Does God Exist?

When I was in high school I renounced my faith. I'd taken a college-level psychology course and in studying Abraham Maslow my faith was challenged. I'd been brought up believing God was scientifically verifiable and the concept of God logically sound. I was never prepared to enter into an objective conversation about God's existence.

To be honest, there are still days I consider the whole thing absurd. But any other solution to our existence leads me to equally or more absurd conclusions. Life is rather miraculous and so the answer of it's origin must also be miraculous, at least from our finite perspective.

One of my favorite scenes to write and edit in Blue Like Jazz was the God debate scene. It was also one of my favorite scenes to film, as we got to film in Portland's famous Powell's Bookstore. I like the scene because both sides are equally represented, as they are in real life, and there is no decided winner. That's not normal for a Christian film, but we believed people should be allowed to hear both arguments, both having valid points, and then decide for themselves. Of course it's an edited debate so it's short, but I think we handled the debate well.

I think one of the mistakes Christian thinkers have made is they've feared to embrace the mysterious as an explanation to our existence. To me, this is our biggest selling point. I understand why they've abandoned the idea because it associates us with so many other wishy washy ideas about our origin. But to associate does not mean we are the same or our thinking is the same. Much of life defy's logical explanation. Mystics get this right and evangelical apologetics often get this wrong. They've got a small God, shoved into their tiny heads.

Love cannot be explained logically, nor beauty nor wonder nor eternity or our endless cosmos. Much of our existence defy's logical principles. As does God.

To fit God inside our logic is to reduce him. And a reduced God is easy to refute. I'm more of a Chesterton guy than anything else, I suppose.

Anyway, here's the clip from the film. It opens this Friday at a theater near you (hopefully.) I do hope you go see it. And I hope it's good for your heart, and for your faith, too.

Does God Exist? is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog