A Search For Truth

I have a relative who says she just can’t find a Christian Church where she feels comfortable.

“I feel as though I don’t fit anywhere.”

. It doesn’t occur to her that the search for truth does not begin with the assumption that one is already in possession of the truth.
. It doesn’t occur to her that she will never fit in a Christian Church when what she believes to be true is diametrically opposed to what Jesus the Christ taught.

For example, Jesus taught:
I Am the Way,
I Am Truth,
Real Life and Real Living are found in no One but Me
No one will ever come to the Father except through Me.

This woman believes that any and all religions will lead to acceptance with God as long as one is sincere in h/her believes. If Jesus taught the former while she believes the latter, of course she is not going to find a “fit” in a Christian congregation.

Her solution? She’s going to take a class in Comparative Religions.
Translation: “I’m going to pay someone to teach me what I already believe, i.e., no one religion has a corner on truth.” It would be far cheaper if she just joined a Baha’i congregation. She’ll eventually reach that point. Why put it off?

After having taken this class, there are several possibilities regarding what conclusion she might arrive at. One thing that any of us can know for sure is that while all the religions she learns about might be wrong, they can’t all be right.

There can’t be One God (Christianity) and 5,000 gods (Hindu).
There can’t be Creator God (Christianity) and god is creation (Pantheism)
There can’t be Jesus is God (Christianity) and Jesus is not God (Islam)
There can’t be Creator God (Christianity) and no god (atheism)

I’ve come to believe that while we can’t know beyond ALL doubt, we can know beyond a reasonable doubt which belief system is more likely to be correct than the others.

Let me explain:
. On a table before us are six stacks of literature explaining six different religions.
How can we know which religion, if any, is correct and which are in error?

. On a table before us are six Rolex watches produced by six different companies.
How can we know which Rolex is genuine and which are counterfeit?

. On a table before us are six fifty-dollar bills produced by six different machines.
How can we know which fifty-dollar bill is genuine and which are counterfeit?

. On the table before us is a mathematical problem for which six students have produced six different solutions.
How can we know which solution is the correct one and which solutions are wrong?

We know that not all religions (including atheism) can be correct in what they teach.
Like the religions, we know that not all the Rolex watches are the real deal.
Like the religions, we know that not all the fifty-dollar bills are genuine.
Like the religions, we know that there is only one correct answer to the math problem.

Right off we know that atheism / materialism is wrong. We don’t know what existed prior to the Singularity BUT we do know what didn’t exist. Matter and Energy did not exist prior to the Singularity and that is why we know that there was NOT a material cause of the universe. Our choices for a cause are limited.
1) Either Matter is eternal - or The Creator of matter is eternal
2) Since Matter can’t be eternal, nor can Matter bring itself into existence -
An Eternal Immaterial Creator brought matter into existence
3) Either inanimate, inorganic matter produces specified, formulated, complex, coded information for the production of life - or
An Intelligence (and only Intelligent Agents have ever) produced specified complex coded information such as is found in DNA / RNA that produces life.
4) Either Matter produces a life of meaning and context and purpose - NOT! - or
Creator God produced a life of meaning and context and purpose.

. Any philosophy that believes that matter is eternal or that the material infinite exists in any form, or that there can be an infinite regress of cause is wrong - period. So much for atheism.
. Any philosophy that believes that everything material can come from literally nothing by nothing is wrong - period. (Now THAT’S a belief in magic!) So much for atheism.

Second, because we know that matter WAS created, out of nothing, multi god religions are wrong for there can be only one Greatest Conceivable Being > Occam’s Razor.

Third when we consider the attributes of what the Creator must have possessed to bring about the universe we observe, we arrive at a Creator that is (timeless, immaterial, eternal, infinite in power and knowledge etc.) exactly the same type of Creator that is described in the Bible. This description of the Creator is arrived at, not from the Bible, but from logic.

We know that to identify the genuine Rolex watch, the real fifty-dollar bill and the solution to the math problem, we must go to the creators, the originators, the producers of the genuine article to know which is genuine and which is counterfeit.

If my relative wants to find a Church that will agree with what she already believes, that will happen sooner or later. If however she wishes to discover Truth, then she must go on a journey that requires openness of mind and self-honesty.

I believe that God, in the form of Jesus, came and lived among us to show us the Way. He came to prove to us that He is Truth. Jesus proved by His life and His actions that eternal Life will not be found in anyone but Himself.

If you genuinely compare the person of Jesus and what He taught, with ANY religious figure from ANY other religion, while you might not like what He taught, I think it will become clear that Jesus is leagues ahead of any of the other religious leader in His explanation of life as you observe it.

Unlike Mohammed, Jesus was not a paedophile.
Unlike Buddha, Jesus did not reject his wife and children to go in search of truth.
Unlike the thousands of Hindu gods and goddesses, Jesus is grounded in history.

Unlike any other leader of a major world religion, Jesus said,
“If you have seen Me, you have seen God.”
“If you knew Me, you would know My Father, the One who sent Me”
“He who hates Me, hates My Father also”
“I and the Father are one.” The word that Jesus used for “one” means, one in essence.

You can reject any religion, including atheism and if you are wrong, nothing major or significant happens to you.
If you reject what Jesus taught and you’re wrong, you’ve got a problem of eternal proportions.

Don’t take this lightly. Do your utmost to discover as much as you can know. Don’t be afraid to use science for science itself points to Creator God.

“It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion science offers a surer path to God than religion.”
Physicist Paul Davies