…is in session. All rise. Ok, now be seated.
Although we seek in this space each week to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of evolutionists, we also see clearly – very clearly – why so many people don’t believe in God. Look around us at the state of the world. It is a colossal mess. There are more problems than we could list here: cancer, inflation, obesity, murder, child abuse, poverty, global warming, dementia, unemployment, rape, tornadoes, earthquakes, war, speeding, alcoholism, homelessness, floods and droughts, terrorism, telemarketers, and the common cold. There are dozens upon dozens more.
It all begs an obvious question: if God exists, and if he cares about us, why does he apparently sit idly by and let the daily suffering of millions go on unabated?
As for man ruling himself in the alleged absence of God, can you name just one of the issues above that has a sure-fire, workable solution? Or even a semi-solution that would make a sizable dent in the problem? I wish I could describe human self-rule as one giant cluster-#%&@, but unfortunately that’s not really a word in my vocabulary.
Then there’s religion, which, unfortunately offers all too many excellent reasons to not believe in God. There are the sleazy, greedy televangelists and their opulent lifestyles. And don’t even get me started on their hair. There are the legions of self-righteous pew-fillers who look down on everyone who doesn’t subscribe to their particular philosophy, and their polar opposites: people who believe all roads of faith lead to heaven, so apparently it doesn’t matter what anyone believes. How confusing and chaotic is that? “Attend the church of your choice.” Religion meddles in politics. Churches are often used as polling places. (Can you imagine Jesus encouraging his followers to support some Roman politician?) Priests bless troops going off to war, and they do so on both sides of the battle lines. Someone wrote a few years ago, “The war has never been fought in which both sides didn’t claim God was on their side.” Religious fervor has been the motivating force behind countless heinous acts down through the centuries, up to and including September 11.
Is it any wonder more and more people are disillusioned by religion? Darwin and his descendants have a much better publicist working for them than religion does.
But here are a few more questions begging for honest answers:
• Do religions accurately represent the Bible? Or are they misrepresenting its message? Is it fair to judge the Bible by the people who claim to live by it?
• In general, is it reasonable to look to the creator of problems for their solution?
• Which is more likely in your mind? For man to solve his own problems? Or for God to do so?
TEACHER’S KEY
• Each person has to judge for himself, but it’s awfully hard to look at a televangelist or a lavish cathedral or the anything-goes teachings of many churches and be reminded of Jesus and his teachings.
• If mankind has a solution to any of the individual problems listed, where is it? What’s the hold-up?
• It would not be surprising to hear even a devout atheist say, “Man solve those problems? I’d sooner expect God to do so.”
In the light of the foregoing, doubting the Bible, or even God’s existence, is certainly understandable. Of course, denying something’s existence does not mean it doesn’t exist. Or that it does, for that matter. Doubt can be the catalyst for investigation. As the old proverb puts it, “To believe with certainty, we must begin by doubting.”
Use your doubt as the driving force to investigate the truth. Don’t believe that “truth” is an obsolete term, or that every truth is relative. There is truth. It’s out there. You can find it.
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