The Being
...Latin, esse; German, Sein; French, être), in philosophy, has been a central topic of
metaphysics; the study of "being" is called ontology. This is taken from the New World
encyclopedia
Does God exist? If He does, how can one be certain of it? What validity does the Bible
hold? These are questions which have challenged mankind throughout the ages. The
answers are, perhaps, as elusive as the questions themselves. "The idea of God is either a
fact, like sand, or a fantasy, like Santa. If it is a fantasy, a human invention, it is the
greatest invention in all of human history". On this premise, more lives have either been
guided or deluded than anything else.
One thing is certain, however, when we question the existence of God. There can be no
compromise . . . God must either exist, or He must not. It is impossible to posit a God
which exists for some but not for others, nor a God which once existed but longer does.
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, suggests that; if religion is an illusion, it
is the greatest of all illusions, in fact, a species of collective insanity, like the imaginary
friend of a child who never grew up. The same is true, of course, about atheism if theism
is true: It is the child's denial of the parent's existence .
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Where does this leave the Christian? Are we a mass of insane persons, despite being
"normal" in most other respects?
On the other hand, our task may be made considerably easier if we reexamine the
existence of God as a "mystery" rather than as a "problem." The concept of a "problem"
suggests that a definitive answer.
These and similar references are "so obscure that it turns out that we don't know what
we're talking about when we use them"--they cannot be used for either true or false claims
God by definition is...
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