Hopefully everybody knows that I'm a Christian; if not SURPRISE! I’m pretty sure you do all know, but I don't talk about it that much so here's me making up for it: enjoy =D This is really long (2,459 words) but I do believe it is worth reading as it so important.
This is really the big question: Does God exist? Is there a supernatural creator of our universe? Lately there have been many publicised responses to this question, one of the most notable of these is Richard Dawkin's thesis, "The God Delusion". This is an atheistic response, in other words Dawkin's does not believe in God. So here is my evidence (actually my churches evidence, I'm just relaying) to support the existence of a supernatural creator. It's really quite interesting for anyone so please read!
The World Exists
The World does exist, as you can probably tell. I exist, you exist, Earth exists and the Universe exists. But why does it exist how did it come about? We have the "effect" which is the world, but what is the "cause"; cause and effect (yay I feel like that French guy from The Matrix, the one who... yeah that one). Dawkins would say that there was a big blob of matter which exploded ("Big Bang" theory) and eventually evolved into life as we know today. This may seem like a reasonable explanation to the creation of the World but in essence it takes as much faith to believe the Big Bang took place as it does to believe that God created it in seven days. Imagine the process which would have taken place for a big blob of matter to evolve into the intelligent and perfect life that we have today. Here is a common metaphor (with a tasty twist) to explain why a Big Bang theory is just odd: Here I have a cake:
I could call in several professionals and they could tell me: how big the cake is, how old the cake is, what's in the cake and if the cake is good for me (among other things). But there are things that they cannot tell me: who made this cake? For what purpose was this cake made? Could these experts possibly propose that my kitchen exploded and this cake was the result of that? This is just a tasty example but it holds true to our real-World situation: We have a perfectly created world. Everything just works. Our planet is in just the right location, and is just the right size, to be able to sustain plant/human life. We have just the right proportion of gases to keep us all from imploding. Was this just the result of a big cosmic explosion? Or was this created by something bigger than us. This causes me to ask a few questions about modern humans. Is the human race so self centred that we cannot believe there is something bigger than us? Can we not humble ourselves enough to believe that a supernatural God created this world? Of course we cannot know who created the universe unless the supernatural God reveals itself to us. I can't prove that he has done that by any scientific means and for that I am sorry. But it is of my opinion that God has revealed himself, and that he created this fine universe of ours. Anyway that's point one, I hope you enjoyed the metaphor because now I feel like chocolate.
The World has a Great Design
Ok so let us assume that the big blog did explode and formed itself into other blobs of stuff. Well now what? Well now, apparently, the blobs manipulated themselves (for no apparent reason) into other blobs. These blobs continued to manipulate themselves (for no apparent reason) until one of the blobs became a living organism. Isn't that a miracle? An inanimate piece of blob became a living thing! That's astounding! Or maybe not.. Human beings are incredibly intricate and fascinating things. We, like the Earth and Universe, are incredibly designed. Take for example our eye which is SO intricate (I can't be bothered explaining so you can just take a squiz at the eye's wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye). Assuming you read that: WOW! That inanimate blob sure was good at manipulating itself. I believe it is far more likely that such things were designed by a supernatural being, than that they were manipulated from a big blob. Ok point two down, three to go (hang in there!)
Morals and Ethics
Did you notice that all human beings have had some form of ethics and morals? All the way through history. We all have core beliefs and values. For example: right over wrong, love over hate, peace over war, truth over lies. Simply, we all like to be loved! Back to our blobs: for what reason does that newly formed inanimate object (which is now living: don’t worry this isn’t confusing, this is science) have to uphold the goodness in the world (another interesting question: how did those early life forms mate =/ )? Can we seriously believe that gases and tiny life forms eventually learned right from wrong? I personally doubt this (highly). Again a supernatural creator is far more logical than the miracle of ethics being brought to gas. *Insert picture of gas saying “I WUV U”* < How cute!
Encounters with God
This point will be a little less black and white for those who aren't from a Christian background or have never really known anything about Christianity/other Religions. Thousands (I'm sure it's closer to Millions+) of people have testified that they have had an encounter with God - through the ages. I don't mean they all had an angel appear to them and tell them they were to conceive a child (although that was one of them). I’m referring to far more practical encounters: God speaking to them, random acts of kindness which deeply impact peoples lives etc. etc. Some of these things may be done by man, but in many cases they were inspired and acted upon because of God's influence. Even if you don't believe that this is true you just have to look inside yourself to find an example of this point: Emptiness. Everybody feels it at some stage. We all feel empty and sad at some time. We feel like there's something missing! In some cases I'm sure that something is food, and in some cases I'm sure that something can be filled with a simple hug. But that something will return and that something hungers for something greater than a hug (no I’m not referring to hunger anymore LOL). Have you ever stopped to think that, that something is God? That, that something is the longing for a relationship with the supernatural creator of the World? People have the human urge to "thirst" and for this there is water. Thirst proves water. They both exist. So we have the "thirst" for something else, does that not (help) prove that there is something to fulfil this thirst? I'm not saying these are definite truths. I'm just putting these things out there for you to judge and make your own decision. You get fed all the negative opinions from the media etc. so why not get yourself informed on the other side? Pure awesomeness, let us continue to the final point (finally this has taken me ages)!
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Yay! Easter: yay! Easter eggs: yay! Easter bunnies: yay! Hot cross buns: yay! Long weekend: yay! Resurrection of Jesus Christ: yay? Umm yeah that is a yay. =D This final point is the one which Dawkins (you may have forgotten he's the guy who wrote "The God Delusion", remember I said that ages ago?) completely neglected in his novel. This was a stupid decision by him because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the absolute core of Christianity. This is the core "happening" which brought about the Christian faith. Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from our own sins. His blood is the ultimate sacrifice for a World lost. But hey, did it even happen? I shall try to help prove that it did =D Firstly let me give you a brief description of the story for those who don't know:
*** Go to the next "***" if you already know this story ***
Jesus Christ was born from the Virgin Mary and grew up to become a great prophet. He spoke of his father (God, creator of the Universe and such) and performed many miracles (water into wine, walked on water, fed thousands with a few loaves of bread etc.). Eventually he came to the time where he needed to fulfil his reason: to sacrifice himself for mankind. You may know the verse (John 3:16):
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
So yes God scarified his only son for us, to save us from our sin. Jesus was not a popular fellow among the Jews and religious figures of this time. He spoke against their practices and garnered a large following (he cured sickness at the touch of his hands which is apparently a big thing). So eventually he was betrayed by one of his own (Jesus needed to experience all kinds of evil, but that's another matter which you can research alter if you so choose). He was then taken and crucified on a cross and placed in a tomb with a 2 tonne rock and 2 guards guarding it's entrance. Anyway after three days he was resurrected and over 500 people saw him after the resurrection. Later he was taken up into heaven where he now resides with his father.
*** COME BACK ***
Hello again! Anyway as I was telling the other children Jesus was seen by 500 people after his resurrection. Assuming this is correct we have several theories as to how this happened: * The religious figures of the day (who were in charge of the guards etc.) took Jesus from his tomb: effectively staging a resurrection. This is incredibly flawed as the last thing the religious figures wanted was a resurrection of their enemy! They wanted Jesus to stay dead and buried. This would also conflict the 500 testimonies (all individual) - I'll get to these later. * Jesus survived the Crucifixion and escaped his tomb!!! Let me remind you all that Jesus was not super-strong. He took the form of a mortal like us and had no super power (except super coolness!). How this could have gone down: So after being crucified on the cross (and stabbed with a pole - so that his insides started seeping out =/) Jesus came out of unconsciousness, which he was apparently in, and stood up (awesome!) and moved a 2 tonne rock and took down both guards. At which stage he went around proclaiming his resurrection ("look I'm alive") even though he would have looked totally gross. People would have pitied him, not worshipped him. So yeah "poo-hoo" to this option. * Jesus' disciples smuggled Jesus out of his tomb. This is a very persuading argument. Surely this would be a great idea of the disciples. They had been following him and dedicating their lives to him and then he just went and died; leaving them with nothing! It would have been convenient to proclaim that Jesus was resurrected and beamed into heaven! But this doesn't hold true to the events that took place years later. It is noted in the Bible (w00t Bible = awesome!) that the disciples of Jesus later went through much persecution to hold honour to their Saviours name. Many of them died for their belief. Why would they do this when they made the whole thing up? Wouldn't they just say: "kidding!" And have a laugh with the roman guards? I doubt this option also. * On the matter of the 500 testimonies of people seeing God: either this is true or 500 people had the same delusion/hallucination. This is probably a greater miracle than the resurrection itself. But the validity of the author of these testimonies could also be false. This is something which cannot be proven right or wrong. The fact is that they exist and we can choose to believe them or denounce them.
SO! Clearly the most (or at least closest) logical explanation is that Jesus Christ truly did rise from the dead! MASSIVE YAY TO THAT (sorry for the lack of enthusiasm earlier). Dawkins, Dawkins, Dawkins.. Why did you not mention the resurrection in your thesis? I'll use a metaphor to help explain how silly it was of him not to:
A man sees several rats in his living room. He is disgusted by the little rodents and acquires a broom to "shoo" them out. He is successful and loudly proclaims, "I have removed all animals from this house!" At this point the Elephant sitting on the sofa looks up from his magazine and responds, "Good job."
Oh silly metaphors why are you so addictive? Anywho, Dawkins leaving the resurrection out of his thesis is the same thing. He has dealt with many small issues (quite badly in my opinion) but left out the main issue which is the core of Christianity: the Resurrection. That’s the conclusion of the last point (can you believe it?)
Hopefully I have made my points clear and understandable. I do ultimately believe in the existence of Jesus Christ for these reasons and for the greatest reason of all: faith. I believe that all points like the ones stated above are merely conjecture (on both Christianity's side and Atheism's side) so it is left to faith to believe in either one of these beliefs. Yes I believe it takes faith to be an Atheist, whether they want to admit that is another matter. Please do not hesitate to ask me about any of this or any other question you have. Or better yet attend church to see what it's all about.
I am SO happy I have finished typing. I've been going for an hour straight (plus a half hour editing, yeah I know I probably missed heaps)! But I'm incredibly happy I did so. If one person reads all of this it will have been totally worth it. Thank you to anybody who reads this: good job!
Post edited by: Sxcriley, at: 2008/03/22 00:12 "It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." - Rick
