"God is certainly real."

Brock, mate, you got me there, all that information about science and facts and reality is misleading: “Lots of misleading information in these comments. God is certainly real.” Wow … I must say, this did catch my eye.

So ... I can’t help myself, I must deal with these two points, “Can you guarantee everyone there isn't a God, and back it up with actual facts that can prove how everyone got here on earth ...” and “If there is no God how did it all start please not the Big Bang theory cos something had to be there first …”

These are of course classics … so delicious, so juicy, so wonderful, so compelling in their naivety. But let me back-peddle, where did I get these delightful bon-mots from? Who provided me with these excellent incentives to write on this issue yet again; because, folks, this is my hobby, this is what I do: I read, watch & listen, then think, then write. So where did these quaint comments come from?

The thing is ... I’m sick in bed, with the flu. Then you have time for this sort of stuff … I was on Yani’s fb page and there was a re-telling of the story, “If you believe in God, why not unicorns …” So I went to the Religitard page and I read these comments:

‪Brock Spangler: "Lots of misleading information in these comments. God is certainly real. God created Jesus the son of God who was sent down to earth to be born again, so that he could take the punishment of our sins. That goes for sins back then, and sins of today. It's sad that people try speaking on this with out even opening up a bible, or reading one. There is plenty of actual evidence that backs up the very thing's that are written in scripture. For those non believers let me ask you this. Can you guarantee everyone there isn't a God, and back it up with actual facts that can prove how everyone got here on earth, and how the earth became the earth? Those who believe in God shall not perish, and have ever lasting life. I tell some of the non believers this. If you don't believe in God, and when the day comes he returns, which is going to be a day that's truly amazing, and words can't describe how good it will be, and your a non believer you're not going to have the privilege to go with God. How sad would that be because you didn't believe, or you were against God. Just saying folks. Food for thought. God bless."

‪Mary Wilkinson Roberton: "If there is no God how did it all start please not the Big Bang theory cos something had to be there first otherwise there couldn't be a big bang not preaching just looking for a rational explanation cos so far nobody has absolute proof that there is or is not a god."

Dear Brock, I begin with you … I must say, your faith is disarming. I could well belittle it and make fun of it, but I shall not. I said previously (blog 663) on this issue “… by all means believe whatever you want to believe in (God? Sure).” The thing is, faith and religion (at the best of times) does provide people with comfort, it may compel people to do good things … (while at the worst of times, of course, provide murder and mayhem). But this is the thing with belief and faith, it is dogma and based on ignorance of the facts of life, as they are provided by science.

This brings me to Mary … you’re asking “how did it all start, if not for God?” The answer is the same for both of you; and let me say, I thank both of you for your contributions in shape of your comments; I mean it, I am fully aware that these questions can be torturous for some folk. However, the point now is that most likely you will not read on, and if you do ... you will either not believe ... or not understand. The end result of course is ignorance.

Again, both of you are likely to say, “oh, it is not a matter of fact ... but faith.” And, as I said above, your faith is fine, your very own business, (unless of course you cut non-believers’ heads off because of it.) Remember though, there are dozens, hundreds of faiths in the world, maybe thousands … and they are all one as valid (or invalid) as the next; I have no quarrel with any of them … I generally find them very interesting and I study them. But there is a bottom line: The fact is, there is no God; if there was a God, we'd know about it, i.e. there would be proof. Btw, it is not acceptable to ask for proof that God does not exist … the believer must prove the veracity of their belief, if s/he wants to be taken seriously. Anyway, when you say "God is certainly real" I put this to you: It is not God who is real, it is your belief in God, that is real. Think about it.

Alright, now you'll ask, “then how, smarty-pants, did the world begin without a God?” This is a very potent question ... probably the oldest question in human history.

Listen up ... concentrate ... pay attention:

In the beginning of the last century a very clever man, Albert Einstein, came up with some very useful concepts, one of them - the Theory of Relativity - leading to what’s called Quantum Theory … I haste to say, I don’t really understand it myself, but there is one aspect of it that another very clever man, Stephen Hawking, has explained exceedingly well in his tv series: Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking and Curiosity (Did God create the universe?) It goes something like this:

When you observe matter at its tiniest - at the Quantum level - then you realize that the smallest building blocks of matter are actually not matter at all, they (quantums, electrons, muons - whatever) are energy. And these “things” … guess what: They appear and disappear out of and into ... NOTHING. All the time. Day in day out. Always have, always will.

So, as regards Creation, this is the state of the art with the sciences: In principle stuff can appear from nothing … in fact (yes, it is a fact) it happens all the time; and it's agreed on, the scale doesn't matter ... very small ... very large ... the physical laws are the same no matter their relative size (here is something to ponder: Einstein and Hawking agree the law that underlies creation could well be gravity; now, if you want to substitute law or gravity with God, go right ahead ... food for thought indeed).

Dear friends, was that any help? Does that answer your question? Which leaves us pondering the likelihood you’ll say, “No, I don’t believe that.” And even if it does answer your question (maybe after a lot more studies) it indeed is likely not to shake your faith. Fair enough … I’ll finish with a little anecdote:

Once two priests, good friends - so they could talk about anything - spent a night discussing if there is a God or not. With the help of a few bottles of wine, they finally decide, no, there is no God. However, in the morning one finds the other in prayer:

“What are you doing, didn’t we decide last night there is no God?”

“Well, yes … but what does that have to do with anything?”

Good night.

p.s.

I have an essay BELIEF in my book with no title, instead three definitions for the term en.light.en.ment ... and, if you would like a few definitions for the term God, maybe I can help out GOD 1, GOD 2, GOD 3, GOD 4, GOD 5, GOD 6