With Humanity From the Beginning.
Always Part of Human Life
The concept of God has always been a fundamental part of human life. All cultures and all eras have believed in some type of concept of a Creator. An All-Powerful and All-Knowing Being who created us, set our purpose and the measure of right and wrong.
This belief in God has always formed the basis of our societies and how we have lived.
Alongside the concept of God, religion has always been the framework through which God’s guidance has been taught and practiced.
This has always been a fundamental and universal part of human life, everywhere.
That is, until now.
The Attack Against God
In the twentieth century, we have seen God and religion come under attack. The unique thing about the twentieth century apart from all eras, is this very fact, that a prominent stream of thought has emerged in which the idea of God has been ridiculed, and the institution of religion has been maligned.
There has been a concerted attack in popular culture – from movies to literature to academia – to undermine and stigmatize these concepts as illogical or irrational. As a result, there is a growing demographic that feels hesitant to accept the concept of God, and especially the concept of religion. A stigma has been created where intellectual sophistication means you shouldn’t believe in a so-called “fantastical God” or the so-called “system of control” that is religion.
The God Reality
At this time, it’s important to briefly address the concept of God’s existence here before moving forward. It is critical to establish the truth of this concept, because this lays the basis for what we are going to discuss tonight – which is the current situation of mankind and the solution we are so desperately in search of.
In a word, it all starts with God.
I will only touch a small point here, to show that the narrative against God’s existence is misleading, and is more superficial, rather than anything truly deep or logical at all.
So that said, what is the crux of the attack on God?
It usually starts with the question: “If there is a God, then why can we not see Him?”
The answer to this question is strikingly simple and undeniable.
There are different ways of learning about things. We learn by sight, sound, taste, smell, texture, or movement. All information we derive from the various senses, has the same degree of authenticity.
We cannot demand that we must learn about something through a particular sense, or else we will deny its very existence. The eyes are for seeing; the nose is used for discerning different smells; and, the ears are for hearing sounds.
Wouldn’t it be sheer insanity to insist that unless we could see a certain smell with our eyes, or smell a particular colour with our nose, or feel a particular sound with our hands, we shall not believe that it exists?
Strange to say, that these are the types of superficial and illogical objections that some people raise about God, and yet they are considered wise and have influence over people!
There are countless things which we cannot experience through any of our physical senses. Yet we have the same degree of certainty about them as about the others. Take the magnetic force, for instance. Can we see it with our eyes, or hear it with our ears, or smell it with our noses, or taste it with our tongues, or touch it with our hands? No, but none of us ever denies its existence.
Now, how can we truly learn about God? What gave such conviction to people’s of the past? What created such a vivid and real concept of God that crossed over from an intellectual concept to a Living relationship with a personal and Living God with whom the people would interact in different ways, be it through the acceptance of prayers or the witnessing of signs. How did religious teachings become established and take such deep roots among countless millions of people all across the world?
There answer to this can be summarized in one word: Prophets.