Where is God – Part III

(Parts one and two can be found under "Category Archives: God and Jesus and Me")

 

To me, the next and most obvious place to visit in our search of “Where Is God” is to discuss the concept that God is nowhere!

To be specific: God simply does not exist.

After all, if we are going to have an in-depth discussion of God’s location in the universe, we should begin with the concept that he simply doesn’t have one.

Maybe he is the end result of those cynical people who use him as a scape goat for all the ills of the world, providing proof that “If God existed, all these bad things would not be happening…”

Or he is the fantasy creation of those more simple minded people who make him the creator of everything we can’t simply explain with logic, science or some other tangible explanation.

The end of life is just that: The End of life…

There is no heaven where you get to see your great grandmother again. You will not spend all of eternity floating around in “glowy white robes”. And there is no place that is always happy, always safe and uplifting, and never leaves you in a situation where you have cookies, and no milk…

Personally (and obviously, if you read my previous posts), I don’t honestly believe these things. However, there are many people who do, and for many reasons.

In my research, I have found just about as many resources trying to prove that God does not exist as there are those that try to show that he does. The Internet is a wonderful resource for both of these points of view.

For example

I found the following web site:

http://www.wikihow.com/Argue-That-God-Does-Not-Exist

You can read it for yourself, but after reviewing it, I found it fascinating that so much time and effort was put into trying to disprove something that most people believe is a good thing.

For example, two entries from the above web site read as follows:

 

2. Use simple logic. Here’s what you can use to prove that God does not exist through simple logic:

1. • Christians believe their God is omniscient and knows everything, including everything that has happened and will happen, as well as every thought your mind creates before you think it. If that’s the case, there is no “free will.”
   • They also believe their God is omnipotent, and can do anything. Problem is, if their God can do anything but doesn’t lift a finger to stop all the disasters, massacres and wars that have happened, are happening now and will happen in the future, their God is also a psychopath who enjoys watching our misery.
   • However, if the Christian God is not omniscient or omnipotent… well, in that case their God is not a “god” and doesn’t exist.

1. Argue that something can either exist or not exist. If something exists, it can be scientifically quantified (measured and evaluated relative to its mass, energy, location, capabilities, and other qualities). For example, scientists have quantified millions of items ranging from dark holes in outer space to tiny atomic particles (such as the recently discovered Higgs Boson). If something cannot be scientifically quantified, it does not exist (in the real universe).

• Spiritual entities such as gods, devils, heavens, hells, angles, the tooth fairy, etc. have never been and cannot be scientifically quantified. Therefore these spiritual items do not exist (except in the imagination of religious individuals).

 

I find it interesting that someone can take part of the truth, and twist it around until their viewpoint actually seems to make sense.

So, using this above transcript from this one of thousands of possible resources, let’s look at these points from another perspective:

I believe that God does know everything. I also believe that God decided to put us here and purposely gave us our free will so that we can earn our place in heaven rather than having it handed to us for nothing. Something earned is always more appreciated than something that was received without any effort at all. This free agency makes it difficult to truly know what is going to happen. However, even if God does know the future and does have the ability to change things for the better, the fact that he chooses not to do so does not make him any less a God. Additionally, I do not believe that the concept of God can ever be only black or white; there are some shades of gray there as well.

This little thing I noted above called “Free Will”, or “Free Agency”, is one factor that I think tends to confuse some people. It is that element in our human existence that allows us to soar like an eagle throughout our lives, or completely screw it up. It also allows us to screw over other people’s lives as well as our own. Then, once we are finished wreaking havoc, it is another human tendency to go off and blame someone else for the results. To me, this free agency is also God’s way of showing that he has faith in us; that He believes in us enough to give us the closest thing we will ever have to the power that he has. He gave us the ability to choose our own fate, chart our own course. He gave us the power over life and death; our own and others. We can take life, and we can make life. However, this does not mean that we have a free ride or that we have no consequences for the choices we make. It also does not mean that we are stuck going it alone.

 

Disasters happen! They are sometimes an act of nature or the result of human error, mechanical failure or human carelessness.

To my knowledge, God does not massacre people; people massacre people.

And wars are once again another human creation –one of the few things we are really good at.

Except possibly for some disasters, all of the above: Wars, Massacres, and disasters are man’s creations, not God’s. And, once we are finished exercising our right to do these terrible things, we turn around and blame God for the results. As humans, we want our freedom yet we do not want to take the responsibility when that freedom results in death and destruction at our own hands.

 

How arrogant of us as humans to assume that we are so great and accomplished that we can not only understand this concept of God, but we can also excuse him with a simple snap of our fingers.

I think another mistake we make is assuming that everything can be proven, measured, or evaluated scientifically.

Prove that love exists!

Prove completely how Man evolved from the Ape! (If you believe that he did).

Show in complete detail how a child is created!

Prove to me beyond the shadow of a doubt that God DOES NOT plays a part in these and all things of the earth and the heavens. And don’t give me a bunch of fancy words and phrases. Use this science that you speak of and prove it so that we simple God loving folk can understand it!

There are many things we don’t completely understand, and yet accept as real.

Too often mankind assumes that just because we are so advanced and so intelligent that there can be nothing above our understanding. Unfortunately, those who argue against a God put the existence of God in this same provable category. We falsely assume that we are too advanced and to clever to allow for the possibility that there is a power greater than us, a power that understands more than us and can accomplish things outside the boundaries of the rules that we now presently comprehend.

We once believed that the earth was flat, until someone proved that it wasn’t. At one point it was scientific fact that everything revolved around the earth. In some cases, thinking otherwise was very unpopular and even dangerous. However, in time these once scientific facts were replaced by the real truth as we now understand it.

Over and over again we have taken things that were once just a fantasy and made them a reality. In today’s society, it is taken for granted that you can hop on a plane and fly across the country in a matter of hours. Your laptop computer, or that small tablet that you use has more computing power than a single computer of 50 years ago that filled an entire room. That smart phone that you carry in your pocket can do more than a half dozen electronic items that would have been required to do the same things just ten years ago.

How much different will the world be tomorrow, or next year, or in 10 years. And when we look back we will probably think “how did we ever exist back then”.

We learn more every day. And I believe that this is just the beginning. I believe that we haven’t even scratched the surface of what there is yet to know and understand. The things that we do and take for granted today could not have even been dreamed of 75 to 100 years ago. Why then is it so hard to accept that there can be something and someone that we are not meant to understand in this life time? Why must we disprove God simply because his existence does not, right now, fit into our present realm of understanding? Why can’t God be that one magnificent truth that does not get proven until we crossover to his side of reality?

I think the root of the problem in this case is the inability of science to understand and accept the concept of faith. Faith is just that; it is believing in something that cannot be seen or proven or quantified. It is knowing that something exists even if you can’t touch it or feel it or see it.

Mankind since the beginning of time has taken pure raw faith and accomplished amazing things. Great feats of strength, unbelievable endurance, courage in the face of insurmountable odds: things that would never be possible under normal circumstance become possible because of faith and an unwillingness to say I can’t.

I believe that the existence of God requires this same basic faith.

So…

Here is my challenge to you:

Look around you!

Really look at the world we live in. And not just the bad and the corrupt or the dirty… really look, with an open mind and a willing spirit.

Look at the way the earth is just the right distance away from the sun so that it is not too hot, or not to cold.

Look at the way that it revolves around the sun and around itself, allowing for night and day, seasons that are warm and cold, stormy and calm, and yet, for the most part, none of it too much for us to bear.

Look at the land, how some of it is covered with water and some is not; and some of that water is actually good for and necessary for our existence. We have land to live on and water to drink.

Look at the trees and the flowers and all the growing things. Look at how they fit perfectly into the seasons and the rotations of the earth, allowing for growth and dormancy, calm and activity. The Oak tree grows it leaves in the spring, and creates its acorns so that it can reproduce and make brothers to stand with. And as the seasons change so to do the leaves until the branches become bare because of the cold, only to start again the next spring.

Look at the salmon, who always know exactly how to get back to the precise spot where they were born, without any GPS, or maps to aid them.

Look at it all. Look at its complexity and its natural perfection. Look at the life and the death and the creation and destruction.

Before we ever understood how it worked, a tiny egg and a swimming little sperm was able to come together and create this complex creature called man.

Without Man’s influence the world has in the past, and if need be would continue on in the future, to evolve and revolve on and on. It would continue to exist without our knowledge, without our understanding, without our help.

So if we as humans are so superior, and there is no greater being that created all this complex dance called creation, than I give you “non-believers” this challenge:

Spread your arms out wide, fly out amongst the stars, find the perfect spot…

And then, with all your science and knowledge and superior understanding of everything…

You make a world as good and as complete as this one that we were given. You populate it with life that balances itself so well. And then finally, you put a being like us on it and see if you can manage it any better.

…Let me know when you’re done! I can wait to see it!

Besides, it should only take you… what, about 6 days!

 

God is real and he believes in you, even if you don’t believe in him.