Do we just blindly believe in God?

I read a post by someone on an online article about James Cameron harping on Glenn Beck. Somehow, the chain of comments focused on religions. This individual posted a message in all capitals (I suppose to seem more adamant) decrying all followers of any religion. The gist of his post was that all religions are bad and that anyone who believes in one is naive and just blindly following myth and superstition. He urged all religious people to just THINK and free yourself from the oppression of religion. OK, so let's think and apply some simple logic and common sense do determine who is really naive and needs to think through his beliefs.

Let's start with the assupmtion that all religions are the same with naive followers. While it is true that many people have had some bad experiences with religions and their practices, the conclusion that all would be wrong based on a select sample is not valid. It not anymore valid that saying all apples are rotten if you have only seen a batch of bad apples. However, the fact that there are differing religions and bad experiences with them merits further investigation as to why.

To answer that, we need to get down to the very basis of religion. The basic belief of any religion is that there is a Supreme Being or Essence that represents all truth, power and morality. So, what we really need to determine in this argument is if there is a Supreme Being or God. We'll get to that later. For the sake of the current point, I will take the position that there is an ulitimate, final source for all truth, power and morality; in short, a God.

With God as the source of all truth, it follows that all truth must be consistent in one whole. However, any thinking person would realize that not all religions have the same beliefs. How can there be only one truth, but many religions with varying beliefs about that truth? The only conclusion is that not all religions are correct. It also means that only one religion can be correct and that would be the one that contains the one truth. If only one can be correct, then that means there are many more that are not. This leads many people today, such as the poster mentioned earlier, to believe that all religions are false and that the people who follow them are just naive. It's not that all religions are bad, the person just hasn't found the ONE religion that contains all of the truth and thus can provide the good and fulfillment that religion should provide.

Now, again following my position that there is a God and one truth and one true religion, it would make sense that they most important thing we could do in this life would be to find that religion. Nothing else in life could have as much import or meaning as finding our God in His one true religion so that we can receive the true joy and blessings that are available to us.

So, lumping all religions together and saying they are all wrong just doesn't make sense. In fact, the only thing that does make sense is that there is one true religion and the others false, or at least not fully correct. Many religions may have part of the truth, but it's obvious that they cannot all be right because they have differing beliefs. So the conclusion must be that there can be one good, true religion even though many seem wrong.

Of course, to make this argument, I had to take the position that there is a single, Supreme source of truth; a God. The poster obviously did not believe in a God or he could not reasonably beleive what he stated. So, we needed to visit the basic belief in God.

The poster and atheists take the position that there is not a God because you cannot see Him or touch Him. They believe that anyone who believes in God is just naive and blindly following silly traditions. This simply is not true. While it may not be possible to scientifically prove there is a God, I contend that this is necessary in His plan and not need to verify His existence.

First, let's just apply reasonably thought as the poster suggested. If there is no God and Supreme Creator, all that we know on this earth would have to be explained as a random accident that just happened to present all the right conditions to end up in a planet that can support life. And then, all the right conditions just happened to occur that would allow life to begin AND all the right evolutions would have to occur to bring us to the extra ordinary consciousness and abilities of human beings. The odds of this occuring randomly are astronomical. The time it would take for all of this to happen randomly would be far more than the billions of years of the earths existence. The only thing that make sense is that there is a Supreme Being that coordinated the conditions so that they could occur as necessary to provide a planet that can support life and to lead to human beings. In short, a Creator and a creation.

However, this is not the only nor the best evidence that there is a God. And if this is all we had, I would concede my position. What we have that assures us of the existence of a God is faith. Now, the poster and his kind would say, "I told you, it's just blind belief." Again, that is false. Faith is not blind belief. Faith is based on evidence. Faith is belief in evidence that is not seen, but most assuredly is felt. This is were it gets difficult for the poster. He has never felt faith and has not comprehension of it. Explaining the evidence of faith to someone who has not taken the time to find it and THINK or ponder about it is nearly impossible. It is similar to trying to explain the taste of salt to someone who has never tasted salt. But, everyone can experience it IF they will seek it and ask for it. This is the poster's problem. He is comfortable in his non-belief and probably afraid of the truth if he were to find it.

Faith may be difficult to explain without a common frame of reference, but there are analogies that can help us understand that it is possible to believe without seeing. Have you ever seen the wind blow? No? But you have seen the trees sway in the wind. And you have felt the wind on your face. Have I ever seen God? Maybe not, but I have seem evidence of His power and felt the assurance of His presence.

Have you seen oxygen? Probably not, but you now it is there because you can breath. Now, you may say, but people have seen oxygen molecules using scientific equipment, so we have witnesses to support our "belief" in oxygen.

This brings us to another point. I believe not only that there is a God but that He is a loving God and wants what is best for us. That being the case, He would not want to leave us here blind and not knowing Him or why we are here. To that end, He has communicated with men and women on earth through His voice and through angels. These people have even more evidence of the existence of God through visual and physical proof as the scientist who uses equipment to see oxygen molecules. These people are our witnesses to the truth about God. Many of these people are known has prophets and have recorded there testimonies in sacred books we call scriptures. How do we know there testimonies are true? Faith.

So, it all comes down to faith. So is faith just a blind belief in silly traditions as the poster would have us believe? I think I have made my case that it is not. And I promise you that there is a way that everyone can know that it is not true. Everyone can receive the assurance that comes with faith and experience this evidence of things not seen. But, it does not come free. You have to want it and seek it. If you really want to know, and I assert that there can be nothing of greater importance in this life than to know, you must approach God in prayer and humble ask if He is there. But, I warn you, if you do, with real intent and in sincerity, you will feel something in your heart and mind that you may have never felt before. You probably won't understand it at first, but it is the seeds of faith. And then you will have experienced the evidence of faith that is the foundation of all of our belief in God.