Does God exist?
Is there a God?
I have answered that question for myself. You must answer for yourself. Or, ignore the question, pretend you’ve never asked the question, or just wait for the question to return. It likely will.
Whatever you do, my advice is to ask the question, seek an answer, but do not seek to prove God exists, especially with “intelligent design” theories.
If you already assume God exists, you look at the vastness of space, or simply the myriad of mysteries we have learned from biology, anthropology, and, yes, astronomy, and many quite naturally conclude there must be a higher power behind all of this.
But such thought, no matter how logical, does not prove that God exists.
If anything, it raises more doubts about whether there is a God. For example, if humans are the “crown of creation,” as most religious people have been taught to believe, why would God have waited more than 13 billion years before creating humans?
Intelligent design theories prove nothing, except to those who believe already. If such theories did, the majority of scientists, biologists, anthropologists, and astronomers would believe in God. And, many, maybe most, do not. Ironically, many of these know the arguments from “intelligent design” better than the religious people who espouse them.
What we have learned in the last few decades about the human species as well as what is the unimaginably vast universe around us has moved many to conclude there is no God.
As I have said often, and have written about already, religious people who try to prove God exists only do so because they’re secretly afraid she doesn’t.
See what I mean? The mere fact that I’ve referred to God with the feminine pronoun “she” creates in some readers a great deal of inner angst. It strikes fear in them to imagine God as anything other than this big super limitless male Being who looks very human-like but without human limitations.
My advice to these religious people?
Let go of all illusions of God, including your preconceived notions as to who or what God is. You cannot argue God into existence. You only reveal the anxiety in your own soul.
Instead, follow your questions. Live into your doubts and see where they take you. When the thought of God pops into your mind, and I assure you it will, simply give attention to the thought, as well as the questions that come with such thoughts.
You might just discover that God might just be the Question.
Dr. Steve McSwain is a thought leader in spirituality and church/religious life. As an author, speaker, spiritual guide, and a counselor to congregational leaders, Christian denominations, churches and parishes across the nation, Steve is followed by many. He seeks to help religious leaders understand a new understanding of the Christian faith is needed in today’s world.
So, he challenges leaders and religious people everywhere to be honest with themselves, seek to build bridges between people of all faith traditions, and to respect the rights of those who may not share similar or any religious beliefs but they do share a compassion for others, a compassion for the world, and a compassion for this precious place we call home – earth herself.
He expresses is life purpose in this way: “I’m here to create a more conscious, compassionate and charitable world.” One of his oft–quoted mantras, made famous by the Dalai Lama, but spoken first by the now excommunicated Roman Catholic theologian, Hans Kung, “When there is peace among religions, there will be peace in the world.” Follow Steve on Facebook, Twitter, and his website: www.stevemcswain.com.
