We all ask the question at some time in our lives, even vicars!

There is the idea that science has somehow disproved the existence of God. What I find strange about this assertion is that there are thousands of scientists who have no problem with believing. In my last church in Deal (Kent), I had 5 scientists with doctorates in the congregation. This proportion was higher than average, but statistics seem to show that of all professionals, scientists are very high on believing and, incidentally, social workers are very low!

The scientists I know, spoke of the amazing signs of design in the world, pointing logically to a designer. They also pointed to the huge gaps in our knowledge. The popular notion that science is filling gaps in our knowledge is only partially true. The reality is that the more knowledge we have the more gaps we uncover!

The second issue is the idea that suffering must mean there is no God. This is a very serious objection but strangely it is very rarely expressed by people who suffer. In the hungry parts of the world where people die of malnutrition and want of a simple operation that we would take for granted, there is a far higher proportion of committed, believing Christians (and people of other faiths). These people apparently do not reject God because of their suffering. In fact their faith is often inspirational in the midst of suffering.

It maybe that we in the west have such a weak faith in the first place that when suffering happens, it is not so much that it takes us away from God, but that it shows how far away we were from God in the first place.

These are really big questions. There is not enough room to discuss them here. Please phone me if you want to talk about these issues. In the mean time maybe the story following will be of interest:

There were two room mates in college, one a believer, and one not. One day there discussing the validity of God. The believer said to the non-believer, 'give me five good reasons why God does not exist, and will go from there'.

The non-believer thought for a while and finally came up with his five reasons. He said to the believer.