Does God Exist?   Romans 1.18-20

What if this God thing is all a big hoax? 

So many vitriolic atheists spew THERE IS NO GOD ... could they be right? 

Maybe the notion of God is simply born of wishful thinking . . .

How do we know?  Can the truth be known?

Let me stop right here and ask you:  How do you know that God is real?

Well, how do you???  Think for a moment.  Whether you are reading this with a sari pulled over the screen, so no one can see … or you are in a remote part of Taiwan …  or in a safe corner of Pakistan (is there a safe place for a believer in Pakistan?) … or on the train riding to work in Los Angeles …take a moment and think:  why do YOU believe there is a God?

In a recent newspaper article, an idea man was asked what he thought was the single worst idea in history.  Unequivocally, he answered,

     “without question, ethical monotheism—the idea of one true god.”1

Why, I was first shocked, and then I was indignant—how could the man say such a thing!  Why, of course there is a God…just … just … just what?     You believe there is a God, but can you explain and defend your belief?  Do you know enough to argue the truth of God?  The basis of truth is not our knowledge of, or belief in, it—truth is truth because it is an objective reality.  

Without consulting anyone else’s thoughts on the matter, I did some thinking first—why do I believe there is a God?  Is it just because I was raised to believe in him?  Or is he really there?  Hmmm . . . well, something is the source of the life I see around me … When I drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, and behold the beauty of the Western sky, especially when the sun dips into the ocean, languid in rich oranges and bright pinks … well, it shouts to me of a Creator!  When I walk my little dog at night, and look up at stars too numerous to count, and observe how the moon changes every night … I am mindful of the immensity of that Creator’s work.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.  Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.  Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”2  Thank you, David, for eloquently capturing what I see in the skies!  Lest I think I am the only one, David also reminds me that these same wonders are viewed all across the earth; indeed, no culture, no ethnic group, no matter how remote is without knowledge of the work of the Creator. 

When I cut a many-petaled dahlia from my garden, or a coral-colored Fragrant Cloud rose, I marvel at how very creative that Creator is!  I think how lovely it is that he creates beauty, and cares enough to make flowers not just pretty, but fragrant too, purely for our enjoyment.  What kind of God is this?  OH, and lest I forget, the greatest miracle of all—having the privilege of bearing four tiny, well-formed babies . . . and watching them grow to be 27, 25, 15, and 12 … well, Someone or Something set LIFE into motion!

Ah yes, the psalmist explained God’s role in that too:  “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,  your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”3

Yes, creation declares that there is a loving God, which brings us to Paul’s explanation of the just side of a righteous God, since Creation itself proclaims there is a loving God  —  Romans 1.19-20, 18

He writes, “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  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.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness”

Having surveyed many people about why they believe in God . . . many began by saying and gesturing, ‘Just look around you.’  I remember asking a wild-looking redheaded, Harley-riding Hippy phlebotomist if she believed in God…(yes, while she had a needle in my arm)…and she said, ‘yeah man—especially since doing this job.  I see it in the life of people, in their desire to live, and the body’s ability to heal itself…I know there’s a God because I see him in life every day.’  

I think “Red” was right.  I know there is a God because he shows himself every day in life around me.  Yes, I believe God exists.

Christine

1) Peter Watson, NY Times, p.31, 12.11.05  2)  Psalm 19.1-43   3) Psalm 139.13-16