Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

We complain about the fast pace of life today.  I understand.  When I was working 50 hours a week regularly (and I realize this isn't all that much compared to the 60+ hours a week worked by some), it seemed I never had time to take care of even the basics. Things like laundry, groceries, washing dishes, cooking food, cleaning, and so on seemed to use up what little time I had left over in the day.  How, then, could anyone expect to have any time to think about any of the big questions, like whether God exists? Even for Christians (believers), how can any of us make time to study God's word? It seemed like the business of just living took up all my time! Yes, I made time to attend church and Sunday School each week.  I did volunteer activities.  Somehow, I fitted this in.  Yet, with or without these, I still felt sorry for myself and for our generation. I felt we didn't have enough time to think about God and study His word. But when I stopped to real...

While Handel was composing the famous Hallelujah Chorus of the Messiah, he was reported to have said "I have seen the face of God" (reference 1). Handel was able to see God's face (or rather, God's reflection) in what he was doing, as a moment of revelation where God allowed a brief glimpse of Himself. The reason I say "reflection" is that staring directly at God would most likely be too much for us. To use a secular analogy, it would be much like looking directly at the basilisk in the Harry Potter books. Our human bodies could not handle it.  Instead I believe a reflection? transformation? - a glimpse of God taken sideways through another lens (nature, music, art, science, love, and so on) is the closest we can get to seeing God in this world and still live in it. Continuing with our analogy, this is much like seeking the basilisk of Harry Potter by looking in mirrors and reflections so as not to happen upon it in deadly full face. Handel had the for...

... fight on God and Jesus's side against evil. Humanity has fallen via Adam and Eve.  But despite being in our fallen state, we dare to fight spiritually on the side of God and Jesus.  In a sense, we are a very unique species in our sheer daring.  Make no mistake: this is no airy-fairy theoretical battle.  This is a real fight, and the biggest most significant fight that we can fight, with huge ramifications.  Entire souls hang in the balance.  All other fights on our planet involve merely our corporeal bodies: the ephemeral.  In this fight, the long-lasting - the eternal - is fought over.  God and Jesus and his messengers (angels) and human Christians are on one side, and Satan and his minions on the other. A huge battle is going on between God and Satan on this Earth, this enemy-occupied territory.  (See my separate post on why God doesn't just kill Satan and be done with it ).  Every time we resist temptation, every time we lead ...

Many people accept the idea of string theory as at least a valid possibility.  However, some of this same set of people will reject God out of hand.  This seems somewhat hypocritical to me, since often the reasons given for rejecting God are things such as the inability to detect Him with our instruments, and the lack of direct proof.  These very issues also apply to string theory, which many people have no problem accepting. Fashion is another area which is difficult to 'prove'.  How can you easily say something is, or is not, in fashion? Yes, you could look at what different people are wearing, and try to create some sort of rule.  But you could easily get it wrong, especially if you were looking at certain sub-groups instead of the population as a whole.  However, fashion clearly exists.  Yet the ability to prove something is, or is not, fashionable is quite a difficult problem.  This does not mean that fashion is non-existent. If we are tr...

One of the things which helped me immensely after having kids was that it gave me a tiny inkling of what God has to put up with about us. My kids, when they were very little, would simply not understand why I didn't want them doing things that they thought were fun, like running out into the middle of the road.  I loved them so much that I didn't want them running out to play in the middle of the road, so I wouldn't let them.  I would pull them back every time they tried to do this.  To them, this didn't feel like love.  It felt restrictive to them. Yet, I only did what any loving parent would do to keep their child safe. I was frustrated that my children just couldn't seem to understand that I was doing this out of love and to stop them from getting hurt or killed.  Then I realized this must be very similar to what God has to put up with when dealing with us. And God has had to put up with all this (our ingratitude, incomprehension and disobedience) not j...

One beautiful day this summer, I was walking on a trail with my oldest son (aged 5).  It was so great to be outside and see the beautiful trees and flowers. This captivating sight led me to pose the question: "What does our world tell us about our Creator?"  First, to clarify, I'm posing this question from the believer's point of view.  I've already written a post saying that merely observing our surroundings will not, on its own, tell us whether or not we have a Creator .  However, if there is a Creator, then there is something we can infer about this Creator by observing our surroundings: Our Creator sees beauty and delight in non-uniformity, at least in the natural world. However, it is difficult for us to know which things appear are as the Creator originally wanted them, and which are a consequence of the Fall. Let's expand on these two points: 1. Our Creator sees beauty and delight in non-uniformity Trees have irregular shaped branc...

If I choose not to believe in God, would that make Him any less real? What if we asked the same about gravity? The important thing is to seek the truth.  All too many people say they are busy seeking the truth, yet are blind to what is under their very eyes.  You won't necessarily find God merely by investigating the physical laws of the universe: this tells you a lot about the universe, but very little about whether there is a Creator.  You could, however, seek God by asking Him if He is there - and then listening.  Surprisingly, many unbelievers have never actually tried the asking, and even fewer of those try the listening. If you are really truly a seeker of the truth, why not try talking to God?  If there is no God then truly you have nothing to lose (except a few minutes in the privacy of your own home or other area).  If there is a God, then you have everything to gain - everything.  You will not lose a thing if there is no God....

One thing I have noticed in my scientific career is that those who have a religion tend not to invoke it during scientific conversations.  In contrast, those who are atheist (or at least who see science and religion as incompatible) tend to mention religion the most often. To me, that is interesting and unexpected. This topic is timely because my husband and I were watching a DVD lecture series by a prominent scientist.  Although incredibly gifted at explaining his own topic, I watched his scholar-ship fall down several times by commenting (negatively) about religion and its role in scientific history.  I was puzzled, because, although I do believe in Christianity, it would never occur to me to mention religion (whether positively or negatively) during a scientific talk.  The reason is not that I would be ashamed to do so, but rather that I take it for granted that as a scientist I am investigating the physical laws of this universe that God made. This universe ...

One thing about which Christians can rejoice is that no-one can strip you of your religion.  Although this fact sounds obvious, there are many people who try to act as though they can forcibly remove religion from people.  The truth of the matter is that they are absolutely powerless to do so.  Unlike for example a jacket or a pair of shoes, no-one can take your beliefs away from you.  Even if a law were to be passed abolishing all religion, you are still free to have your own beliefs.  (You may be persecuted for them, but you can still have those beliefs - no-one can physically locate and grab your beliefs and take them away against your will.)  As an example, suppose a dictator didn't like the notion of, say, gravity, and said that believing in gravity was illegal, as was talking about it to others.  Well, whether or not you talk about it to others, odds are that you will continue to believe in gravity. If someone thinks your religion is a l...

In a previous post, I discussed how time works very differently in God's outer Universe than it does in our universe.  Our universe (containing the earth and the solar system and all the galaxies) is merely a small part of the much bigger Universe created by God.  We are a universe nestled within a Universe. I mentioned that time as we know it is probably a sort of artificial construct created for us in this particular world containing our galaxies.  I hypothesized that our time as we know it is probably related somehow to whatever the 'real' time construct is out there in God's world, but that our local time-construct is still separate and made just for us. Why events do not happen on our time but on God's time In the Bible, prophecies tend to indicate that an event will happen after a certain other event.  Or that an event may happen before a certain other event comes to pass.  Prophecies usually do not specify "on calendar day such-and-such, this part...

In earlier posts , I referred to the idea that our universe (this Earth and solar system) is a smaller entity nestled within God's wider Universe .  This notion is something that Christians will be familiar with anyway through their faith, although many atheists may be uncomfortable with the concept. Rest assured there are many secular movies and books that deal with a universe-within-a-universe concept, the most familiar of these being the movie The Matrix.  In this movie, there is a specific way to move into and out of the nestled universe from the larger universe.  In The Matrix, someone from the outer universe could move in and out of it via a jack that went into the back of their head, to create an electronic connection with the inner universe, which was an entirely virtual universe.  However, this inner virtual universe was indistinguishable from reality to those within it. This led me to consider the ways in which we move into our inner universe, and out o...