Can This Young Skeptic Find God?

Where Are You, Lord?

Then, he looked back at the stories he grew up, such as a World War II account told and retold by his grandfather. “Trying to make the most of his scouting trip, he and his squad mate took a look around” a village. “He made his way over to the kitchen and noticed an Our Lady of Sorrows font, a receptacle for holy water that he thought would make a nice souvenir for his mother. This was a village home with no glass on the windows – they were covered only by curtains and shutters. Both were open at the time, so the kitchen was visible to the outside.” However, a squad of German soldiers had a different idea. Theirs was “a simple mission: find and kill Americans. For the most part, the village was quiet, yet there was anxious tension because the Americans had advanced considerably from their attacks on Normandy. A Nazi soldier, positioned on a roof, caught a glimpse of enemy presence through the open curtains and shutters of a village home below. He drew his weapon and scanned for a target. My grandfather imagined how much his mother would love the holy font, but as he approached it, the solider took aim.” But God protected Murtagh’s grandfather. Why?

Where Are You, Lord?

“In the words of Pontius Pilate, ‘What is truth?’” asks Murtagh in Proof of Divine. “I’ve grown cynical – not of the far right or far left but of the bias of the closed-minded. Many claim knowledge of truth; others claim knowledge is attained only with the realization that there is no truth. Lines become drawn; cliques form – enter prejudice and the party lines. Where are the free thinkers? If science and logic killed God, then let’s be on with it. If it hasn’t, let’s have a discussion. If there is a God, then He is not threatened by science and logic. Let’s be free to explore some of life’s most important questions. Let’s turn down the airwaves and evaluate the facts on their own merits, doing so without bias and fear. What is the faith of the faithful, the skepticism of the skeptic? Is God irrational? He may very well be. But does that mean He does not exist?

Where Are You, Lord?

“What went bang? It seems the debate of the ideologies runs straight into the problem of using physics to critically investigate theories where physics eventually breaks down. The only thing physics has shown us is that the universe began from singularity. But how are we to wrap our heads around singularity – the universe stacked on top of itself at single point in space – at an infinite temperature? At the moment of truth, physics is nowhere to be found. Is God here? After all this time, it appears we can’t comprehend time. Yet at the end of the debate, we’re left with two simple explanations: God or physics itself that just needs further discovery. But the more I explore the physics of time, the more I return to the philosophy of time, and the larger questions resurface: What existed before time, what caused time, and how do we move from time to life?”

Where Are You, Lord?

“From its founding fathers to its modern-day practitioners, we seem to find some of science’s greatest minds filled with awe at the universe and life within. From the physical and biochemical complexity of our universe and its inhabitants, can we lay our heads on the proverbial pillow, claim mere coincidence, and turn out the lights. Scientifically, we don’t know how the universe came into existence. We don’t know how the universe, against all odds, could have evolved into a life-bearing planet. We don’t know how inorganic matter developed into a self-replicating cell. Theories have been proposed, but they are not testable, quantifiable, and reproducible. Thus, can they be labeled as scientific? I was certainly familiar with the imagination of the theist, yet I was genuinely surprised at the imagination of the atheist. If we’ve left the realm of science with these theories – if these theories are stretching past testable, accurate, and reproducible facts – we’ve now arrived at theology. To the dismay of the atheist, the science of atheism is lacking quite a bit of science. And so it came to me that scientists are not the expert witnesses on God. Like an ink-blot test, the picture that is perceived rests in the eye of the beholder. Mine was simply to decide if I would prescribe to the religion of theism or the religion of atheism.”

Where Are You, Lord?

“From the middle, the theist may appear naïve and sentimental – the atheist bleak and cold,” observes Murtagh in Proof of Divine. “But could it be that the atheist just accepts the hard truth that everything is meaningless as opposed to the wishful thinking of folklore fable? It would be better to face reality than to pretend. Oh, but we do. To escape the fairy tale of God, yet avoid the consequence of nihilism and absurdity, we do the last thing we can. We invent our own imaginary friend. Here, we place our own individual definitions on good, evil, love, purpose, morality, and truth. Into the black hole, we descend farther and farther. We arrive at Wonderland but forge ahead. We continue to the last stop, despite how dark and dim it appears. At the deepest point of the abyss, there is only darkness. We free ourselves from the fantasy of meaning, yet find ourselves playing make-believe in the dark to pass the time.”

Where Are You, Lord?

“It became clear to me that this ancient text of the Bible was not only historically and archeologically reliable but also remained unchanged. Like the game of telephone, you would expect a radically evolving text – especially for a supernatural story – yet we find a sound and reliable historical text, and later archeological discoveries only further validate its historical reliability. Simply put, the Bible is the most historically reliable text in human history. No other manuscript in history has been so meticulously conserved, and the Bible sets the bar for historical reliability. Yet turning the page to the supernatural side of the story is an entirely different endeavor. As it is clear to most that Jesus did exist, stirred up quite a commotion, and was executed – it’s what follows that falls outside the bounds of history.”

Where Are You, Lord?

“Jesus dies, His followers scatter, and then something happens three days later. What did His disciples see? Did they see nothing? Was it a hoax? Was it hallucination? Whatever it was, we have the disciples of Jesus following their leader to the grave. Many in the early church would also face persecution, torture, and death. Despite intense opposition, it would flourish into a global, 2.2-billion-member following of the present day. And so we return to the same chasm as with time, life, and logic – what are we to do with the unexplained? We can give science and reason more time to uncover natural explanations, or we can consider the miraculous. Will we consider the miraculous? What if the miraculous did happen on that first Easter? What if the resurrection is true? What would it mean? If true, God exists, and Jesus is the Son of God. If true, Jesus defined words like purpose, love, and truth. If true, Jesus died for the sins of humanity. If true, Jesus and God are one. If true, then our God died for us. If true, we now know the character of God.”

Where Are You, Lord?

"Many lose religion and find naturalism. I lost religion but found God. I lost God but found Jesus, finding God all over again in a whole new way. I certainly did not arrive at this destination with ease. Arguments were made for and against the divine hand that led me to the intersection of belief and cynicism. At this intersection lay a gap in the road. On the mystery of time, life, purpose, and truth, it is only by faith that any ideology be surmised. Should a particular ideology reach the destination of proof, there would be no fork in the road, just one continuous road that we all travel with proof as our destination. But on the question of life’s meaning, there will always be unknowns, as there is a leap of faith in truly believing in anything. For something in which there is no proof, it all amounts to a decision: will we consider the miraculous?

Where Are You, Lord?

“The universe’s having a beginning is completely irrational. All natural laws break down at singularity. It is completely irrational to have all existence superimposed at one point in space, where a number of measurements, such as heat, have an infinite value. It is just as irrational to have a singularity of grace and truth superimposed in the person of Jesus, where knowledge and love have infinite values. We’re sinners but forgiven if we accept God’s grace. In this paradigm came the final thought: if God were rational, would we want to love Him? So is God, if irrational, worth loving? More than words can explain. Infinitely loving, beautifully, rationally irrational God, creating me, walking with me, dying for me. I could spend my entire life trying to comprehend the depths of Your love – and I will. Yours is truly an amazing love.”