Today we started a new four-part sermon series on why we believe what we believe – a heavy topic. So in trying to keep these nugget posts more concise, this obviously really screws things up for me because God, faith and our existence are probably the most widely debated topics in religion and life in general. Because the main question we all have is, why should we believe in God at all?
And to try to share with you what I learned today, I was going to elaborate on the notes I took going into the scientific, logical reasons for why it just makes sense to believe in God – because there is very credible information to back our beliefs. Like the anthropic principle – things have to be perfectly balanced in order for us to exist, they cannot just be random coincidences. Or how Jesus, (who was a nobody born of nobodies, had such a significant impact on this world that even 2,000 years after his death people are still talking about him), really should be considered a crazy person and a liar because of his outrageous claims, yet even opposing religions define him as a “good prophet” or “great man” despite. Not to mention the Big Bang theory, a concept indicating that everything that has a beginning has a cause – meaning something had to have created the Big Bang. All of it is so interesting to me because I don’t think of my belief in that way…with logic.
But the last point the pastor made really was the only thing that cannot be argued or debated. Beyond all of the valid evidence of our existence, God’s existence and our purpose, is the effect God has on individual lives. No one can deny my personal experience. And as non-factual as that may be, that is the one thing that makes my belief the most real.
So I hope to keep learning more by reading up on Christian apologetics on my own as well. It’s important for me to understand why I believe what I do, and I want to have the proper information.
“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 men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20
“When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong.” – Romans 2:14-15
Love,
Laura