WHAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT RELIGION?
The truth is that the existence or non existence of God can’t be proven either way. No one can prove that God exists and no one can prove that God does not exist. All anyone can ever do, is weigh the evidence. But why are some of the most brilliant atheistic minds in the world, biologists, chemists, astronomers, doctors turning from atheism to Religion? The reason is simple. They have kept informed of new discoveries and information. They have then analyzed, objectively and with an open mind, weighed this new evidence that did not exist when the paradigm of darwinistic materialism was being formulated. They saw new facts and new information that required new conclusions. That is how science and discovery is supposed to work, but often does not . The available information has changed and “evolved” dramatically. The more we’ve learned, the more compelling the case “for” religion has become. At the same time, the case “against” has become much more difficult to even TRY to make…
For many scientists, even when the conclusions, objectively should change, often their worldview does not. When careers, reputations, grants, etc… are dependent upon research within the paradigm of Darwinism and materialism as being the sole explanation for everything, ultimate conclusions rarely change. This is true regardless of the evidence. For them, expressing a change of opinion or belief has too high a price; both socially and financially. Think about it… If your job or research grant is dependent upon your study of evolution; an acknowledgment that Darwinian mechanisms seem insufficient to explain the diversity and complexity of life, your job and grants are immediately placed in jeopardy… and as many brilliant, objective chemists and biologists have discovered, voicing these realizations often leads to immediate ostracism and becoming a pariah in their field.
Scientific Facts are not in Dispute… ONLY Allowed Inferences and Conclusions are in Dispute
No matter how much a person or institution may assert or prefer otherwise, facts are always the facts… 2 plus 2 is always 4, even if one prefers or asserts that it is 5. Unfortunately, in many areas of science, like bad math, Dogma and preferred worldviews are trumping facts and obvious inferences. This is not how science is supposed to work. Historically, science was a search for truth; the examination and following of the evidence, no matter where that evidence led. This is no longer the case. Worldview often trumps scientific evidence. No matter the evidence, no matter the logical inferences and no matter how compelling the explanatory power of the inference, if a highly likely conclusion contains a theistic implication, further investigation and consideration down that evidentiary path is not allowed. Simply put; a DO NOT ENTER sign is erected. Science, often, is no longer a search for truth, it’s a search to support a purely materialistic causes. No God Allowed… Nothing beyond the nature we can see, touch, or feel is allowed to be considered as a possibility. We now have an A,B,G mentality i.e. Anything But God.
True science, discovery and intellectual honesty requires that we let the FACTS speak. Let them tell us where they lead, what they mean. There is virtually no disagreement on the facts we see in nature; fossils exist, things change over time, beak sizes change, anti-biotic resistance occurs, etc… these are all facts which constitute evidence that relate to opinions as to what conclusion that evidence supports.
- A SIMPLE EXAMPLE:
Even the most atheistic biologists agrees as a FACT, that nature gives the “appearance” of design. This fact leads to, at least, 2 separate opinions.- One opinion: The Materialistic Dogma states that the amazing diversity of life and nature descended from ONE first living cell. A cell which after countless generations that included blind random chance beneficial mutations that were selected for survival. Ultimately, this one cell through generation after generation of beneficial mutations morphed into every aspect of life and resulted in the exquisite beauty, diversity and complexity of nature that we now see.
- Second opinion, The world and universe does not simply appear to be designed, but actually is designed. As will be discussed in other articles, there is an abundance of compelling evidence for this view. The evidence we will discuss does not prove God anymore than opinion ONE proves the NON existence of God. But rather what will be shown with crystal clarity is that the certainty proclaimed by many that “science has foreclosed the possibility of God”, is not compelled by the science or evidence, but rather by a personal world view that is simply close minded to the possibility of God.
Materialism Is No Longer Tenable
At the time of Darwin, when the body of world knowledge was being synthesized, i.e. his theory of evolution, what little we knew of the complexity and coding of the simplest living cell, the belief that we lived in an “eternal universe”, rather than a finite universe (as described in the bible), the combination of these and many more “scientific facts” made a materialistic worldview with no need for God, reasonable. However, the last 50 to 100 years of scientific discoveries in chemistry, physics, biology, quantum theory, astronomy,etc… have put all of these “facts”, not only in question, but many have been absolutely refuted. The purely materialistic dogma of Anything But God, has become less and less reasonable. However, the scientific materialistic community, at large, has no inclination to undue the damage to religion that these, at best, questionable ideas have caused. Why? Obviously, many believe that the existence of God is impossible. Others simply do not want God to exist, while others, simply believe the world is better off without religion, so why ruin a good thing? But science should not be about what one prefers people should believe, it should be solely about what is true and what is not. It should simple follow the evidence where it leads.
ANYTHING BUT GOD
The dogmatic materialist prefers any hypothesis that will lead away from the conclusion of God. As I’ll quickly discuss below, even a wholly speculative hypothesis with absolutely no empirical evidence whatsoever is preferred to the idea of an intelligence or God.
If It’s Impossible… “The Multiverse Did It”.
Many aspects of the universe are so impossibly unlikely that even atheistic astronomers and physicists consider their occurrence to be nothing short of a miracle… and have even said so… but since they believe that miracles are impossible, there must be another explanation… Enter the Multiverse
If there are an infinite number of universes, then anything, no matter how astronomically unlikely, would had to have happened, at least, once.
A couple examples of the impossibly unlikely events being explained by the MultiVerse:
- We know that life doesn’t come from dead inanimate objects, but life exists, why?
- The incredible fine tuning of the universe For those unfamiliar with fine tuning, it is the fact that even slight alterations in any of the settings for gravity, strong force, weak force, dark energy, etc… had to be set EXACTLY as they are. Even the slightest variations would cause changes to the architecture of the universe such that life and even matter as we know it would cease to exist.
- Lawrence Krauss, chairman of the physics and astronomy department at Case Western Reserve University who said that dark energy would involve the most extreme fine tuning problem known in physics,because you would have to fine tune the dark energy parameter so very closely in order to get the universe to expand at the just right rate. In fact, for physical life to be possible, it has to be fine-tuned to within one part in 10122. That’s 122 zeros after the one.*
- IN FACT, SIR FREDERICK HOYLE, who was the first to realize that all chemical elements are created inside stars by nucleosynthesis made this startling comment, “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature” (1982:)
Even though, based on all we know, the above is impossible, if we accept a MULITIVERSE, the IMPOSSIBLE becomes a CERTAINTY. If an infinite number of universes exist, then everything that can possibly be imagined to happen, actually does happen, at least once… Therefore, as to the impossibilities above, the argument proceeds as follows… We just happen to live in the “winning” universe! And this is not an exaggeration! To illustrate the absurdity of this line of thinking, consider any possible answer that an atheist would or could give for this question:
- NOTE Dawkins, Krauss, Hawking are WRONG:
- Upon reading this article, many committed materialists will assert Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”; Krauss’s “A Universe from Nothing”; Hawking’s “The Grand Design”; each in their own way, showed that the arguments for God, don’t hold water. The fact is that for each of them, their arguments have been ridiculed and demolished even by many members of their own field. Please feel free to comment and I will direct you to sites and scientific commentary on their, books.
- What would it take for you to believe in a God? I’ve personally heard..
- If the stars lined up to spell “Your name is John and I am your God“
- If I threw a hundred scrabble squares and the hit the ground and spelled, “I am God and I have been watching you“.
Even if we saw this happened, it could still be argued that it proved nothing! Why? Because with the multiverse, no matter how impossible the observation, the committed atheist can still assert… “we happened to be in the universe where the stars aligned and the letters happened to fall that way. This is not evidence of God, we are just in the lucky universe!” Because the multiverse hypothesis explains everything, it also explains nothing… and remember, in addition to the logical absurdities of this hypothesis, there simply is not one iota of empirical evidence that the multiverse even exists. Science is supposed to be about discovering the truth of reality… not simply supporting atheistic dogma.
I invite anyone who prefers truth over a comfortable, self serving ideology, to re-examine and re-analyze some of the facts that may have led them to atheism and then let those newly discovered facts take them wherever they logically lead. There is a new world of exciting information and scientifically supported conclusions that many of us have missed. Sometimes due to our inattention, often because facts have been purposefully hidden. In some cases, we’ve all simply been lied to. Regardless, the goal here is not to convert, but rather to inform; then let the facts lead where they may…
Please see the book marks at the end of this article. They lead to many articles and videos that detail not only the newest information but the untrue “facts and conclusions” we’ve all been taught that undermine religion but now know are false.
As rational humans, all we can ever do is to objectively look at the evidence and then come to the conclusion that most closely comports with that evidence. That’s what we do in our court system. We rarely actually PROVE guilt or innocence. We decide what is most probably correct. We look at all the evidence. Both sides present their best case and the jury comes to a conclusion. We then choose to act accordingly.
Shouldn’t we do the same with religion?
SAME EVIDENCE TWO CONCLUSIONS
Unfortunately, many don’t even acknowledge that there are two sides.
The Christian is often so strapped in his faith he won’t look at or pay attention to the physical and biological evidence of evolution. On the other hand, the atheist has been so indoctrinated with the teachings of secular materialism and Darwinism that he doesn’t actually look to see if there are any “holes” in what he was taught. To him it is an inarguable dogma… no more questionable than the existence of gravity. But for those who care, there is so much to the picture!
Regardless of what anyone would prefer to believe, there are 2 sides to the God question. There is information and evidence on both sides of the equation. Neither side has absolute proof, as that’s simply impossible. But with the advent of the newest archaeological, geological and biological discoveries, the answer; the weight of evidence to the “question” of God has dramatically changed. But few are aware of it.
The fact is that some of the most brilliant atheistic minds in the world have turned from atheism to God, based solely on the weight of the evidence. The more we’ve learned, the more compelling the case “for” has become and more tenuous the case “against” has become.
The Starting Point- Facts.
Many will be surprised to learn that in actuality, the atheist and Christian agree on a great deal of facts. Survival of the fittest, microevolution, the fossil record, etc… There is little disagreement on facts; the disagreement is on the analysis of those facts and the ultimate conclusions drawn.
For example:
- If I threw a ball across the room and hit Joe with it, that is a clearly uncontradicted FACT. The same thing would have been seen by all observers. However, that fact will be interpreted by each in their own way and their conclusions will be swayed by their preconceptions… do they know me? Like me? Do they dislike Joe?
- One asserts that I’m a horrible person that wanted to hurt Joe.
- Another, that I’m an idiot that wasn’t paying attention.
- A third observer is certain that I obviously have terrible coordination and couldn’t hit the ground twice in a row.
They each saw the same fact, but the conclusions could not be more different.
The opinions that we have for the existence or non existence of God, often rest on universally agreed upon facts.
The problems and disagreement arise over our interpretations of what those facts mean.
Facts are susceptible of multiple, possible conclusions… even opposite conclusions based on identical facts can be reasonable. Just as in a trial… the same jurors see exactly the same evidence but often come to different conclusions. The same is true of politics, religion and many other issues. We may come to the facts with our own preconceptions and biases… But the Facts are always the Facts. As such, they should always be the starting point.
The rational honest person will examine all the facts, give them a reasonable analysis and interpretation and then follow it wherever it leads. The reality is that based on our personal predispositions and beliefs we may analyze and come to different conclusions even when looking at the same information.
The atheist may look all these new facts and say “Wow! Nature is even more amazing than I thought”. The Christian may say “In my heart, I always knew there was a God. But this proves it!”
The Fact is that much of what we were taught, that our children are being taught, as facts… facts that subtly and not so subtly have a tendency to undermine Faith. If the “facts” being taught were accurate, so be it. Reality is reality. Rationally, we would have no choice but to reexamine our beliefs…
However, the FACT is that much of what we are have been taught and that our children are still being taught are lies and misrepresentations… What’s worse they are actually known to be false. But they are still being taught!
Whatever your belief; atheist, agnostic, Christian, follower of Islam, etc… if truth matters; if you want the facts and a belief system that is based on reality rather than on convenience or propaganda, I invite you to examine and analyze what follows:
No matter on which side of the question you reside… FACTS presented in these articles will be enlightening…
Book Marks
Want to know more? Want to comment? God the evidence.
Religion is the worst thing that ever happened to this world. Tons and tons of books about the religions of the world have been printed. The figure is beyond count. Many religious people are totally blinded by the good deeds system. They ha
ve no concept of the doctrine of the total depravity of man (that all men are corrupt, evil, sinful and unable to please God in their own human efforts). They think of “total depravity” in terms of people who lie around in the gutter. Actually, those individuals who lie around in the gutters might be respectable compared to some religious people.
The sins of religious people are amongst the most awful sins of all. The sin of pride for example is fantastic. The sin of legalism is the system of trying to impress God with something you can do, rather than be impressed with what God has done through Jesus Christ.
Let’s consider a religious person talked about in the Bible. His name was Nicodemus. He was a very well educated man. He was a Pharisee (religious leader). Nicodemus was a very proud, vain, legalistic and hypocritical man. He came to Jesus at night, for Nicodemus was a very busy man. No doubt, he hoped to impress Jesus with his flattery. He addressed Jesus as “Rabbi” (an official title of honor). To Nicodemus, Jesus was a teacher, nothing more. Though Nicodemus had a body and a soul, his spirit was dead. He had no ability to fellowship with God, because he was “spiritually dead”. He had never been born spiritually.
If you are to be “born from above” or “born-again”, you must accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. This is such a wonderful truth that is taught in the Bible. Many people, far beyond count, just don’t believe upon the Son of God. They believe in a God; maybe a god of wood, of stone, of metal, of spirit, of knowledge, of power, of nature, etc., etc., etc.
Religion by the ton, of every sort, of every kind. Religion, religion and more religion. People have all kinds of ideas what God should be like. If they can’t find a god that is already made for them, they will make a new god to their liking.
http://www.lovethetruth.com/Destruction.gif
It is very difficult for some people to realize they are sinners, they feel they are very good people. Many don’t believe in a god, of any kind. They do not believe that there is anything beyond the grave.
In short; many believe we are born, live and we die, the end!
However, so many questions about life are with us all the days of our life and they must be answered one way or another. In this life, a time comes when we must settle in our hearts whether or not a God does exist. Is there life after death? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? What is the purpose of life? Does God really give us eternal life? Will God actually punish people in hell? Is God, if there is a God, telling me the truth? Look at the world today and the destruction sin causes! Will the wicked really be turned into hell? WE ALL HAVE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS AND MANY MORE because they need to be answered. No person can escape having to decide the answer to these questions; no one, it’s a part of life! You may decide you want nothing to do with God at all, but THEN THAT IS YOUR DECISION. See, you have to decide!
Many religions will offer you answers to these questions, but the answers are not found in religion. The answers are found in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son!
Miracles are happening today, just as in the time of our Lord Jesus. You may have not thought about this before, but it takes a miracle to become a child of God. Salvation is a supernatural act of God in response to our child-like faith in Christ alone. When we reach that point in life where God has drawn us to make that decision to either accept or reject His Son Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin, a miracle will or will not take place; depending on what we do with Jesus. Whether we reject or accept the Son of God as our Savior is totally up to each of us. If we reject Christ, no miracle of the new birth takes place.
On the other hand; if we accept Christ as our Savior, admitting that we are sinners and that we do want Christ to come into our hearts, our sins will be forgiven immediately. The new birth takes place immediately…not partially over time, not in steps; but instantly the very second we accept Jesus as Savior. We then belong to God, we are adopted into His family. A miracle has taken place and according to the Scriptures, there is no power, no person, or anything in this universe that can separate us from the love of God; which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35).
The question of accepting or rejecting Christ must be settled in your heart. Whether you are a church-goer, give lots of money to charities, and do all kinds of religious works, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is—ARE YOU A BORN AGAIN CHILD OF GOD? No amount of religion or outward self-righteousness can help you on judgment day. Salvation is not found in a religion; but in a person, Jesus Christ. It’s simple! You are a sinner in need of a Savior. Stop trying to save yourself and decide to rely upon Jesus. Only Jesus paid for your sins, so only He alone can save! From your heart, simply ask Jesus to forgive your sins and become your Savior. Decide to rely upon Him alone to save your soul, because of the precious blood that He shed for you (1st Peter 1:18,19).
Religion is the worst thing that ever happened!
Me again.
I agree we have to accept Jesus as our savior, admit we are sinners but that we are forgiven immediately – I don't think it works that way. The scriptures tell us that we must accept Jesus and his Father, and then by doing what we are told, in other words proving that fact on a day to day basis, yes our sins will be forgiven us. But we have to show in the way we conduct ourselves every day that the forgiveness that was given is deserved. The reason is that we are imperfect and that even though we don't want to, we sin every single day, probably a good couple of times, we just can't help ourselves. That is where Jesus sacrifice comes in, he died for our sins.
One other point – once we have accepted Jesus (and his Father) into our lives, you say that we can never be separated from them – don't be so sure because all the scriptures keep on telling us that it is going to be a battle, a fight to remain in their love because ……………. Satan is not going to leave you alone, not for one second, so each and every one of us has got to put up 'the good fight' for what is right every single moment of our existence and to do so we have to put ourselves in Gods and Jesus hands totally.
Yes I agree that (most) religion is not a good thing because it takes you away from worshipping the only true God – Jehovah and accepting his nominated King, Christ Jesus.
Thank you for claifying the errors i had….God Bless You
Hi Lura, me again.
I think most people realize they are sinners, even those that say they are not – they know they are. True there are many out there who don't believe in God and I feel sorry for them because of their inability to accept one simple fact – they owe their lives, the breath in them etc etc to God and to his Master worker, Jesus.
The questions you pose are in fact a diversion away from basic truth but many people find they need these 'things' answered. My reply to them – study the bible and all your answers are there. True, if you start off not believing in the existence of God, you are already at a disadvantage but by asking people to explain our beautiful earth and who do they think made it, would be a good start. A house is designed and built by man, surely this incredible world we live in had to be designed and built by 'someone'????? And surely that someone had to have unsurpassable power to have made this world and all the stars etc etc. Only God could have made it happen – a BIG BANG – I don't think so.
Some of your questions: 1/ Is there life after death? Only if you are resurrected as spoken about in the scriptures.
2/ Is there a heaven? Yes there is (but who goes there is another question altogether).
3/ Is there a hell? NO – Can you even start to think of a loving, merciful God burning you forever in a fiery hell. If that is the God you are worshipping then you have a major problem. The only 'God' who would do that is the 'God' of this system – SATAN. So, if you believe in hell, guess who you are following. Think – would you put your sons hand into a fire to punish him for something he had done wrong, even something really bad? No you would not. Why lay something so horrendous on God?
4/ What is the purpose of life? This is an interesting one but the bottom line is – to give praise to the one who has given us everything we have and to accept his supreme rulership. Remember Jesus 'model' prayer – Our Father in the heavens, 'Praise be to your name', thy Kindom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then the rest follows those first important words. Praise him, accept his Kingdom and his will – nice and simple.
5/ Does God give us eternal life? Yes but only if we do what he asks of us and that we endure to the end. We don't just get given that privilege handed to us on a plate.
6/ Is God telling us the truth? That is what the truth is – accepting what he tells us.
7/ Will the wicked be sent to hell? NO – what will happen is that they will die with no hope of a resurrection, they will go to the common grave of all mankind, sheol/hades, where there is no thought or wages (Ecl 9: 4, 10 / Ps 146: 3, 4)
All these answers are to be found in Gods word – the bible. Even Jesus said when asked "It is written" – what is written for our instruction – only one answer to that – the bible.
Yes small miracles do happen but becoming 'a child of God' or a follower of Christ Jesus is Gods choice, as the scriptures tell us in John 6: 44 – "No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him; and I will resurrect him on the last day – then Jesus goes on to say that those taught by God and learned would come to him.
Hi Lura.
There are a few things I agree with you about and a couple that I don't. Religion in itself is not the problem but man with his penchant for trying to change things to what he wants and needs, and then coming up with a 'false' religion to suite his ideas. Well no surprise, old Satan, the wily creature that he is, is the 'person' pulling all the strings. Why? Well 2 Co. 4:4 explains it quite well.
You speak of 'man' in general of being depraved, that all men are corrupt, evil, sinful and unable to please God with their own human efforts. Wow, that is one misguided thought process. With sinful, I have have no argument, in that I would say you are 100% correct because we inherited sin though the first 'perfect' man (not so perfect in the end) Adam – but evil, corrupt and especially the thought that we cannot please God. Yes there are evil people out there and a whole lot of corrupt ones and yes a whole gang of people, who I would'nt say cannot please God but really don't want to but to tar and feather the whole human race – that is stretching it a bit, in fact a lot. It was God and his son who said in the begining – "Let us make man in our own image" – if you believe that, then man might have inherited sin but no one inherited evil or corruption. And the last point – pleasing God. What does the bible say would please him? Go to 1 Th 4:1 and there it shows that you should walk as instructed – and where today do we receive that instruction – the bible.
Accepting Jesus as our savior is needed for us to gain salvation but there is a whole lot more to gaining that salvation.
Unfortunately salvation is not instantaneous or permanent – Read, Lu 13: 23, 24 / 1 Tim 4:10 / Php 2: 12; 3: 12-14 / Mat 10; 22 / 2Pet 2: 20, 21 and as shown in these scriptures, 'once saved, always saved' is not scriptural.
The last bit about making up Gods for yourself, again 100% correct – NO IDOL is acceptable to God.
It is funny to think that some people believe that the facts in science and the belief in a Supreme Being – God are incompatible – they have not really looked at the 'FACTS' and then used their own common sense to answer that specific questions. I have a few websites below that will give you an idea of the situation – science and bible being very compatible. There are going to be people who read these site headers and will just hit delete. IF you are genuine in your need to understand, then go onto these sites, read what it says, THEN make an informed decision for yourself. I am sure you will find the following information extremely interesting. Go to these sites………
What the Big Bang Explains — What It Doesn't http://www.watchtower.org/e/19960122/article_01.h…
So Mysterious, Yet So Beautiful. http://www.watchtower.org/e/19960122/article_02.h…
Something Is Missing – What? http://www.watchtower.org/e/19960122/article_03.h…
Does the universe have a purpose? http://www.watchtower.org/e/200912/article_01.htm
The Earth – just right for us http://www.watchtower.org/e/20070215/article_01.h…
Is there a creator? http://www.watchtower.org/e/200609/article_01.htm
See it's about knowing if there is a God its about believing and what is in your heart, you don't have to know you just need to believe and I am not a christian I'm a believer in all thing's and every one out there knows there is a higher power yes mabey evolution could have created us but evolution could not breathe life into us and for those who don't believe that isn't just a lack of ignorance on there part sorry but truth hurt's some.
Hi Cenel. You are right about believing and that is the whole point. Anybody who has ever looked at our incredible earth and how everything works just perfectly, from the exact distance from earth to the sun to maintain our life (any closer we would burn up – any further away, we would freeze) to the water cycle, to how plants grow must realize that a power much greater than ourselves designed and made this planet of ours. Any other so called 'possibility' of how it came about is in fact laughable. As you say, in your heart you know this to be true but then some people allow so called 'experts' to tell you something so contrary that the mind boggles, that we crawled out of the sea – we come from apes etc etc. I bet these same people say they believe in God. Ignorance – possible but the truth of the matter is that there is a concerted campaign by the God of this system, Satan to blind the minds of everyone to the truth (2 Cor. 4: 4) He brings in all sorts of 'side shows' to take your mind off what is important and that is the truth about God and his son and the reason for why we are here. Its amazing how much information you can get from the pages of the bible. Simple truth.
God is god and only god can make blood.!!!
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