Is God Irrelevant?

This Spring Break I went on an incredible hiking trip (which I could probably dedicate at least ten posts to...more on that later.)  One of the blessings on the trip was meeting some bomb.com people...one of whom wrote this article.  Matt is a sophomore at Emporia State University and he's studying sociology. 

About a month ago, I read an article in the ESU Bulletin written by a student entitled; “Change in Religion.” As I read it I found that it was not a particularly joyful or necessarily exciting article to read. The author simply claimed that the people of this world no longer rely on God to fulfill their daily needs, such as food or water, or to get them out of horrific situations, such as slavery or poverty.

Whereas the author did agree with the morals of the Christian faith, he no longer felt it was necessary to pray, attend church or even to believe in God for that matter. Simply put, he believed God was irrelevant to today’s world. While I strongly disagreed with this article, it did get my attention by making it clear to me that some of us may not understand why we worship God in the first place.

You might be wondering why we should even believe in God to begin with. It does seem silly, does it not? The idea of an all mighty being in the clouds watching over us, especially with all of the scientific evidence we have of the Big Bang theory and natural selection. To answer this question I turn to one of my favorite writers, Christian apologetic, Peter Kreeft.

In Kreeft’s article, “The Reasons to Believe,” he claims that, “where there is design there must be a designer.” Ultimately he explains that if you were to find a deserted island with “S.O.S” written in the sand, you would not think the letters came out of nowhere. You would not think that the waves washed up onto the sand and left the message behind. No, because of logic and reason you would know that someone, a “designer,” created the message. 

The same goes for the entire universe; where there is creation, there must be a creator. Now you might say “well that is great and all, but what about all that scientific evidence we now have?” It is not my intention to tell you that everything in your biology textbook is nonsense, or that the Big Bang never happened. My goal however is to persuade you to have faith that, if it were to happen this way, that it was God driven. This is the way the designer chose to design his creation.

I would assume someone reading this is thinking, “even if God is real, I already have all the things I need; food, clothing, shelter, and money. I am happy with my life already, why would I need to pray or continuously attend a church?” With this kind of thinking, you fall into the same trap as the author of “Change in Religion.”

You see, God is not just a good luck charm or a lucky rabbit’s foot that we call upon when things are not going so well for us. God is our creator, our friend, our heavenly father, and the entire reason for our existence. For all of these things, we should be grateful and therefore desire a personal relationship with him.

Compare this to a relationship with a friend, a family member, or maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend. You get to know these people by talking to them, learning more about them and spending time with them. The same can be said about God. You get to know God by talking to him and spending time with him through prayer and worship. In order to have a relationship with God you must put in the time and effort just like any other relationship.

Whether or not you believe in the same God as I do, is not important for the sake of this article. What is important to take away from this is that science alone can never explain all that this world is or how we got here. The only explanation we have for all of this is God as our designer and creator. Also, God is not just there to take care of our earthly needs. He is there to guide us closer to him so that we can obtain the personal relationship with him that should be desirable for us all.

God is still very much present and relevant to this world, and I will leave it at that.