PeterS

Why are you so touchy LB. Why are you always creating threads where you have some form or anecdotal proof of god and then you expect us to get all excited? Anecdotal proof is purely subjective--which was my point behind materialism. So why don't you explain how--when you followed gods will, things went well and when you didn't, they didn't.

I would also like to know why, if you have faith in god, you are always creating threads where the proof for god is purely anecdotal. Do you think you can explain without going into a Donald Trump meltdown?

mwdegutis Loc: Illinois

I don't know why I'm doing this because you're an unbeliever but it is my sincere hope that someone else may read it and come to believe. Then again, with concern to you, I've seen stranger things happen...

God’s existence cannot be “proven” in the way that science can prove or disprove a fact about the material world. However, the universe presents overwhelming evidence for God’s existence ( The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.). But no one can be forced to believe in God. In fact, God’s infinite nature makes it impossible to comprehend Him directly (God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.). Because God is Spirit, conclusions about the ultimate beginnings of the universe need to be drawn from the created world and God’s actions within it. Here in the created world, the evidence for God’s eternal power and divine nature is so overwhelming that belief in Him is the only reasonable option (For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.) While some aspects of God’s nature–His holiness and love, for example–have been obscured by the fall of man, it is disbelief in God’s existence and power that is irrational, not belief. To assume that the universe is just a cosmic accident goes against the grain of everything we experience. Everything that we have ever encountered with our senses has a cause: why not the universe?

There is a remarkable human tendency to ignore the obvious. We all take many of the most important things in our lives (security, family, health) for granted. Similarly, we all tend to take the universe and its mysteries for granted. Instead of asking the obvious questions “Why is there a universe and why am I here?” and “How does the universe happen to exist at all?” we allow a superficial smattering of scientific knowledge to divest us of an appropriate sense of wonder.

The Bible offers us the essential truths about God:

He was there “in the beginning” before anything else existed:

• In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
• For he spoke, and it came to be, He commanded, and it stood firm.
• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

He has no beginning or end, and He is unbounded by time and space.

• Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
• A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
• Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity.

Everything else that exists: minerals, water, plants, animals, humans, angels, and demons are on a lower plane. Only God is an eternal Spirit, uncreated, other, of an entirely different order.

• By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
• It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.
• For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
• “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

God made human beings in His image (So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them), but we are still part of the material world. Each of us had a specific beginning, and are bounded by three-dimensional experience and passing time. Being immersed in time and space, we become overwhelmed and confused when we try to understand an eternal God (How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out. – Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom).

Many people simply ignore the overwhelming experiential and natural evidence for God’s existence. Ultimately, faith comes down to a decision of the heart. A mind darkened by a rebellious heart is incapable of perceiving God (They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand) – For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

The eternal God is transcendent, not part of creation. God’s existence cannot be “proven” in the way that science can prove or disprove a fact about the material world (Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.). We are spiritual beings, created in God’s image, aware of our own existence, and capable of choice. Choosing to believe that there is no God and that the universe is just a fantastically complex accident will inevitably lead to the conclusion that life is absurd and without meaning. To live without meaning is a hopeless struggle at best, and always ends in despair. But if we believe in the God of the Bible we not only have a reason to live, but the assurance of seeing the kingdom of God with our own eyes.

For this is what the high and exalted One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15).