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Fear That God Isn’t Real
Dear Max,
I’m not sure I even believe in God. I am a bio-medical engineer, so in my field we approach things by empirical evidence. My colleagues and I discuss God and science quite often. I watch the news everyday as well and witness the utmost atrocities around the world. From what I can see, how could God even exist in this world?
-Jason, New York, NY
Jason,
I’m a fan of the great Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis respectively wrote those and were some of the brightest of their day and at the top of their game at Oxford University. They were friends and often discussed some of the same things that you do today with your colleagues. C.S. Lewis in his youth was a militant nonbeliever, devout in his resolve that God did not exist, for no God could stand for such a disaster as we call human existence. Dismissing God, he turned his attention to academics, excelling in each field he studied. He began reading the New Testament and studying this man Jesus Christ. In his conversations with colleagues he “began to know what life really is and what would have been lost by missing it.” The change revolutionized his world and, consequently, the worlds of millions of readers. Now, what caused C.S. Lewis, a gifted, brilliant, hard-core atheist, to follow Christ? Simple. He came in touch with Christ’s body, his followers, and in tune with his story, the Scriptures. Questions can make hermits out of us, driving us into hiding. Yet the cave has no answers. Christ distributes courage through community; he dissipates doubts through fellowship. He never deposits all knowledge in one person but distributes pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to many. When you interlock your understanding with mine, and we share our discoveries with them . . . When we mix, mingle, confess, and pray, Christ speaks. I suggest that you, Jason, have those conversations with friends, put your fears aside, read the New Testament, and ask God to reveal himself to you.
