Before I launch into my explanation of why I believe there is a God, I think it would be helpful to describe my upbringing to give some context as to where I am coming from. I was baptized as a baby, and attended various Protestant Christian churches with my parents during my childhood. My parents were fervently religious at first (“Spreading the Good News”/Organizing Retreats/ Teaching Sunday School etc.). They became less and less involved in church as time went on, and as our family broke apart, we totally stopped attending except for Christmas.
Although I went to church with my parents every single Sunday, I never felt God’s presence. As I sat in the pews, I kept hoping for a magical religious moment to consume me so I could feel what everybody else claimed to be feeling. I mostly just doodled on the bulletins during the sermons and waited impatiently for “coffee time” when I could stuff my face with cookies.
Another puzzle for me was the big fuss people would make about The Bible. To me, it was just a book written by people who lived thousands of years ago. God himself did not write it. Not even Jesus, although his words are recorded in the New Testament. Regular Men wrote the Bible. They were perhaps “Divinely Inspired”, but they weren’t Angels.
So when my apathetic youthful teenage self contemplated the Concept of “GOD”, I only saw silly humans desperately cobbling together stories and obsessive rituals in the hopes of finding meaning in their short pathetic little lives. I had a World View where everything I did was futile, and nothing I did ever amounted to anything. Nothing seemed to make any sense. There was nothing to believe in, and nobody to depend on. There were no Absolutes, no Good or Evil, no Right or Wrong, only different shades of gray. My very existence on this earth seemed random and meaningless, especially after my parents split up.
Then, three things happened that totally changed my perspective.
1) ALL ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
I committed a serious infraction while driving, and was slapped with a hefty fine with points taken off my license. I remember standing there in court, totally shocked. There was no explanation or rationalization I could use to get myself out of the situation I had found myself in. I made a mistake, and I had to pay the price. Up until that point in my life, I had never had to face the undeniable huge negative Consequence of something I had done.
2) ABSOLUTES
I started smoking while I was a teenager in high school, but promised myself I’d stop before I turned 20. Well, it was a lot harder to quit than I thought it would be. It took me an entire year of trying and failing over and over again, and I was only able to quit for good after I finally accepted the fact that there are Absolutes. You can’t call yourself a nonsmoker if you still occasionally smoke. If you have one cigarette a week, you’re still a smoker. Dealing with the Absoluteness of quitting smoking was a very difficult reality for me to accept after having spent my entire life up until that point believing everything was relative.
3) GOOD AND EVIL EXIST
September 11, 2001 forced me to acknowledge the existence of Evil. I finally came to terms with the fact that there are some people and things in this life that are Good, and some that are Evil (Bad). Love, Honesty and Fidelity are Good things. Hatred, Lying and Infidelity are elements of Evil. The concept is simple, but I always thought such “black and white thinking” was for Weak and Simple-Minded people who didn’t understand the Nuances and Intricacies of the World. Well, it turned out I had been the fool to believe there was a “Third Way”. I had to acknowledge the fact that every action/inaction has an absolute consequence that is either Good or Bad.
I started to “judge” things. I began looking at things and making judgments in my own mind based on my understanding of Good and Evil. (Starting with America being a Good country, and Terrorists being Evil). I began looking at my own life and saw that there were Good and Evil elements that existed in myself. I realized although I had vowed it would never happen, I had turned into my parents! Those were dark times for me. It was painful to acknowledge to myself that I had certain traits that were Bad/Evil/Sins, whatever you want to call them. The process of learning from my mistakes, correcting my bad habits and improving myself continues to this day. I know I am not perfect, but I will always try to be a better person.
I came to find peace in the belief that even though my earthly parents had let me down, I had a “Father in Heaven”. That He Created me, not my parents. And He Created me in a very specific way (the way I look, my unique personality, talents and abilities), and put me here on this Earth for a Purpose. And my job as his Child is to dedicate my life to doing whatever it is that I was Created to do. And by doing that I will make myself happy, fulfill my purpose in life, make my Heavenly Father (God) happy, and spread happiness to my friends, loved ones, and beyond.
Around the time I started feeling the presence of God, I began to see and appreciate The Bible. These stories were written by mortals, but they have survived the test of time and been passed down from generation to generation. People that lived Thousands of years ago heard these same stories, and saw themselves in them, and related to them as we do now, because they contain undeniable Truths about Human Beings, and the World in which we live.
For example, lets take a look at Genesis. In the beginning, there was Nothing. Then God created light and darkness, day and night, earth and water and sky, plants and animals. And then He created Man in his Own Image. He created a Garden of Earthly Delights (Eden) for Man to run around and have fun in. But Man was lonely so God took his rib and made Eve. And the two of them ran around having fun in the Garden totally naked. They didn’t need to work because everything they needed was provided for them. But the Snake tempted Eve with the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And since Eve and Adam were created in God’s Image, they also had Curiosity. And of course as everybody knows they ate the fruit, and then realized they were naked, and covered themselves, and God found out and cast them out of the Garden into the wilderness where Man must plow the land by the sweat of his brow and Woman experience painful childbirth.
This entire Creation story is an amazing metaphor for what all of God’s Children go through. We are born/created in our parents’ image. If we’re lucky, our parents love us and take care of us. We run around naked without a care in the world. We don’t worry about where our next meal is coming from or what is going to happen to us from day to day. Then we eventually grow up (eat the fruit of knowledge), and are cast out of that garden of innocent childhood bliss forever. We emerge out of that protected cocoon of our childhoods (Eden) and become aware of the Evil in this world. And we have to work hard (toil by the sweat of our brow) just to meet the basic needs that we never had to worry about when we were children. Then we in turn become parents (painful childbirth) and try to create an Eden for our children to grow up in, and so Life continues.
There are so many other amazing stories and passages in the Bible that I have grown to love and appreciate because they so accurately reflect Humanity. I am not a religious person, but I truly believe The Bible is “The Good Book” because it contains Universal and Eternal Truths about Us Human Beings and the World.
Even as a child, I always loved Earth Science and Astronomy, and was amazed by our Planet and the Universe in which we live. On one hand, everything seemed so chaotic and wild (volcanoes, black holes, hurricanes, comets), but on the other hand, so organized and intricate (the human body, the solar system). I was mesmerized by all the different elements that make up our universe, but I did not see a big picture, a “Grand Design” or recognized the “Hand of God” in any of it. But once I began to believe in the Existence of a Higher Power, it all started to make sense. The world is too complex, intricate, amazing, wonderful and beautiful to have been just an accident. If there was no God, nothing would be here, and we wouldn’t exist. Somebody or some force made all this happen. Call it “Mother Nature” or “The Force” or “The Great Spirit” “Alpha and Omega”, “The Beginning and the End”- whatever it is, I believe it is out there.
Finally, I came to appreciate how the Judeo-Christian values upon which our Great Country is built is rooted in a belief in God. The Declaration of Independence states, “We are endowed by our CREATOR with certain unalienable Rights, the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We are all God’s Children, Created Equal, and born to be Free. And our entire system of Government has been built on the premise that it only exists By the People and For the People to protect and preserve our Life, our Liberty, and our Pursuit of Happiness (to fulfill our life’s purpose).
I would like to close with one of my favorite scriptures from the Bible. “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (Corinthians 13:12). This means God knows us completely, and sees our true potential and our best qualities – he loves us and sees himself in us, even though we don’t always see it ourselves.
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