Am I Illogical to Expect Logic to Prevail?
[image error]I continue to ponder the religious apathy of the generation in which we live and their unquestioning belief in evolution and other theories. But belief in chance as the cause of all is so illogical. And belief in a Creator God is so logical. The evidence of His design is everywhere. And yet, in spite of the likelihood of our intricate ecosystem coming into existence through the random interaction of random particles over billions of years being astronomically impossible, people still believe it all evolved or happened somehow.
Sure, flowers that can only exist through the pollination of hummingbirds [image error]that came into existence at the same time! Sure all the intricate dance of bees evolved over billions of years! Sure, all our systems can be traced back to the primordial slime! Where is the logic to discount a Creator?
Logic is important. I often wonder how atheists and the ‘nones’ can logically hold to their ideas that out of nothing came a formed universe, intricate natural laws, incredible creatures, consciousness, moral imperatives and creativity. Just a random clash of elements? A billion years of monkeys typing on keys to produce one sonnet of Shakespeare? OK, then let me tell you how cars and pianos and cell phones and laptops evolved without any designer.
[image error]But maybe I’m on the wrong track expecting logic to lead to faith.
Os Guinness has written the following in a long piece in Just Thinking. (Os Guinness, Just Thinking, Vol 27.4, p. 16) “Western thinking and faith have been heavily influenced by the Greeks, and many people therefore tend naturally to discuss God using philosophy. They think about God and understand faith through philosophical arguments and proofs, using logic and building a case from nature (for example the famous theistic proofs for God).
Yet the Jewish people have long pointed out that God is introduced in the [image error]Bible through history rather than philosophy, and that faithfulness (or reliability and loyalty) is central to the notion of faith…encounters in experience, in history. The Jews knew God unmistakably because he rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and they saw and experienced his majesty at Mt. Sinai.…The stress on history rather than philosophy is behind the vast difference between what Pascal described as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ who is not the god of philosophers and scholars. A truth well-lived outweighs both a truth well-stated and a truth well-argued.”
[image error]Guinness goes on to say, “The reality of God is better demonstrated in the story of the life, work, death, and resurrection of Jesus than in a thousand arguments about the existence of God.”
Here is a correction to my lament for logic. I have always endeavoured to think logically about God and proofs for His existence. But when it comes right down to it, looking back on Mary Helen’s and my life, it has been God at work in the key events in our lives that has [image error]been the most important thing. It was He who gave us faith to believe. It was reading about Him in the Scriptures, especially about the life of Christ that impacted our lives. And as we recently wrote our memoir, it was God in the key events of our lives that demonstrated His reality. God is alive.
[image error]I guess that is what our memoir, Surprised by Grace¸ is all about. God is here, in our history, to guide, to provide, to re-direct, to protect, to heal, to bless. He is the God of history and providence. As someone has said, History is His story. Now if only we could get people to test Jesus challenge. “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:17). Put it to the test and find out!
[image error](Let me know your thoughts on this subject. Further articles, books, and stories at: http://www.countrywindow.ca Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ––)
