Sunscreen

The first chasm that invariably stands in the way of belief in God and His son Jesus is the one that we'll name "Reality". A person hears the message of God, possibly even takes a few steps toward Him, but finds himself facing...*dramatic music*... "Reality". What is Real? If you were to ask 100 people on the street, or in markets across the world, their response would be that something is real if you can touch it, see it, or possibly hear it. Then they'll think about it and add smell and taste. Our views on what is real and fake revolve around our 5 senses.


Now, to be perfectly honest, everyone will admit that there are things that we cannot measure with our five senses that we all believe are real. Some are too small for the senses to measure; atoms, molecules, etc. Other things we assume exist simply because they must, because we were told they exist; the bottom of the deepest ocean trench, the ozone layer, the distant planet that revolves around a star millions of light years away. And then there are some things that exist that we can't see, but we know they exist because we can measure their effect on us and the effect on the world around us; things like UV rays.

I am certain that no one has ever sat in their home and watched beams of light streak down from the sky burning the skin of people unprepared for it's onslaught. However, we have all been on the receiving end of a bad sunburn and know that it was caused by too much time spent outside without adequate protection from the suns rays. What's funny is, we believe this is the reason because some scientist told us. This is an act of faith no different than if he said little purple gremlins, that only come out when it is sunny and have magic cloaks that make them invisible,  come out and burn us with fire from their mouths. Why do we accept this notion of UV rays harming our skin? We believe it because everyone else does. It seems plausible, we trust the people who said it because they seem really smart, and because Bill and Susan down the street believe it too.

In my philosophy class in college the professor revealed something to us, that if you think about reality long enough it could make you crazy. Everything we experience with our senses is simply electrical impulses interpreted by our brain. Can you prove that anything you experience is real? People that experience hallucinations believe with all their might that what they are seeing is real, but it is simply misfires of the brain. I say this simply to show that when we tear it all away, everything is a matter of faith. I choose to believe that this is real.

Let's go back to the idea of the UV rays. Scientist have told us that there is a wide spectrum of light of which we can only see the middle. Outside what our eyes can detect is infrared and ultraviolet light. The average human being accepts this on faith because scientists have observed it using specialized machinery and because different scientists from around the world all have had similar findings. Because we choose to believe them and because we can see evidence of the rays, we wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from the light of the sun that damages our skin and causes serious long term illnesses.

So by this example, if we can experience the effects of something then it is reasonable that something exists to caused it regardless of whether we can measure it or not. So let's try an experiment. First let's properly set everything up so no one feels ambushed later. It is the modern belief that there is no right or wrong except what is defined by individual persons. Our laws are simply agreements that we have made with each other to keep everything flowing smoothly, not to be confused with some underlying morality infused into our minds.  The only things that are truly wrong are things that infringe upon other peoples choices. So basically, as long as you don't infringe upon my right to choose, I don't care what you do. Here's the experiment:

Have you ever done something that affected no one's freedom of choice that you regretted doing? Or to phrase another way, have you ever had to convince yourself that what you did was really okay?

If you have, then doesn't this show that on some level there is an absolute right and wrong that is hardwired into our minds? And if there is an absolute right and wrong, then where did it come from? Some people claim that this sense of morality can be attributed to evolution, simply something we have developed to succeed as an organism. But remember the scientists that we trusted with the UV rays? Some of those same learned people have used their machines to delve into the fabric of our world and our own bodies and they have concluded that there is no way that this world, or the humans in it, happened by chance. And before you cry, "Foul!", these men did not believe in a creator before they began their studies.

Now the rest of this is up to you. No one can twist your arm to make you believe. If there is something inside us that speaks to ultimate right and wrong, then how did it get there? Is it possible that instead of me being a cosmic accident, maybe I was thoughtfully created? And if I was created by some entity, and given a knowledge of right and wrong, shouldn't I explore and find out about who or what this entity is? I'm not asking for belief in Jesus, I'm simply asking for intellectual honesty. Could it be that you've been wrong all these years? Is it minutely possible that there is a Creator that exists outside of the world we can perceive? Whether he is active in our world or not, is it possible?

Here's the Truth. People don't want to believe in a creator. Because if a creator made them, then that entity has the right to define their lives. They simply want to do what they want to do.