God meddles in history
When intellectuals such as Anthony Flew (the world's "most notorious atheist") and Mortimer Adler move out of atheism, they tend to gravitate at first toward deism, the idea of a Creator God who sets the universe in motion and then does not involve himself in any other way. In high school, one of my intellectually-minded friends told me he did not believe in "a meddling God." He was reflecting the classic characterization of deism.
The question, however, is not so much what we think ought to be as what actually is. Imagine for a moment that we had no access to the Bible or any other religious document that claims to describe the Creator God. What might we learn about him from looking at the creation? We learn from the creation that the Creator must be super powerful, super intelligent, and, from the level of detail and intricacy in the creation, super caring.
Briefly, we would learn that the Creator has left his fingerprints all over the cosmos, his signature in our DNA, and his indelible mark on history as evidenced by archaeology and the resurrection of Jesus. Through our philosophers, he has raised and answered profoundly important questions, such as issues of morality and the human condition. Millions of people across the globe and through the centuries have known Jesus personally, and find joy and fulfillment by living the way that Jesus showed us to live. And, for those of us who care deeply about beauty, he adorned his cosmos with beauty and he left his beautiful written word and his beautiful presence in history and in our lives to savor.
The profile revealed through nature and history does not match well with atheism, agnosticism, polytheism, pantheism, deism, or even unitarianism. The God revealed through nature, history, philosophy, personal and pragmatic experience, and beauty matches well with the Jesus of the Bible. The other religions of the world do not match well with these evidences.
The Creator has revealed himself in a great variety of ways. He clearly wants to be known by people. He clearly is looking for people who are looking for him. As millions of people across the globe and through the ages can testify, knowing the transcendent and immanent Jesus is satisfying to the soul and spirit, fulfilling both rationally and emotionally.
This blog article is an excerpt from my book: Five Languages of Evidence: How to Speak about Reasons for Christianity in a Post-truth World. Not yet published; available upon request.
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