On Saturday past, I was playing American Football. There I was on the field with these huge men running at me, I didn’t know what to do. I panicked… and took the headset off. Instantly the players disappeared and I found myself back at in a room full of TV screens and xbox controllers. I was no longer in on a field in America but in the Game Locker in Dundonald. Virtual Reality is amazing. It transports you to another world.
In my last blog (you can find it here), I introduced the idea that our world is full of clues that reveals a different story. Different from the one we have being fed. The challenge is to take off ‘the head set’ we were given and open our eyes to real reality-the world as it really is.
When we do, when we really open our eyes and see things as they are, it will causes us to ask questions. I want to give you 10 questions we need to ask ourselves.
I’m calling it Reality Check.
I’ve put these questions under three headings:
How in the world?
Have you ever wondered?
What do you think?
How in the world…
1. How in the world... does something come from nothing?
Both science and faith agree that there was a beginning to this world. A starting point.
The bible says before the beginning there was God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit in perfect joyful unity. But for those who believe in a purely natural world what was there before the beginning? Take yourself right back. Right to the moment that it all began. The point where life started. Just before the Big Bang, what is there? Nothing? If so, how does something come from nothing?
2. How in the world... does mind come from matter?
Our minds and consciousness are non-physical. They can't be seen. Where does this unseen reality come from? How was it formed? This seems an important question. The very thing you're using to think right now has to come from somewhere. Does it have a natural, material explanation? Technology has advanced at an crazy speed but even the most sophisticated robot doesn't have a mind. While weighing in at 3 pounds and made up of fat (60%) and a combination of water, protein, carbohydrates and salts (40%), our brains are an essential piece of grey substance. This becomes very clear when it becomes injured by stroke or accident. Not only is movement affected but personality, emotions, consciousness. The mind is complex and non-physical how did this evolve?
3. How in the world... does order come from chaos?
Explosions destroy they don’t create. Explosions don’t produce beautiful, detailed, fully functioning works of art. Yet we live in a wonderfully complex world. Look at the sheer beautiful symmetry of these flowers. How did these become like this?
4. How in the world... do we have the perfect conditions for life to exist
Our world is perfectly set for life. I read (I couldn't possibly know this myself ) if any one of 15 settings (eg. gravity, boiling point of water etc) were different by the smallest fraction, life would not be possible. What’s the chances of that? [Explanation video here].
Have you ever wondered…
5. Have you ever wondered... why people speak of life after death?
“…up there looking down on us”
It seems to be a habit we can’t shake. No matter how people live and speak like this world is all there is, they/we still comfort ourselves with statements like these. [I've wrote about this here and here]
This question challenges those who hold to a purely natural worldview.
Yet I believe God has placed eternity in our hearts and try as we may we can’t seem to bury it. It’s like a beach ball that is pushed under the water, it always pops up again.
6. Have you ever wondered... why we long for justice?
“It’s not fair” why do we expect to be fair? In what world would it be fair? Where does our idea of fairness come from? Try putting yourself fully into an impersonal world that is formed by chance and ask yourself why we would expect fairness and justice in a world that the fittest survive and the weakest die.
No-one looks for justice for the rat when the cat kills it. The rat was just minding it's own business when the cat sprung on her. An unprovoked attack that led to the rat's death. It wasn't self defense just pure greed. Some times it's not greed but just for the cat's own entertainment and after she has had her fun the rats body is abandoned. Why aren't our prisons full of cats doing time for murder? Why aren't we painting placards and protesting for this? Justice for the rat. Why is this idea ridiculous? While we share many similarities with the rat (some people more than others), we are different from the animal kingdom. I can hear people say, we need to look after animals well. Of course we do but we never call the death of a rat murder. Why not?
7. Have you ever wondered... why we look for purpose and meaning in our suffering?
“I don’t understand why that happened” “It’ll all make sense in the end” Why do we expect that? Why do we expect suffering to have a purpose? Why do we expect meaning in a meaningless world?
8. Have you ever wondered... where do we get our sense of right and wrong?
Why do we feel guilty? Why does evil feels so wrong? Why do we even call it evil? We seem to still have an objective sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. “I just felt like it” is not a line of defense that will carry in court.
"Oh you just felt like attacking that old woman and stealing her bag. That's ok, you're free to go"
We have a revulsion to certain crimes and behaviours. But if we’re not much more than animals why get so worked up? Are The Bad Touch right? "You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals..."
9. Have you ever wondered... where beauty comes from?
Why does beauty move us? When you go WOW who do you thank?
When we remove God from the picture, where do we go? The vast emptiness just echoes our wow back to us. The wonder becomes a little flatter; our note of joy becomes a little shorter. Something is lost but we can’t put our finger on it. It’s like receiving an expensive gift in the post but you can’t work out the sender. You can still enjoy the gift but your joy would be multiplied if you could thank someone and discover the reason why the gift was given. [I write about this here]
We live in an utterly magical world. Science has given us more reason to delight in it’s beauty. Under a microscope it captivates us in it’s minute wonder. Through a telescope we are blown away. From whatever angle we look at it, it is breathtakingly magnificent. The problem is we seldom take the time to fully appreciate it. If we were to, it would draw us out of our preoccupation with ourselves, lift us from gazing at our feet, brighten our eyes and cause us to utter a loud who-cares-who-hears-it wow!
But who do we thank? We are made to gaze with wonder. Creation gets our wow but there's a bigger Wow buried inside us. a Wow that is reserved for our Creator the Lord Jesus. When we see him in his glory then our hearts will truly soar. Or will it be a shudder because you realised you have rejected him.
Which brings us to our last question:
10. What do you think of Jesus?
How come Jesus is worshiped by millions from all backgrounds and many nations?
He came from a backwater town in an unimportant nation, made huge claims about himself and performed many miracles. His death by crucifixion was designed to disgrace his cause and silence his followers. But his followers risked their lives proclaiming that he rose from the dead and is the Son of God that we should worship (these facts are agreed by the vast majority of historians).
It's strange how the 10th question is about a 1st century Arab speaking Palestinian man who never really traveled far and was killed by the powerful Roman Empire. Yet here we are in 2024, a calendar date marked by his birth, thinking about him. What do you think of Him?
As you think about these questions ask yourself:
Q. Are my answers consistent with my beliefs or do I find myself borrowing from what others believe?
For example, you may believe there's nothing beyond what we can see. This world is all there is.Yet when people die you speak of them looking down on you. To say that you're borrow from someone else's beliefs.
Q. Are your answers true to reality?
Do they make sense of the world as it really is? Or do they have to ignore things like your longing for justice or the fact that the world is perfectly set for life to exist.
Q. Are your answers satisfying?
Do they lift your heart, fulfill your longings and give you the hope to grieve well.
Q. Which questions did you find most difficult to answer?
Q. What question annoyed you the most?
Q. What other questions pop into your head?
Not all the questions/clues will have the same impact on you but one or two will (I hope) become stones in your shoe. And maybe even when taken together they will form part of a road that will lead you to the Big Story that is beautiful, true and satisfying. True Reality.
More on this in my next blog
(This is reworking a talk i did at Cafe Hope. Cafe Hope is an informal event that happens once a fortnight in the Connect Hall, Dromara. Everyone's welcome to come and enjoy the tea/coffee/,milkshakes. People of different ages and beliefs are there)