(With a little help from some scientists.)
1. Astronomers have determined that the universe began at a certain point in time (14.5 billion years ago, more or less). It appears to have been created from nothing, paralleling Genesis. (See NASA and Goddard Institute for Space Studies founder Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers).
2. The universe obeys certain strict physical and mathematical laws and structure, making it comprehensible to human minds. This suggests an intelligence guiding its creation.
3. Paleontologists have determined that life began, indeed exploded on earth as soon as the planet’s surface had cooled sufficiently to sustain it, within the first billion years of earth’s existence. (See Stephen Jay Gould, A Wonderful Life). This suggests a universe predisposed towards life.
4. Human self-consciousness triggered an innate sense of right and wrong in the earliest humans. This moral sense or “Natural Law” suggests a lawgiver. (See NIH and Human Genome Project Director Francis Collins, The Language of God).
5. Before the earthly life of Jesus, no philosophy or religion had elevated love above all other virtues. None had ever valued the poor over the rich, the weak over the strong, the childish over the wise, the humble over the proud, or mercy over strict justice.
This, along with the Gospel testimonies and the amazingly rapid growth of Christianity (spread worldwide in three centuries by missionaries rather than armies, as was Islam), suggests that Jesus was, if not divine, at the very least the most unique human or spiritual leader of all time.
The god that could create the world and make it humanly understandable would also be capable of revealing his nature to us, in both indirect and direct ways (miracles).
So there I found myself, in five simple steps, standing at the door of the Church. The fact that it took me seven decades to take those steps speaks to my own stubborn slowness rather than the difficulty of the steps themselves. Others, perhaps less clever than I, seem to reach the door, and pass through it, quickly and easily. I am just grateful that I have been given the time I needed.
NOTES and Quotes:
Francis Collins wrote “The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. He can be worshipped in the cathedral or in the laboratory. His creation is majestic, awesome, intricate, and beautiful.”
He also wrote that “God must be an incredible physicist…There is this phenomenal fine-tuning of the universe that makes complexity and, therefore life, possible.”
Robert Jastrow wrote “Far from disproving the existence of God, astronomers may be finding more circumstantial evidence that God exists.”
Circumstantial evidence is exactly what scientists provide us with every day. Witness testimony is what we get from believers. Together, the case is made strong.
I want to alert everyone to an amazing website that should be visited every day. I turn to it each morning before or after my morning prayer (from the monthly magazine Magnificat, which I heartily endorse).
O Ben Finiti 