A Reply to a Friend’s Quandary and His Quest For no-God Thesis

This blog is a response to a friend of mine who wishes to de-throne God. I chose to give my friend a generic name “Friend” and post the blog so that it will be helpful to all with the similar dilemma.

Friend, as much as I appreciate your candor in expressing your quandary over mind and heart, so much so I wish to put things into perspective to help you make a sound decision. On the premise that our opinion on someone doesn’t change the personality of that person, but only alters our perception of things associated to that person; I would like put forth my view.

Existential

It was Friedrich Nietzsche (in the late 18^th century) - well known atheist and author of Thus Spake Zarathustra – who first propagated the term ‘God is dead’. Nietzsche attempted to replace God with Reason as a result of Enlightenment (quite similar to your ‘moment of disillusionment’) which will result in a peaceful world as he felt God is the fundamental reason for all the problems on this earth. Jean-Paul Satre (in the early 19^th century) followed Nietzsche with his Existentialism, which merely says that there is no absolute moral truth and everything depends upon an individual’s opinion. Despite their claim for peace and harmony, their teach did much harm than good – one of their followers was Adolf Hitler. They made the world a bloody place and wreaked havoc in the lives of many as the 2 World Wars were fought during the 19^th century.

Keeping this in the background, I would like to move into our FB conversation. I understand that you were very religious and were brought up in an orthodox catholic family. Being a former Catholic myself, I can fairly understand what it means – going to a building called church every Sunday; believing that pope is the head of the church; taking part in the choir and carol singing; calling the priest, Father; confessing your sins to him and receiving a penance; reciting the holy rosary; praying to the saints and statues; and being a altar boy sometimes. In all this I never knew where God was, all I could see was myself.

To put this into perspective, Jesus did not say that the church is a building, but He did say that we are the church when we are under His authority. He says in His word (Bible) ‘call no one else Father except the one in Heaven’. He also says that each of us can forgive one another’s sins. The primary thing I wish to say is that Jesus Christ abolished the place of worship and said that ‘the true worshippers are those that seek the father in Spirit and Truth’. So, without the Holy Spirit (1) you cannot understand God and (2) you will be deceived into believing a lie. But, how does one get to know the Holy Spirit? It is only through the Word of God – the Holy Bible.

As I write this I recall a story about a billionaire’s son who goes to a new city to study and his dad gifts him an awesome limousine to commute to college. After the first day in college he emails his dad. He writes ‘Dad, this city is great and am loving it, but the only thing that is embarrassing is that even the professor comes to the college by train.’ And his dad responds stating that: ‘Son, stop embarrassing us this way, I have deposited $20m into your account, please go get a train for yourself’.

The story is quite funny but interesting when we look at our own lives in its light. Often times this is how we misunderstand what God tells us. What He wants us to do is clear in His Word but we listen to others and lead our lives in ways that are not in tune with God’s ways. And in the end we blame God for our misinterpretation.

Intellectual

Coming to the second and a very interesting point on intellect dictated no-God thesis, I wish to offer my humble point of view. Let me tell you this that as life wears on you, you’ll know that the disciplines are too intricate for one single line of reasoning to make that knock down argument and close the case. You’ll learn in philosophy that one of the flaws for a week world view is that it will use only a single line of argument. No world view can ever come together by one single line of argument: there has to be a coalescing; a coming together; a pulling together of much; and the ability to explain, that which is to the contrary. It becomes very obvious as we mature in our lives that there is no one single discipline that has that kind of prerogative to explain all of ultimate reality.

A student of mathematics might understand reality through numbers, which could be very different for a student of science or a student of commerce. But still our intellect dictates that if God is real let Him reveal Himself in one of these ways in some overwhelming fashion. To back what I’m saying let me give you an example of the first release of Encyclopedia Britannic in 1974. A statistics of its release gives the following numbers: 14 yrs for production, 200 advisors, 300 editors, 4,000 contributors, 100,000 entries, $34 million and 43 million words.

This pales by contrast in just one single strand locked into your DNA. Recent mappers of the human DNA say that there are about 2.1 billion bites of information in the human DNA. From a single fertilized ovum in that single thread, billions of cells, millions of rods and cones appear in the first 9 months. From that single strand of DNA there are about 600,000 printed pages of information, a library of over 1000 volumes. This is 50 times the size of that encyclopedia released in 1974. And mind you, this is not the end, the field is expanding exponentially.

My friend, if you’re talking about intellect, I’m afraid it is next to nothing in front of God.

And so, my humble plea is this, read the Word of God, which will lead you into all truth and a blessed life. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Catholic, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Methodist or CSI. All that matters is whether you’ve accepted the salvation of Jesus Christ as mentioned in the bible. Just be a Christian… Read the Word of God… and Do what It says for that is all is required of man.