tvc . dsj . org | April 24 , 2018 COMMENTARY 15 Reasons to Believe in God
By Rev . Ron Rolheiser , OMI
Theologian , teacher , award-winning author , and President of the Oblate
School of Theology in San Antonio , TX
Today belief in God is often seen as a naiveté . For many , believing in God is like believing in Santa and the Easter Bunny , nice , something for the kids , a warm nostalgia or a bitter memory , but not something that ’ s real , that stands up to hard scrutiny and indeed stands up to the dark doubts that sometimes linger below the surface of our faith . Where ’ s there evidence that God exists ?
A true apologetics , I believe , needs at a point to be personal . So here are my own reasons why I continue to believe in God in the face of the agnosticism of our overly-adult world and despite the dark nights that sometimes beset me .
First , I believe in God because I sense , at the deepest level of my being , that there ’ s an inalienable moral structure to things . Life , love , and meaning are morally-contoured . There ’ s an inalienable “ law of karma ” that ’ s experienced everywhere and in everything : good behavior is its own happiness , just as bad behavior is its own sorrow . Different religions word it differently but the concept is at the heart of all religion and is in essence the very definition of morality : The measure you measure out will be the measure that ’ s measured back to you . That ’ s Jesus ’ version of it , and can be translated this way : The air you breathe out is the air you will re-inhale . Simply but : If we cut down too many trees we will soon be breathing in carbon monoxide . If we breathe out love , we will meet love . If we breathe out hate and anger we will soon enough find ourselves surrounded by hated and anger . Reality is so structured that goodness brings goodness and sin brings sin .
I believe in God because blind chaos could not have designed things this way , to be innately moral . Only an intelligent Goodness could have built reality this way .
God ’ s existence becomes real to us when we live an honest , sincere life .
My next reason for believing in God is the existence of soul , intelligence , love , altruism , and art . These could not have emerged simply from blind chaos , from billions and billions of cosmic bingo chips coming out of nothing , with no intelligent loving force behind them , endlessly churning through billions of years . Random chaos , empty of all intelligence and love from its origins , could not have eventually produced soul and all that ’ s highest inside it : intelligence , love , altruism , spirituality , and art . Can our own hearts and all that ’ s noble and precious within them really be just the result of billions of fluke chances colliding within a brute , mindless process ?
I believe in God because if our hearts are real than so is God .
Next , I believe in God because the Gospel works – if we work it . What Jesus incarnated and taught ultimately resonates with what ’ s most precious , most noble , and most meaningful inside of life and inside each of us . Moreover , this checks out in life . Whenever I have the faith and courage to actually live out the Gospel , to roll the dice on its truth , it always proves to be true , the loaves multiply and feed the thousands and David defeats Goliath . But it doesn ’ t work unless I risk it . The Gospel works , if we work it .
The objection could be raised here , of course , that many sincere , faith-filled people risk their lives and truth on the Gospel and , from all appearances in this world , it doesn ’ t work for them . They end up poor , as victims , on the losing side of things . But again , that ’ s a judgment we make from the standards of this world , from the Gospel of Prosperity where whoever has the most worldly success wins . The Gospel of Jesus undercuts this . Anyone who lives it out as faithfully as he or she is able , will be blessed with something beyond worldly success , namely , the deeper joy of a life well-lived , a joy which Jesus assures us is deeper , less ephemeral , and more lasting that any other joy .
I believe in God because the Gospel works ! As does prayer !
Finally , though certainly not least , I believe in God because of the community of faith that stretches back to the beginning of time , that stretches back to the life and resurrection of Jesus , and that baptized me into the faith . Throughout all of history virtually all human communities have been also communities of faith , of belief in God , of worship , and of sacred ritual and sacrament .
I believe in God because of the existence of families of faith and the existence of church and sacrament .
I wrote my doctoral thesis on the classical proofs for the existence of God , arguments for God ’ s existence taken from some of the great intellectuals in history : Anselm , Thomas Aquinas , Descartes , Leibnitz , Spinoza , and Alfred North Whitehead . I rambled through nearly 500 hundred pages of articulating and evaluating these proofs and then ended with this conclusion .
We don ’ t come to believe in God because of the compelling power of some mathematical equation or logical syllogism . God ’ s existence becomes real to us when we live an honest , sincere life .
From Crucifixion to Resurrection
By Tony Magliano
Internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist tmag @ zoominternet . net
Christ is risen ! Truly , He is risen !
Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death . We know that God has the final word . And that word is love . For “ God is love .” ( 1 Jn . 4:8 )
The kingdom of God which Jesus ushered into the world is at hand . But , and this is an all important critical “ but ,” we must repent , and believe in the Gospel . Walking in the footsteps of Jesus we must to the best of our ability think , feel , speak and act as he did . And we need to do it now . For this day , this moment , is the time of fulfillment . ( Mark 1 : 15 )
But during this in-between-time of the presence of the kingdom of God being here , but not yet here in its completion – what theologians refer to as “ here but not yet ” – we have the privilege and responsibility to help advance the love , justice and peace of the kingdom of God ever closer to that day when God will be all in all .
So , while we should joyfully live the “ here ” of the 50-day-long Easter celebration of Jesus ’ resurrection ,
we mustn ’ t forget the “ not yet ” of his crucifixion still being hellishly experienced by countless suffering brothers and sisters .
Abortion , hunger , starvation , poverty , homelessness , euthanasia , human trafficking , sweatshops , torture , illiteracy , environmental degradation , untreated illness , loneliness , war , war preparation and all other forms of violence continue to nail our Lord to the cross .
Christ is risen ! Truly , He is risen !
It is part of the paradox of the loving mystery of Christ Jesus who while gloriously resurrected , remains yet united with us in our sufferings , our crosses – especially with those who suffer the worst forms of man ’ s inhumanity to man .
During Lent I was reading a deeply inspiring book The Mystery of the Cross , by the late Cardinal Basil Hume , OSB , former archbishop of Westminster England .
He wrote about a time during a visit to Ethiopia when a small boy in search of food came up to him .
He “ took hold of my hand and rubbed it against his cheek , while with the other hand he put a finger into his mouth indicating his hunger . He made these two gestures several times . I had nothing to give and could only promise through an interpreter that I would send food to him when I got home .
“ As I moved away the child stood staring at me , almost reproachfully , I thought , for I had not given him food , and what love I could give I now gave no more . The look in that child ’ s eyes has haunted me ever since . But I had learned , in a new way altogether , how there are two things we humans need above all : food and love . Without both of these we cannot live .”
What an invaluable insight from this holy man of God . As beings comprised of flesh and spirit , we need nourishment for both – food for the body and love for the soul .
During this wonderful Easter season , let us deeply pray and tirelessly work to end the horrible sufferings of our dear brothers and sister near and far . Let us pull out the nails that bind them to their crosses . Let us soothe their wounds , feed their hunger and embrace them with God-like love .
Then with Gospel integrity we will be able to joyfully proclaim with St . Augustine of Hippo , “ We are an Easter people and ‘ Alleluia ’ is our song !”