Why Believe?

There is an inherent problem with creation that has plagued sages and philosophers since the dawn of reasoning:

How do we know that creation exists?

If we are to base our knowledge of creation solely on the empirical data our brain has accumulated, how do we even know that our brains are accurately interpreting what it perceives to be reality?

Lawrence Fishburne, playing as the iconic Morpheus of The Matrix, captures it eloquently:

“How do you define ‘real’? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”

In other words, determining the nature of reality requires something more than data interpreted by our individual brains.

One way of determining reality is of course through corroboration of information through others.

If I claim to have seen a UFO as an individual for example, I would most likely be dismissed as being delusional. However, my claim gains weight as soon as another corroborates what I’ve seen. The truthfulness of my claim increases exponentially with each witness.

But we now know that this too is ultimately unreliable, as evidenced by cases of mass hysteria.

The problem here occurs when we “want” to believe in something.

This is perhaps the reason why many have begun dismissing religion as a means of interpreting reality. The promises of religion are just “too good to be true”. Devoted followers desperately want to believe in them, so much so that their perception of reality becomes distorted by this desire.

But secular people are not exempt from distorting the truth to suit their own needs and desires. We have seen how human organizations like corporations and governments manipulate the truth to fit their own versions of reality.

Here, we are faced with the problem of our own self-centeredness.

Some people have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to accurately interpret reality, simply because as thinking, feeling individuals driven by our own innate desires for self-preservation, we lack the capability of looking at reality objectively.

We will always look at reality in a way that suits our needs.

Which finally brings us to the issue of God.

If we have so much trouble proving the existence of an objective reality, how could we even begin to solve the mystery of God’s existence?

Like many others who have given this matter serious consideration, I too have come face to face with this seemingly impenetrable wall that has the potential to cause one to sink in hopeless despair.

It is all so meaningless.

Increasing knowledge only adds to the despair.

Recent studies show that our brains are subject to the phenomenon of “information overload”, where too much information eventually causes us to make bad decisions.

So if information about anything itself eventually becomes harmful to our efforts at determining the nature of reality, what then is our alternative?

The recourse is simple. We simply believe.

It all boils down to this timeless dilemma of choosing whether or not to believe.

Oxford’s English Dictionary defines “to believe” as “to have faith in the truth or existence of.”

Something exists, because we choose to believe it exists. We have faith that it exists.

Once we choose to have faith, a world of possibilities open up to us. In that world, not only does objective reality exist, but it also has room for the divine.

In the timeless words of the Messiah:

"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." - (Matthew 17:20 NLT)

In a world where God exists, the question is no longer why you should believe, but when.