Pre-Alpha. The Existence of God. Episode 1: Question Everything


Alberta2013 was a media campaign for Alpha in Alberta, Canada, in the fall of 2013. The tag line was, “Question Everything.”  I remember seeing a comment on a website to the effect that if everyone questioned everything there would be a lot more atheists, and I thought immediately, “No, there would be a lot fewer.” 

I came to faith at the age of 45, so I’ve been on both sides of this theistic fence, so to speak, and recently enough to remember both sides. And I’m not stupid. Years ago I applied for membership in Mensa and fell a half a percentile short. I don’t say that as a boast, just to point out that to be a theist, to believe in God, doesn’t automatically mean one has a low IQ. Many of the most intelligent people throughout history have been theists, and I don’t think any reasonable person could accuse them of being stupid or gullible.

I have a sort of engineering mind – I like to see how things work. I like to see things make sense. I like to see how things fit together. In fact, I know a number of engineers who are Christians. In my opinion, the Christian faith makes sense; it is entirely internally consistent; everything fits. My journey to faith began by just thinking – pondering various philosophical questions and gradually coming to the realization that it made just as much sense that God existed as that He didn’t. From there, of course, in my case, it progressed to becoming a certainty. 

Ultimately, the existence of God can be neither be proven nor disproven, and that is not my point here. In fact, as has been said, God is not so much proven as known. All I want to do is accomplish two things:

  1. to establish that theists are not, out of hand, stupid, unthinking or gullible people, and
  2. to get people to ask, think about, investigate and address certain questions.

I’m a Christian, and I have no fear of questioning everything about my faith. In fact, over the last twenty-odd years, I have. And I must say that the questioning, while it may have raised some doubts at times, when I really thought (and prayed) things completely through, has really made my thinking more certain. It has reinforced my faith; made it stronger. If something is true, it need not fear being questioned.

The Alpha course begins with Jesus; who is he and is he who he said he is? But I think there’s also a place for going back a step and examining the existence of God as well. So… to engage any atheists who might see this, or even to engage the thoughts of fellow Christians, I will from time to time compose a few posts giving my thoughts on the matter.

Stay tuned
Blessings,
John

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