Many compatriots will argue, especially those scientifically inclined, that believing in a higher being is irrational, for there is no proof of the existence of the Almighty. According to them, any person’s conviction to subscribe to creationism seems – in the absence of certainty – at best foolish, at worst misguided and dangerous to the human condition. But as much as God’s existence cannot be empirically proven (the evidence remains circumstantial), it is – likewise – impossible to deny it. All the books written throughout history rejecting the existence of the Most High have namely failed to provide conclusive proof of the absence of God, however forceful and repetitive the attempt in doing so.
Believing, as we know, requires at its core a person’s trusting disposition, which cannot feed on certitude, but on the assumption that God’s word is truthful, nurturing and, indeed, eternal. The power of the Gospel attests to this, obviously in the opinion of people who are capable in discerning the voice of God speaking through the Holy Scriptures. Many people, on the other hand, hear little or nothing when reading the Bible, for they have not been given the gift of faith. This does not make them less worthy; it only means that their journey in life is different and that also they will receive God’s precious gift of belief once they are ready to ask for it. The Heavenly Father never turns away from his children imploring help, as long as their requests spring forth from a heart most sincere, humble and contrite.
In our times the number of people not believing in God is, unfortunately, growing. They build their present and future on personal insight, without reaching out to Heaven’s wisdom. They feel comfortable in mastering the difficulties of the world relying on their strength, power and ingenuity. Why to have a communion with God, they keep asking themselves, if there is no pressing need, especially if His commandments come with many – also unwanted – restrictions? As long as we live, they seem to tell the world, we do not want the freedom to choose God, but the freedom from God. Thus, any interference in handling earthly affairs is rejected.
Arguments like these may seem persuasive, yet in the final analysis they lack rationality, while pretending to deliver it. Let’s make the following assumption: a person lives without faith, yet upon death realizes that God exists. How great is then the disappointment and misfortune, for if that person lived a life of faith, eternity could have been earned, instead having to depend now on God’s mercy as a last beacon of hope.
The second scenario is reverse: a person lives a faithful life, yet upon death realizes that there is no God. What is the eternal burden for any such individual if there is no eternity? No such pain can exist, for there is nothing. Yet a life lived righteously, according to the word of assumed Wisdom, provides happiness and inner peace during a person’s earthly existence. Anyone firmly rooted in the teachings of Christ, while on this planet, radiates joy and brings good things to life, even if God’s kingdom were to be non-existent; because Christ’s dogma is built on love and forgiveness, which is a recipe infinitely more powerful than any human right’s charter ever designed by secular minds.
In these times we like to see ourselves as intellectual beings, thus we must declare that the rational choice is to believe in God. No harm can come from it, even if He were mere fiction, because we would live by rules of goodness established millennia ago; yet there is tremendous pain if His existence is proven after we would have failed to recognize this when alive. In the first instance, we are guaranteed to live a better, more fulfilling life, providing consolation and hope to ourselves and people around us, while in the second we may have just lost a pass to Heaven.
Given the above choices, who is then a man of reason? An atheist, who rejects God, only to find out that his life may have been built on self-inflicted deception (paving the way to eternal damnation), or a God-fearing soul living an exemplary life, and by doing so creating a world of harmony and peace, even if this very same world were – at one point – to end in nothingness? The answer does not require much thought, nor do we need clarifying deliberation. It is self-explanatory to every human heart searching for the innermost truth. Once we are, accompanied by grace, fully immersed in the knowledge of the Unseen, there can be only one piercing exclamation: God is!
FAITHBOUND 