What prevents you to believe in God?

According to C. S. Lewis "atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know that it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning".

What does prevent you from believing in God?

Many people say that they cannot believe in God who can condone such evil in this world.

“To an unbelieving person nothing renders service or work for good. He himself is in servitude to all things, and all things turned out for evil to him, because he uses all things in impious way for his own advantage, and not for the glory of God.”
― Martin Luther, On Christian Liberty

But if we do not believe in God, there are no such things as good and evil.

Just our opinions on what are good and what is evil, according to me.

And you might think differently.

So everything is allowed, every conceivable action and deed.

Only personal preferences dictate the good and evil, or democratic vote, majority’s decision.

“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

You may say, well, that is the best way to live, each to their own.

In theory it is a wonderful way to live.

Everyone can be just who they are.

But what if someone thinks that it’s not evil to steel, or it’s not evil to kill.

Then comes the majority’s decision, right?

“God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God.”
― Albert Einstein

But what if a country decides that it’s not wrong to invade another and steal their resources?

Or kill everyone else?

If there is no right or wrong, then female circumcisions are just a cultural practice.

It is a correct and good practice, because majority of people in the countries that societies that practice them.

The people believe it to be right, so it is.

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

Immanuel Kant

As would be stoning a person for having premarital sex, or sex slavery.

All the practices are correct, as long as there are enough people who believe them to be correct.

Is that the society we want to live in?

Is that the world where we want to live in?

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Baruch Spinoza

According to C. S. Lewis his “argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing the universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it?”.

If we deny God’s existence because the world is unjust, we deny unjustice.

Because without a judge and a justice system, and the laws that were put in place by a law giver, there is no injustice.

There can only be differences of opinion.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Baruch Spinoza

This post is part of an on-going series.

To begin, read Natural law. A post about the law we all have in our hearts.

If you would like to know what comes after read the post about Moral law.

Having read that, you'll need to know Which moral law to choose. 

If you agree we need to choose a moral law, maybe you'll agree that We need God.   

After we have understood the need we have for God, it is time to research What is sin. 

Having accepted your need for God, what kind of God is exactly a Christian God? This you can find out about in What we Christians believe.

Blessings for Saturday

May your Saturday be filled with blessings.

Let this weekend nourish you and kindle a new strenght in you.

Let it be filled with rest, happiness and laughter.

May your family be around you, and your loved ones.

May your day be filled with love.

 

“When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.”
― C.S. Lewis

 “For Equilibrium, a Blessing:
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity by lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what's said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of god.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings

“Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day
the blueprint of your life
would begin to glow on earth,
illuminating all the faces and voices
that would arrive to invite
your soul to growth.

Praised be your father and mother,
who loved you before you were,
and trusted to call you here
with no idea who you would be.

Blessed be those who have loved you
into becoming who you were meant to be,
blessed be those who have crossed your life
with dark gifts of hurt and loss
that have helped to school your mind
in the art of disappointment.

When desolation surrounded you,
blessed be those who looked for you
and found you, their kind hands
urgent to open a blue window
in the gray wall formed around you.

Blessed be the gifts you never notice,
your health, eyes to behold the world,
thoughts to countenance the unknown,
memory to harvest vanished days,
your heart to feel the world’s waves,
your breath to breathe the nourishment
of distance made intimate by earth.

On this echoing-day of your birth,
may you open the gift of solitude
in order to receive your soul;
enter the generosity of silence
to hear your hidden heart;
know the serenity of stillness
to be enfolded anew
by the miracle of your being.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.”
― Henry Ward Beecher