The Testimony of Religions

Have you ever noticed that the world has gone crazy with religion? If you look at the history of our world, not just in the past 2000 years, but all the way back to the earliest written records of history thousands of years ago, you will see one thing in common. People always long to worship something. If you follow history throughout the years you will also notice that the people of this world can never agree on one single entity to worship. Different people groups in different eras all want to worship different gods. This is what history suggests, at least. Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and all the major religions of our day have separate gods, each beckoning us to worship them. All of these aforementioned religions have prospered (and continue to prosper) quite prominently in different regions of the world. Certain countries are known for being associated with certain religions. Cities, tribes, and people groups within these countries often have their own flavors of these religions, or perhaps a new religion altogether. As time changes, many of these religions change as well. Only one thing seems to remain constant among world religions. They always seem to clash with each other in some form or fashion. Each religion seems to have its own crusades throughout the world. Sure, I’m probably over-generalizing every one of these statements I’m making, but the point of this blog is not to give you a historical overview of the trends of world religions. Instead, I want to put the craziness of religion aside for a moment. If a simple little cartoon can get religious people all over the world angry and violent towards each other, then clearly religion is just a little skewed.

So forget religion for a few minutes. I would like to talk about what is beneath all of it. Life and death. Take a look at the world around you. This planet is teeming with life! This life had to begin somewhere, by some force of nature. For me, I find it impossible to think that all the intricacies and intense design in this world just happened by chance. When I look at any living organism I see such complexities in them that I cannot, in good conscience, credit to mere chance or accident. All the different colors, shapes, sizes, and behaviors of living things support my confidence that there must be something or someone that created this world we live in. As I have lived in Egypt for the past seven months, I have seen such beauty in the world around me that I am even more convinced that there is some supreme being behind everything that exists in our universe.

I have hiked up a number of mountains throughout my life. Whenever I reach the summits of the mountains I climb, I take a look out at the valleys below, and I see a panoramic canvas of the most magnificent artwork ever. A few months ago I tried snorkeling in the Red Sea. Although I failed miserably in my attempt to swim, I was still able to take in a small portion of life below the waters. I saw fish of spectacular colors that sparkled and shimmered in the water. I saw coral reef that was packed with miniscule complexities. Even just seeing the bright colors of the water and watching the waves dance among the rocks was enough to fill me with awe and wonder for whoever created all of this. This past year I also went on a camping trip in the Sahara Desert. As I was lying near a flickering fire, shortly following a breathtaking sunset, I looked up and saw yet another sign of divine creation. The evening sky was blazing with light from galaxies of stars above me. I followed the Milky Way as it flowed through the boundless sky above me. It glowed softly and silently. To me, it was the signature at the bottom right-hand corner of this awesome painting of the universe.

Yes, surely there is a creator who has made all of this beauty around us. Surely there is a being who created you and me. There must be someone to whom we are a prized collection; a valued creation; a brilliant masterpiece. This supreme being who inexplicably created everything that is and gave us life, also gave us the ability to accept or deny the existence of an ultimate creator. This creator gave us the freedom of choice and of reason, and everything we need to make an intelligent decision. We don’t need books to tell us what to believe. We don’t need fancy rhetoric. We don’t even need scholars or religious leaders to help us with our decision. All we need to do is to take a look at the universe that has been revealed to each of us, and decide whether or not to accept if there is one who created all of this. You can call this being whatever you please. I call him Elohim. God our creator. From Him I find meaning and life.