Nature to me is not exactly evidence for the existence of God, or at least the Christian God. When I walk in a field, early in the morning, with the golden beams of the sun just touching the tops of the trees and blades of grass, I don't immediately see that the Christian God of the Bible is the THE God and there is no other. I do believe those things, but nature is not why. Nature does, however, scream. It screams that the other explanations of the world are woefully inadequate. Having studied science extensively, I am doubly convinced that Darwinism is not an acceptable way to view the world. Random chance cannot explain the beauty I see, let alone the subatomic complexity or the intracellular artwork that exists in each millimeter of any living being. Secondly, a people that lives out "the survival of the fittest" and the principle that "nothing exists after our life" create an utterly unacceptable society. Such observations strongly suggest that we were meant for more than life as a grown-up ape.
If I were God, here is what I would do.
I would get 9 of the most brilliant, young, educated people on the planet and one well-respected, educated and prominent skeptic (think Richard Dawkins) and take them for 3 days to heaven. I would let everyone search for them. Imagine the scene: CNN is at each of their houses, as each of them is missing...the commentators are speculating as to where they've gone. Then suddenly they appear. They hold a press conference. They have been with Jesus. Jesus had given them a three day seminar answering every question in the universe. They happened to bring video cameras. Dawkins is now wearing one of those super-gaudy cross necklaces and holding a Bible--he has seen the Lord. The people that had been hand selected to see Jesus happened to know each of the major world languages and happen to be excellent communicators. The film they took, plus the testimony of a former prominent enemy of God, is utterly convincing. Then, they travel the world, helping people see the reality of God. They then write a better Bible, a systemtized book with plenty of footnotes for the sake of clarification.
But God did not do it that way. He knew that even if that did happen, it would not work. Why? He knows that our condition exists not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of the fact that our "hearts are hard." The Bible says that each of us (even Dawkins!) knows the truth, but suppresses it, because we don't like it and we don't want it to be true. Because if the Creator exists, as the Bible says he does, he has rights. And we would be accountable. Sure some of us create a god we like and worship it... But its a god with few rights which creates little accountability. "A 'sky-fairy' would be nice," we think, "I'll worship the sky-fairy." We can't accept the reality of God and we don't want to.
But the reality of the world won't let a sky-fairy be plausible. In a world of genocide, tornados and rape, if there is a sky-fairy, he is pretty impotent, or genuinely bad. And, I guess in a nice, pretty world where the only thing that we lacked was a little reassurance that the sky-fairy was there, my plan for God would work. But that is not our world.
We need a God of justice. Rape, torture, war crimes, murder, genocide and even lying, sexism and greed demand a God that punishes these real crimes. But, when we think about it, we all know that each of us stands amazingly guilty. And so we want a God of mercy too. The combination of the dignity of humanity and horror of humanity demands a God that is both completely just and amazingly merciful.
But in our skepticism, we need to see the God of mercy and justice.
And there he hangs. God did not bring us to him to reveal himself, he came to us. And in the reality-story he created, we hung him up for all to see: a bloody, dying God, weak and utterly despised, hanging on a cross.
But in his death, he paid for our sins, destroying the mental and spiritual shackles that had made it impossible to believe. There, in his death he revealed just how committed to justice he is. There, in his self-sacrifice, he revealed just how merciful he is.
He knew my plan would not work. His plan did. Come and see. There he hung, for all to see. My sin killed him. But his mercy triumphed. Come and see.
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