The main character in the movie Lady Bird goes to a New York school and attends her first college party. She asks a young man there, “Do you believe in God?” and he bluntly replies, “No.” When she asks why not, he answers that it’s ridiculous. To his response, Lady Bird shoots back with: “People go by the names their parents give them, but they don’t believe in God.” This statement resonated with me. I know my parents brought me into this world and gave me a name; why would my belief in the existence of God be “ridiculous?”
Compared to my confidence that God is real, it feels like blind faith to simply accept the name my parents gave me. And yet I never question that my mom is my mom and my dad is my dad. They exist, and because of them, I exist. When it comes to the immensely vast universe in which we live, however, many people struggle to believe that it all came from somewhere.
If you share this struggle, think about the following:
- Earth is the only known planet with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.
- Earth is located the right distance from the sun. If the Earth were any further from the sun, we would all freeze; if it were any closer, we would burn up.
- The human brain processes more than a million messages a second.
- The human eye can distinguish among seven million colors. The eye has automatic focusing and handles 1.5 million messages simultaneously.
- Scientists are convinced that our universe began with one enormous explosion of energy and light. The universe has not always existed; it had a beginning. What caused that?
- DNA is a three-billion-lettered program, a full instruction manual, telling the cell to act in a certain way. How do you find precise, programmed information without someone intentionally constructing it?
- The universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it?
These are just a few reasons why it’s far from “ridiculous” to believe in God. Perhaps something else is at work when it comes to believing, or not believing. And it has to do with whether or not we want to find, accept, and live in the truth.
People have sufficient evidence for God, but they push the truth aside and no amount of evidence will convince them. As we read in Romans 1:18-19, 18 “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.”
On the other hand, for people who really want to know if God is there, Jeremiah 29:13 tells us, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
I go by the name my parents gave me, and I believe in God. How about you? What is your name?
Troy Burns