8. #Idon'tbelieve!

"I once was lost but now am found...

Was blind but now I see..." (Amazing Grace)

I too was once lost and blind. I had all the familiar arguments against there being a God and the "absurdity" of the Bible down pat. I did not believe in God and I did not believe in the Bible. But then, one day - just like that - the veil was lifted and I could see.

To be honest, I do not believe that any one truly holds an unbelief of God. I believe the reason we say there is no God is due to our blindness. You see, when we are blindfolded, we can only perceive things with our other senses. These other senses may not always interpret their surroundings correctly. Because we are unable to use all of our senses we can be led, or wander into danger. We may "think" we are going the right way, but in actuality we are not. When the blindfold is lifted, what we could only "see" in part, we now can see in whole and we are the able to alter our course accordingly.

This is what happened to me. I was so dedicated to my way of thinking. It not only seemed right to me, but I had my years of schooling and friends who agreed. But in one moment, my blindfold was removed and I was able to clearly see things that I could not see before. This caused all my defenses to melt away - and my once grand arguments? Well, they fell to the ground with a thud. I quickly realized that the path I had been walking on was fraught with danger. However, now, with the blindfold removed, I could easily maneuver through the minefield and make it to the other side.

"There is a way that seems right to man, but it's end is the way to death." (Proverbs 14:12)

Would you allow me a few moments to share with you why I do not believe in unbelief in God? First, please look over the following questions

Have you ever looked up in frustration, fear or need and spoke out loud to the air?

Do you think that positive thinking will bring you positive results?

Have you ever said or thought "It was meant to be?"

Do you practice manipulating "energy" through furniture placement, lighting sage, or vizualization?

Do you read your Horoscope or follow your astrological "sign"?

Have you ever said, "The Universe brought me this or that?"

Do you try to be a good person?

Do you trust in evolution?

If you practice or trust in any of these things, then you do believe in some form of a higher power outside yourself ... aka God. Please allow me to explain.

Let us say that billions and billions of years ago - out of nothing - came something. If the genesis of everything around us came from nothing, who are you speaking to - up there - in the air - when no-one is around?

If there was nothing directing positive "thoughts"or energy before the universe began how did it start?

If we shrug our shoulders over events that happen in our lives and say, "It was meant to be." Who or what meant it to be?

Who or what was manipulating "energy" to create all that is today? Where did energy come from and how is it that the mismanagement of energy such as leaving the toilet seat up (uh-oh!) or having a door facing the fridge (uh-oh!) in our homes can cause us to lose money?

If the stars in the sky were created out of nothing - like everything else - how can the placement of them have any rhyme or reason? How can randomly placed stars and planets have anything, whatsoever, to do with our personalities or lives? For that matter how can an accidental, randomly placed mess of galaxies (Universe) bring anything to us?

Are you a "good" person? Well, why? Why does it matter? Do you secretly believe you are going to heaven (although you may not believe in God) because you believe yourself to be good? Are you good because it is a social norm? How do we know what is good? Or bad? Aren't we here by accident? Does not our survival depend on getting what we need to survive - at any cost? Why would we even contemplate helping someone else survive if it posed any kind of a risk to us? Why in the world would we have feelings of compassion, or empathy, or perform brave acts of courage? Why do we find people who are empathetic, kind or brave desirable? How does any these help us with the bottom line - survival? Could it have anything to do with this?

"They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. (Romans 2:15 NLT)

Speaking of a conscience, do you ever feel guilty? Ashamed? Why? Why would the evolutionary processes of survival, such as eating and procreating, also create "feelings?

Why would the process of evolution create undesirable feelings such as shame or guilt? More importantly, why haven't undesirable feelings, that have caused some to self harm, been removed from our ever evolving life form?

And did you notice I used the word create? Because that is exactly what the beginning of evolution claims - it claims - out of nothing came something. That is creating.

With all that evolving, Scientists keep having to add years and years to the age of our world. It takes an awfully long time for random chance, mutations and adaptation to change from a single celled organism into a giraffe. And by the way? Why didn't all the single celled organisms morph into a giraffe or one of the other gazillion types of insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish, animals etc... and stay as they are? I mean, why stay a plankton?

The auspicious beginning of the giraffe, according to evolution, came from a mutation. Bit by slow... little bit. The original giraffe (that came from nothing) turned into a cell - then into a fish - then into a land animal and then, at some point, by random chance, had a mutated offspring with a slightly longer neck. Having offspring, of course, meant there were somehow other giraffes of the opposite sex to mate with. Clearly then, a lot of cells found themselves turning into giraffes with some having different genatalia (and all that bring to the table!) that amazingly fit perfectly for procreating. This little giraffe mutation suffered from bullying. His little giraffe friends called him names like "stretch"and "noodle neck". However, our little mutated giraffe found he could reach really low branches on trees (that just so happened to come from nothing) and thus he could find sustenance for himself that the other giraffes could not reach (nah,nah,nah,nah,nah!) After billions and billions of years of succeeding mutations (adding a fraction of an inch in height to to their necks) and the eventual die off of the shorter necked giraffes - We now have our current giraffe. Seems to me there must have been some form of decision making on their part. "If I could only stretch my neck a little longer.....I could eat that leaf!" Bam! The next mutation? Now that is some powerful positive thinking!

The above "acceptable" beliefs (meaning things you can share at a dinner party) all have one thing in common, they convey the belief of something or someone in charge. You can talk about positive thinking, visualization, feng shui, astrology, how the Universe sent you your Spouse, your charitable organizations and evolution all day long and no one will bat an eye. However, if there is any assertion about a personal God...well... there goes the party! But... I dare say, that although you may not have been fully aware of it - you-yes-you - believe in God.

This world system is designed to do whatever it can to keep you away from God and it does so by keeping you blindfolded.

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

The god of this age is NOT the God of the Bible. The god of this age is an entity we know as Satan/Lucifer and part of his life's work is to keep you blinded. (We will talk of him more in later). However, he can not keep you from consciously observing. The problem is, many of us are just too distracted (wonder by whom?) to stop and to consider for themselves (not what has been drilled into you) the many wonders of this life.

Look around you. What do you see? The sky, the earth, the stars, the sun, the moon, the oceans, the lakes, the forests, the butterfly, the fruit... all in perfect synergy with one another, all helping the other survive and allowing this planet to thrive. You take one element out and everything will collapse. Case in point - the simple honeybee. For something that came from nothing our planet and all the amazing diverse creatures who call it home, is the biggest, most astounding, incomprehensible miracle that ever was. It takes way more faith than I have to believe that something this amazing came from nothing. No matter how many more billions of years you add to it.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

Dear Reader, please stay with me. I have so much more to share with you. The veil is put in place by the god of this world. As Bob Dylan once sang sang "You have to serve somebody!" (If you are a millennial you have to look him up!) You may think that you are immune to serving God or Satan - but I am afraid that you are serving someone and you may be inadvertently serving something or someone that you may not want to. The information I want to share with you may at times be uncomfortable or challenging, but it won't hurt you. I promise. God loves you. Whether you believe in Him or not. Won't you give Him a chance? Maybe one day your veil will be lifted and you too can sing..."I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see!"