Theism vs Antheism

Do you believe in God? God is a being that no one has ever been able to prove exists. When someone chooses to believe in God; that decision is based solely on their faith. It is a decision that someone decides in their heart, which is often based on experiences in their life; whether they are simply personal experiences or religious ones. It is not a secret to anyone that God has never been be seen, heard, nor touched by any living human according to history and the present day. Though, the bible gives the personal testimonies of many righteous men of God’s goodness and existence, how can one prove that to be true? According to Nils Ch. Raught (2007) â€Å"If [an] argument from religious experiences is to be successful, we must focus our attention on those religious experiences that closely resemble ordinary perceptual experiences† (p. 180). So, I will give you my personal account of God’s goodness in my life and why I personally believe Theism makes a stronger case than Atheism. In January of 2005, my wife and I decided it was time to have another baby. Right after our decision, we found out that my wife was pregnant right away! We were so happy to be adding another addition to our family; our eldest daughter was already five at the time and we didn’t want to have our children too far apart. We were incredibly excited and made our announcement that Valentine’s day to all of our friends and family. Everything was going great until my wife went to one of a doctor appointment for her first trimester pre-natal serum screening tests. Basically, this testing will determine if the fetus has any chromosome problems that include Down syndrome. This test is optional, even though my wife was never told that during her visit. The visit went fine and the nurse told her that she would be contacted if the tests came back abnormal. Well, three days later my wife had a message on her phone from the nurse saying she needed to call about her blood results. My wife was a mess. She cried and said she knew something was wrong. After talking to the nurse my wife’s fears were confirmed; the blood results had come back abnormal. This was an eye opening experience for my wife and I. We decided that if we were going to have a Down syndrome child that we wanted to prepare ahead of time, since we knew that they have special health care needs. We scheduled an Amniocentesis and had to wait two weeks to get that test done. They were the two longest weeks of our life. My wife was a nervous wreck and I was too. During this time, we spent a lot of time praying and just trusting that no matter what the outcome was; this is what was meant for our family. Not being mad at God was hard; even though I had never felt as close to him before in my life! Finally, the day came for the test and again we had to wait three days for the results. On the third day, we found out our baby was perfectly healthy and that we were having another little girl. Even though, in our situation, God blessed us; I know he let us go through this situation so we could grow closer to him. I could feel his presence in my life during that trying time. Not only did my wife give birth to a beautiful baby girl, she also had our daughter on her Mother’s birthday. This is very significant because her mother tragically died in a car accident in November, of 2003. My wife went into labor naturally and had our daughter on my mother-in-laws birthday! We truly felt like God was blessing us! We felt as though for trusting in God and being patient he was rewarding us. In conclusion, one must ask themselves; do I have a purpose in my life? Am I looking at the big picture here? After my body physically dies someday, is that it? Personally, I think not. When one adopts the Atheist point of view, that choice accepts there is ultimately no superior being and no life after physical death. According to Nils Ch. Rauhut (2007) â€Å"[If] we conclude that God does not exist, we are faced with a different situation. While we are then free to dismiss most religious activities as nonsense, we consequently have to accept the idea that we are finite beings who live in a universe without ultimate meaning or purpose† (p. 173). I cannot accept that humans exist to live without any ultimate meaning or purpose; especially when we live on a planet that is so complex and beautiful. Can any scientist tell us how the Universe came into existence? Or, how old it is? There are creatures on Earth that are still being discovered today! Perhaps, one could look at the beauty in a sunrise or sunset. Perhaps, one could believe in God when they watch their new born babies eye lashes grow over the course of a week after they’re born; it is truly amazing! God created all things with such imagination and carefulness-each living thing is amazingly unique and has a purpose on this Earth no matter how big or small that purpose may be. In my opinion, Atheism is a belief that doesn’t leave much to look forward to. Though, it may be hard to explain God’s existence because he cannot be physically seen or heard, it shouldn’t be so hard to believe that the human race was created for purpose; one that exceeds this life on Earth.