If you're a Christian, why?

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Fulfillment of the messianic prophecies in Christ, that even Christ's disciples were tortured to death for their beliefs in Christ and did not reject Him to save their lives, the survival of the Church through three hundred years of persecution by Rome prior to Rome being conquered by the Church.

Is it a bad thing to remind folks there is zero empirical evidence that God exists?

Is it a bad thing to remind folks there is zero empirical evidence that God exists?

ruveyn

Yes well, there's lot's of intelligent New Earth Creationists, that doesn't mean their position should be taken seriously.

Plenty of Christians believe the earth is in fact four and a half billion years old, and believe in an evolutionary process in nature.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Yeah, but they're not the ones who open themselves up ridicule.

Is it a bad thing to remind folks there is zero empirical evidence that God exists?

ruveyn

Jesus said "God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth." (John 4:24) In other words God is not a physical being like you and me. But Jesus said the only way to worship him IS in spirit and with truth (our worship cannot be tainted with lies). Trying to explain God to someone who requires a physical form as proof is difficult. But the proof is all around us in every creation from the atomic to cosmic. The absolute perfection and orderliness between these two extremes cannot be dismissed as mere chance.

Let's take, for example, something as trivial as the Paper Wasp. They have been described as masters of engineering. Why is this description fitting?

As its name suggests, the paper wasp builds and maintains its compound nest out of a special kind of paper, which it manufactures itself. The insect collects fibers of plants and of dead wood from all kinds of places such as logs, fence posts, telephone poles, and building materials. It then chews the cellulose-rich material, adding a sticky, high protein saliva. When applied, the resulting paste dries to form a light, firm, yet tough, paper. Moreover, the saliva has special properties that enable the paper to generate and absorb heat, thus maintaining the right temperature in the brood comb on cool days.

This wasp builds its nest “mouthful by mouthful.” The finished product is a waterproof, paper umbrella-covered cluster of hexagonal cells. Why a hexagon? The hexagonal pattern combines strength and efficiency. Wasps that live in wetter areas simply add more oral secretion because of its water-resistant properties. That said, the insects select sites that offer some kind of protective overhang. From this they suspend their downward-facing nests by a stalk, or petiole. Moreover, paper wasps do no harm to the environment — unlike our paper making processes, which pollute air, water, and land!

Understandably, architects and researchers are studying the wasp’s products with a view to designing superior building materials that are lightweight, strong, more flexible, and biodegradable.

Ask yourself this. Did an insect with a brain roughly the size of two grains of sand figure out papermaking and efficient nest architecture by itself? Or are its chemical- and mechanical-engineering skills evidence of design? This is an example of just one species of wasp among thousands. This doesn't discount other insects, animals, plants, humans and so forth... and we haven't left earth yet.

Why would people not believe God exists from the clear evidence all around? I don't really know. Thinking about the Paper Wasp I leave it up to Paul's explanation at Romans 1:20-21: "For his invisible [qualities] are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable; because, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God nor did they thank him, but they became empty-headed in their reasonings and their unintelligent heart became darkened."

This is why I lean towards a Designer - however, why you believe the true god is Yahweh, god of the Hebrews?

Fulfillment of the messianic prophecies in Christ

that even Christ's disciples were tortured to death for their beliefs in Christ and did not reject Him to save their lives

the survival of the Church through three hundred years of persecution by Rome prior to Rome being conquered by the Church.