BY WILLIAM G. JOHNSSON
aith isn’t the habitation of fools, nor
is it a psychological crutch for the weak-minded and the timid. In this age of unbelief, I believe, and I give you eight reasons.
1. Dance of the DNA: Wherever we turn the flashlight
of investigation, we find amazing intricacy. The marvel of the atom is matched
only by the marvel of the heavens. Naturalism asserts that it all just happened.
Come on! The statistical probability of forming even a single enzyme, the building
block of the gene, which itself is the building block of a cell, is 1 in 1040,000.1
Atheistic author Richard Dawkins of Oxford ascribes everything to DNA: “DNA
neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.”2
To which I ask: “OK, but where did the DNA come from?”
2. I think, therefore . . . : How could the material
generate the nonmaterial, pure chance produce cognition and intelligence? How
could the unitary spawn the differentiation of male and female? The incredible
universe of the stars and the incredible universe of the atom are no more complex
than the human mind. And that mind points to a Mind that originated it, along
with the atom and the star.
3. A knowledge of good and evil: In a purely mechanistic
universe, a universe without design or purpose, there can be neither good nor
evil. But the history of humanity shows that every society has a moral code,
indeed needs a moral code to make community possible. And our very humanity
tells us that kindness is better than cruelty, truth than deception, justice
than injustice, life than death.
4. A Man for the ages: How does one account for Jesus
of Nazareth on a naturalistic basis? He is a Person extraordinary, an anomaly.
That life of gentle and noble deeds, those teachings so simply told but so profound,
set Jesus apart from the prophets, gurus, sages, and divine beings real or mythical.
These reasons come from the world outside, but as I look
within myself I see four more.
5. Man the dreamer: I can imagine the unseen and
the untried. I can grasp for perfection, for eternity. I can create; I can make.
I can enjoy a hearty meal and also Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. I am flesh and
blood but more than flesh and blood. I am godlike. I am human; I am spirit.
6. God-hunger: I was made for God, am restless until
I find God. And finding Jesus, I find God. In His life I find life. He is my
food and drink; He is my living bread. He is the divine Aha! that gives meaning
to my past, my present, my future. Without Him I am alone, lost, alienated—from
myself, from my world, from my God. In Him I am complete. He is my Saviour
and Lord.
7. Living words: Those ancient writings pulse with
life. They bring peace, comfort, guidance, rebuke, counsel. God spoke of old
through prophets, and He speaks today as I quietly, prayerfully listen to the
Scriptures. This is no ordinary book; these are no ordinary words. Like Jesus,
they are God made flesh, endued with power.
8. Grace: Bad things happen, but the odds are stacked
in our favor. People shattered in mind and body get well. People who ought to
die instead live. Strange and beautiful surprises come our way every day. In
the midst of evil—a terrible reality—God is working, sending showers on the
just and unjust, blessings on an undeserving world.
That is why I believe. I refuse to hang up my humanity at
the door of naturalism. I refuse to surrender what to me is most important—a
profound conviction of good and evil, of beauty and truth, of justice and mercy,
of hope and eternity, of Jesus Christ as a risen Saviour and Lord of my life.
“God never asks us to believe, without giving sufficient
evidence upon which to base our faith,” wrote Ellen White (Steps to Christ,
p. 105). But when faced with the evidence, how will we respond? “This is the
verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light
because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19, NIV).
That is why, when Jesus comes, He will find few of faith
(Luke 18:8).
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1 According to Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, professor
of applied mathematics at the University of Wales.
2 Richard Dawkins, Out of Eden (New York: Basic Books,
1992), p. 133.
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William G. Johnsson is Adventist Review editor
