Does God Exist? Sex Scandals, Scientific Inquiry, And The Search For True Fulfillment

“Has anyone provided proof of God’s inexistence? Not even close. Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here? Not even close. Have our sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life? Not even close. Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as it is not religious thought? Close enough. Has rationalism and moral thought provided us with an understanding of what is good, what is right, and what is moral? Not close enough. Has secularism in the terrible 20th century been a force for good? Not even close, to being close. Is there a narrow and oppressive orthodoxy in the sciences? Close enough. Does anything in the sciences or their philosophy justify the claim that religious belief is irrational? Not even in the ball park. Is scientific atheism a frivolous exercise in intellectual contempt? Dead on.”

? David Berlinski, The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions (By an agnostic scientist)

I was bell ringing yesterday, for the Salvation Army, at the red kettle, and a guy walked past me and said, "Who wrote the Bible?" And then he walked inside. I couldn't help but think of Pontius Pilate when he was talking to Jesus. And Pontius Pilate asked Jesus the question: "What is truth?" An amazing question, asked to Jesus himself. But Pilate didn't wait for the answer, he simply walked away. He didn't really want an answer. I could answer the question, who wrote the Bible, the answer is that God inspired many authors over thousands of years to bring the Bible together, but one must desire an answer.

Some are looking for a real answer. Others are looking for an excuse to set aside the question. We want what we want you see. I'm not excluded from this. I've fell to temptations and I'm sure I'll fall again. Thankfully I'm also able to stand afterward.

We want what we want. And we don't want a God to get in the way, isn't it true? I think it's true. It seems true to me. After all this world is full of so many temptations and so many pleasurable exercises. And if a God exists, and this God is concerned with morality, then it follows that we are then morally accountable to this being. And if we're accountable, then we'd have to act differently, and resist temptations. But that's difficult, and it goes against our own nature, to indulge in these pleasures. Thus it's easier to ignore and suppress this sense of God, and turn away from the question and enjoy the sensualities even if they offer only momentary pleasure.

Naked and afraid? Yes, yes indeed.

We'd rather masturbate in a closet, or pop pills, or slam beers at the seedy pub, or take a new harlot home with us each night. We're so afraid. We're so dissatisfied. I see it on their faces. They've found no lasting pleasure in those places, those twenty-something men, they look angry, lost, and perpetually dissatisfied with the boring affects of lust and evil. So weary, and so sad.

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

It brings to mind the recent string of exposed sex scandals in Hollywood, politics and the news media. Let's see here... Harvey Weinstein, Andy Signore, Roy Price (Amazon), Chris Savino (director and writer), Lockhart Steele (Vox), Robert Scoble, John Besh (TV personality), James Toback (director), Terry Richardson, Ken Baker (E! news), Mark Helprin, Kevin Spacey (actor), Kirt Webster, Andy Dick, Jeff Hoover, David Gilad, Ed Westwick, Jeffrey Tambor (actor), Louis CK, Roy Moore, Eddie Berganza, Ben Affleck, Al Franken, Charlie Rose, Glenn Thrush (New York Times journalist), Matt Lauer (NBC Reporter), Garrison Keillor, and John Conyers (List source via Steve Deace Show, CR TV).

Very interesting, don't you think? Many of these men are very important leaders, in government, in media, and in entertainment. And then it's discovered what the truth is about the human heart. The human heart hasn't changed. The sexual revolution has consequences. Of course we ought to look to our own conduct first. Do we at least attempt to live up to the Christian standard? Or do we live double lives, as many of these men did?

All of this to ask ourselves: Do we really care if God exists? If so, then we ought to agree to one standard: We're on a search for the truth. Both a Christian and an atheist ought to be able to agree on that. What we want is the real truth, nothing less, nothing more. We have to go where the truth takes us. And it was the famous atheist Antony Flew, who eventually realized, based on his own scientific inquiry, that if he is really following the truth wherever it goes, then he had to admit, that atheism was no longer tenable for him. He realized science itself showed that to believe in God was reasonable. He didn't become a Christian, but he renounced atheism.