When I was a young man in college, I began to question why I believed in God. I had been a Christian for several years, but, as I began to study philosophy, I began to ask myself if my faith was reasonable to believe in. The Apostle Paul told Timothy to be able to give a reason for the hope that was in him. With so many philosophies, so many belief systems, why was Christ my hope for the future? Is it reasonable to believe that God would send His Son to become a man, to live a perfect life, to die on a cross, and to rise from the grave?
Philosophy has two primary words that incorporate everything: absolute and relative. Something is relative when it depends on something else for its existence. Something is absolute when it depends on nothing else for its existence. Absolute is philosophy’s definition of God. Now, there are four questions that each person asks: (1) Who am I? (2) Where did I come from? (3) Why am I here? and (4) Where am I going? We ask these questions either consciously or subconsciously. The answers to these questions determine the choices we make in life and the consequences to those choices.
My first question was, why should I believe in a God who would create this universe, this world, and everything in them. The first part is easy: either there is a God or there is not a God. Mathematically that is a 50% probability. Secondly, if there is a God, did He create the world or didn’t He? Again, a 50% mathematical probability. So the probability there is a God and that He created everything is a 25% probability (1 in 4). That sounded like a reasonable probability. For one thing, I was taught from early childhood that I was a human being created in the image of God so my predisposition was affirmed (life questions 1 and 2).
If God did not create the world, what are my other choices? I found three alternatives that diverse groups of people believe. First, everything has always existed. Second, nothing exists, everything is only a figment of our imaginations. Third, everything came about by spontaneous generation (evolution).
When I considered that everything has always existed, I wondered where it came from. Perhaps as some have suggested, there is a great Nirvana (a supreme spiritual state) in the world that has always existed, and we came from that. Nirvana is union with God that we attain again when we are released from desires in this world. If this is true, why is there death, pain, and suffering? Death, pain, and suffering are basically ignored, but, when one dies, his/her Karma continues to exist and becomes another life depending on the good or bad deeds of the previous life. If this then is true, why does the world have a greater population of people today that it did 2,500 years ago when these teachings were formalized? This did not seem to be a reasonable explanation to me.
Nothing exists did not seem to me to be a reasonable explanation either. Who am I if I do not exist? Why do I think I am interacting with other people who do not exist? Why do I imagine pain, suffering, and death?
Please understand that I am not trying to be precise in my explanations of other views; I am just trying to give a general overview rather than write a book. Okay, so what about the third possibility? Please read part 2.