Formerly the Thinking Catholic Strategic Center
Confirming Culture=Religion+Politics
Eugene Rudder, February 12 2011
https://www.catholicamericanthinker.com
(Previously posted in A Blessed Journey.)
Late last year, I posted an article in A Blessed Journey about reading Scripture and began by sharing the story of my seventh-grade CCD class challenging my co-teacher and I regarding the very existence of God. I made it clear in that article that what we both tried to do that day—and we were totally unprepared to do so I might add, was to share with our students why God was real to us. But like most twelve and thirteen year-olds, that was really not enough. So for them and myself, I will in this article, take it a step further and talk explicitly about why I believe in God.
When the Soviet Union first put a man into space, the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin actually circled the Earth three times, and as he crossed the threshold of our atmosphere in his little tin can of a spaceship, he looked out the portal window of his capsule and declared to the world, “I don’t see any God out there … ”
The Apostle Paul approached the city of Athens where he was amazed to see so many statues and memorials to different kinds of gods and gathering a crowd around him, he said this: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God. What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands because He needs anything. Rather it is He who gives to everyone life and breath and everything” (Acts 17-25).
So, why believe in God and if there is a God, what difference does it make? More importantly, if I am to know this God and then Worship Him, who is He and how can I know Him? These are some of the more fundamental questions that I wrestled with as I approached the threshold of Christianity and even then I knew there would be no easy answers.
With all the advances of modern technology and the knowledge that powers it, why does man still believe in God? In every culture in every corner of our world, there is this sense, seemingly stronger than ever, that something greater exists in the universe than what we can see, touch, and feel. The Bible declares in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “He has made everything appropriate to its time and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.”
Could it be then that God has planted in us a sense that He exists? And if so, why do some people still deny the existence of God today? In my mind, there are several ways to believe when it comes to believing whether or not God really exists:
How then do we come to faith in God? Any honest search for the answer to that question must begin with other questions: Why am I here and where did I come from? Does it matter whether or not I believe? Is there reason to believe?
My father used to tell me the story of a woman in a town of religious people who did not share their beliefs. One day, the preacher had had enough and so he provoked the townspeople to grab her and take her down to the river for baptism. After dunking her in the water, he screamed at her, “Do you believe?” No response. Again, they dunked her in the water and again he screamed, “Do you believe?” No response. And so, she was dunked in the water a third time and when the preacher screamed if she now believed, she responded, “Yes — yes I believe!” And so the preacher, now delighted asked her, “What do you believe?” And the woman responded, “I believe you are trying to drown me.”
The challenge is not whether God exists or not, but rather, are we honest enough to search for real answers. If He exists, can we know this? How can we be sure? Science cannot prove God exists, but science can discover evidence which points to a designer. The universe has design and order. Why?
Romans 1:20 tell us, “Ever since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what He has made. As a result, they have no excuse”
Albert Einstein once said, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” Einstein is called the father of the theory of relativity. But the fact of the matter is that Einstein did not create the theory of relativity, for it existed before he was born and it exists since his death. He is not the creator he is instead the discoverer of relativity’s existence.
Professor Edwin Carlston, a Princeton University mathematician said this about the universe happening by accident without a designer, “The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged version of the Dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing factory.”
Look at the Bible in search for an explanation of God. You will not find it. It simply begins with the words: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Bible does not attempt to explain God. It does say however that God always was and always will be.
Once I was finally able to come to accept the premise of an infinite God, the rest kind of fell into place. I realized that if God can be completely understood by us then He would cease to be infinite.
But what kind of God have we chosen to believe in? Is it the God who doesn’t care, or the God who isn’t involved, or the God who can’t be trusted, or the God who is both evil and good?
The noted Christian author A.W. Tozer once wrote, “What I believe about God is the most important thing about me.” We all carry in our minds a picture of what we think God is like. Fortunately, God has provided us with three critical ways to discover Him:
Do you want to know God better? Do you want to discover for yourself whether or not God is real?
Then study nature. Look at the majesty of creation. Open the Scriptures and read with a prayerful, seeking heart. Pray this: “God, if you are real, reveal yourself to me. Help me to know you.”
And most importantly, study the life of Jesus Christ. There you will discover that God is all knowing, all powerful, ever present and ready to reveal Himself. You will discover a God who is holy, gracious, loving and good. The promise of Scripture remains the same: “Seek me and you will find me. Knock and the door shall be opened. Ask and you will receive.”
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Friday, March 15, 2013
Converted Page to SBI! Release 3.0 BB 2.0.
Date: Wed Dec 17 2014
From: Vic Biorseth
Comment:
Changes pursuant to changing the website URL
and name from
Thinking Catholic Strategic
Center to
Catholic American Thinker.
Pulled the trigger on the 301 MOVE IT option June 1, 2014. Working my way through all the webpages. .
Regards,
Vic
Date: Fri Dec 09 14:05:31 2016
From: Timothy R ODonnell
Email: TimRODonnell@gmail.com
Location: USA
Comment:
In 1882 Friedrich Nietzsche wrote the Parable of a Madman. In which, the madman proclaims that God is dead and that mankind has killed him. Most people don’t understand what Nietzche was trying to say. He was arguing that mankind needs God. It is the madman who declares God is dead.
Nietzche recognized that monsters do exist. Every man has in him a monster. If a man were only an animal, he would be a monster following his every impulse and instinct. Eat when and as much as he wanted, sleep when and for as long as he wanted, have sex whenever he wanted, with anyone willing and force the unwilling if he could. He would fight when another man or animal got between himself and his desire of the moment. Men would not be able to live with one another.
Most of us are not monsters. We have a conscience to guide us. So long as we recognize our obligation to our fellow man, our conscience rules over the monster within. Our conscience guides our actions. Our conscience knows the monster inside and all of its impulses and appetites, yet rules over, controls, and tempers them. And even if a man is not an intelligent man, his conscience still controls the monster within.
However, there are those who do not recognize man’s obligation to his fellow man. They do not understand that goodness is its own reward. There are people without social conscience. When imprisoned, they are the ones who show no remorse for their victims.
Such men need a higher moral obligation. They need to believe they will be held responsible for their deeds by an omnipotent omniscient being sitting in judgment. A higher moral obligation can reinforce or even substitute for a missing or weak social conscious.
If we take a belief in God away from such a man, we destroy their higher moral obligation and we effectively create monsters. If you are among those who publicly deny God’s existence, then each time someone else murders, assaults, or otherwise harms his fellow man, you should wonder if your words helped to create another monster. Yet another school shooting? Did you help make that happen? Yes, you share in the responsibility for their failure.
We have an obligation to protect our fellow man by professing and advocating a belief in God. When we publicly acknowledge God, we remind our fellow man that there is a higher moral obligation to be met.
Don’t misunderstand this. There are and there always will be those who do not meet their higher moral obligation. However, when we profess a belief in God, we meet our obligation to our fellow man to advocate a higher moral obligation. And thus, we bear no share of the responsibility for their failure.
Therefore, it is not enough to live a good life, but to deny God’s existence. It is our responsibility to society to believe in God and to foster a belief in God among society. In doing so, we protect not only our fellow man, but ourselves, our children, and future generations.
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All Published Articles
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Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and
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"We belong to the Church militant; and She is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass Her destruction. Not only in the far-off centuries of the early Church, but down through the ages and in this our day, the enemies of God and Christian civilization make bold to attack the Creator's supreme dominion and sacrosanct human rights." --Pope Pius XII
"It is not lawful to take the things of others to give to the poor. It is a sin worthy of punishment, not an act deserving a reward, to give away what belongs to others." --St. Francis of Assisi
Truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.—Winston Churchill
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.—Ayn Rand
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