"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists." Blaise Pascal
I'm interested in the people who are so threatened by having faith in God. What is it about placing faith in him that threatens them so? That seems to almost repulse them? That prompts a deep anger toward him and, sometimes, toward people who walk in faith? Is it the desire to be the "captain of your own boat"? Is it transference because of how someone treated them at some point in their life? Is it their intellect that they can't reconcile the unanswered questions with? Or is it simply they just don't see a reason to believe in anyone but themselves? I promise I am not passing judgment, I'm simply curious.*
I know, for me, what a life choosing faith has provided. I sincerely have received direction, peace, guidance, protection, vindication, and more from choosing to believe in God. I have had really hard moments, days, weeks, even months but I have seen things come out of those hard times that can only be attributed to a supernatural intervention (if you will). There literally can be no explanation for things that have happened outside of them being authored by God. It wasn't anything I did or didn't do, said or didn't say, it had to be God and nothing else. If I passed from this life today I wouldn't feel as if I had wasted time on belief, I would instead be deeply grateful for what it has provided me in this life. Nothing would have been lost if I found, at the moment of death, that I was wrong.
Belief in a God that I cannot physically see but most certainly can in other ways, that I cannot touch but have been touched by, that I cannot hear from but have heard from (chew on that for a while!), that has done things that confuse me but astound me all at once is a gamble I can't not take.
*In an effort to satisfy my curiosity I am going to read two books. God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens and The Rage against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith by Peter Hitchens. Yes, they have the same last name...they are brothers! I thought it might be interesting to read both of their works on this topic.
I'm interested in the people who are so threatened by having faith in God. What is it about placing faith in him that threatens them so? That seems to almost repulse them? That prompts a deep anger toward him and, sometimes, toward people who walk in faith? Is it the desire to be the "captain of your own boat"? Is it transference because of how someone treated them at some point in their life? Is it their intellect that they can't reconcile the unanswered questions with? Or is it simply they just don't see a reason to believe in anyone but themselves? I promise I am not passing judgment, I'm simply curious.*
I know, for me, what a life choosing faith has provided. I sincerely have received direction, peace, guidance, protection, vindication, and more from choosing to believe in God. I have had really hard moments, days, weeks, even months but I have seen things come out of those hard times that can only be attributed to a supernatural intervention (if you will). There literally can be no explanation for things that have happened outside of them being authored by God. It wasn't anything I did or didn't do, said or didn't say, it had to be God and nothing else. If I passed from this life today I wouldn't feel as if I had wasted time on belief, I would instead be deeply grateful for what it has provided me in this life. Nothing would have been lost if I found, at the moment of death, that I was wrong.
Belief in a God that I cannot physically see but most certainly can in other ways, that I cannot touch but have been touched by, that I cannot hear from but have heard from (chew on that for a while!), that has done things that confuse me but astound me all at once is a gamble I can't not take.
*In an effort to satisfy my curiosity I am going to read two books. God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens and The Rage against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith by Peter Hitchens. Yes, they have the same last name...they are brothers! I thought it might be interesting to read both of their works on this topic.
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