Some years ago a Frenchman was crossing the Sahara Desert with a guide. The guide was a deeply religious individual who made no attempt to hide his faith and trust in God. Indeed, on several occasions when the guide was unsure of the way forward he even prayerfully asked for Divine guidance. This particularly incensed the Frenchman because he was a fanatical atheist, and in the evening around the camp fire he began to argue with the guide. The guide listened carefully to the words of the atheist and when challenged “How do you know for sure there is a God?” he responded very profoundly – “How do I know that a man and not a camel passed by our tent last night?” The atheist responded, “Why, by the footprints in the sand” “Precisely”, said the guide “and I see the Creator’s footprints in all the things He has designed – the sun, moon, stars, the human body, the brain, the eye, you name it, these things are so complex they didn’t just happen.”
In the past few years scientific knowledge has advanced in leaps and bounds. For example, we have a greater understanding of DNA, of the human body and of space – we have advanced in every area of science. But no matter what realm of scientific discovery it may be, whether in the field of biology, physics or astronomy, there is one common theme namely – every discovery only goes to further reveal how highly complex things really are. We now know for example, that human DNA is such a colossal biological database that it contains around 3.5 billion “letters”. Every new discovery only further challenges people to accept that there is a Great Intelligence behind the Universe. Some scientists now speak of a “Designer Universe” because everywhere you look from the microscope to the telescope there is Design and Order on an infinite scale.
This raises a serious question; with so much evidence for the existence of a Creator and Designer why then have so many people stopped going to Church? Why have we as a society abandoned Christian things and refuse to follow the teachings of the Bible? The answer sadly is all too simple and is summed up by the atheist author Thomas Nagel in his book “The Last Word”. He states, “I want atheism to be true and I am uneasy that some of the most intelligent and well informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God, I really hope that there is no God. I don’t want there to be a God. I don’t want the universe to be like that!”
And why? Because the moment a person accepts the reality of God, it means they know that there are moral limits on their behaviour! It is a direct attack on what can be called “me-ism” ie. the notion that I have the right to behave as I wish. If I don’t believe there is a God then, if I want to receive an income from the government without working, I deserve it; if I want sex with someone or several people at once, I can; if other people are preventing me from getting what I want I can complain as loudly as possible and even elbow them out of the way! “Meists” recognise that they are not living the way of life that God would want them to live, if God existed. The result is that they prefer to believe He doesn’t exist! They ignore the obvious evidence for His existence and refuse more and more to have anything to do with Christian things which call for an unselfish heart.
The greatest need for our society is the transformation of the human heart. What will it take for people in the UK to learn that God will not be mocked? What will it take for them to see that acknowledging God and His Commandments are the only way to real happiness? Today, our nation is experiencing the consequences of having rejected the laws of God which were designed to bring happiness, peace and social order. Never before has there been a greater need for national repentance to avert further disaster, but at the moment very few seem prepared to listen.
