Does God really exist? This question has engaged the intellect of many exploring the existence of God. Humans have expressed a belief in the existence of a supreme being responsible for creation from the beginning of time. Foremost religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and African traditional religion, are informed of the existence of a supreme being and have a template for his worship. Theism, “the belief in a god or gods,” is in the history of ancient civilizations. God featured in the works of many English writers from Christopher Marlow to T.S Elliott. Shakespeare’s mature tragedies have vivid accounts of belief in a God that shapes destinies.
Atheism, defined as “Denial of or lack of belief in the existence of a god or gods,” became prominent during and after the Age of Enlightenment. Great thinkers and philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Feuerbach, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Tai Solarin etc were renowned atheists. When agnostics (those who believe it is impossible to know whether God exists or not and for this reason we should suspend belief) are included, atheists in the world are now about 500 million.
Atheists affirm that there is a lack of compelling evidence to prove the existence of God. They find it difficult to reconcile a most powerful and good God with the existence of gratuitous evil. Earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes, diseases, pestilence, etc, have claimed the lives of many people. Consider children born with genetic diseases like cancer, sickle cell anaemia, autism and cerebral palsy. In my large family, we lost a lovely son to sickle cell anaemia at the age of fourteen. On his sick bed and in severe pain he assured us that Jesus would heal him. A few hours after these reassuring words he gave up the ghost. My family would live with this painful loss till the end of our lives. A few years ago in Benin – City, an eight-year-old girl on her way to Church for morning mass was overpowered by four men and raped to death.
Many would ask why a most caring and good God didn’t save her from this calamity. There is also the puzzle of the prosperity of the wicked which atheists find difficult to align with a God of justice.
The notion of a God responsible for creation has been seriously challenged by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin. In his book, ‘On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection,’ published in 1859 he explained how plant and animal species branch off to become entirely new species. The study of fossils and genes ignited interest in the evolution theory. Richard Dawkins, an evolution biologist, in his book, ‘The God Delusion,’ said living organisms; bacteria, plants, insects, and birds, share a common ancestor. He stated that the chimpanzee is most closely related to humans. In other words, we are all cousins to the chimpanzee and distant cousins to the antelope further down the evolution chain. The facts of the theory have been well articulated that they are convincing to many including renowned scientists. It is important to state that evolutionists have claimed ignorance of the origin of life. They admit that natural selection proceeds from the single cell whose origin they have been unable to account for. Claiming ignorance of the origin of the cell is without doubt a submission to the lordship of a superior intelligence.
As a Christian and a firm believer in God, I would advocate for a more pragmatic approach to the propagation of religion. Modern science has shattered into rubbles many of the foundations upon which our faith is erected. Many are now interrogating the basis of their faith. Cynical toleration of untenable dogmas is becoming a thing of the past. For instance, adherents of Abrahamic religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are required to believe in the existence of a devil who is God’s creation. They are required to believe that the devil visited the Garden of Eden in the form of a snake to tempt the first humans; Adam and his wife, Eve. They are taught that the devil lured Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and by this act, the whole of humanity was damned. They are required to believe that the savage butchery of people, sometimes of a whole community by the prophets was done by the express command of God. They killed many, including smiling infants. Sometimes ladies were spared and taken as booty of war. They are taught to believe in hellfire. They are told of the existence of angels, witches, and wizards. But these infinite verities need a piece of stronger evidence for their existence than the mere mention that they exist. A Pope encountered a master artist painting the interior of the dome of a Cathedral in Rome and noticed that angels were painted with shoes on their legs. The Pope barked at the artist, “Have you seen angels with shoes?” The artist responded with, “Your Holiness, have you seen angels without shoes?”
Children born in this modern high tech world can only believe by evidence and not by faith. They don’t believe in the supernatural. They are unlike me rooted in mysticism from my birth. In 1967, my mother took me to some prophets in Okoja quarters in Ikare, Ondo State, who downloaded my entire life history in less than thirty minutes. The predictions by a lady prophet had been confirmed in every detail. The stunning accuracy of the predictions is more confounding than the Internet and Artificial Intelligence.
The modern child would not believe that my grandmother, an Olokun (Water goddess) priestess in Benin – City, could with incantations alter the position of a child in the womb for safe delivery. I witnessed this many times during her lifetime. Therefore, it is easier for me to believe in an unseen God and witches.
The modern child will find it difficult to accept the inconsistencies and illogicalities in revealed religions as divine inspiration. They would not believe in the virgin birth. They would not believe in a moving sun like Prophet Joshua. They would not believe that Methuselah lived for 969 years. They would not believe that the earth is about 8,000 years old when there is proof that some rocks have existed for about 500 million years.
In teaching the scriptures it should be emphasized that the holy books like the Bible and the Quran were written by human beings. God might have inspired them but in doing that he allowed for their preferences, biases, predilections, idiosyncrasies, and fantasies. This would explain the observed inconsistencies and illogicalities recorded in the holy books.
There is no better way to prove the existence of God than the use of science. Albert Einstein said, “I don’t believe in a personal God; it is sufficient to stand in awe at the structures of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it”. He further said, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Thomas Paine, an apostle of deism (belief in God but not in revealed religion) made sense when he said the word of God is the creation we behold. It cannot be forged or counterfeited. The French philosopher and deist, Voltaire, shared this view.
Astronomy has revealed the solar system with millions of galaxies arranged in astounding order that cannot come out from chaos. There must be an intelligent designer. There are about 200 billion stars of which the smallest is as big as the earth. Is that not bewildering? The human body consists of about 30 trillion cells and each cell has a life of its own. Is that not amazing? The human brain is made up of about 100 billion nerve cells (neurons). Does that not indicate that we are wonderfully made? Considering the mountain ranges, ebbing sea, and accuracy in the movements of bodies in the solar system, what else do we need to prove supreme intelligence? According to Prof. Fred Hoyle, “The chance that higher life forms might have emerged by chance is comparable to the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein.”
There must be a creator with supreme intelligence whose origin is beyond the ken of mortals.
- Osagie-Jacobs, an Economist and Chartered Accountant, wrote from Abuja.
