Does God Exist Essay

In this busy world where almost everything is explained by Science and evidence, no one seems to bother questioning the existence of God. They are either apathetic or simply decided to be atheists or agnostics. Many people, especially the youth, are apathetic. They would rather preoccupy themselves with the newest game of Playstation 3, Hollywood blockbuster movies, sexy music videos of Paris Hilton, sports car, and other more exciting things. Topics of religion and faith are none of their businesses for these are the problems of the priests, pastors, and other faith defenders. They believe that they are too young to care and the important thing is that they do belong to a certain religion, attend some religious obligations, and those would be enough and will serve as â€Å"tickets† to their salvation. But do they understand what they are doing? Do they know what God they are worshipping to? Do they really reflect if they really want the religion they’re into, or they just go with the flow? Others would simply negate that there is a God. These are the atheists. They do not believe in a Supreme Being who creates and controls everything simply because they do not want to. Then, there are those who play safe, the agnostics. They do not confirm nor deny the existence of God just because no one can prove both arguments. Another belief is that of Scientology. Their stand is the only things that are true in this world are those, which can be explained by Science and supported by evidences. Obviously, they do not have a God. The question now is what do we get with these different views. What happens if we believe in God or not? Are we free from the sufferings of this world if we chose to believe in Him? The answer is no. Mr.  Tom Cruise, who is in Scientology, seems to get all the luck in the world even if he does not believe in God. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who devoted her life caring for the unfortunate, suffered and died as a poor nun. Has she changed the lives of the poor she took cared of? No. The Philippines, a Catholic country, belongs to the Third World where people die of hunger, experience heinous crimes, and suffer from poverty. On the other hand, parts of Europe and United States, where religion and faith seem to be buried under material aspirations, are among the 1st World countries. Ironically, those who have deep faith are the ones who bear all the cruelties in this world, while those who do not have been quite lucky. How unfair life is, isn’t it? But our religious leaders are ready for their standard answers – â€Å"Better suffer here on earth! The more you suffer, the greater the reward awaiting for you in your after life! † So, let’s all suffer despite our goodness. Isn’t it logical? One day a child asked me if there’s a God and I said yes. Then, she asked again why could not she see Him? I couldn’t simply tell her to close her eyes, just have faith, and believe for this won’t answer her question. I couldn’t just tell her that I have Master Yoda’s â€Å"Force† with me and she should believe it. I have to show it to her and let her feel it. I have to give her something that she would understand. It was not the atheists or agnostics, who are closed to the fact that God exists I had to convince, it was a curious girl wanting to know God’s existence. I have to give her a logical explanation for all of these. St. Thomas Aquinas offered 5 reasonable ways to prove God’s existence. First, he believes that there has to be an â€Å"Unmoved Mover. † At this point, I picked up a stone and threw it away. Then, I asked the girl if who made the stone moved. She eagerly replied, â€Å"You! † I said she was very smart. Then I asked her again who moved me to pick up the stone and threw it. She replied, â€Å"God? † The first argument of St. Thomas has 3 basic facts – one, that nothing can move itself; two, if an object is dependent on another in order for it to move, then the first object in motion also needed a mover; and three, the first mover should be unmoved, and this could be God. Tired of walking, we sat on a wooden bench. I asked the girl if she knew the maker of that beautiful bench, the replied she made was it’s the carpenter. I then asked her if she had an idea who made the carpenter. She frowned and whispered, â€Å"his parents? † Again, I asked her who made the carpenter’s parents’ ancestors? Isn’t it God? St. Aquinas’ second way is the causation of existence. He believes that there must have been an â€Å"Uncaused First Cause† who created everything and began the chain of existence. Related to this is St. Aquinas’ 3rd way or the â€Å"contingent and necessary beings. A bench is a contingent being made by wood that came from a tree; man planted that, and who was created by whom? There must be something/someone at the end who created all contingents. St. Thomas Aquinas believes that every contingent being should be dependent form a necessary being for them to exist and that there must exist a being which is necessary to cause contingent beings – this could be God. The small girl looked perplexed with all of the explanations I was giving her. I diverted her attention by asking him to compare Mr. Brad Pitt and Mr. Tom Cruise, of which of the two were more handsome. She immediately replied, â€Å"Brad Pitt! † I then told her that even if Mr. Pitt has a slight edge over Mr. Cruise, there has to be someone more handsome than Pitt or this may even be the most handsome of all handsome. This is the gradient of beauty or perfection. One has to be compared to another that may have more or less. And this is the 4th way of St. Thomas, the â€Å"argument from degrees of perfection. † He believes that there are grades or degrees of perfection and that there must be a perfect standard by which all qualities are measured and compared with, this could be God. While resting, I asked her if she has been taught in her school about the different human systems, i. e. circulatory, nervous, digestive, and others. She said no. I asked then how about symbiotic relationships, photosynthesis, and formation of clouds, which she again had no knowledge in. But she said that she knew where the food goes after it was eaten. Then, I asked her if she was not perplexed by how systematic nature works. It is easier to accept that there must be an â€Å"Intelligent Engineer† who planned all of these rather than these were all products of a big explosion. St. Thomas last way talks about an â€Å"Intelligent Designer†, someone or something must have done these, and this could be God. I am not sure if all of my explanations were enough for the girl to believe in God, but what I have presented, based on St. Aquinas’ 5 Ways, were all basics in life. We experience them daily. These are evidences just enough to convince ourselves that someone or something must be in control, caused things, and moved things. This someone may be the creator of everything, including love, happiness, pain, and suffering. These logical evidences may be still absorbed by a child, but not for atheists. Non-believers would argue that, granting there is a God, who is all-powerful, all good, and all knowing, why does he let certain things happen. Why does he let the plane with a suicide bomber inside to land in the World Trade Center killing a lot of innocent people? If Superman, a fictional character, can stop a plane from crashing, so why cannot this Someone who is omnipotent? If this Someone is all good, why can he let this happen? If he’s all-knowing, then he knew that it was bound to happen and he didn’t do anything to prevent it. I cannot personally provide an answer to all of these doubts that are sufficient for them to believe. But what I do believe is that maybe, crimes like this, were part of the â€Å"master plan† of the Intelligent Designer. † Maybe, what is â€Å"perfect† for him is different from our own concept here on earth. Every abstract painting must look chaotic and one cannot figure it out easily. But when you see its meaning, you begin to appreciate and treat it as an art. Maybe, this is really what life should be. Probably, the beauty of life includes sufferings, cruelties, chaos, and other unacceptable facts. Relative to why God allowed such crime to happen, I believe that He is just respecting the law of nature. He created man to be intelligent and free, thus, he has all the freedom to do whatever he wants to. But of course, in every action there is a consequence, and man should face that. If he decided to eat more then he’ll have himself full and a possibility of stomach ache. The same goes with killing. If one wants to take others lives into his own hands then he can. But this act does not differentiate man from animals or other lower beings. An additional feature was given by the Intelligent Designer exclusive to man, which is conscience. After we knew the rightness or wrongness of an act, we have this conscience if we feel we have done something wrong. That’s the way it is, that’s human nature. And God respects it. God does not want the plane to crash, the suicide bomber wanted it. God, maybe, allowed it for He has a greater plan and there’s something good coming from that crime. The crash was terrible, people died, but it made Americans pray hard at least for a day. It caused them to unite to fight against terrorism. It caused them their humility that they do not control their lives even though their powerful. Proving God’s existence is almost impossible if you’re convincing an atheist or an agnostic. But it is not our duties to force others to believe in each of our own faiths. There are so much complexities in a religion, whether its Catholic, Moslem, Scientology, or even Atheists. Perpetual debates are heard daily claiming that their religion is the legitimate one, often times causing a fight between its pastors. But we tend to forget the basic and primal fact of being a human, which is to cause harmony to all mankind. Being human is to show love, respect, and service to everyone. I think in the end, when we face our Creator, religion would not be our only pass to salvation, but on how many lives we inspired and changed for the betterment of the world. Aren’t we tired of proving God’s existence? People spend a lot of time and resources looking for evidences of His existence just to correlate Science and Faith. Yes, there are unexplainable things such as violence, crimes, cruelties, and other unfairness of this world, that cast doubts to His existence, but we still manage to live. There is still air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink. We don’t need a grand miracle of dead people rising to life and water turning into wine. Miracles happen daily from the moment we wake up and live for another day. It is not God who should prove His existence to us because it is obvious thru the wonders of this world. It is we, man, who should prove our existence to Him. Let us prove to Him that despite the materialistic and busy world we live in, human goodness still exists.