May 16, 2008 - What was God Thinking?

As you probably already know, I am quite the TVaholic. Two of my favorite shows are House and Bones. The lead characters in both shows are extremely smart and are very clear that they do not believe in God. It doesn’t keep me from watching these shows, but I always cringe a bit when they go there. It seems that science precludes God and I can’t agree with that.

We all have our own reasons for believing in God. It could be anything from your parents telling you He exists all the way to doing doctoral studies on religion. I really didn’t have any choice growing up. I was thrown into Catholic school in the first grade and there was no looking back.

When you are young, it is easy to believe in God. You really don’t understand the world and your educational background is fairly limited. The fact that Sister Mary Immaculata is making you memorize every prayer under the sun doesn’t slow down that belief.

I took religion classes all the way through high school and I never questioned if there was a God or was I praying to the right one. However, as I became more educated and the scientific community became more advanced, there were more and more reasons to question my beliefs. We now live in a world that questions everything and ridicules everyone and everything that is different.

Can you imagine if Jesus was born in 1982 and was now embarking on his public career? He would not be able to reach the masses without appearing on television. If he actually said the things today that he did 2,000 years ago, his public career would not last three years as it once did. Every scientist in the world would discount what he said and did and do everything they could to disprove every miracle that he performed.

The world is just different than it was 2,000 years ago. People believed what they were told without proof (other than Thomas). Today, we would ask Jerusalem CSI for proof that Jesus’ DNA had no paternal element. I just wonder if the Christian or any other religion would thrive and survive as they have. Today, we need to touch and feel the proof.

Even though I have questioned some of the things that the Bible states, that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in the overall concept. I certainly believe that there is a Superior Being. I believe that Jesus was born and died for us. I believe that if I live a giving life, I will get to see Him after I die. That is what faith is all about. That is what makes us special.

In the end, I just cannot buy that all of this just happened. I cannot believe that we just crawled out of the muck and became what we are. I cannot believe that God did not have a hand in all of this. Do I believe He did it in seven days? Nope. But I do believe that He made it all possible. If you believe in everything the Bible says, dinosaurs are a real problem. I can deal with God and dinosaurs. He just took his time giving us what we needed.

Just looking at the human body, no one can convince me that it all just fell together this way. God even gave us spare parts. There is a reason we have two kidneys, two lungs, two eyes and two ears. We could survive with one, but two made us much better. He even wanted us to thrive and gave us two ovaries and two testicles. There are back-ups to keep us alive and thrive.

The only thing I really question is why is MY body falling apart. I just came back from the dentist after having one of my crowns removed. I have had this and another crown for over a decade with absolutely no problems. It seems that I am now allergic to both of these crowns. Didn’t know it but my gums were being overrun with little globs that looked like mini grapes. He cut that out after popping off my crown.

I sit here now with my jaw aching because I opened my mouth about four inches wider than I should have so he could get all of his equipment in there. I now have two more appointments set up to get the other one done. Six months ago I had to stop in because I had a pop corn kernel wedge itself under my gum. A month later it worked its way out. Three months before that I had one of my teeth break in half as I was enjoying a cinnamon coated almond. That gave me another crown that I have yet to become allergic to. I’m just wondering what will break next in my mouth.

In summary, I think God did a wonderful job of making this miracle machine that we refer to as the human body. I just wish he would have given me an extended warranty.