If There Wasn’t a God
I walked into my English class ready to start the day. As a personal rule of mine, I always sit in the back. That way, you can see the whole class. From this vantage point, it’ll be difficult to miss a question or a comment from classmates. As my college professor was busy taking things out of his briefcase, as always, I looked at the board to see what was in store for the day.
On the board was written a phrase that would forever stay with me. He wrote, “If there wasn’t a God, man would create one.” My first instinct was, “What does that have to do with this class…. this isn’t World Religion!” My second thought was, “Isn’t this professor a Christian?” To be honest, the only thing I could remember from the lecture that day was his reiteration of the phrase he wrote, in big letters on the board. “If there wasn’t a God, man would create one.”
Voltaire
Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778) also known as Voltaire was a writer, philosopher, and a great thinker of his time. His quote “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him,” came not out of the need to combat Christian beliefs, but to condemn an atheistic essay titled “The Three Imposters.” Voltaire believed that a society needed God to live in a civilized and functional environment.
The Amazing Freedoms of America
It amazes me and I marvel at the freedom we as Americans have, we pick and choose what we believe in, and we have freedom of Religion. At times, maybe like a ship without an anchor, we are tossed and turned where the waves take us. Such as not believing in anything, believing everything, or at a drop of a dime, changing one’s beliefs.
What Does it Mean
I pondered over the phrase for a long time. Does that mean human beings are so in need to believe in… something… that they will even… make something up? Throughout the years, I’ve heard people say things like, “Oh you drank the Kool-aid too?” or the classic, “Yes, I believe in Jesus and Santa Clause!” However, there are historical accounts of a man named Jesus, and of his resurrection. There are historical accounts of his followers too, most notably, Paul, along with eyewitnesses to his life here on Earth. I think it’s difficult for people to believe because of the “power” that God shows everyday people.
Modern Day Tale of Jonah
As I think about scripture that tells water being turned into blood, it is not so different from the stories I’ve heard of today, where water not only turned blood red but most recently in the news was that water turned green in Venice’s Grand Canal! What about the story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale? In our very own 21st-century Michael Packard, from Massachusetts, could probably tell us how it feels to be in the mouth of a whale. Last year in June, he was taken into the 10 ft wide mouth of a humpback whale, by his estimate for about 40 seconds, then was spit out. According to scientists a humpback whale’s throat is the size of a human fist.
Book of Numbers
In the book of Numbers, there is a story of a donkey that spoke to a prophet named Balaam. As difficult as it was for me to wrap my head around a talking donkey, I learned that parrots, beluga whales, dolphins, and songbirds can mimic human speech, with parrots considered the most intelligent of the bird species in communicating with humans. Dogs and cats, although they do not communicate using speech, nevertheless communicate with humans… and humans understand what they need. So why not a talking donkey whose mouth God opened to ask Balaam why he was beating him? I don’t think it’s that far-fetched at all… there are more far-fetched things out there to boggle one’s mind, for example, there is an underground plant whose purpose is to study life from outer space.
Good and Evil
If there is good, then there must be evil. We have all heard of ghost sightings. There are television series dedicated to ghost sightings. There are numerous accounts of people who have seen ghosts and houses that are known to be haunted by evil spirits. Priests have been known to fast to prepare for an exorcism. Dealing with demonic influences, their voices take an otherworldly tone that sends chills up and down your spine and gives you huge goosebumps. We have seen true stories of people who were possessed by evil spirits.
Of the thousands of accounts of spirits roaming the earth. Why do we easily believe in these evil spirits, and still have a difficult time believing in the God who gives us victory to overcome all demonic entities? There is evil, and there is good in the world. Our job is to make sure that good overcomes evil so that evil does not dominate the world. We do not want that for ourselves, our children, and our children’s children. So we must fight evil with good.
Voltaire was Right
In conclusion, when my professor wrote Voltaire’s quote “ If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” We can conclude that Voltaire was able to see right into the 21st century and beyond. Our society falls into a pattern of mischief and strife. We need God now more than ever to aid in our fight for good, the good of this world and to help us to hold on to the good in us.