In today’s modern American society many say that the Bible and God are a crutch people turn to in order to help them cope with their daily struggles. Others say that only the weak minded search for and have a need for God. And still others contend that based on modern science the need for a supreme Being is not necessary and can’t be proven based on the “scientific method.” Science tells us that evolution is how we came into existence and only the gullible believe in God.
Before I became a Christian this was exactly what I believed. In fact, I believed that you couldn’t believe in God and be a scientist because, according to my way of thinking, they were mutually exclusive. Little did I realize that some of the greatest scientists of all time not only believed in God but were strong Christians. So much for my mutually exclusive argument!
I love what Norman Geisler said on this point: “What is often not appreciated by unbelievers is the fact that the felt need for God is not limited to unthinking and uncritical religious people. Some of the greatest minds, including the founders of most areas of modern science, confessed their need. Not surprisingly this list includes theologians Augustine, Anselm, and Thomas Aquinas. But it also includes Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, William Kelvin, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, Rene Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, and Soren Kierkegaard. One can hardly claim that intellectual deficiency led to their perceived need for God.”1
The great 17th century mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, stated man’s hopeless condition without God well when he said: “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”2 And as far as finding rest for our weary hearts, Charles Colson, said it best: “Knowing that we are fulfilling God’s purpose is the only thing that gives rest to the restless human heart.”3
My friends the struggles of life for all of us, without the existence of a rational creative force (God) in the background, makes our journey here on earth a mere exercise in futility. The only reality for those who don’t believe in God is physical death. As a result, for the atheist, he will die, sadly without ever knowing why he was born in the first place.
Fortunately for me one day Jesus opened my blind eyes and helped me to see how spiritually bankrupt I really was. And shortly after that revelation the Holy Spirit led me to read the Bible and convict me of my sinful lifestyle. The only thing left for me to do was to acknowledge my desperate need for God, that Jesus was indeed God, and to invite Him into my heart – which I gladly did!
1 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), pp. 84-85.
2 TOP 25 QUOTES BY BLAISE PASCAL (of 727) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
3 TOP 25 QUOTES BY CHARLES COLSON (of 92) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)