Does God Exist or Does He Not?

What would cause me to believe in God’s essence with certainty?

Now, it is probably important to preface that if you are a traditional Christian based on family values, then the article may cause some thoughts or feelings that aren’t preferable. Same as if you are an atheist because it makes more sense to believe life after death is meaningless instead of your life having some sort of meaning outside of yourself.

It is also important to mention that while I am coming from the perspective of Christianity with how I go about navigating this question, the perspective in that particular religion is not required to see the point of views that this article shares.

I believe this question is what everyone comes down to at some point in their life. Whether that happens throughout their life or near death is up to you.

Why does believing in God matter as opposed to not believing in him?

I come from a philosophical and logical standpoint saying that there is information about the world that we don’t know or understand and believing in something that knows that information to help us understand it is beneficial.

Believing in God gives us something up top of that.

Caring about our choice of belief.

Let’s face it. There are people in the world that believe in one God, many Gods, or no God. There are people who believe in God in such a way that it doesn’t quiet feel like the God you may believe in just as there are people who don’t believe in God who seem like they want to, but the type of God they have in their minds is just too evil or wrong to believe in.

There are numerous views of who God is given the religious aspects alone, i.e., multiple religions, different versions of books, different points of view of experience, etc. Technically, atheism could be interpreted as a religion at this point, the only difference is there is a lack of belief.

Given all that, this idea of God is getting to the point where we see the different interpretations of God or the lack thereof, so who’s right?

It seems we are all pressed about who is right or wrong when it comes to whether God is real or not real, and if he is real, what God is the one that truly exists if not multiple?

All Religions Are Real

I suppose I am here to be the person to say, why does a single religion have to be right?

Why can’t all of them be right?

What if it is really that simple.

I think so many of us don’t want to consider this because of what it would mean.

You may be thinking how in the world can everyone’s beliefs be right?

Simple. We each create our own reality, and it is reflected to us through experience.

If there are people around us that we don’t agree with, that reflects our inner reality or identity. If there are people that don’t respect free will, it’s a reflection of who we are to ourselves and others. If we avoid conversations about religion because everyone else is “full of shit” and “I know the right way!”, it’s no wonder that avoidance is happening because everyone else around believes the same thing. If we lie and judge to control our environment to just the way we want it, instead of creating boundaries and being able to exist around anyone regardless of their beliefs, guess what others are doing to us too?

If you are having a hard time with accepting what has been typed above, then maybe at the very least consider this for now. Those are only words on a page. The meaning you give to them is your choice. So why do those words bother you? What stands out? Dive into that. It’s healthy to learn about yourself after all.

The Atheism Cycle

There are many reasons people decide to believe that God isn’t real, but I believe all those reasons stem from a core belief of God is in control and if you believe in God, then you are not.

I want to include the notion that just because someone says they believe in God it doesn’t mean that is truly the case or that they believe in the type of God that you do. They could be stating that they believe in God because the fear of not believing is too great. Regardless, they would also fall into thinking and feeling the same thoughts and feelings described below, they only have a harder time being honest about them to others or themselves because of shame or guilt. Keep in mind, being honest about any belief is completely dependent on the individual.

Ok, so now we can look at the question in a different way. Why would God not have a creator himself? Afterall, the idea of universes can continue infinitely, as in multiverse and multi-multiverse, and so what causes this universe to have a God that is THE God? Or… If there is a God, how did God create all universes or multi-verses; how did God create all there is?

On top of that, if God exists, regardless of how he does, why does that mean I mean anything to God?

These questions are ignoring what the real issue is for believing in God. The issue of purposelessness, and thus, a need for control.

Let’s go about this backwards.

Because you are right to wonder. If you are an atheist and you have wondered these questions, then sure, why does your life matter to God, assuming he exists?

But… this questioning is the process of choosing your belief.

I see it as atheists tend to stop at certain questions and think that is where the belief should end, as if the questions represent the belief itself. But they don’t. Questions are meant to question meaning in your life specifically and if you stop diving into the topic of God after certain ones, then that can show you don’t want to consider all possible answers, and in this context, what’s not being considered is God gives your life meaning.

You want to create meaning for yourself. But believing that God gives your life meaning does not mean you can’t give meaning to your life also. It’s not as if God having meaning for your life causes you to not have meaning, unless that is the type of God you choose to believe in - it’s one or the other, not both.

We can continue this with the reasons physics is such a big belief for atheists. Many possibly focusing in on science being the reason for all there is instead of God, i.e., God particle. Questioning the how God would be the only being without a creator is not diving into the underlining concern – why does God not have a creator, but I must?

Now whether that creator is in the context of family, God himself, or nothingness, the problem is wanting to be the same as God with not having a creator, not having a creator itself. Then that raises the question if you fall into this boat, why do you want to be the same as God? What or where does having no creator get you? In terms of nothingness, we go back to where we started with your life mattering to begin with. In terms of God, we get into not being controlled by a deity and that controlled type of God is your belief in that specific God. And lastly, in the context of family, why do you believe family controls your free will or life?

Belief Requires Choice to Expand Reasoning

I understand that if there is any resistance on your end with reading this article, it is likely because of believing you have a choice in choosing your beliefs. That makes sense considering beliefs don’t change overnight. Those are the hardest parts of us to change because they are rooted to our identity. Because of this, thoughts and feelings are the ones that move back and forth between extremes until the belief changes or until we decide to not care if the belief changes because it doesn’t matter (which ironically is also a belief).

I purposefully limited this article to dive into a few points of view because whether you believe in multiple Gods or a specific type of God tends to get more into experience and requires a bit of a different approach with writing in my mind... Or I am repeating what was already typed above with people having different perceptions of God, as that is also another way to think of why the many Gods belief exists or a God that is controlling, evil, only cares about what one individual cares about, etc. This is a good spark of keeping your thoughts and feelings in line with what you want your belief to become, even if you know you don’t fully believe the belief yet.