Hope on the Street

This month we were really please to have talented local musicians Andy Humphries and Debbie Kay entertaining us at Hope Cafe, Costa Coffee (Leighton Buzzard) this month. Our theme this time was ‘Why Bother’.

Many people approach thinking about God like this: ‘Why should I bother with him-he never bothers with me’, ‘I tried once and he let me down’ or ‘prayer didn’t work’, ‘I felt nothing’.

Visiting France recently a friend met a man and the conversation led to the question, ‘is Jesus real and if so where can I meet him?’ The man said, ‘go around the corner and you’ll meet him there’. Intrigued he went round the corner and found the road led to a large crucifix at the end of the street. This man had been speaking to an inanimate object and had been disappointed at the result.

Dealing with a god like that would be pointless, why would anyone spend time on a god like that?

Others think that they can bargain with their god. They do a deal. ‘I did everything I could to be a good person but god let me down, I wanted god to help me but he didn’t’. The thinking here is that if god didn’t help me then why bother with him. What if the real God does not do bargains? Where does faith come in?

It seems for some people a god has to makes sense to them and by implication therefore no need for any faith or trust. Yet much of human behaviour and thinking is not logical. For example lets look at some of the illogical things people do spend their time on-The man who just has to make another call on the train, even though he has been cut off several times, he couldn’t wait; The woman who is in such a rush she has to get ahead of the car in front,so overtakes on a bend with her child in the back-sadly she hits an oncoming car on the bend; The couple who are arguing over the same old issue again and again; the addict who returns to his habit and so on.

It seems there are many things we do in life that are not as logical or serve the purpose we tell ourselves they do. Perhaps our distorted thinking extends to who God is and how he relates to us.

What if you are someone who says why bother with god because scientists do not support belief in god. It will not help that celebrity scientists like Richard Dawkins, insists on arguing very forcible against belief in god. He argues that the ‘selfish gene’, something inside us that make us compete selfishly against each other, drives humanity. Evolution is based around the individual so why do we need a god to bring us all together in community. The consequences of this type of godless thinking leads to naked materialism- evolution in action. Ever felt that work treats you like a number, this is normal in a Dawkins-like world! Dawkin’s does not give a balanced view, or any consideration to where this individualistic philosophy will take us. Dawkins is described as unscientific, not in a religious book but one of the counselling books I read (Human Givens- A New Approach to Emotional Health and Clear Thinking). This book says that the idea of ‘selfish genes’ is a catchy phrase and criticises Dawkin’s when he says, ‘what are you, if not a robot, albeit a very complicated one’. Doubters please note that the author’s of this book say that Dawkin’s simplistic view is “not generally accepted in the scientific world”. Another point to make is that many well-qualified scientists do believe in God, for example Professor Russell Stannard (Author, broadcaster, and retired high-energy particle physicist. He currently holds the position of Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Open University).

So if Dawkins, the most high profile of anti-god scientists is wrong where does that leave us? What if we have been following a wrong or false god? Perhaps it is worth the bother searching for the true God. Why not start with the Bible and the stories about Jesus and what he claims about himself and how he says he shows us who the true God really is?