One Moment Please... Is there a God?

By Jason Sethre
jason@fillmorecountyjournal.com

Fri, Jan 11th, 2013
Posted in All Commentary

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When I am driving here and there, I often have my radio tuned into Minnesota Public Radio (91.7) or XM Radio.

During my travels last week, I happened to catch a debate between scholars, scientists and clergy discussing whether God exists.

Of course, the stage was set for this debate with a duel between very sharp and well-versed Christians and atheists.

As I listened to both sides of the debate, it was interesting to hear how they justified their points. They touched on the “Big Bang Theory” – no, not the TV show. Both sides touched on whether miracles exist or if they are simply a matter of science. At great length and with a solid platform, they substantiated their beliefs.

Even after the MPR episode concluded, I thought about the age-old timeless questions that we as humans can debate until the end of time but will never really know the answers.

Is there a God? What is the purpose of life?

Yes, I am pretty confident that these questions will be asked by all of us at some point or many points in our life, and we as humans will continue to never know the answers. After all, we are only humans, and we must accept the fact that we have limitations of understanding things that are beyond what we can qualify with science, and possibly our comprehension. The Universe is vast, and we live on a small isolated planet amongst the stars of a massive and largely unexplored (by us, that is) Milky Way Galaxy.

And, then, by chance, my wife and I rented the movie titled The Answer Man. In this movie, Jeff Daniels tells the world in his ficticous book titled Me and God that he has spoken to God and continues to speak to God. And, through Jeff Daniels’ character, God answers questions that people want to know. But, the reality is that the main character, this prolific world-renowned author, comes clean at the end of the movie and tells everyone that he really can’t talk to God. So, his entire book was a lie. However, he does conclude his statements by saying that maybe God was involved in authoring his book by working through him in some sort of “divine intervention.” Any way you look at it, this was an interesting movie. For me, it speaks of humility and humanity. The conclusion of the movie basically tells us that we will never know the answers to those two bold questions included in this commentary. Maybe we aren’t supposed to know.

A couple of my favorite authors from years past are C.S. Lewis and John Milton. Interestingly, the exploration and discoveries during their lifetime exposed the true challenges of mankind to comprehend and contemplate the existence of Heaven, Hell, God, and Satan. C.S. Lewis, who has become a household name because of the Chronicles of Narnia series, first captured my attention with the less notable short paperback titled The Screwtape Letters. John Milton, on the other hand, caught my attention with a poem I would describe as a book (over 300 pages) – Paradise Lost.

As I read with interest the short biographies of each of these authors, I gathered a sense of their personal, individual evolutions.

At the age of 15, C.S. Lewis declared that he was an atheist. As his life progressed, he began to revisit Christianity at the age of 32. By the time he passed away at the age of 64, he had declared himself a Christian. As a matter of fact, according to Wikipedia.com, in his later years he referred to his younger self as being paradoxically “very angry with God for not existing.”

And, John Milton never truly turned the corner toward Christianity. He was a non-conformist in all regards, with very little variation in his views from birth to death. However, he was also alive during a very contentious time for the Church of England.

What’s interesting to me is how two men, one born in 1608 (Milton) and the other born in 1898 (Lewis), can contemplate the same questions to no avail.

If I hope to accomplish anything at all with this commentary it is to encourage the exploration of theology and science as separate yet co-existing platforms. We are humans and there are things we will never understand. I’m sure that bothers some of us.

And, while we have many parents out there who may not believe in God, don’t enjoy going to church, or haven’t found a church or religion that represents their values and beliefs, I still strongly suggest having children attend Sunday school, vacation bible school and all that a local church has to offer our youth. Why? Theology!

Every child needs to know the stories of the Holy Bible. In your lifetime, even outside of a visit to your church of choice, understanding The Ten Commandments, Noah’s Ark, and a few other staples of conversation will help a person become more well-rounded.

Ultimately, what we believe about God, life, and everything that fills our brains is an all-encompassing accumulation of our life experiences. Whether you believe in God or not, I believe our purpose in life simply revolves around how we treat others. The Golden Rule: Treat others as you’d like to be treated. Only good can come from that, right?

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