Church Voices

The great atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell was once asked what he would say if he found himself standing before God on the judgement day and God asked him, “Why didn’t you believe in Me?” Russell replied, “I would say, ‘Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!’”

To me for one who claims there not to be enough evidence for the existence of God possesses either little thinking power or has neglected thought altogether. For when I look around at times I’m simply overwhelmed by how many ontologies seem to necessitate the existence of a Perfect Being from which we have such conceptual notions as perfection, rationale, meaning, morale, aesthetical appeal, etc. (Not to mention the innumerous subsets which fall under each category.) Boldly I say, one of the most assuring aspects of my faith is its alternative—life without it. Meditate on like cosmic questions apart from a loving God and before long the lights start to fade, eventually becoming so dark, in fact, the mere possibility of life itself is breached. William Lane Craig writes,

“Modern man thought that in divesting himself of God, he had freed himself from all that stifled and repressed him. Instead, he unwittingly discovered that in killing God, he had also killed himself. For if there is no God, then man’s life becomes ultimately absurd.”

There are a great many examples of how God makes His presence known in our everyday lives, at times more obvious than others depending on the caliber of intellect and spiritual convictions one might have. Take simple quantifications, for example; like C. S. Lewis’ famous argument from joy, Hartshorne’s musings on the nature of meaning, the various classical forms of ontological arguments that link perfection and being to a Necessary or Necessarily Perfect Being. Similarly, the axiological argument seeks to draw all moral notion directly from an absolute moral Being—even the basic constructs of language itself breaks without a transcendent signified from which understanding is wrought. Even Nietzsche recognized this as he once said, “We cannot get rid of God until we get rid of grammar.” The possibility of all subjective distinction is literally impossible without God.

Take one look at the newest television programs and any number of commercial advertisements and you’ll quickly note that culture has put all its eggs in one basket; that is, sex appeal. Conditioned to think nothing is more virtuous than sexual freedom, people carelessly have bought into the sham. Presumably without the chains of guilt and shame to tame their unbridled passions, culture has done nothing but mask the consequences as praiseworthy. Yet it’s common for believers and nonbelievers alike to voice long struggles of lust and acts of defiling the body, themselves knowing there to be ‘oughts’ and ‘ought nots’ in such a regard. Feelings of dissatisfaction and dirtiness after having promiscuously indulged oneself to the ‘enth degree quickly reframes the once thought frameless surfeits professed by the hedonistic lifestyle. It seems even sexually people cannot hide themselves from the Creator’s face.

The only answer is that there’s in all of us a telos, purpose or end goal in our nature in which to conform in order to bring the coherence and understanding our lives cry for—and when averted, varying emotional disparities inescapably follow. The severity of the effects of course differs accordingly (in this life, anyway), but the noetic despondency of sin and disconcertedness in life without God is clearly etched into the hearts of men everywhere. God is everywhere, whether we identify Him or not. I once heard Christianity be compared to a very big inside joke. One can only make sense of the joke’s applications once sense is made of the joke itself. Likewise, one can only make sense of this life once sense is made of the Life Giver.

James 4:7, 8 – [Submit therefore to God…Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.]