You Believe That Stuff???

One of the things that I promised the other day was that I would give you a bit of an explanation of why I believe in God, so I thought that now was as good a time as any to get started on that.

And, it seems to me that a good place to start is to point out a few things that I am not going to be trying to do:

• I am not trying to set up a Christian evidences site. There are many of those already available run by people who are far more capable at it than I am (I'll try to post a couple of links to some at a later date). All I am trying to do is explain to you (in summary) just some of the kinds of things that I have thought about that have lead me to believe that there really is a God out there.
• I'm not trying to force you to believe in God. Whether or not you believe in God is your business. Of course, if God does exist and if it is true that "He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (as the Bible claims), then the question of whether or not He exists is more than just an academically interesting question. So if my telling you why I believe in God leads you to think about that question and ultimately believe in Him too, and if that turns out to mean that you also receive that reward, then that would be great - I believe that that reward is real and that it is offered to you just as much as it is to me so why wouldn't I want to tell you about it? However, even if you decide that you don't believe in God, I hope that what I have to say in these posts will help you to understand me a little better and at least see that there is some kind of foundation for my belief (even if you don't agree with it).

Another thing that I am not going to do is to try to get everything into one post - I'll create a series of posts that I will (no doubt) add to over time. To make it easy for you to view them all together I'll do two things:

• I'll label them all with "Why I Believe", and
• I'll try to remember to list them all here in the most logical reading order:
• A permissible hypothesis - should I even allow for the possibility of the existence of God as an explanation for the origin of the universe?
  
• Hello World - What are the chances of first life coming into existence?
• Special Conditions - The chances are zero unless the conditions are suitable for life to form.
  
• Random Writing - If we do get the first life we need to then progress towards more complex life.
• Starting from Scratch - Repeatedly changing something over time doesn't usually result in a great system.
• Changing in Parallel - Different parts of systems very often have to change in a coordinated way for the change to be successful
• A Lot of Positives - Even if positive mutations happened every generation would there be enough time for evolution?
• And more... - A few other points to consider and links to further information.
• Yes But... - What about the arguments that people make against the existence of God?
• Two Options. - It seems to me that there are two fundamental options that we need to choose between.
• My Choice. - My reasons for choosing the option that I do.