There Is No God

Or so some people would have you believe.

The great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said in 1882 in his book Die fröhliche Wissenschaft :


“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?

What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?

What water is there for us to clean ourselves?

What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent?

Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”


Many great scientist, mathmaticians and thinkers of today would have us all believe that there is no God, that God is a fallacy, the attempt of a delusional mind to compensate for the terrible pains we suffer in life. Or, as Karl Marx put it: “Religion is the opiate of the people.”

How much must we lift ourselves up, Nietzche would ask, that we must account for everything in our universe through our own immense wisdom and understanding? To my way of thinking, science is the opiate of the skeptic; if we cannot understand something, we just say it hasn’t been discovered yet.

I’ve always been amazed at scientists. How can one look at the wondrous creation of the universe, and all it has to offer, and question God? How is it possible that we can predict things we cannot see, and then when we develop the technology to see them, they are exactly as predicted? Can “randomness” be the cause of this?

How can mathematics work? But it does, and contains its own beauty. Can this be random? In fact, Galileo Galilei said “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." Math works, all the time. (just like God, it seems) Even in chaos there are patterns and repetitions.

How an astronomer could ever look at the universe and doubt God is really beyond me. The vastness, the diversity, the sheer beauty and elegance of it all. One look at the nebula called "The Eye of God" tells me there is more than randomness. (And that God, like your author, has blue eyes!) Our own world, just the right size, just the right composition of elements, just the right distance from just the right size sun… coincidence? Thomas Aquinas, in his opus Summa Theologica would ask (in a much longer form than this) that if you came upon a garden on a deserted island, would you need to see the gardener to know he exists, or is the garden evidence enough?

Biology – please… Man has been tying to create life for centuries. So far all they’ve come up with is making proteins and amino acids. Cloning is not creating life. Why not? Because the cells are already living! Create something out of nothing, and then we’re talking.

The naysayer should be warned: take counsel from the Book of Job. God clearly points out in his second speech that if man wishes to be sovereign in the universe, he’s got some work to do to catch up. God asks a question similar to Nietzsche: “Will you condemn me that you may be justified? Do you have an arm like God's? Can you thunder with a voice like His?" (Job 40:8-9)

I think that when those skeptics find themselves at the Pearly Gates, they will be faced with another quote from the book of Job, chapter 40, verse 7: " Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me:"

What will your answer be?

Comments

  1. I read your last line and I really think there are people that really think that if there is a God, they will somehow out argue God or guilt him about how "unfair" and "intolerant" He is.

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