Humankind has argued over the existence of God almost since the dawn of our awareness. I say “almost” because I think that the early humans were much more willing to believe that one or more higher powers exist. In their initial ignorance of our world, these humans were easy to impress. Thunder, lightning, wind, hail, and earthquakes were all fearsome forces that needed to be appeased. The sun, moon, and stars were a constant presence that mysteriously moved and changed as though alive. These and other entities needed to be explained or our ancestors would not feel secure in their world. So, spirituality was born.
Spirituality, of course, is not the same as believing in God. In fact, as indicated above, many learned individuals today would argue that God did not create us; we created him for our own piece of mind. They understandably want proof of a higher being, given that they have been trained to rely on empirical evidence as their guidance to knowledge. For example, Carl Sagan, the noted astronomer and planetary scientist cast his belief as follows: “I am not an atheist. An atheist is someone who has compelling evidence that there is no Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. I am not that wise, but neither do I consider there to be anything approaching adequate evidence for such a god. Why are you in such a hurry to make up your mind? Why not simply wait until there is compelling evidence?” (quoted from an interview with Robert Pope of Windsor, Ontario, Oct. 2, 1996)
Albert Einstein, certainly one of the greatest physicists ever, had a somewhat more spiritual position that pointed to his reverence for Nature and the laws that govern nature. To him, God was the substance of all things in nature. This view is the same belief that the German philosopher, Spinoza set forth in his writings. In fact, Einstein is famously quoted as saying, “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not a God who concerns himself with the fate and doings of mankind.” So, for Einstein, God does exist, but not as a single entity who hears and responds to individual prayers.
On the other side of the coin are those who unequivocally believe in a God or other higher beings. These are people of faith. They do not require proof; they simply believe.
I won’t try to compete with the ideas of Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, or Baruch Spinoza. Each of their ideas has some merit. But I fall into the category of one who chooses to believe in a single unifying God. It is not so much that I believe He exists, but rather that I so much want Him to exist.
Throughout my life, I have always been awed by the scope and grandeur of Nature, much like Albert Einstein, I suppose. But I don’t see Nature as God; I see God as having created Nature, including all its governing laws. To me, the world around us is too incredibly majestic to be the result of billions upon billions of chemicals and molecules that randomly collided over eons of time to create the variety and beauty we behold.
And then I think to myself that if we humans are the grandest life-form that the universe has to offer, then the universe is in big trouble. I know we have great potential for doing good and growing wise, but we always seem to corrupt that potential. We are so often fueled by pettiness, hate, and prejudice. We deny our own history and spread false narratives and misinformation to serve our own personal agendas. We create viruses – biological ones to defeat our foes, and technical ones to confound our computers and create unnecessary misery. We destroy nature with our short-sighted self-interest. We consume everything in our path like locusts, with no thought of the consequences that may ultimately befall us. Surely, the universe must contain something grander than us as its supreme being. And that is why I find it so essential to believe in the existence of God.
One of the earliest arguments I ever heard supporting the existence of God came from a religious man who spoke to me when I was a relatively young boy. He stated his position as follows: “If you were walking on a beach and you came across a watch lying in the sand, what would be a more logical assumption – that the tides, wind, and storms pounded the sand over a huge period of time to create the watch, or that someone simply left it there? The latter seems like the more logical choice.”
The man went on to say that our world is much like a watch. The sun and moon rise and set with great regularity; the tides roll in and out like the sweeping of the minute hand on a watch; and the seasons of the year come and go as the hours on a watch count away the day. These aspects of our world, and many others, appear to be in perfect balance and harmony, much like a fine timepiece. Isn’t it more logical to assume that some Intelligence set all this in motion, rather than a random sequence of mindless, crashing molecules?
As a child, I was quite impressed by that argument; and even as an adult, I like the feel of it. Moreover, even if there truly is no God, believing in Him makes me a better person. I use my sense of God to help me act with greater forethought and morality in my daily life, and that has done me good and often helps me feel less alone.
I’ll conclude with one final thought that makes me smile, and that might resonate best with the male of our species. I truly cannot look at a beautiful woman with her exquisite design, form, elegance, and grace and believe that she is the product of random molecular collisions. To me, that defies all logic.