"5 Reasons: Why I Still Believe in God" - DAY 43

Day 43 – outside help (III)

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”  –the PSALMIST

We are all familiar with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Set in Italy centuries ago, this story of love in the face of adversity remains a touching classic today. For the purpose of our discussion, I want you to consider what it is possible for these two fictional characters to know. If you think about it a while, you will come to the conclusion that the entire extent of their reality is the play itself. They are familiar with each other and the characters they happen to meet in the play, but they are not aware of anyone outside it. They know all the settings wherein they are placed but cannot possibly know other settings. Their awareness is confined to the storyline. It is impossible for them to perceive anything else.

In much the same way, atheists believe that all of us are characters in nature’s storyline. We act out our lives totally within its confines. Over the years, they say, we have come to respect and revere the natural world around us and have tried to seek its benefits. They claim that religion is merely an outgrowth of our awe of nature and our desire to influence it in our favor. Belief in God thus can be explained without having to believe at all in a supernatural world.

Up to a point, I think the atheist is right. Nature religions need no other explanation than nature itself. A supernatural reality is not necessary to account for them. Where I think the atheist is mistaken can be seen by looking again at Romeo and Juliet. What if these two characters suddenly began to believe that someone outside the storyline existed? What if they began to believe, for example, that someone named William Shakespeare created them? How could this happen? The only way would be for Shakespeare himself to let them know. He could have inserted an additional character into the play and added a scene where that character tells Romeo and Juliet of his existence. Or he could have written himself into the play and scripted himself to walk right up to the two lovebirds and say, "Hi! My name is William Shakespeare. In my writing room at home, I created you and your world." In that way, too, a reality outside the play itself, the creative world of William Shakespeare, could have entered their minds. It could never happen, however, without William Shakespeare’s input. The possibility of his existence could never enter their minds without his help.

So it is with religion today. Atheists may claim until they are blue in the face that nature religions gave birth to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but what they are shouting still won't make sense to me. To say that we have come to believe in God through nature alone, totally without any outside help, is like saying that Romeo and Juliet could come to know Shakespeare without Shakespeare's help. How could men and women living in a world 100% natural come to believe that something beyond nature exists? How could they begin to say that a God separate from nature created them and their world? How could they claim to know and experience something outside nature’s storyline? The only logical answer is this: belief in God would never have happened unless God Himself “wrote it into the script.” Without His help, even the possibility of His existence would never have entered our minds.¹

Daily Quotation

Psalm 14:1 NIV

¹The idea for today’s analogy once again comes from C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.