I believe in God. He is the source of all reality and all matter. As you say, everything requires a cause. Nothing can truly be destroyed or created, except by God. We can only convert one thing into something else. Why am I here on Earth? I’m here because God decided to give me life. He has given me the ultimate gift of existence. For eternity, I am going to Heaven. I have absolute faith in what Christ did for me and have absolute faith that I will be forgiven for my sins.
The most convincing case for God is a hard thing to explain, because there is an unexplainable draw to Christ when you read about Him and what He did.
I think one of the most compelling things about it is the lack of the extraordinary that exists in the story of Christ. Yes, Christ walked on water, raised the dead, and was born of a virgin, but he appeared and bled a man. Unlike other faiths, God was never described as some creature of incredible size with multiple arms and the heads of animals. God Himself was a force whose only physical representation was Jesus Christ. Someone who seemed unremarkable to those who saw him in passing glances.He was humble. The King of Kings was unlike any king before Him. Has there been any other figure, let alone a god, who was so selfless, who gave so selflessly for humanity? No. This is what sets God apart from other divine beings. He does not view humanity as an amusement, something to play with. He sees it as an object of devotion. He loves us. That is the sign of a true creator.
For me, I believe in no chance that God does not exist. In his absence, nothing makes sense. Sense is only found through Him. Consequences? What consequences could their be? If you want to take it to a proven, science textbook fact issue, it has been proven that those with no faith are more unhappy than those with faith. Societies built around no faith have all been failures, without exception, and have usually ended in mass slaughter. The consequences of being wrong about God? Ask anyone who lived in Soviet Russia. That is a type of world in which God was just kept behind closed doors and in secret. Imagine a society completely devoid of God. Perhaps too horrific for us to imagine, and impossible, since even in foolish denial, He is here. He is everywhere, at all times.
Morality is absolute. There is no question. Someone once said, without an absolute nature, morality is just a man’s opinion, waiting to be crushed by a more powerful man’s opinion. Morals come from God. Some are hardwired into our nature and hard to override. Most are not. This is due to free will, yes. Man has to make the decision to follow God, to knock on the door. If he is not free to make that decision, his existence is meaningless. It has been said, many will fall and many will deny God, to indulge in the fleeting pleasures of sin. These people may find shelter in moral relativism, and they may find shelter in their disbelief in Satan as well. But then again, the deceiver does not want you to believe in him. If you don’t believe in him, you’re unable to fight him.
An atheist relative of mine once asked me why I believed in God and the afterlife. I told him that if all you believe in beyond this life is the cold, wintery earth, then whichever of us is right, that’s all you will ever receive. And perhaps Hell is not as artists depict it, but is instead a simple absence of existence, no past, no future, no present. Atheists may in fact believe in Hell and not even realize it. I believe in it, I just know I’m not going there.
Interesting topic.
Thank you for your thoughtful and extensive answers. I really appreciate the time you put into your post. Most people go though life, and just accept what they are told in their college classes, or what they hear from their relatives and friends. I see that you have put a lot of logical study into your views. Thanks again.
I agree that it is hard to explain about the miracles of Christ. Although I was raised in church, I didn’t actually have a personal relationship with Christ until I was in my teens, and considered the testimony of the martyrs who died, still confessing the truth of Christ’s resurrection. No man will die for something that they know is a lie—so this convinced me of the truth of the Bible. So although there are many convincing proofs of God arrived at through philosophy (and until recently, most philosophers, even if they were not Christians, at least believed in God)for me the most convincing proof of God (and Christ), besides cosmological, is historical and experiential evidences.