Is there anyone out there ? (part 7)

Submitted by saltysteve on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 17:59

God - the guv'nor for the misguided or the guide for the misgoverned

Let's forget the Bible for now and consider God himself. Of course I don't know where you stand on this big issue, so let us start at first principles and look at the basics for belief in a Creator. Now I'm not going to be exhaustive here as this is a big issue and I don't intend to consider questions in the line of "if there's a God, why .... ?".

What I want you to consider is the evidence of your own eyes, ears and reasoning ability or nous. We're not talking about emotion, or gut-feelings here as these fall into the realm of faith, which of course is intensely personal and subjective.

(ii) Back to Nature

Exhibit B for the defence is ... you.

Just because Charles Darwin looked like a monkey does it mean that the rest of us really came from apes? Is a beautiful sunset just an optical freak of refraction? If so then we should consider great human works of art just on the basis of their chemical content. Wasn't Michaelangelo a good chemist, the way he mixed those coloured chemicals together on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel! The 'Mona Lisa' and 'Self Portrait by Jonathan Steiner, Aged 3', both wonderful works of art, didn't just appear out of the blue. They both had creators, they were both the result of months (or minutes) of painstaking anguish and activity.

When we look at these paintings we can only marvel at the skill of the creator. In the same way we should look at a beautiful sunset, a snowflake, or a warthog and marvel at the work of their, and our creator.

I realise that some of you, thanks to our schools and colleges, have a strong belief in what is known as evolution, rejecting the idea of a creator for the idea of a slow, gradual process by which life has 'evolved' . But just consider this. Evolution is not a fact, it is just a theory and, because it can't ever be seen working because of the vast timescales it operates under, it can never be proven.

Then you can say, "Yes, but neither can the existence of God". That is true. Belief in God is the exercise of faith, which is defined as "to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see". Belief in evolution is also faith. I know which one has the greater evidence and which I'd rather believe in.

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