| By: Dr. John Ankerberg with various Scholars; ©} |
| Introduction: The God Who Is There. What surprising results do we find when we ask non-Christians about God? |
Ed. note: This article is based upon the transcript from programs produced by the John Ankerberg Show. Additional material has been added for this print version.
In the world today there are only a dozen major religions. But there are literally thousands of minor religions—and thousands of different gods. The Westminster Confession of Faith declares that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. At the time it was written, few Westerners had any real doubts as to which God it referred to. Today it is a different story entirely. The sheer number of religions confuses people when it comes to truth claims. So is it possible to discover which concept of God is true and which religion is true? We think it is. Let’s begin by finding out what we can know at the intuitive level.
There is a particular fact that no one, not even the most diehard atheist, can logically deny. The vast majority of men and women throughout history have believed in God. It is probably also true that the majority of the greatest thinkers among humanity, including scientists, have believed in God.[1] In light of this, one might argue atheism is little more than an infected blemish on the face of history.[2]
If many of the greatest intellects of history have believed in God, then it seems a bit presumptuous for anyone to claim absolute assurance there is no God.[3] While this does not prove the Christian view of God, it does say a great deal about all skeptical views that characteristically reject theism and supernaturalism.
In God And, a disillusioned Catholic priest—Terrance A. Sweeney, president of Jesuit Media Associates in Los Angeles—set out to try and recover his faith. He interviewed 30 famous people and asked each of them three questions: "Who is God to you?"; "Who are you to God?"; and "How has your relationship changed?"[4]
This book illustrates the truth that virtually everybody believes in God at some level, regardless of what they may claim. The famous psychologist Carl Jung once observed that the "idea of an all-powerful divine being is present everywhere, if not consciously recognized, then unconsciously accepted. Therefore I consider it wiser to recognize the idea of God consciously; otherwise something else becomes god, as a rule something quite inappropriate and stupid."[5]
Even if skeptics and others say that they aren’t certain of God’s existence or that they disbelieve in God, they still know He exists. One reason the Bible spends no time arguing for God’s existence is because it really isn’t necessary. In the material below we have provided sufficient examples from Sweeney’s book to illustrate our point. Collectively, they show the raw power of the intuitive knowledge of God, even when such knowledge is perverted into mysticism and pantheism.
Famous writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., who describes himself as a rationalist, still believes in God. Even though he judges God’s performance as "quite heartless," declaring we have "a lousy God," he nevertheless says that he believes in "pretty much the Unitarian God, where spring is celebrated and where there is a feeling of something terribly important going on in the universe, something unified, an awareness of that".[6] Actor Richard Chamberlain, known for his roles in "Shogun" and "The Thornbirds," declares, "We are pieces of God."[7] Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry has said, "As nearly as I can concentrate on the question today, I believe I am God; certainly you are; I think we intelligent beings on this planet are all a piece of God, are becoming God."[8] Actor Martin Sheen replies, in response to whether or not he prays, "Only when I get in trouble." Asked where he directs the prayer he says,
Noted movie director Frank Capra makes the following astute observation:
Even novelist and screenplay writer of Exorcist fame, William Peter Blatty, speaks of his relationship with God in quite personal terms:
Frank Sullivan, Emeritus Professor and Thomas Moore Scholar at Loyola Marymount University, states what most people already know:
William Shoemaker, one of the greatest jockeys in the history of racing, confessed:
In an interview, former President George Bush recalled being shot down over the Pacific during World War II:
That God is good to all men is indeed the scriptural testimony. God desires that none should perish and that men should "love life and see good days" (1 Peter 3:10). God "gives to all men generously and without reproach" (James 1:5). In all past generations. God "did good [to you] and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). "I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and to do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God" (Ecclesiastes 3:12,13). Truly, "the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" (Psalm 33:5). "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.... The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.... You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing" (Psalm 145:8, 9, 13, 14, 16).
Of course, while God is good and loving, this is not necessarily true of men, and it is certainly not true of the devil and his demons. These are the source of most evil and suffering in the world.[15]
But in spite of the evil in the world, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once noted, "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." The testimony of everything in life and creation is a testimony to the existence of God, and to His power, majesty, and glory. Walt Whitman commented, "To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle."[16] Biologist Lewis Thomas once wrote about the fertilized egg:
Dr. Thomas is quite correct. The ovum is indeed a miracle. And if the DNA content of the human body were printed as chemical "letters," and placed in a book, it would fill the Grand Canyon 50 times! But what about a single atom? A solitary atom—so small that 10,000 of them could be placed one on top of the other in the thickness of this piece of paper—has enough power in it to produce an atomic bomb! Nothing unusual here, either. The truth is there are literally thousands of "miracles" everywhere we look—and yet skeptics tell us confidently, "there is no God."
This sense of wonder and the miraculous, in even ordinary things, also underscores that the intuitive knowledge of God is everywhere. Personal statements such as those cited above are repeated in various ways throughout Sweeney’s book—and could, certainly, be repeated six billion more times were we to interview everyone in the world. They clearly illustrate the truth of Romans 1 and 2 which declare that everyone intuitively knows God exists, everyone has a conscience, and everyone knows they are personally accountable to a divine Being. For example, the following Chinese belief in divine accountability is seen in every religion and culture in one manner or another: "A very old idea in Chinese philosophy holds that there are spirits, in both microcosm and macrocosm, that record one’s good and bad deeds."[18]
Because the sense of responsibility to a higher power exists universally, at some level and in some way all men expect a future judgment. That is one reason the fear of death is also universal: "All their lives [men are] held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews 2:15).
Regardless, as far as we know, none of the statements in Sweeney’s book were, at that time, made by genuine Christians. When non-Christians, secular or religious, make statements about God that have varying degrees of truth in them, this certainly says something about what people know intuitively. But an interesting point is that even though people know that God has been good to them, they usually ignore Him. They know God exists (Romans 1:20), they "believe" in God, they realize God has been good to them—and yet they live their lives as if God doesn’t exist! Their "belief" in God is intuitive and self-serving, not genuine and biblical. As the esteemed philosopher Mortimer Adler recalled, prior to his own conversion to Christianity, "I simply did not wish to exercise a will to believe."[19] Famous novelist Aldous Huxley wrote frankly that, "Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon which subjects we shall use our intelligence."
Examining the context in which this quotation occurs is instructive. Huxley was frank enough to confess that his desire to be free from the Christian God and morality was based more upon emotional considerations than rational ones:
As Huxley wrote further,
Have you ever wondered why so many people speak in terms of being blessed, of being given gifts, etc., when they don’t believe in God? They accept the gifts, but it seems they rarely acknowledge God as the Giver. In a TV news report of an earlier interview (given on the day he died, October 10, 1985), Yul Brynner noted, "I’ve been blessed with this special gift. Who could ask for more in life?" In a 20/20 interview October 10, 1985, rock musician Bob Dylan commented, "I don’t have any faith in myself that I can do anything. I just pull it off. I’m amazed I can even do it." The sense or intuitive perception that there is something good going on and something more involved than the life we know has been a constant theme in human discourse and activities throughout history. To cite a modern example, Sir John Eccles is one of the foremost brain scientists of this century, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine. He and his co-author write the following concerning the personal conclusions they draw from natural theology:
We think science has gone too far in breaking down man’s belief in his spiritual greatness and has given him the belief that he is merely an insignificant animal that has arisen by chance and necessity in an insignificant planet lost in the great cosmic immensity. The principal trouble with mankind today is that the intellectual leaders are too arrogant in their self-sufficiency. We must realize the great unknowns in the material makeup and operation of our brains, and the relationship of brain to mind, in our creative imagination and in the uniqueness of the psyche. When we think of these unknowns as well as the unknown of how we come to be in the first place, we should be much more humble. Mankind would be cured of its alienation if that message [of man’s spiritual significance] could be expressed with all the authority of scientists and philosophers as well as with the imaginative insights of artists. We pray that man may develop a transforming faith in the meaning and significance of this wonderful, even unbelievable, adventure given to each of us on this lovely and salubrious earth of ours.... In the context of natural theology we come to the belief that we are creatures with some supernatural meaning that is as yet ill defined. We cannot think more than that we are all part of some great design. Each of us can have the belief of acting in some unimaginable supernatural drama. We should give all we can in order to play our part in this life on earth.[22]
If anything may be concluded from the study of man, or human history, or life generally, it is that everyone intuitively knows that God exists, even the most brilliant among us. However, some readers may be thinking at this point that we really haven’t been fair to the convictions of atheists and other skeptics. After all, such people can sound very convincing when they claim they have never believed in God and are absolutely certain no God exists.