The United Automobile Workers walked off the job at Chrysler yesterday for all of six hours before reaching agreement. Today's New York Times reports that some in the industry are calling it a "Hollywood strike," as in "just for show." Atheists feel the same way about belief in God--all show, no substance. However, while they can claim that evolution explains design without God, they cannot prove their assertion. They can ask why God's existence is not more obvious, but they cannot explain what more he could do to prove that he is real.

The third skeptical argument we noted last week was that the statement "God exists" has no meaning or coherence, since we cannot define "God" through experience or reason. Again, how is this God's fault? What would we have him do differently? We should not be surprised that we cannot define or describe him through his creation. Or that our finite, fallen minds cannot understand or describe him through the use of reason.

If we could, he would not be God. If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we would be too simple to understand them. How much more is this the case with the omnipotent Lord of the universe! As Mark Twain said, if I could understand every word of the Bible I wouldn't believe that God wrote it.

The fourth argument against God's existence we noted earlier is the problem of innocent suffering. This tragic fact makes it understandably difficult for many to believe that an omnipotent, all-loving God exists. This is a subject for another set of essays, but I'll at least note that there are reasonable ways of responding to this challenge. In fact, God can redeem suffering in a way which provides an even greater cause for faith.

So, does God exist? Does the president or the Queen of England? Not so I can prove it. I can doubt every reference to them in the media. If you claim to have met them, I could refuse to believe you. Only if I met them for myself could I know that they are real.

Do love and friendship exist? I cannot prove to you that my wife loves me, or that my best friend is my best friend. I could tell you about the times they have expressed their commitment to me, but you could say they are lying. I could show you all the wonderful things they do for me, but you could claim that they are manipulating and misleading me. You'd have to experience my marriage or friendship to know that they are real. That's just the way it is with personal relationships. Even with the God of the universe. Let's finish our series in the morning.

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