Faith. Everybody has it in something. Rather you are a militant atheist or the most patient of saints, you have faith. If you are religious, you may have it in a book. If secular, you may have it in what you can see with your own two eyes. Both can be reliable in their own way, but also deceptive. For example, how do you know that somebody didn’t just make up the contents of that holy book? Or how do you know that your eyes aren’t just playing tricks on you while all of this just being an elaborate dream that you’re having? In the end, faith is required to function in life. The question then becomes: “Is it blind faith or reasonable?”
Reasonable faith requires evidence to support it. It’s sort of like a chair. You see this chair every single day and you know that in the past whenever you would sit on it it would support you. So you trust it and lean your weight on it. That is faith. When it comes to spirituality though, it becomes a little more tricky. You see, we are dealing with an unseen realm. Sometimes I see it as God having created all of this and just sort of left us to ourselves. We can’t see God, but we can see all of the evidence in the world that He was here. It’s sort of like a house. You know that because of cause and effect somebody built that house, it didn’t build itself. And living in that house, you know what it’s “supposed” to look like on an average day. But, what if one day you noticed jewelry missing, strange foot prints on the floor and a broken window? You would conclude that a robber has been in your house. Something as simple and little as those clues would have told you such an undeniable fact about what has happened.
The same applies to God. God is the builder of this house we call Earth. He made it and we’re just living in it. We know based off of the clues left behind that somebody made this world. Even if God didn’t leave behind a letter we still know that He was here.
How do we know? Cause and effect is a powerful tool to use when it comes to deciphering reality. The Big Bang is how the universe started as I’m sure you’re aware of. And if you ask yourself what exactly caused the Big Bang then you may be left with more questions than answers. The reasoning behind this is like an unbroken chain. What caused you? Earth. What caused the earth? The Big Bang. What caused the Big Bang? An explosion. What caused the explosion? Well, this is where atheists and theists tend to part ways. You see, you can either believe that the universe is eternal or that it began at a certain point in time. And this is where the laws of physics become helpful. According to the First Law of Thermodynamics, matter cannot be created nor destroyed. Energy itself isn’t something that can come into existence. So does this support the idea of an eternal universe: that the universe was always here and that it’s all that ever was and will be? It could, if you only considered the first law.
However, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, energy becomes unusable over time. What does this mean? Well, it means that although energy is eternal, it loses usability over time: a phenomenon known as entropy. Think of a balloon. Without the helium, it can no longer float. The balloon still exists, like energy does. But it no longer can do what it was intended to do.
So what does this mean, exactly? Practically what it means that if the universe really were static and eternal then because of entropy we wouldn’t be here right now. It would have been lights out, but the lights are still on. The usability of the energy that sustained this eternal universe would have become unusable long ago. So nothing at all would exist at this point. So what does it logically mean for everything to still be running? What it means is that the universe is not eternal, but actually had a beginning. Why does this matter? Because of cause and effect. If the universe began to exist then ultimately something or someone caused it.
Could it be some immaterial force that caused the cosmos? No, because something that is not conscious can’t make conscious decisions. You have to keep in mind also that it would not be able to produce something it did not have. Consciousness is not just “a” part of life but is the very heart and soul of our existence. It’s what sets you apart from a rock, or a stick. These things are not conscious and therefore could never cause what they do not have themselves. Therefore something that is also conscious would have to produce consciousness in us.
Yes, therefore God. Therefore, God is the most reasonable conclusion that one could possibly make based off of the evidence. This is not a blind faith but a reasonable faith. A blind faith may be something like,”I see horses, therefore I believe in unicorns.” I suppose there’s some sort of logic used in that statement but it’s muddy and confusing. With that sort of logic one could be inclined to believe in anything and everything.
Not only do we have the tool known as cause and effect to decipher reality, but also the law of non-contradiction. What is this law? Basically it’s the law that two opposites cannot be true at the same time and in the same sense. Meaning theism and atheism cannot be true at the same time. It’s either one or the other. Another example is a door. A door can’t be both opened and closed at the same time. It can either be opened or it can be closed. Now, that same door can be both opened and closed at the same time and in a different sense. For example, the door to the White House can be opened to the President and closed to the public all at the same time. This is the essence of the law of non-contradiction.
So then, what does all of this tell us? Logic tells us that there must be a God. It also tells us that time is short. 100% of all living things will eventually pass away and as taboo as that is to say, it’s just a fact. You can live for things like wealth and prestige and none of those things can be taken with you to the grave. You can’t bring with you earthly treasures into the afterlife. All that you can bring is your soul and all that you have learned in this life time. Even if you lived in such a way as to be remembered, realistically you’ll be forgotten within a hundred years. In the very same way that your great great grandparents are forgotten. Or even if you rise through the ranks and become memorable for thousands of years; the sun will eventually burn up and so will everyone that you would need to remember you.
I’m not saying these things to sound dark, but those are the facts. And the only way to move forward in hope and meaning and purpose is to acknowledge the reality of the situation. The fact is, the only thing that is truly eternal is God Himself. And the only way you can live forever is through Him. Could it be that God created us here for a purpose; to see if we would not seek Him out? The way to seek God is to seek the truth. The actual truth. Not what we hope is true: truth is not relative. It’s not something that bends to the will of humanity. It is what it is, regardless of what anyone believes. This goes to the theist side as much as it does the atheist side. So then, the only way to accept and embrace the truth is to follow it wherever it leads.
Now, which God do we follow? Which religion, if any? I’ve rationally explained why Atheism is nonsensical, but what about Christianity? First of all, when it comes to all other religions apart from Christianity, there is a common theme: work your way to salvation. Now, this is extremely counterintuitive. For example, if there is a murderer who is on trial and the judge lets him go because he’s a merciful judge or because somehow the murderer has proved his own worth; that judge would turn out to be more corrupt then the man he set free. We can’t earn or purchase our own forgiveness. The same goes with love. We can’t earn God’s love, it’s something that has to come from Him. That’s like saying that a father will only love his child if he does enough chores around the house. That’s not love: that’s a transaction.
So rationally that leaves us with Christianity compared to all other religions. But, I’m perfectly aware of the tensions that Christianity has. I’m not about to pretend that I don’t know of the contradictions, historical and scientific inaccuracies and immoralities that are contained within the pages of Scripture. But, Christianity is still closest to the truth. It’s certainly not Atheism for reasons I have addressed in the beginning of this post. And it’s not any other religion by default: since we cannot erase our guilt ourselves. And yet, the mystery of it all, is that just maybe it’s not Christianity either. As truth seekers we must go where ever the evidence leads. I know that it may not be a comfortable path, but it is a path that’s worth it. And surely as a fire refines silver, we are refined as we go through these trials of seeking the truth.
At the end of the day, comfort should not be our goal. It should be discovering and embracing the truth. And surely as the sun rises in the East, God will surely comfort us in due time. We just need to have faith in His ultimate goodness.