the days are fast approaching when neutrality
may mean the end of you.
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