Post
by LaMont Cranston » Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:43 pm
Charlou, You are correct when you say "Nature does not require God." However, whether or not an entity that many of us think of as God exsits does not have to be about what is required or needed.
By now, I've been a member of atheist forums for long enough to have heard virtually every piece rhetoric and every argument from non-believers. It's very common for people to say things like "I don't require a belief in God to appreciate the beauty of nature," or "I don't need God to be a good human being." I happen to believe that both of those statements are true, but whether or not God exists is an entirely different issue.
If God exists, God exists; that's a statement about what is. no need or requirement is necessary. If God doesn't exist, God doesn't exist. Once again, that's a statement about what is.
If I appreciate the beauty of nature or live my life with the intention of being a good human being, those things are about decisions I have made. Whether you or anybody else want to believe it or not, the belief that God exists is not the result of laziness, the "need" to believe in the supernatural or any of those other things. It's a result of examining my life's experiences and every other source I can find, including checking out the viewpoints and opinions of some truly brilliant non-believers and asking them all of the tough questions I can think of.
I get it that many non-believers want to see hard evidence, and there is none forthcoming. What's also true is that non-believers have absolutely no evidence to offer, and what science can actually explain is quite limited. I'm familiar with that thing about trying to prove a negative, but, by me, you can either prove what you do or don't believe or you can't, and, in this case, neither side can.
When I add everything up, what I get is a "beyond a reasonable doubt" case that a force/power/energy/consciousness/intention called God exists. The case works for me, and it's good enough for the legal systems of virtually every country that considers itself to be civilized. For those who want or demand scientific proof, one way or another, of the existence of God, hey, I'd love to see that too!