IS-YOUR-FAITH-STRONG-ENOUGH 

Article By: Very Rev. Fr. Tadros El-Bakhoumi

It has been noticed lately that our Coptic Orthodox youth, are facing a lot of challenges in the grounds of their faith and it has been accelerated by the very quick transparency of information, through the high technology we are living in now.   In this article section, I’ll be discussing some areas of challenges of our true Coptic Orthodox faith.  This true Christian Coptic Orthodox faith, has been delivered to us by our fathers, descending from the holy apostles and they kept that faith to us by their blood because this faith is the only avenue that will lead us to be in heaven at the end of life.

Here I  make it clear that I am very open to any questions to answer; so when you read any of these related articles, which will be issued as a series and you have any questions, please send it to my email father_tadros@bigpond.com and you will find the answer in the next issue of the El-Manara magazine or on the church web site www.stbakhomios.org.au

Part 1: Does God exist?

In this article, I will not use the Bible verses to prove the existence of God, but I will prove the existence of God just by logic discussion, without using a one verse from the Holy Bible.

1. Logically to study any matter, we must study it with the suitable means; for example, the idea or the thought, needs the brains to accommodate it; the substance needs the senses to touch and feel it.  It is impossible to taste a delicious food using the microscope or to solve mathematical equations using the microscope, but we can use the microscope to identify bacteria or microbes for virus etc.…

 

Based on this, when we need to search about God; God is not an idea or a thought to accommodate it in our very little limited brains and He is not a substance to touch and feel with the senses.  God is Spirit and He existed before any knowledge of time, He is everlasting and eternal.  We also know He is infinite and Unlimited, so there is no logic to say we can contain knowledge about God in our very limited and little brains.  But for the sake of our brothers and sisters who do not believe, we will make here a study of logic things, which simply proves God exists and that He is the Creator of all things.  In this regard, I confirm that there is no contradiction of faith and the logic brains, but rather the faith empowers the logic of the brains. St. Augustine, who was an atheist philosopher, after he tried to criticize Christianity was finding any writings from the holy bible to use his brains and philosophy to criticize Christianity but the power of the Word of God captured him and he believed and then he said, “I was blind and ignorant and now I see and I state here clearly that the faith I found made sense for the logic of my brains”.

 

Let’s take a simple example here – with the microscope, we see the microbes which we cannot see with the normal eye, the same thing through faith we can comprehend the facts about God, which the brains cannot comprehend because God is much higher and above all abilities of humans.

Another example: – no brains can comprehend that when pharaoh came after the people of Israel to capture them back at the shore of the red sea, God opened for them (the children of Israel) a dry land in the middle of the sea and the waves became like walls for them to cross away from Pharaoh’s army.  As I said it is hard to believe it with the normal brains, but the history proved it to us, being recorded on the walls of the temples of the ancient Egyptians and I would highlight here that the Egyptians will not be happy to register their terrible conquer but as it is history, it has been registered to prove this fact, which the brains cannot believe. The signs of archeology found in the bottom of the red sea, the wheels and the bars of the chariots of the Egyptian army at that time and the bones of the horses – this is all proved.

 

So to conclude number one, when we prove the existence of God, we are not cancelling or putting on hold our brains but as a matter of fact we are empowering our brains to realize the reality of the life we are living.

 

1. The biggest objection for the atheists, who deny that God exists is what they call co-incidence. They believe that all this universe we live in, is by co-incidence and something else they call it ‘the big bang’.  Here I cannot believe how their brains after reaching very high levels of research and science, believe that all this great creation with its very thorough system comes by co-incidence? Let me say for instance if I get an A3 paper, divide it into 300 squares, number them and cut the squares, put them in your hand in order from 1-300, then throw them on the ground.  Tell me how many chances of success will it be if just collecting them by your hand from the ground without any order, that they come back in the same order of numbering? I believe there will be no one single chance and here imagine if the squares were from 1-1000 or more; it is totally impossible to collect them in the same order by co-incidence.  Here I will discuss some arguments about things we all live and use and how can it be by co-incidence!

v  The brains of any one of us.  What is inside these brains, especially for a very knowledgeable person or scientist? Is there shelves or files and how big is the computer there inside the brains to keep this huge amount of knowledge and different amount of things and memories?  Also, where is the electric power that makes this computer work day and night? And how fast is that computer, which can remember something 50 years ago in a moment, let alone that these brains are working day and night, even when you are asleep the brains work and many a time for something busying us, the brain is working and thinking about it and wakes us up from the middle of sleep, even if we are totally exhausted! Is this by co-incidence?

v  The eye– for us to take a photo, it needs enough light, background, a flash sometimes and early before the technology, we used to take the photos in negatives then send it to a lab using chemicals to print it on a card and by the years it fades away.  But as for the eye, it is a camera that picks anything with the minimum amount of light like a candle or less and on the spot, it records it, prints it on the brains, sends it to the memory and keeps it for so many years. Is this by co-incidence?

v  What about the nature around us and the millions of different plants how they are all green but you look at them and can distinguish them one from another! Once I took an atheist friend to the national park and told him, “can you count the trees here?” he said, “no” then I said, “you see them all green and you can distinguish them from each other with a slight difference”, he said “yes” I said to him, “if you can get for me a group of the top artists to paint only 100 trees on a big sheet and they are all different greens like this, I will agree with you that God does not exist” and he answered, “it can’t be”.

v  What about the heat, can anyone control the heat when it is too hot or too cold? What about the rains, can anyone order the rain to come when it is in a terrible drought time? Or can anyone order the rain to stop when it is pouring and causing a lot of damage and almost stopping a lot of movement and works! It this by co-incidence?

v  Once I was with the youth in Fitzroy falls camp and I saw a very high tree standing and there were massive winds coming but the tree is still standing, then using my engineering background, I thought how is this tree standing with this great height and only by the roots in the ground, while in engineering industry, for us to fix an electric high pole, we have to dig deep down in the ground, put concrete around the base of that pole with horizontal metal things to hold It and with dyna bolts and then tension bars to keep it straight and then it has to be continuously checked and maintained, lest it falls down and this tree is standing on its own like millions of other trees years and years, is this by co-incidence?

Conclusion

The nature itself with all what’s around us with its great systematic order, which no one can do like, is a witness for a great powerful Creator, Who created it.  That is why when it has been said about the scientist of mathematics – ‘Isaac Newton’-  in his time they used to have a big hat on their heads all the time and only take it off when greeting someone when you meet a person.  Suddenly they saw Mr. Newton walking all the time without a hat, so they stopped him and questioned him, his answer was, “I discovered that God exists, and He is the Creator of all what we live in and I am taking my hat off in respect and reverence because He is everywhere around us”.

We’ll stop at this and continue in the next issue.