Why You Should Believe in God (Even if You'd Really Rather Not)

Sometimes the things we think are the most complicated are actually very simple. For example, making lasagna is assumed to be challenging, but really it's just a matter of preparing your sauce, meat, etc, and putting it in layers. Mississippi might be scary for kids learning to spell, but it's really just some double letters segregated by the letter i. And you either believe in God, or you don't. As much as people would prefer to hedge on this, there really isn't any middle ground.

A lot of people would really prefer there was a middle ground though. Of course, a lot of people would prefer that Friday was part of the weekend and that ice cream had zero calories. But reality is not like choosing toppings for a pizza — what you prefer doesn't actually change it.

The middle ground is easy; it doesn't demand much. If there may or may not be a God, then you might not be answerable to Him, which lets you off the hook for, and let's be honest here, a lot of stuff. And if he is real, then He might be looking out for you, which would be nice. Much like the aforementioned zero calorie ice cream, we'd really like to have it both ways.

We'll get back to the nonexistent middle ground in a moment, but let's talk about atheists for a minute. Now there are some people who proclaim loudly that there is no God, and some who aren't so loud, and merely describe themselves as non-religious. In either case, having a world view based on the non-existence of someone is a bit sad, isn't it? Actually, atheism goes a lot farther than a little sad, since to explain the universe without a creator, they have to resort to random chance. This requires just as much faith as believing in God, probably more, in fact.

Atheism wants to blame religion and God for all the ills of humanity, which goes beyond sad and reaches to absurdity, since denying God and His place in the universe is actually the source of all human suffering. A universe without design that exists by random chance is ultimately meaningless and completely without hope. If nothing has real consequence, it doesn't actually matter in the big scheme of things if you help little old ladies cross the street, or instead, push them out into traffic.

Somewhere Richard Dawkins is probably offended by that statement, but that doesn't change the reality of it. In the Bible we are told that God made the world, and specifically, He made us in His image. That means He gets to set the rules. And what are the rules, exactly? Boiled down to their simplest essence, as Jesus said "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," and "Love your neighbour as yourself." It's really that simple.

If people — and that includes people who believe in God, and those who don't — actually lived by those very simple rules, think what the world would be like. If people even genuinely tried to live by those rules, imagine how much better absolutely everything would be. After all, if you love your neighbour, you aren't going to rob, cheat, or lie to him.

Back to the middle ground. Atheism isn't willing to accept a middle ground, and neither is God. One says do whatever you want, it doesn't matter in the long run. The other says to love your Creator and the people around you. One demands little from you, and offers even less. One demands giving, kindness, and love from you, and offers you so much more in return. Which set of rules do you want to live by? Before you answer that question, though, answer this one: Which rules do you want the people around you to live by?