I’ve been asked that question before… but I still find that the answer isn't as as simple as I’d like it to be. I'm still working on simplifying it further. I guess the short answer would be another question.. ‘How do you NOT believe in God?”
I wrote an open letter to God once a few months ago briefly explaining my convictions (here) but the bottom line to me is this – it makes more sense to believe in God than it is to try to deny it.
I’m a Christian. I believe in the historical and factual account of a person named Jesus Christ… I’m sure you’ve heard the story. But I don’t want this to turn into some sort of evangelistic essay, so to be objective….. let me take a crack at this without any reference to my personal religious convictions…..
Look around you. Look at the earth, look at nature and look at the miracle of life…. Have you ever stopped to wonder how is it that there exist such a complex and sophisticated universe one there and here on earth? And in the sheer complexity of creation, why is it that everything hasn't fallen into chaos? Why is it that be in physics, biology, astronomy, geology, chemistry and what-ever-else-ology... there is consistent sign of elegant, deliberate architecture? Does it really make sense to suggest that everything happened out of probability and chance? Randomness is messy, chaotic and disorganized. You don’t see that in life or in the universe. Instead, you see designs, patterns everywhere... How come?
‘The answer is in science’ some people might say.
And to a large extent, they will be right. Science IS capable of explaining a lot of the life’s questions. It will tell you how systems interact, how molecules behave, how energy flows, and maybe in the future, how life itself is created. But even if and when that day comes when science is able to answer every mystery in existence, you still have to go back to beginning of time and ask how it all began. Even if science gets so advance that we finally know how to create life at will, then my question is “At whose will was life first created at the beginning of time?” If will and desire is the prerequisite of life, is it really so hard to believe that a Creator pre-existed before life as we knew it came to be? Is it really so hard to take the wonders of creation as the signs of a Creator... whatever you may want to name him?
And after answering all the which’s , when’s, how’s and what’s of life… there is still one last question to life that needs to be asked.....… WHY? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Hasn’t just about everyone asked themselves this question? I certainly have... The pursuit of meaning is something universal in all of us.
If you read a lot of Richard Dawkins, you probably believe more in The Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection rather than the existence of a Divine Creator. And while I’m so painfully ill qualified to put up sound arguments against someone as well established and intelligent as Richard Dawkins, I dare confidently say that these fancy philosophy of atheism, secular humanism and evolutionary biology isn’t the complete answer to the question of life.
Ask Richard Dawkins what is the meaning of life and why we are here, and chances are he will tell you that it’s to ‘propagate the species’. THAT is their answer to the why. To exist is the means and the ends in itself. In layman’s terms, it means we’re all here just to life, eat, breed then die…. And between just try to be happy. THAT’s life.
Is that answer enough for you?
I’d bet not. Why not? Because if it was, we wouldn’t be groaning and debating about the issue anymore. If this was the final and complete truth, we would believe it not just in our minds but also in our hearts. All doubts will disappear. All debates will cease.
But just look at history. Look at all of civilization past and present. Why is it that wherever there exis a civilization, there eixt SOME form of religion? Pagans, Buddhist, Christians, Jewish, Zoroaster, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh,......as different as we all are in our beliefs, why is it that all civilizations somehow ended up worshipping some unknown, invisible, omnipotent Being (or beings) which we label as ‘God’ today? Why do people bother to travel and learn about other people and other ways of life? Why do we dedicate our lives to understanding the world around us? Why do we bother about abstract things like truth, justice, happiness, freedom, self actualization and fulfilment? Let me put this to you; we are all searching for something. There is an unquenched thirst in us that we are trying to satisfy. Add it all up…. you will see that it is an unspoken but collective acknowledgement by mankind that there is another dimension to our existence other than logic, rational and emotions. And that is a spiritual dimension. We are as much spiritual beings as we are physical ones. We are trying to quench our spiritual thirst. That’s why we are all preoccupied with the meaning of life. We know that life is more than just the total sum of its physical parts. There is more and that ‘more’ is what we call God….. the one that it all come together. The Theory of Evolution and Evolutionary biology does a great job in explaining away the mechanics of nature… but it does little in explaining the anomaly of the human race. Why we break the mould and behave unlike any others species on earth. Why we search for meaning and animals don’t. Why we eats, sleep and breed more successfully than any other creature on earth yet still feel like something is missing.
The search for God and the debate of faith is more than just about proving facts. It’s about finding emotional truth. We select the facts we embrace based on the truths we accept. A lot people say facts, logics and rationale lead to the beliefs and convictions they have. When in fact, it’s the opposite. We justify our emotions by using the facts, logics and rationale available to us. This is not to say there are no absolute truths. There is…… but I think that will be revealed only at the end of time, either when Science has figured every damn thing out.. or judgement days arrives, whichever first.
But for now, here’s where we’re at. That the clinical and soulless nature of Science cannot fully satisty the spiritual question we have as human beings… and Religion for what is it today cannot fully be proven by science to be factual and true.
It still boils down to you and me on what you choose to embrace in this life.
I have posed many questions of faith to many different people. I have search far and wide and deep within myself for the truth. Eventually… I found what I believe to be the absolute truth about life…. that God exist, and that he is a real and personal God, that He is both subtle and obvious in His ways, that He is all powerful but also all loving, that He will forgive as surely as he will judge, that we are meant to care and love one another not because we are a similar species, but because that’s what God called us to do……and I’m staking my life on that belief. I might be wrong… but it’s a risk I am will take.
And as for science.. its progress cannot be stopped. In his amazing capacity to perceive and create, the knowledge of man can only grow with time. But it is never to dethrone or debunk the concept of God but rather to reinforce it. Art scholars spend their lives studying the creations of master painters from the past, trying to catch a glimpse of their genuis in the works of their hands. The more they understand the painting - how it was made, why it was made, who it was made for, what its trying to say - the more they understand the mind of the painter himself.... And to me, that is what science is. It is us trying to understand the greatest masterpieces of all time - creation itself, and in doing so, catch a glimpse of the heart and mind of the Master Creator - God.
How about you? If you and I take the risk of believing this unproven concept of God and end up wrong, what will you have really lost? If there is no God, then truly what we’re here to do is just eat, sleep, breed and die……… which we are already doing pretty well anyway. On the other hand, if you choose not to believe, and God really turns out to be everything He said he is…. what then my friend? What then?
There’s a beautiful quote I read somewhere on a blog I read that goes:
To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.
-William Arthur Ward
It's not directly about God... but it is a very poignant reminder about about how we choose to live. Will you not take a leap of faith? Think about it…..
P/S: To whoever it is that asked that question.. sorry if I’m going overboard with my answer! :-P I guess it’s just one of those questions you can’t answer without a speech! Cheers….
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