One of the most striking an hard hitting verses in the Bible is Psalms 14:1, which says, "the fool says in his heart there is no God. " I do not pretend to be the wisest nor the most knowledgeable person around, but you don't have to be either to see that the psalmist is absolutely correct in the observation that has been made in this psalm. The older I get, the more sure I am that there is a God and only a fool will say otherwise.
Why do people believe there is no God?
1. They chose to turn off their own natural instinct and intuition. It is intuitive to believe in a Higher Power.
2. Those that don't believe want empirical or scientific proof of a higher being but faith is not about proving facts. Faith is about living by truths that guide us and sustain us.
3. None believers believe that God cannot exist because if He did exists, He would not allow people to do the horrendously evil things that we do. They do not take into account our own responsibility for evil and that we as humans have free will.
4. Non believers overlook the things that even scientists say cannot be explained by science, such as spontaneous remission from incurable diseases or why a bumble bee can fly with wings too small or it's body.
5. Disbelief allows someone a life that is as ethically corrupt and morally bankrupt as they please without feeling bad about it, because they have no higher power to answer to. Believers may still sin but they do not do so comfortably and without conviction.
If you don't want to be a fool then don't foolishly overlook the evidence of God's existence in Mother Nature. Everything about nature speaks to the existence of a Divine Creator. When you look into intricacies of even the smallest things on earth such as a leaf or a blade of grass then you will see the hand of God at work. The absolute predictability and dependability of the cycles in nature from the orbits of the earth and the moon, to the change of the seasons to the migration of the birds and the butterflies, to the spouting of old faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Dogs and cats possess extraordinary eyesight, hearing, and smelling. Bats are blind yet every night at the same time they leave their roost, find food, then come back to the very same roost. Bats, elephants, and whales are overwhelmingly different yet they have an amazingly similarity in that they hear and communicate with their species by sonar. Scientists say elephants and whales can communicate with other elephants and whales with sonar from miles away. A wise and observant person can see the hand of a super intelligent Creator in how interdependent various species or plants and animals are on each other for survival. If, however, none of these things convince you of a Divine and intelligent Creator then look at the mirror at yourself. As Psalms 139:14 says "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." The many and marvelous systems of the body and how they work with each other to give us life is absolutely mind blowing and the wise person knows this.
Secondly if you don't wanna be a fool, don't overlook the amazing peace that a believer possesses. Isaiah 23:3 says, "you shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him. For his trust in the Lord." When you observe the person who walks by faith you will see the truth of the above Scripture. The true believer is not necessarily experiencing an absence of storms and battles. On the contrary the person of faith may be deep in the middle of a crisis, yet the person of faith has a calmness of mind and spirit because the believer knows that he or she is in God's hands. The believer knows that God can and God will work it out.
The non believer is all too often a malcontent that is fearful, anxious, depressed, worried, and easily angered. The non believer, wants to flee when trouble is just a small dark cloud barely appearing on the horizon, crumbles under the weight of the smallest burden, and loses his or her cool at the smallest and most inconsequential offense. Of course, believers have bad days and down moments but those times just don't seem to come as often or last as long for the believer. In general, a believer can handle the negative and remain cool, calm, and collected.
The believer keeps that sense of peace by being a person of prayer and trusting in Scripture. I live by Isaiah 23:3 as well as Psalm 27:1, "the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my heart, whom shall I be afraid?" I also live by Philippians 4:6-7, "be anxious for nothing, be in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Thirdly, if you don't want to be a fool, don't overlook the joy a believer has. Joy and happiness are very similar yet not the same. Happiness depends on what is or what is not happening. When life presents us with negative situations and circumstances there will be no happiness. However, true believers can always experience joy even in the worst of times because joy comes from a relationship with the Divine. Joy is not at all dependent on if what is happening is good or bad. Joy is a gift from God that is down deep on the inside that is seen on the outside. Happy is strictly about the exterior. Nehemiah 10:8 "the joy of the Lord is your strength". If the non believer will observe the believer he or she the believer being strong under circumstances that will break people that don't have the joy of the Lord. The believer smiles when the non . The true believer rejoice in church and they don't need anyone to pump them up to do so, because the true believer has the joy of the Lord on the inside they will display and exuberance, an excitement, and a sense of positive expectation no matter what is going on in their lives.
In order not to believe that their is a God person would have to forcefully push himself over his or her distinctive knowledge of a higher power. It is within our very own natures to know that their must be a divine creative being in the universe. Whether you refer to that being as Allah, God, Goddess, the Force, the Great Spirit, the Prime Mover, the ultimate source, or the Creator we has humans naturally feel and see that their is some being higher and more powerful than ourselves. In order not to believe, a person would have to forcefully have to turn off his or her own intuition just like you would turn off the television. We have to want not to believe, because disbelief is not natural. Furthermore, when we turn off our own natural desire to believe in a higher power, we're also disallowing our constant need for guidance as well as spiritual and emotional healing.
Karl Marx said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." Marx said that with the intent to mock and demean belief in a higher being, but he actually told the truth because we believers know we are helpless at leading ourselves and we are helpless at healing our own emotional wounds and spiritual diseases. There must be a God and we humans need God.
Yes, I am a believer; unashamedly and unapologetically I am a believer. I acknowledge that horrible and evil atrocities have been done in the name of religion by misguided and misunderstanding people from the beginning of time down to the present. Humanity's mishandling of belief, however, does not negate the existence of God but does confirm our fallenness. For me, God is as real as the air I breath and every bit as needed. I hasten to say that for me, my God is the Judeo-Christian God who is a Holy, Eternal, Loving, Creator and Parents. Through His incarnation as His Son Jesus, God is my redeemer and friend. I proclaim with the Psalmist" the Heaven declair His glory". Psalm 19:1-2
