I was just having a little chat with my parents about God, as we do every now and then when we find ourselves gathered in the living room with the TV off and no one's doing anything else. Hmmm... was I born in the wrong century, or should this really be a common occurence?
Anyway, that's not the point of my post tonight.
We were talking about how people try to use reason to say that God doesn't exist or that Jesus isn't the Son of God, etc. Then I thought, with spiritual matters you could really argue any side you want to and it could make sense in your mind...
The spiritual cannot be proven. It really all comes down to what you WANT to believe in.
But then, when I think about what I want to believe in, I've observed that there are some really interesting and yet so simple facts that seem to support my beliefs... and yet I know they could be argued by those who want to argue it - any intelligent person who WANTS to believe there is no God can come up with a really smart sounding theory to counter such things as what I'm about to say. But as I said, it all comes down to what you want to believe. This is what I want to believe:
1. MORALITY. Where did we get our ideas of good moral behaviour if not from God? Why does it make us happy to treat others well, and why does it horrify us to hear of bad things being done to innocent children? Why does promiscuity hurt us psychologically? If your answer lies in sociology, it's flawed. Try to think back to the beginning. Where did humans get their ideas of morality in the first place?
2. THE GOSPEL. Jesus wasn't the only person that walked the earth and claimed to be the Messiah. In the book of Acts, the Jewish leaders mentioned that there had been "Christs" before Jesus and their message died out pretty quickly. You have to wonder how the son of a carpenter, a peaceful man with with no political power, a friend of outcasts, became known by millions around the world as Lord and Saviour.
3. SAUL. Saul was a Pharisee, a Jewish leader who was apparently pretty outraged by Christians spreading their message that this Jesus character was the Messiah. He was really against the whole thing but suddenly he had a vision and his life changed. Paul, as he was known from them on, became just like the crazies he hated! He didn't even care if he had to die for the message of Jesus. And he was a brilliant man whose insight into the mysteries of the gospel have had a huge impact on the church.
4. BEAUTY. Do you ever wonder why we react to it? Why should different shapes and colours around us make any difference if we are only made up of matter? Why does beauty make us happy? In fact, why does anything make us happy? Why do we have any emotion at all?
5. SCIENCE. This one I absolutely love to think about. If we didn't have science trying to explain everything (and often doing such a good job), if we didn't know so much of what we know about the way things work in our world... we wouldn't have so much to marvel at when we see miracles. Thanks to science getting better and better, miracles are more amazing than ever.
There are so many more things, but I'm not an apologist. I'm just a guy who appreciates what I consider to be evidence of the truth of my spiritual beliefs. Give me evidence to contradict it, and I'll simply say it's not valid... because this is truly what I believe, and none of us can really prove either side. That, to me, is a comforting thought.
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Good thoughts! I love what you said about emotion and beauty. The world of logical thought doesn't often go there, and yet it's so true. Very interesting point as well, about spiritual things being unable to prove. Although ... In Ezekiel twice God says He would prove Himself holy among them in the sight of the nations. I think this may have two sides. The ability of something being proven (even something temporal) is somewhat dependant on the one accepting the proof. In other words, I can prove to someone beyond the shadow of a doubt that I own the 2001 Chevy that I drive, but if they refuse to believe it, I haven't proven it! Or is proof something empiracly arrived at? If I prove it to myself is that proof? The Bible does say that spiritual things are spiritually discerned. So we can say that the acceptance or rejection of proof has far more to do with our discernment than it does with the thing itself. (I hope you're up for this debate. I kinda launched in.)
Perhaps that is what you're saying though ... that these things have been proven to you, and consequently care little if others do not accept the proof you see. Ah. That's good stuff.
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