The Existence of God

Another example Imagine that I tell you this story: A man was sitting in a cave minding his own business. A very bright flash of light appeared. A voice spoke out one word: "Read!" The man felt like he was being squeezed to death. This happened several times. Then the man asked, "What should I read?" The voice said, "Read in the name of your lord who created humans from a clinging zygote. Read for your lord is the most generous. He taught people by the pen what they didn't know before." The man ran home to his wife. While running home, he saw the huge face of an angel in the sky. The angel told the man that he was to be the messenger of god. The angel also identified himself as gabriel. At home that night, the angel appeared to the man in his dreams. gabriel appeared to the man over and over again. Sometimes it was in dreams, sometimes during the day as "revelations in his heart," sometimes preceded by a painful ringing in his ears (and then the verses would flow from gabriel right out of the man), and sometimes gabriel would appear in the flesh and speak. Scribes wrote down everything the man said. Then, one night about 11 years after the first encounter with gabriel, gabriel appeared to the man with a magical horse. The man got on the horse, and the horse took him to jerusalem. Then the winged horse took the man up to the seven layers of heaven. The man was able to actually see heaven and meet and talk with people there. Then gabriel brought the man back to earth. The man proved that he had actually been to jerusalem on the winged horse by accurately answering questions about buildings and landmarks there. The man continued receiving the revelations from gabriel for 23 years, and then they stopped. All of the revelations were recorded by the scribes in a book which we still have today. (Source: "understanding islam" by yahiya emerick, Alpha press, 2002) What do you make of this story? If you have never heard the story before, you may find it to be nonsensical in the same way that you feel about the stories of the golden plates and Santa. You would especially feel that way once you read the book that was supposedly transcribed from gabriel, because much of it is opaque. The dreams, the horse, the angel, the ascension, and the appearances of the angel in the flesh -- you would dismiss them all because it is all imaginary. But you need to be careful. This story is the foundation of the muslim religion, practiced by more than a billion people around the world. The man is named mohammed, and the book is the koran (also spelled qur'an or qur'aan). This is the sacred story of the koran's creation and the revelation of allah to mankind. Despite the fact that a billion muslims claim some level of belief in this story, people outside the muslim faith consider the story to be imaginary. No one believes this story because this story is a fairy tale. They consider the koran to be a book written by a man and nothing more. A winged horse that flew to heaven? That is imaginary -- as imaginary as flying reindeer. If you are a christian, please take a moment right now to look back at the mormon and muslim stories. Why is it so easy for you to look at these stories and see that they are imaginary fairy tales? How do you know, with complete certainty, that mormons and muslims are delusional? You know these things for the same reason you know that Santa is imaginary. There is no evidence for any of it. The stories involve magical things like angels and winged horses, hallucinations, dreams. Horses cannot fly -- we all know that. And even if they could, where would the horse fly to? The vacuum of space? Or is the horse somehow "dematerialized" and then "rematerialized" in heaven? If so, those processes are made up too. Every bit of it is imaginary. We all know that. An unbiased observer can see how imaginary these three stories are. In addition, muslims can see that mormons are delusional, mormons can see that muslims are delusional, and christians can see that both mormons and muslims are delusional. Now let me tell you one final story: god inseminated a virgin named mary, in order to bring his son incarnate into our world. mary and her fiance, joseph, had to travel to bethlehem to register for the census. There mary gave birth to the son of god. god put a star in the sky to guide people to the baby. In a dream god told joseph to take his family to egypt. Then god stood by and watched as herod killed thousands and thousands of babies in israel in an attempt to kill jesus. As a man, god's son claimed that he was god incarnate: "I am the way, the truth and the life," he said. This man performed many miracles. He healed lots of sick people. He turned water into wine. These miracles prove that he is god. But he was eventually given the death sentence and killed by crucifixion. His body was placed in a tomb. But three days later, the tomb was empty. And the man, alive once again but still with his wounds (so anyone who doubted could see them and touch them), appeared to many people in many places. Then he ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of god the father almighty, never to be seen again. Today you can have a personal relationship with the lord jesus. You can pray to this man and he will answer your prayers. He will cure your diseases, rescue you from emergencies, help you make important business and family decisions, comfort you in times of worry and grief, etc. This man will also give you eternal life, and if you are good he has a place for you in heaven after you die. The reason we know all this is because, after the man died, four people named matthew, mark, luke and john wrote accounts of the man's life. Their written attestations are proof of the veracity of this story. This, of course, is the story of jesus. Do you believe this story? If you are a christian, you probably do. I could ask you questions for hours and you will have answers for every one of them, in just the same way that I had answers for all of the Santa questions that my friend asked me in Example 1. You cannot understand how anyone could question any of it, because it is so obvious to you. Here is the thing that I would like to help you understand: The billions of people who are not christians look at the christian story in exactly the same way that you look at the Santa story, the mormon story and the muslim story. In other words, there are billio0ns of people who stand outside of the christian bubble, and they can see reality clearly. The fact is, the christian story is completely imaginary. How do the four billion non-christians know, with complete certainty, that the christian story is imaginary? Because the christian story is just like the Santa story, the mormon story and the muslim story. There is the magical insemination, the magical star, the magical dreams, the magical miracles, the magical resurrection, the magical ascension and so on. People outside the christian faith look at the christian story and note these facts: The miracles are supposed to "prove" that jesus is god, but, predictably, these miracles left behind no tangible evidence for us to examine and scientifically verify today. They all involved faith healings and magic tricks - see this proof. jesus is resurrected, but, predictably, he does not appear to anyone today jesus ascended into heaven and answers our prayers, but, predictably, when we pray to him nothing happens. We can statistically analyse prayer and find that prayers are never answered The book where matthew, mark, luke and john make their attestations does exist, but, predictably, it is chock full of problems and contradictions And so on. In other words, the christian story is a fairly tale, just like the other three examples we have examined. Research 2:7--If you want evidence we came from a "primordial soup", pull out next time :)