If not this, then that
I’ve been a Christian for almost 40 years, been a fervent student of Scripture, helped lead Bible studies, regularly attend Sunday services. But still I have moments when I wonder if certain things that I’ve professed are really true.
Something that has really helped me in those moments to solidify my faith is a question I ask myself: “What’s the alternative?” I would say. If this thing I believe is false, what follows from that?
So, for example, if I question whether God even exists, I consider what I must then believe instead, i.e. that the great expanse of the universe and everything in it had to have arisen from nothing and without a cause. Even if the universe always existed I would still have to accept that all matter, space, and time, which are not necessary in their natures, have no explanation for their existence.
The Christian explanation for the way things are is so incredibly more reasonable and believable. I’ll stick with that.
Occasionally I start to feel a little despondent because I’ve been praying for something for a long time and God has not given what I’ve asked for. Does he hear me? Is he genuinely good? Well, what’s the alternative?
It seems to me the alternative would have to be one of a number of potential realities.
- He hears me but he doesn’t care. This flies in the face of everything Scripture says about God’s love and character. Furthermore, it is illogical to believe that created beings are more caring than the one who created them.
- He hears me and does care, but is unable to bring about what I’ve asked. But this would mean, in addition to contradicting what the Bible teaches about God’s omnipotence, that the one who created the universe and everything in it is helpless when it comes to this relatively minor task.
- God doesn’t even exist, but then I’m back to the unsatisfactory alternatives in my first example.
Lately, as I have been navigating life in the final third of my existence on this earth, I occasionally wonder if Heaven is real and will I really find myself there when I die. Will it be a truly blissful existence and worth every hardship and heartache in this life?
What’s the alternative? If Heaven is a myth and this life is all there is, either:
- the Bible is fiction
- Jesus was only human and a liar at that
- we were created for no greater purpose than entertaining our creator before he snuffs us out
- and/or we were in fact not created, life and consciousness arose from non-life, and our lives have no ultimate purpose at all.
But none of this corresponds to the evidence.
When we abandon belief in something, we necessarily believe in something else, whether or not we think through the ramifications of our unbelief. But in our doubting, when we do think it through, we are better able to settle our hearts that our faith has not been in vain.
