Why Really Smart People Believe in God
Richard Yen, Ph.D., M.D.

Many people think that smart people do not believe in God. Since Christians believe in God, they are either not very smart or their psychological needs exceed their intellectual honesty. However, non-Christians (or better "pre-Christians", since everyone has the option of later on becoming a Christian) also believe in something, even if they do not call that "God" or "god." It is very reasonable that we hear both sides and see who has a more reasonable faith.

Orderliness

Most pre-Christians think that there is orderliness in the universe. Well, of course there is.  You do not need “faith” to know that we need air to breathe and food to eat. And these things were there before we were born. So we had little to do with their being there in the first place. In fact, their existence (and our body’s abilities to utilize them) allowed us to survive (and have this discussion.) So the pre-Christian believes that things are always there, and have more or less been running the same way (and if there were not, who cares, “I was not there then”.)  So there is really no need to invent a “God” (or “gods” in less civilized societies) to explain what is going on. God is for the feeble minded, or weak-willed person.

C.S. Lewis, the famous writer, had a friend, who best expressed this kind of thinking: “Poor woman,” said my friend, “One hardly knows what to say when they talk like that. She thinks her son survived Arnhem because she prayed for him. It would be heartless to explain to her that he really survived because he was standing a little to the left or a little to the right of some bullet. That bullet was following a course laid down by the Laws of Nature. It couldn’t have hit him. He just happened to be standing off its line…and so all day long as regards every bullet and every splinter of shell. His survival was simply due to the Laws of Nature.” (The Grand Miracle, p. 51)

The Law of Nature

Essentially, the belief of the pre-Christian is as follows: if the shooter is aiming directly at the direction of the shootee,  given the wind velocity (which is “nothing” compared to that of the bullet) and the poor protective gear of the shootee (too frail to offer any meaningful resistance) and the distance between the two (not so far that the bullet falls to the ground before reaching the shootee), then there is no way that the shootee can avoid being hit by the bullet. How on earth, say, would a devoted prayer change the projectile of the bullet?  If indeed your “God” would change the law of physics at will, just to show He likes you, won’t that kind of behavior be dangerous to human welfare?  That would be favoritism of the worst kind. How can one expect any orderliness in this universe if your God bends things at will, on the basis of devoted, but entirely selfish requests?

If, on the other hand, the lucky guy were wearing some lucky charm from his girl friend, which happened to be thick enough to prevent penetration of the bullet into his heart, then nothing would make the bullet go farther or kill him. So in this case, he was saved, not by prayer, or by any religious thought (not from him or his mother, nor any mother, nor bishop, nor pope.) The law of physics simply dictates that he will not die from this bullet, given all the physics involved. If you believe that your God saved him because of your prayer, you are entitled to your own religious feeling (this being a free country); but all that is basically superfluous.

 Well, so far the pre-Christian had stated his position. What do the Christian have to say?

Part 2

Problem with the “Law”

While our pre-Christian friend has articulated well the Law of Physics, or Nature, there remains a problem, and a major one at that. I am still waiting to hear if indeed the poor shootee died or not died. 

 By calling something a “Law”, I hope everybody understands, no one is stating a particular result. No one is saying that there is a “law” which dictates that the poor soldier must die.  All we mean by the “Law” is that something is quite predictable if other things are held constant. We are not saying ”Law” in the sense of a legal system where someone thinks of a good idea and writes it into law (the legislator), and someone else enforces the “law” (the policeman.) 

 All this “Law of physics” only tells me "if the bullet hit him, in accordance with the law of physics, then it hit him.”  But “if the bullet did not get to him, for whatever reason consistent with physics, then it did not get to him.”  So did it kill him or not? All this quotation of physics is very educational, but did not tell me that most important thing: what is the result? And results are important. Did that poor guy get killed that day?

Explanation is not Reality

I think we need to know the difference between Reality versus Explanation. Reality is “What happened.”   Explanation is “Why it happened that way.”  You may see a girl kissing her boy friend after he gave her a rose. It is easy to conclude that “if you give a girl a rose, you get a kiss.”  Well, is that a fact or an explanation? Try giving the next girl you meet a rose and see if you get a kiss!  

The reality is: if the girl does not love you, no amount of roses will get you a kiss. But on the other hand, if she loves you, she may kiss you without a rose!  So the reality is that the boy gets kissed (or may be not), but the explanation is not necessarily in the rose. If a person does not know how to make the connection, he is indeed feeble minded and easily confused. In reality, The Law of Nature (though itself often a reality, e.g. gravitation force) is more often than not only the explanation of what happened. What actually happened is something else.

Results are important

 I think results are important. If it does not matter whether the poor guy get killed, why do we even want to study physics to explain the interaction between the wind and the bullet, or the thickness of the lucky charm and the velocity of the shot? If the boy does not get kissed anyway, who cares about roses?

Here it is that the pre-Christian failed. With mountains of equations, he still cannot tell me the most important thing of all: did the poor soldier die? 

Let me tell you why he cannot tell you the result

Part 3
 

Reproducibility

The Law of Nature (some call it the Laws of Physics, since physics appears to be more exact than say Biology) is involved with Reproducible events (or Regularity.) We want to know how far a bullet will travel if it is constructed and fired in a certain way under certain conditions. It will be most disappointing if every time we made it the exact same way, and fired it under the same conditions, yet it still sometimes traveled X number of yards, and at other times Y number of yards (and X was not equal to Y.)  Happily, and to our great comfort, we find that physics is quite rigid (if you control the experimental conditions well you “always” get the same results.)  So even our non-Christian friend comes to believe (have faith) in “orderliness.” 

Life Varies

Well, unfortunately, there is more to life than regularity. Many things are simply not reproducible. History, for example, is not reproducible. Yes, we have nice saying that “if one does not learn from history, history is bound to repeat itself.”  But those were sayings of English literature majors, not engineers. Ever since we came to understand that the Big Bang theory is correct, most scientists agree that time is going only in one direction (as far as human can experience) and not reversible. (We say “most scientists” because in our humble position, we cannot claim to have interviewed “all” scientists.)

Yes, we know that if you drop a ball in a vacuum, every time it falls (accelerates) at a rate of 32 feet per second per second. Therefore, no one is saying that nothing is reproducible (because some things do, specially inanimate objects.) But if you look at the bigger picture, indeed we get older by the second. And so if you sneeze twice, the second time cannot be an exact “reproduction” of the first event. Indeed, we change with time. And as we change, we change the events that could have happened or would have happened according to the “unchanging” Law of Nature.

The Presence of Man

If we ask our pre-Christian friend whether man should be considered part of nature, I believe all of them would give a resounding “Yes.”  Why, of course, they will insist that we are indeed the product of million (if not billion) of years of evolution, essentially of molecules randomly bombarding each other till we get to this stage of advanced neuronal connections (and all this entirely due to Natural Selection, and none of this Creationism business.)

If so, we should definitely include Man in the study of the Law of Nature. (How can you study Nature by excluding the most interesting part of Nature?) Here lies a major problem. Human beings are mostly unpredictable! However, in our quest for the underlying reason for “orderliness”, let us first attempt to see if there is anything predictable about man.

Part 4

The Law of Man

If we want to study man, we have to study the Law of Man. Here the word “Law” really has the same meaning as “Law” in the study of Physics. When we say the Law of gravity, we never meant that Somebody (or some force, which is basically invisible to us, but real) was there to make sure that every ball everywhere got pulled to the ground at the same acceleration rate. We basically try to say that “every time we let go the ball, it gets to the ground in the same manner” (with no gods to “enforce” the Law, like a policeman watching over our actions.) So the “Law” really means certain “reproducible” phenomenon or observable results that are more or less predictable, with no legal sense of enforcement.

Human beings also have certain things about them that are highly predictable. For that reason, we can call that the Law of Man. Among all the unpredictable events surrounding human beings, one thing is certain. They have Free Will. While not all of us have freedom, all of us still have free will. A slave may not have freedom, but he has free will. He can curse you in his heart. He can choose to die instead of serving you. And if he is willing to die, then there is not much more the “master” can do to him.

If we understand that there is free will, then we can understand why our Law of Nature failed to tell us whether the poor guy being shot at died or not.

“Free Will” Changes Events

Now if man has free will, it will definitely change the Result of all preceding events. What if our poor friend thought he heard a noise in the bush and moved to look at it just as the trigger was pulled?  Or what if the shooter was too excited and was shaking too much to hold steady his gun?  Or what if he ran out of bullets, or forgot to load the gun to start with?  Well, all these things could happen. And if any of these things happened, then the Law of Nature (namely that the gun was directly aiming at the other guy’s heart and the bullet should have killed him) would be rather useless in arguing why the other guy “should have died.” The reality is that the shootee, in this case, would not, could not and did not die from this event.

Random Chance

At this time, my pre-Christian friend will probably use his famous all-useful Random Chance argument: “So the shootee decided to move. Big deal, it is all the result of random chance.”  You may call it Free Will, because theologians love that term. But Random Chance can explain that also.

What then is Random Chance?

Part 5
 

Random Chance

Random Chance does not mean chaos. It does not even mean that everything is random. If you toss a coin, whether it comes down head up or head down should be “random.” (But not always, as some cheaters can tell you.)  But if tossed enough times, a properly constructed coin will show a result of  50% head-up and 50% head-down (or nearly so.) Random chance only means you cannot tell what is the exact result of the next toss. It does not mean “No Regularity.”

Indeed, if we toss that coin 100 times, and it comes up head-up only 30 times, we can safely conclude that this coin is faulty. We will all agree that there is something fishy about its construction. And even for this coin, we expect that for the next 100 tosses, it will again come up about 30 times head-up. So Random Chance is only a mathematical description of events of which we cannot be exact about the next event, but overall the events will still display some regularity.

In fact, if something is always irregular, we can still come up with a conclusion about regularity: that something regular is happening that is the cause of this irregularity. So one set of experiment shows head-up 30% of the time and the next set shows head-up 65%. We can conclude that someone has been regularly cheating us with this same coin. Yes, the regularity lies outside the coin, but it is still “regular.”

Since the movements of our friend who was shot at were not random (or chaotic), but he moved as he thought it made sense to him, he was expressing his Free Will. Free Will is not Random Chance, because our friend was not moving 50% of the time to his left, nor 50% of the time to his right. He moved only once, in a particular moment of history, and did not repeat himself.  And if you ask him why, he would say, “I turned to look.” (Or whatever other reason.) He had a purpose, whether he knew that for sure or not, and whether he wanted to tell you or not. And if he had a purpose, it was not Random Chance.

How free is “Free Will”?

Do people really have free will?  How free are their free will?

In our continued observation of man, to lay out the Law of Man, we will find out that man’s free will is rather limited.

For those of you in the live audience, I believe you came to this lecture because you chose to (because no one could make you come.) For those of you reading this in you e-mail or from the hard copy, I believe you are still reading because you choose to (and not because someone else forcing you to.)

So your action right now validates my belief that there is Free Will. In fact the Bible tells us the first instruction God gave Adam was to “cultivate” the garden (Genesis 2:15.)  That meant God wanted Adam to “Make Up His Own Mind What To Do” about the environment without being told every step and every reason. And that is the basis of our Free Will, that it was “given to us.” And the interesting thing is that you do not need to believe in a God to believe in the existence of Free Will. Because without free will, we are all robots. Without Free Will, there is no Man.

Part 6

Predestination

            However, Free Will is only half the story. If no one invited me to talk, why would I be here making a speech. If I did not decide to write this article, how could you be reading this article?  So someone has to “pre-arrange” something so that you can do your part of free will to complete this event (to arrive at this destination.)

I use the term “pre-destination” in the most fundamental sense: it has the prefix “pre” meaning something happening before something else. So there is the element of time. It describes things happening to people within the confines of time. Things or events outside the constraints of time or unrelated to time are not affected by “pre-destination.”

The second half of pre-destination is “destination” which only means there is some kind of result. There is no need here to imply the theological sense that God is making certain that certain things must happen or that because He is God, mankind is rather helpless in changing any results or shaping any events. “Destination” to me only means that there is some kind of observable result. It is not “destiny.”  

Predestination or Destiny?

Although most people are confused about these two concepts, they are actually very different.

Predestination means there is a time element. Event A happened before Event B. Whether Event A is directly related to Event B or not, there is a time difference, and time is important.  Destiny focuses only on the end result.  Event Z must happen. Whatever happen before that event and in what order is not as important as having Event Z itself become reality.

Destiny means the result is already fixed. Destiny takes away all the fun from games and competitions. Why try your best if someone else already fixed the score?

Destiny requires that all the “actors” behave according to a script so that a certain result will appear. No one I know knows of his script for life, or even for any of his actions. If they know of no “orders” to follow (assuming that they will follow orders), how can a prescribed result occur?

People usually quote destiny when unpleasant things happened. Like when the business failed or someone died. They would say, “Poor soul, no matter how hard he tried, he cannot escape his fate. It must be destiny.”  Well, there are many reasons why a business would fail, including laziness or sheer stupidity. There are many reasons why a person would die, like eating the wrong things or too much of good things. Of course, a person would eventually die, but quoting destiny does not really help us understand the real reason, and none too helpful to the diseased.

I am not saying that there is no Destiny for the whole universe. The destiny for all mankind will be reserved for a later discussion. Please be patient.

Pre-destination, however, is helpful. It allows us to understand why certain human events are successful and allow us to arrange (the right) things for the future to secure a higher likelihood of success.

Part 7

Looking Back vs Looking Forward

Pre-destination is important. It helps you to identify the factors or pathways of success. Let me give you an example.

If you are making a toast, you must have some “pre-conditions.”  You must already have your piece of bread, and a toaster (which is connected to the electric outlet during a time when electricity is running.) So you must arrange these items before you start making a toast.

And you will arrive at some destination: a toasted piece of bread.  The fact that you are making a piece of toast is due to your free will, because you have decided to do it (whether the toast is for you or someone is immaterial, because we are only discussing the cause for the action, and not the purpose here.) So free-will is not in conflict with pre-destination.

But we do not decide what particular destination must take place. I expect that since you are making a toast, you intend to eat it. But I cannot dictate that you must eat the toast. May be the toast is too burnt. May be it falls to the floor. May be your brother gets to it before you do. But something happens to the toast. So there is still a destination.

If Destiny is correct, then you must eat the toast, regardless of whether you are hungry or full, and regardless of the condition of the toast. If that does not happen, then there is no Destiny for that toast.  There is still a destination for the toast, just no Destiny.

Isn’t it interesting that when you look back every action is connected to some previous action, but if you try to look forward (predict the future) there is no certainty that Event Y must happen because Event X has occurred?  What is going on here?

Explanation vs. Reality

Although “Free Will” and “Predestination” are real (i.e. they exist), most of the time we use these terms actually as terms of Explanation. In other words, you have free will, but it cannot tell me what you are using your free will for. Someone else may pre-arrange a meeting, but I cannot be sure that you will come to this meeting until you show up. Only after it happened then the Explanation is meaningful.

So if you come, that is Reality. And our conclusion would be that our publicity efforts were successful. If you do not show up, that too is Reality. Then we would conclude that we need better publicity next time.

If we want participation from the audience, we will emphasize Free Will. We understand that people have a choice and so we try to articulate better and are more earnest in our publicity.  If we want more efficiency, we will emphasize Pre-destination. Afterall, how can people show up (no matter how willing they are) if no one knows ahead of time when or where to meet?

So, Reality includes both Free Will and Pre-destination. We emphasize one explanation over the other depending on our perception of which one is working or which one needs to be emphasized. Free will and pre-destinations are therefore not contradictions. Both contribute to what actually will happen. 

History

Man indeed has the freedom of choice (under the umbrella of “Free Will”.) But he does not have free choices. He is often presented with only a few options, among which he can exercise his free will. And History is what limits his degree of freedom.

The fact that I am writing in English is because I know how to write in English and I want to write this article in English. The only other language I can write this with would be Chinese, which would be a torture for me since I have forgotten most of the Chinese characters. The live audience is sitting in this room because someone else decided a long time ago to build a building on this grassland. The architect had no idea that on this day you (I mean specifically you) will be sitting here. His job was to design this building. Yet here you are, enjoying the fruits of his labor (and that of many others, all of whom you do not know personally.)  Those of you reading this on the electronic media, if you were born in a different continent, or in a different century, you will obviously not be reading this articles now. So all our free will are really constrained by the flow of history.

Who then controls history?

Part 8

History Is Not Random

Much as we hate the idea, history is not random. Every action (or reaction) can be traced to some previous action. We talked at lengthen about the fate of the poor guy being shot at. And we concluded that he would never die if he (voluntarily or non-voluntarily) moved, or if the shooter failed to load the gun. We forgot to ask the more important question. Why were they there in the first place?

What if the generals who sent both men there were sick and failed to issue the order?  What if the orders came late?  Then these two guys would never have met under such unhappy circumstances.

What if there was no war?

Now there was a real general called General MacArthur, who wanted to drop some atomic bombs on China. Well, it did not happen.

History told us it did not happen because President Truman fired him. As a result, many people who should (would) have died did not die.

There were also at one time some real missiles on the island of Cuba which could have destroyed the entire continental USA (except perhaps Seattle.)  But it did not happened. We were told that it was because we had the right strategy (or a smart President.)  Was that the only answer? If you believe that kind of propaganda, it is your free choice.  I, however, think there is more to history than meets the eye.

History is beyond your control or mine. Does anyone control history?

A grain of sand

Legend had it that some British soldier actually had aimed his gun at General Washington. History would be different if indeed a bullet would have hit our founding Father. But it did not.

Let us suppose it was because a grain of sand was blown by some gentle wind that so slightly deflected the bullet, or the sand got into the eye of the potential shooter so that our leader (or someone who later on “changed history”) ended up not being hurt. Could this be God’s hand guiding/interfering with human affair?

To those who have concluded (out of their free will, with no evidence) that there is NO GOD, there can be no “hand of God” that could have done this. Analysis will show that the bullet is indeed following the Law of Nature. If one were to calculate the direction of the bullet, one could see after traveling such a distance, it would at most nick a millimeter of the skin of the general. Given the velocity of the wind and the hardness of the sand, there is no way the bullet would have severely hurt the future president. Or, given the irritation to the eye of the potential shooter, there is no way he could maintain the direct aim at our founder. We are not allowed to ask why the wind blew in that direction, carrying that small grain of sand.  One is not supposed to be interested in this kind of speculation.

Part 9

Something Outside of History

As we have concluded before, human beings have free will. The more we are forbidden to ask certain questions, the more curious we get. What is the harm of exploring some more and asking some reasonable questions?  So, let us continue the discussion.

If we conclude that man is the product of history (and that this universe had also a history) then we must ask the next logical question: Is there Something outside of history? Are there things outside the constraints of time? Are there things that do not “flow with history”?

The Fool

The Bible tells us “The fool said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1)

There is no way a person can prove the absence of Something. To do so requires that he knows everything (before he can say with certainty that Something is not there in some part of the universe.)  Therefore, the fool can only tell himself, in his own heart, that “There is no God.”

What then is God?

God

For the sake of our discussion, let us define God as Someone or Something Not Under the Control of History.  In other words, He (or It, if you insist) is there before Time.  I would prefer to use the word “He” out of respect, since He was there before even Time existed.

Since God is a big topic, I shall defer a fully discussion till next time. We shall begin with a discussion of the Law of God.

When we discussed the Law of Nature, we all understand that gravity, for example, is not visible. But we can study it from things that are visible. When we discussed the Law of Man, we pointed out that human being are not robots. Yet, we can find some consistency among man.

So similarly, from things that can be observed, we shall see that the Law of God can also be discovered.

First Conclusion

We started our discussion with a firm faith in the deterministic nature of the Law of Nature and a flat-out rejection for the need of a God. We soon find out that the Law of Nature is useful only if other variable factors are considered, of which human Free Will is a big factor.

However, even when human being can make decisions that affect future events, his choices are limited. And the limit is based on past history. A person can only be at a place in a certain time with whatever understanding or genes he already had. So if history is such a big part of our being, and scientists tell us that time had a beginning, we must ask if there is something outside the realm of Time or before History.

If there is Something or Someone who is not controlled or even ‘flow with” time, then the Something or Someone is worth our paying attention to.

We humbly agree that there are many things we do not know. But just looking at ourselves and our surroundings, we marvel at the fact that we are here discussing why we are here. The Reality of our existence demands an Explanation. And one Explanation is that there may be, after all, Someone or Something out there, who is not limited to, or by Time. We shall call that “God.”

Part 10

Who Is God?

Most people believe in some kind of God. They are just not sure that the God that the Christian believes is the real God. Let us start by a definition of God that most people can agree on.

People define God in all kinds of ways and they cannot all be correct. Some ancient Chinese folks looked at a Buddha statue and called that “God.”  Some modern preachers do not like their church members’ materialistic lifestyle and warned against the worship of money as their “God.”

The Bible, however, begins with the simple verse: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  (Genesis 1:1)   It said two major points:  (1) in terms of time: God was already there before there was time; (2) in terms of energy and matter: He is the One who created everything that humans can possibly know or experience, including the heavenly bodies and the planet earth on which we dwell. 

So for simplicity, we will say that God is (1) the One who controls time and is not bound by it like all other created things, (2) He is the Creator of all “things” (material, energy and whatever else we may discover that really exist in this universe) and cannot be created.

This definition will help us to rule out many entities as candidates for God. It was said that the founding father of the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, while was still a youngster, demonstrated to his villagers the falsehood of idol worship. He broke off the clay finger of a Buddha. All Buddha are made by man, and therefore cannot be the Creator Himself.

Who created God?

Many non-Christians ask, “If your God created this universe, who then created your God?”  Most Christians would answer without thinking: “Nobody.”  So the non-Christians say: “If nobody created your God, then you God does not exist.”  And the discussion goes nowhere.

Let us look at this logically. Let me ask this question: “If you put all created things inside a Box, what is outside the Box?”  Most people will say “Nothing” and that would be wrong. 

And why would that be wrong?  Because if I ask you a similar question: “If you put all your personal belongings inside your room, what would be outside your room?”  You should say: things that do not belong to me.  To say that there is nothing outside simply because your own things are inside is to say there is nothing else in this universe except what belong to you and that they are already all inside the room. That would be a bit presumptuous, won’t it? There are afterall lot of things in this universe that are there that do not belong to you!

You now understand that when I say the Box, I really mean this known universe and all that is in it, including all the energy, matter and whatever we shall find to be real in it. So the correct answer regarding what is outside the Box should be: “That which is NOT created.”  So the One who is not created, but was “there” before creation, is our God.

Of course one can argue that the Box may be so big that there is no boundary to it. But then God would still be outside of it, even though no one can define the boundary with which we say what is “outside.” Not being able to define “outside” is not saying there is no “outside.”  Just like love. You may not be able to define “love”, but don’t tell me it is not there.

Also, when we say “outside” we do not mean that God is excluded from this universe. Just like when we say the architect is “outside” of the “natural world” of the building, we merely want to point out that the architect cannot be the window frames and the doors that are part of the house. The architect really lives in a world (human society) quite distinct from the “natural world” of the building (inanimate objects.)

The architect, being the creator, has more options than the created building. He can choose to stay outside or he can visit the house he built. So when we say “outside” we only mean the architect is not part of the building. He is free to move in and live there. And if he chooses to do so, we can safely conclude that he probably is quite proud of this house and enjoys what he has created.

Now, back to the question “Who created your God”:  If your “God” was created, then it is not “God.” (It is your mistake to call it “God”.)  The One who created your “God” (or “god” or whatever you called it) is the real God. If your god was a clay idol, then man made it. The real God did not need to be involved.

Part 11

Why Do I Care?

The next question people have is “Why should I care?”  After all, no one voted to come into this world. Few people had a choice in how they were brought up. And fewer people can decide how they would leave this world. So if we have so little choice, why do we care?

It is true that in many situations we have no choice, especially when we were very young or very old. However, in every situation where you can have control, you care. You care about what to eat and how much you will get paid for your work. When you do not want to make a decision, you said, “I don’t care” which really means “I care more about being left alone now than giving you an answer.”  So you do care. The key is what do you care about.

You should care about things that are under your control, things that are within your responsibility.

Yes, you do have control and you have responsibility over your own destination. And let me tell you why that is true.

The Law of God 

When we discussed the Law of Nature, we are aware that many of the Laws are not visible to the naked eye. No one can see gravity. But from the consistency of falling objects, we come to understand there is such a thing call gravity. We even call it a Law, and amazingly it seems to govern even heavenly objects like the sun and the planets which we have never visited.

Then we talked about the Law of Man, even though we acknowledge that all man are different and they are highly unpredictable. We can still find from their behavior, including what they tell us, that there are things consistent about them. People say, “I want this, I want that!”  People make decisions for themselves. We may not agree with their decisions, but all man seem to have Free Will. So we call that a Law.

Similarly, you may not see God. But there are things consistent about this Creator. Certain observable things tell us about God. And since it is consistent we shall call that a Law also.

The consistent thing about this Creator is that He tries to reach out to man.

The question then becomes “Can you be reached?”

Benefits of Knowing

Why should anyone care about knowing God?  Why should we care about being reachable? It is not like we can add anything to God!

We all know that ever since there were men, there was gravity (and actually way before mankind, gravity was there.)  Sir Isaac Newton described the Law of Gravity. (Notice: he did not “invent” it.) Even though nobody before Newton’s time could quite say what was gravity, they all could tell you apples always fall down when they get ripe.

If apples always fall downward, why do we need anyone to tell us some mathematical equations? Why should we learn this Law?  It is something that we do not see, cannot touch, cannot eat, cannot change and will be there anyway even if we do not care about it.

Well, you do not have to know Newtonian physics to live. Human existence does not depend on knowing the gravitational Law. But mankind lived a lot better since we came to know Newtonian physics. Gravity had always been there. Newton did not invent it. But after Newton described it, gravity became real, and mankind gained something.

Can you imagine living in a world where you know practically nothing?

Part 12

The Invisible Hand of God?

There are many things that God did (and still does) to reach out to mankind. But man may not be able to see it.

One reason was that we were using the wrong instruments.

Scientists told us that a whale in the South Pacific Ocean can communicate with another whale in the Indian Ocean, by transmitting very low frequency sound waves. These waves travel thousands of miles. But you need special instruments to pick them up.

There are many things in this universe that are not visible to our eyes. But they are there. If someone told you ten years ago that you can pick up a cell phone and call a friend in China, you would not possibly believe it. But now you can do it. Your friend over there can tell you in real time what he just had for lunch. It is possible because the satellites are there and the electronic waves are real. But we do not see them. Sad is the person who will believe only in things that he can touch or see himself.

So if God used a grain of sand to deflect a bullet. What can we see?  If we have already concluded that there is no God, we can at best see only the grain of sand. And if the sand saved a life, can we conclude that there is no God?

Looking back, if indeed a grain of sand, so insignificant, can save a life by being in the way of a bullet or get into the eye of the enemy at the right time, and changed the course of history, who is there to say it is not a miracle?

The Visible Hand of God

If God is infinite and man is finite. How can God reach out to man? He has to use methods that man can detect and understand.  Therefore, all miracles involved the same physical elements that surround us everyday anyway. Anything beyond that we will completely miss.

By definition, if God used some “supernatural” or “supranatural” means (namely, methods that are above and beyond this physical or natural world) that we “natural beings” (namely, belonging to the realm of “nature”) do not or cannot comprehend (outside the realm of human experience), then how can we possibly detect it when He is signaling to us or trying to communicate with us?

On the other hand, if the miracle is something involving the usual elements that we know, how do we know that it is not the elements themselves that did the work (without a God)?

Sometimes a doctor will tell the patient’s family that “it will take a miracle” for the patient to get better. But the doctor continued to prescribe the medicine. Then the patient did get better. Everybody was happy. No one asked whether the drug or the doctor or a miracle from God cured the patient.

Part 13

Miracles

Miracles are earthly events through which God reached out to human beings.

Many intellectual people ruled out the possibility of miracles, because miracles would “violate” the Law of Nature.  Ignorant and simplistic folks claimed to have witnessed miracles simply because they did not understand enough about Nature. A little thunder, and they thought God talked to them. Had these simple-minded people been more educated, they would have come around to see their own folly. People who claim to see miracles are at best abnormal, if not disillusioned.

What is Abnormal?

No one likes to be classified as “abnormal.”  But “abnormal” people sometimes have the right idea.

How so?

People before Newton’s time all knew that apples fall to the ground. It was all understood to be a normal thing and really not worth pondering about. So when Newton asked, “Why could not the apple fall upward?”  such a thought was highly abnormal (according to everybody’s standard.)  But Newton had asked a good question.

Now that we all know how the Law of Gravity works every time, does it mean that nothing will fly upward?  If you hold a bird in your hand, the moment you let go, the bird will fly upward and away.  Did that bird “violate” the Laws of Gravity?

Since Newton’s description of the Laws of Gravity, we have invited quite a few things, including airplanes and rockets. Airplanes are heavy, and yet they fly. Some rockets go up and never return to earth. Are they also violating the Laws of Gravity? People (e.g. the Wright brothers) who believe that these things can fly, are they abnormal, or do they know more about the Law of Gravity than the rest of us?

Newton did not discover gravity, he merely described it. Really educated people will never say that Newton’s Law dictates that all things must fall down. They accept that flying objects are merely different (and newer) expressions of the same Law. There was no contradiction, and never will.

The Real thing is always bigger than most people’s mind can accommodate or communicate.

Part 14

Marvelous Things

There are several criteria which must be met before an event can be labeled a “miracle.”  First, ordinary people must not be able to do it.  Second, it should occur rarely. Third, we expect it to be at least somewhat spectacular. However, these simple requirements are not enough. One can go to Las Vegas to see a spectacular “magic” show. Ordinary people will not be able to perform those “illusions.”  Only the magician can. And if the magician limits his show to only once a year (or whenever he feels like it), the event will become rare and unpredictable.

Borrowing from the analogy of the magic show, we normally also attach another  criterion for miracles. Most people will agree that miracles must not happen on a routine basis. Here is where we get into trouble.

There are many things that are true miracles (i.e. “messages” from God to us.)  But they occur so regularly that we fail to see them as “miracles.”  In stead, we label them as “marvellous thing.” Take, for example, some of our bodily functions. Every time you swallow some saliva, it goes down the esophagus and not the trachea. Why, because there is a small structure called epiglottis, which closes the airway to protect it when the liquid stuff gets near. If it fails to do that every time, our lungs will soon be filled with liquid and germs. Pneumonia is a bad disease to have.

Another example: our brains are wired to keep us breathing even when we fall asleep. Won’t it be a problem if we are responsible for reminding the chest to move up and down to get air in and out?  Can you image what will happen if we forget to do that for 3 or 4 minutes?

So a lot of things have been done for us so that we can concentrate on the most important thing. And the most important thing in a living being is to make decisions.

It appears that all the important biological functions are taken care of so that we can concentrate in making the right decisions. We only have to decide what to do (“Catch that ball!”) and the muscles will reach out to do it (not that we will always catch the ball, but all the muscles seem to know which one to tighten and which one to relax.)

I shall not go on to describe how a single cell, the egg, after fertilization, in a short period of about nine months, becomes a huggable and adorable baby. This baby has about 100 trillion cells (yes, there are 14 zeros following the 1.) All these cells seem to work well themselves and in synchrony with the others, without being told what to do at what time. Isn’t life itself wonderful?

But these things happen so often and so routinely that we fail to pay attention that they are happening. So we ruled out some miracles simply because we do not see them as miracles. By calling it a marvellous thing (our life) we end up missing a big part of the miracle that God has done to show us Who He is.

Part 15

True Miracles

If miracles are earthly events through which God reaches to human beings, then true miracles will occur only when He wants it to happen. Whether people are ready to see the miracle as a miracle is secondary. Some people are habitually late; some are easily distracted. Some people always have excuses. These human responses should not stop God from doing His work when He thinks that it is appropriate to do a miracle.

True miracles must also carry a message from God. Whether people are receptive to the message or not is the defining criterion. If some people understand the message in the miracle, fine; if not, it does not make that a lesser miracle.

Of course it would be nice if everybody pays attention, and everybody responds appropriately. But you and I know that that would be asking for the impossible. (Or as someone will say, “That would be like asking for a miracle.”)

We will find that all the miracles that Jesus performed met these two conditions.

For example, John the disciple, who witnessed firsthand some of the miracles, told us “And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.” (John 6:11) 

So five loaves and two fish fed 5000 men, with 12 baskets of left-overs. This miracle of “multiplying bread and fish” occurred immediately after Jesus gave thanks. No one else expected a miracle. No one else had seen anything like this before. The Master had complete control of the timing. It was not a random event.

The Master also explained why He did what He did. “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.’” (John 6:35)

We Have Come to Believe

Not all miracles are successful. In fact, after the five thousand men ate the bread, they wanted to conscript Jesus to their service. “Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king.” (John 6:15)  Miracles are a total waste on these people.

Yet some believed. Simon said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  (John 6:68-69)

Why did only a few receive the message?  Because only a few were willing to open their eyes.  Only Simon and his friends accepted Jesus’ words as “words of eternal life.”

And it takes time. “We have come to believe.”  Too many walked out on Jesus before they understood Him. Faith is not instantaneous. Faith requires understanding. Faith needs to be nurtured.

God, in doing His miracles, did not fail. We failed.

Part 16

Godly Interventions

Some people still loath the idea that God can intervene at will in human affairs. “Won’t that interrupt all the orderliness of Nature as we know it?”  “How can we predict and plan things if God can suspend or alter events at will?”

Yes, Jesus did change water into wine. But that in itself is not the miracle. You too can change water into wine. “All you need” is some grape seeds, some soil, some sunshine, some water and plenty of time. (Yes, you also need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and you need some yeast for fermentation.)  The miracle was that He did it in one instant, and with a purpose different than yours and mine.

The important point to take home is this: He did that miracle only once. In all other times, He drank what was available. When He was thirsty beside the well in Sychar, He could have performed a miracle to quench His own thirst. But He did not. The Samaritan woman even asked, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get the living water?” (John 4:11) Why didn’t the Master just make a ladle or a bucket out of thin air?

Regarding food, He often sent His disciples to go into the city to buy their food (John 4:7)  At other times, when they were hungry and had no money, the disciples resorted to eating raw grains. (Matt 12:1)  Why did the Master not intervene with the process in Nature and simply command the hunger to go away?

Miracles Have Meanings

The point is: each miracle has a message. Miracles were performed not to satisfy human curiosity, nor to show off the power of God (although most people do feel His power after seeing and sensing the effects of miracles.) 

Miracles can easily become temptations. There was this miracle that Jesus did when He called Simon.  This fisherman worked all night and caught nothing. Jesus said, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” (Luke 5)  And so many fish filled the nets that the nets began to break, and the boats began to sink.

If I were there, I would advise Jesus not to risk the nets and the boats. Afterall, that was all that poor Simon had. (And God forbid that anyone should drown during such a demonstration of God’s power.) Won’t it be a greater miracle that the Master commanded the fish to jump on shore themselves?

(Come to think about that, won’t it be easier for all involved if the fish automatically arrive at the buyers’ market; or in today’s terminology, direct deposit the cash into the bank? Won’t that be a more efficient miracle?)

God also does not need to impress anyone about His power. He is always powerful. If someone becomes impressed by a miracle, fine. Most of the time, God operates without miracles. But when He performs a miracle, there is no mistake as to who is the Boss. 

Part 17

The Exception Proves the Rule

            The central message of all miracles is that God is God.

Miracles showed that Jesus could do what ordinary humans cannot. He is God and you are not God.

Jesus could turn water into wine by a miracle. You cannot. The Creator can do miracles at any time. You are not the Creator and you cannot do miracles at any time.

Miracles do not disturb the flow of events in human history, because the majority of people were not there when it happened. If you want wine today, you still have to start with grapes (for some, they had to start with grape seeds.)  If you want food, you need to grow your own rice (or someone has to do that for you.)

Miracles cannot perturb the flow of human events. They are performed by the Creator. So what if the architect decided to make a window on the wall? Who is to say that the window is actually a hole and therefore breaks the continuity of the wall?

Miracles from God does not remove human responsibility. If you want fish, you (or someone you pay) will have to catch them. You cannot say that because Jesus did that for Simon, Jesus must do that for you today. There is no excuse for laziness.

God is not our servant. Miracles are not meant to serve you. They are meant to serve God. You cannot push what is your responsibility onto God’s shoulders and blame Him for not doing it for you when you want something done.

Open System

Open System refers to the attitude of a person who is Open to New Possibilities. That person does not maintain a Closed System, resisting all things that he did not already know.

People with Closed Systems will not see miracles. They have already determined  (without evidence) that there can be no miracles.  Even if a miracle occurs in front of their eyes, they will think that it is merely an “unusual occurrence.”  They label all attempts by God to reach them as “unexplainable phenomenon” or reason them away as “scientifically impossible.”  And these labels keep them happy. They already know everything. They have no need for any more questions.

Some other people are smarter. They maintain Semi-open Systems. They believe that miracles can occur. But for them miracles serve only one purpose. They are so self-centered that when they do see a miracle, all they can think of is how to profit commercially or politically from it. They will make an all-out effort to make God their servant, just like those folks in Galilee years ago, who had just been fed from the remnants of the five barley loaves and two fish. They may claim that they want Jesus as king. But they have no intention of serving this king. What they really want instead is to have this king serve them and their selfish desires.

Only people with truly Open Minds, who interpret events objectively as they happen, who listen to the Master as to why He did the miracles, would be able to see and believe in miracles.

God has been trying to reach out to you. Are you listening?

Part 18

Eternal Effects

What happens if a person ignores God?

You can make any decision or do anything you want if the result makes no difference. But if the results are different, we will have to be more careful.

Jesus told a story: “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’

But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 

Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

From this story, one can quickly draw at least three conclusions:

1.      Our eternal destiny is decided by what we do in this life;

2.      One eternal destiny is far better than the other;

3.      Once you have entered into one destiny, you stay there.

Some people may object to this rather realistic interpretation. They say that Jesus was only telling a story, and did not mean any of the stuff to be interpreted literally.

I can agree that some part of the story need not be exactly literal, e.g. when we get to heaven, we may or may not actually see Lazarus still sitting in Abraham’s bosom. But then the Bible never said Lazarus continues to sit on Abraham’s bosom for eternity.

But I insist that Jesus is not joking about our eternal destiny.

To understand life after death, let us examine life before death.

Part 19

Dimensions

Most people agree that we live in a three dimensional world: length, width, height.  But actually we live in at least 4 dimensions: including time. We know there are additional dimensions. But for the sake of discussion, to understand the problem of missing dimensions, let us concentrate only on dimensions that we all are familiar with.

Dimensions are interesting. Things look very different if we take out some dimensions.

We all know that the shortest distance between two points is the straight line joining the two points.  So for an airplane to fly from point X in the air to point Y in the air, it should fly from X straight toward Y. However, if you follow the shadow of this airplane, i.e. you trace the path on two dimensions only, along the surface of mother Earth, you will find something very strange. The image of this airplane actually goes up and down the hills and valleys and hardly in a straight line. It definitely appears that the pilot is wasting time fooling around. You begin to wonder if the pilot knows what he is doing.

And if we take out one more dimension, and try to keep tract of the airplane in one dimension only, we will sometimes see it (as it crosses the one line we have elected to monitor it with) and sometimes we do not (as it moves away from the one line with which we do the monitoring.)  It gets downright scary. Who wants to fly in an airplane that is missing from “reality” some of the time?

Now you know why if we fail to include the spiritual dimensions of mankind, we can never truly know what is  “Man.”

The Body

Most people know that their left side is not an exact mirror image of their right side. But they are not bothered by that realization, because they look at both sides everyday and know that both sides, though dissimilar, belong to the same person. Both sides are only part of the three dimensional man. We then say, “One should look at the whole picture, not just parts of it.”

Most people also know that they looked very different compare to when they were one month old. Although some may be surprised to think about that, both the adult and the baby are the “same” person. The question arises: How can we say that they are the “same” when they obviously look so different? Which one is the real “You”?

The answer is: All of the above. The “whole picture” includes all of us, from youth to old age, from the innocent to the experienced.

So, when we talk about a person, we really mean more than just the body. We actually include all of his life experience and the resulting temperament also. The body may change with time (you may lose a limb during a car accident), but the real “person” is always there (the real You did not get smaller after losing that limb in the accident.) 

The body is only the external aspect of you which others can see. The real person is “inside.”

Part 20

The Soul and the Spirit

            Most people use the term “soul” to describe the real Me inside my body. “Soul” also refers to that aspect of a person after he has “departed” from his earthly body.

The Bible uses the term “soul” and “spirit” interchangeably. The “soul” is often used to also describe our emotional status (e.g. my “soul” cried out …..)  So this usage only describes one part of me and not the whole. This usage certainly does not describe the Me apart from the body.

The term “spirit” is also used in many ways, including one’s spiritual condition or spiritual life: “Blessed are the poor in spirit….”  Here the usage obviously does not mean the blessings for a person after he dies.  It refers to your spiritual condition while still “in the body.”

The reason why these terms are used in such a large variety of ways is quite simple. They all point to the fact that whatever we do in this life in the body will affect our eternal destiny.  If “my soul pants for Thee” (Psalms 42:1) now, it indicates that I shall continue to thirst for God.  If my spiritual life is poor, I should quickly repent and thereby reap eternal benefit of God’s forgiveness.

The focus of our discussion here, however, is not our emotional or spiritual condition while still in the body. I am interested to know what happens to us after we leave our bodies behind.  I shall resist the temptation to say “what happens after we die.”  The Bible clearly says that we are very much alive after we leave our bodies behind, so we really will not “die.”

It is important to know what we shall be like, when we move away from this  temporary body. For simplicity’s sake, I shall call this Me after leaving the body as my “Soul.” 

I hope that you would not be distracted by all the other usages of the same word (soul) when used to refer to our emotional or spiritual condition while still in this earthly body.  And if you do not want to call that your Soul, you may call that your “inner person.” In that case, the inner person is our Soul while we still live in this body.

The Inner Person

What is the Inner Person and how does it relate to the body?

            With the advent of the Information Age and the popularity of computers, we come to understand the relationship between the Body and the Inner Person a little better. The body is the hardware. You can touch it. It has a “physical” presence. The inner person is the software. It is hard to pin-point exactly where the software is, but we know it is somewhere inside that “box.”

            Someone once asked me if I can show him what the software looks like. I told him, “Software is really a bunch of zeros and ones.”  If you can see it, smell it, touch it, it is not the software. But softwares are real.

Our body acts like the keyboard and the monitor. It receives signals and display messages. The software may consist of only electronic signals of zeros and ones. But the important “stuff” is the software. Hardware without the software is only plastic and metal pieces.

            When someone yelled at us, and we interpreted that to be an insult, we would turn red and yell back. It is obvious to everybody else what message we received and what message we sent back. Even though no one could check directly our software, anyone who pays attention can have a good idea what it was.

            If someone yelled at us, but we thought that he was calling for help, we might run to him to offer help. That too, clearly indicated a different kind of software.

Part 21

Eternal Software

            Hardware may break down, software is eternal.

            After you type a message through the keyboard, what happens to the message when you press “Send”?  If the house later burns down and the computer is destroyed, does that mean the message is lost?  Hardly. The message is alive and well and anyone with the right equipment can get it.

            If you wrote a love poem on a napkin for your girl friend and it caught fire from the candle flame, was the poem destroyed?  Hardly. You only lost the napkin. The poem lives forever in your memory; and hers too, if she had the chance to read it first.

            So the inner person will outlast the body.

 Resurrection

            Can a person be reconstructed?

            As far as we know, our genetic code contains the entire information needed to reconstruct our body. The entire human genome had been sequenced since the year 2000. All those billion bits of information can be stored in signals of zeros and ones.  So it is conceivable that the specification about your body can be completely defined and stored for future reconstruction.

            Scientists are working on cloning. While one may debate the ethics of cloning a human being, much had been done already in animals. It shows that the DNA of an animal can be preserved and used to “construct” another animal with basically identical genes.

            Yes, we are more than the genes that make up our body. Interaction with the environment has a lot to do with what we (the Inner Person) end up as. Can a person’s feelings and decisions be recorded also?

Recordings

            Most people are not aware that we are constantly sending out signals.

            When a criminal escapes from prison, what do the police do?  They bring in the hounds. These dogs can smell the scent left by the criminal. Body odors are real signals.

            When a patient needs an operation, what does the doctor do? He typically wants to do an EKG, which is a recording of the electric signal from the patient’s heart. EKG does not tell you everything about the heart, but enough to suggest if some “tuning up” is needed before the surgery may proceed.  Electric signals are real.

            When you call home on your cellular phone, what do you do?  All you do is punch some keys on a small gadget. Then you can talk into it and hear also the voice of the one you are calling, in real time. There is not even an electric cord connecting you to the person you are calling. How is this possible?

            It is possible because that gadget sent out signals. And the signals get transmitted. The big machines that pick up the signals are somewhere out there, far, far away and out of sight. You may not even know what they look like. But they are able to pick up the signals, send it somewhere and even make a record of every bit of what you say.

Part 22

Thoughts Can be Captured

            Thoughts are obviously more complex than electric signals from the heart. Can thoughts be reduced to electronic signals and reconstructed?

            Recent discoveries in Nanotechnology show that thoughts can be captured, transmitted and reconstructed.

Nanotechnology deals with very small things. A nanometer is one thousandth of a micrometer, which is one thousandth of a millimeter. So nanometers really describe the dimensions of atoms and molecules.

Scientists recently implanted electrodes in the brain of a monkey to see if they could capture the thoughts of this animal. The electrodes were connected to a computer. They then presented a banana to the monkey.  About 0.1 second before the monkey reached out to grab the banana, the computer recorded a signal. No big deal, except the computer was connected also to a robot. At the exact time the monkey grabbed the banana, the robot also grabbed a second banana.

Not only that, the same signal was transmitted via the internet to MIT, thousands of miles away, where another robot, on receiving the same signal, also grabbed a banana in Massachusetts.

The Bible tells us that “the Lord knows the thoughts of a man” (Psalm 94:11)  People always wondered whether that was literal or figurative language. We now know that it could be very, very literal.

Choices

            What makes a person distinct from another is his choices. Two twins may have the same DNA. If one twin goes to college in Berkeley, while his identical twin decides to go to Boston, they will probably marry into two different families, have non-identical babies and lead quite different lives.

            Every decision we make influences the next set of choices from which we can make future decisions. So you can say that most important part of me is the decisions I made. (So we are back to the discussion of “free will.”)

            Yes, I know that many people think that we are only products of the environment (or history.)  But people coming out of the same environment are still immensely different. Do not tell me that every person living in the poor neighborhood is a thief. Many are honest citizens trapped there and they will not for a moment choose to steal. People are not that helpless.

            Your destiny is not determined by some unknown forces out there. You future is determined by your decision today.

            YOU ARE WHAT YOU BECOME.

Part 23

“He Lifted His Eyes”

Back to the story about Lazarus and the rich man. Jesus did not say that after the rich man died, his soul or his spirit or part of him drifted to Hades. Jesus simply said, “He lifted up his eyes.”  So the rich man is still there, absent his body (which was buried.)  So the inner (real) person lives on, minus his previous body.

If we listen to Jesus, we will learn that we do not become “puffed” or “extinct” simply because we left an old and useless body. The message was constantly downloaded. It was not destroyed even when the computer eventually broke down.

What then is this person like after he leaves his body behind?

The Life Beyond

Jesus told us a lot of things about the life beyond. This rich man, after he leaves his body, can still have feelings (pain, thirst) and memory (“I have five brother”.)  He can reason (“If one goes to them…”) and argue (“No, father Abraham…”)  He has insight about the future (things that have yet to happen, like what will happen to his brothers if they do not repent. He can see and be seen. So he is very much alive, only without his previous body. (Does he now have a new body?)

In fact, this story, taken as is, is very encouraging. The rich man after he dies, actually begins to show remorse. He begins to care about others. He has become a better citizen after “death”!  So I have hope that those of us who were born with genetic defects or personality disorders, or simply born ugly, can actually get better in the life beyond!

The lesson remains, though, that decisions have to be made while you are still in this body.  By the time your Soul sees the reality of the spiritual world, it is too late to be sorry.  Once you are in Hades, you stay there. 

Two Different Endings

So life does not stop simply because our body becomes useless (and destroyed.) We go on living. Jesus told us about two kinds of resurrections: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” (John 5:28-29)

And what good deeds must one do to qualify for the resurrection of life? 

“God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:17-18)

So, to qualify for the resurrection of life, you must believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that God sent Him to save you.

And if you don’t, you are rejecting God’s gift. And that is serious business.

Part 24

Final Conclusion

If you believe that there is orderliness in this universe, and you have a mind to know that it is reality and not just the result of your own fertile imagination, then you are actually closer to God than you think.

God wants you to know that He is there for you. History is not a display of random events and you are not just an aggregate of proteins and free-floating electron. The Creator has sent enough signals. He has sent His own Son. All the miracles He performed can only mean that He is trying to send a message to you.

The preponderance of evidence show that there is meaning in life. The meaning will not be complete until you have God in your life.

If you believe in Jesus, the Son of God, and you ask Him to come into your life, to be your Lord and Savior, He will. You will begin a journey which will last for eternity. You will come to know God and you will spend eternity with Him after you depart from this body.

If not, you remain an enemy of God.  You will spend eternity somewhere in Hades, away from God.

My friend, if you are really smart, you do not need any more persuasion. If you are really smart, you will pay some respect to the Creator, who made it all possible for us to live today; and judging from what we decide today, our eternal destiny.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to e-mail Dr. Yen.

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