Response to Alex's Blog

The following is a response to my friend Alex's blog....

Thanks man for giving me the chance to read the blog.   You say you are a poor writer, you’re definitely not, you write very well. 

Here are my thoughts.  I put them quite bluntly, not out of disrespect, but because based on how you write your blog, I believe this is what you prefer and appreciate.

You say that you don’t know whether or not God exists, but it seems like you’re writing is simply a way to try and take Christian arguments and look for the way that you can disprove them.  I believe that any topic can always be argued against in some way, shape or form.  I respect the fact that you admit that you don’t have all the answers (neither do I; none of us do), but it seems like you spend your time arguing against the existence of God.  Therefore, it seems like you are saying that you don’t know if God exists, but at the same time trying to prove that He doesn’t.   I feel like you may be sitting on the fence here, when you have to choose one side or the other.  Either God exists and you accept Him, or you choose to believe that He doesn’t, and like you’ve described in your blog, if you are wrong, you will absolutely spend eternity in hell, because this is what God, Whom you chose not to believe in, said would happen.  (Again, I know this is blunt.   I don’t mean for it to sound disrespectful or obnoxious, but based on what you wrote in your blog, I believe that you agree that these statements are true if God does in fact exist).  Now, I believe in God for many different reasons.  I have chosen to be on the God side of the fence.  I gotta tell you honestly, if I were to look at this circumstance from a probability standpoint, like it seems you do, I see myself as being in a no lose situation.  And I see anyone who chooses not to believe in God as being in a situation where they could end up losing.  What I mean by this is as follows:  If God does not exist, then when I die nothing happens, and I do not end up in hell.  From a worldly standpoint, this is a win (I say worldly because I believe this to be the thought of most non-believers, for I can’t see them sitting back and accepting that they were going to hell).  But if God does exist, then I get to spend eternity with Him in Heaven because I chose to live my life for Him.  I don’t think anyone would argue that eternity in Heaven as it is described in the Bible is anything but the greatest “win” imaginable.  Now the non-Christian on the other hand, the only “win” they could possibly obtain is if God does not exist; but if God does exist, then they spend eternity in hell because this is what God said would happen.  Eternal damnation is a big-time lose!  The reason why I bring this up is because you have admitted that you don’t know, but are going off of what you consider as most probable.  I have to say that I think you are putting yourself in a very dangerous place.  As a Christian I am in a position whereby if I’m wrong I don’t end up damned for eternity in hell, but if you are wrong then that is exactly what ends up occurring.  Based off of your argument of probability, I feel that as a Christian, I am in a circumstance where the probability is in my favour, with the reason being that I can’t lose.  (Please don’t think that the reason why I personally am a Christian is to “play it safe”, although I am thankful for the reality of this argument).  I also know you spoke about the fact that if you end up at the pearly gates and have to answer to God, you will tell Him that you used the brain that He gave you to come to a conclusion based on probability.  I can’t say exactly what He’ll say back in that moment, but I know what Jesus said when He was here on Earth, and that was, “You believe because you have seen me, but blessed are those who have not seen me and still believe” (John 20:29).   And in general, Jesus’ entire message was one of repentance and salvation.   The Bible makes it very clear that God gives us the choice while we are here on earth, and only then.  We have to make that choice now.  He’s given us everything He feels fit to give us, and yes, we have the choice to question it, but in the end we have to answer to Him for whatever decision we make. 

Like I mentioned before, you will always be able to argue against any point of view or argument.  One can always find a way to try and structure the argument in one direction or another.  For this reason, will non-Christians who say they need absolute proof ever be able to find it?  Will they ever be fully satisfied?  No they will not, because an argument can always be posed, and they often want facts which are indisputable.  Christians look at the evidence we do have and see it as enough to go off of, but unfortunately for non-Christians, they always want more.  They are never satisfied until there is nothing that can be argued.  The fact is that we will never have all the answers.   I encourage all people, Christians and non-Christians alike, to ask themselves: “Is it not possible that some truth simply cannot be proven from a worldly standpoint?  Is it not possible that to accept the truth means accepting that God chose for us not to have all of the answers, but left us enough to be able to follow Him, which is what He wanted?”  He hasn’t given us all the answers, and honestly I don’t know why; but with what He has given us I choose to believe in Him, and love Him, and know that He loves me.  I believe that He has given us more than enough to go off of, and I don’t want to forgo living my life for Him and securing a spot for myself in Heaven just because I was not satisfied with the fact that I was not given all the answers. 

The fact is that yes, there are a lot of arguments out there that sound very convincing in proving that God does not exist, and because of these, many people choose not to seek after God for themselves.  Like I’ve said, I don’t have all the answers.  I honestly can’t explain why each and every argument, which is out there going against the existence of God, is false.  I’m not smart enough to do that.  But what I am smart enough to do is to know that I have personally sought after God and now have a personal relationship with Him, and because of that, I know that what anybody else says about why He does not exist simply cannot be true.  It cannot be true based off of my personal experiences.  I recognize that the following is not the best analogy, but it is something like if someone was to say to me that my parents don’t love me.  They could create some very convincing arguments.  They could bring up all the mistakes that my parents ever made, and tie all those life events together as proof to show that my parents simply don’t love me.  They could even take all the good things they’ve done, and contrast them to their mistakes to find a convincing way to show that their mistakes are actually a clearer picture of how my parents feel about me than are the things they did a good job at.  Well, I know based off of the experiences of my life that my parents do in fact love me.  While all those arguments that were posed may in fact be true, or at least appear to be true, I cannot deny the fact that my parents love me, and I will not allow myself to buy into the idea that they don’t.   It is the same with God.  I can’t explain why every argument against Him is false.  They very well may seem to be true, but based off of my personal life experiences, I cannot deny His existence. 

The truth of the matter is that as I write this, I know that I myself can’t change your mind.  I believe God can, but He’s the only One.  You’ve spent a lot of time looking for proof of God.  I respect this, I really do.  You’ve done more than many other non-believers have.  But I have to be honest with you; I believe strongly that you’ve spent your time searching for the wrong thing.  If you really want to know the truth, which I believe you do, I would recommend you actually seek after God Himself.  The Bible says, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all of your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).  Rather than seeking after proof that the world tries to come up with, why wouldn’t you simply seek after God, Whom you are trying to discover about?  Pursue Him through prayer and reading of the Bible, and through commentaries and meaningful conversations with those who do believe.  In general, seek after Him.  You’ve spent a lot of time seeking after what the world says about God, but I encourage you, that if you really want to find the true answers, you at least owe it to yourself to seek after Him, and to do it on a personal level. 

I enjoy our conversations man, and I look forward to many more!  Heck, we should do it over a beer sometime.  I’m not one of those Christians against alcohol…just don’t expect me to get drunk, because in case you haven’t realized, I have a moral standard I’m trying to stick to….lol.