'Amen. Come Lord Jesus'

I am writing to present a third viewpoint concerning religion - two of which were presented Sept. 24.

The reason I feel a third viewpoint is necessary is that a significant facet of the question of religion was left unexplored. Mr. Ward scoffed at religion, while Ms. O'Connor justified it as a tool with which to build community.

Neither of these adequately describes the actual situation, in which God really does exist, and neither appreciates being scoffed at, nor being treated as a convenient abstraction useful only for engendering a sense of community.

Mr. Ward is convinced that the true God is science. He is content to put his entire trust and unshakable faith in unproved and unprovable scientific theories, and having done so, to conclude that our lives and deaths are purely arbitrary and singularly unprofound.

I have no doubt that Mr. Ward is happy in his irrational faith, but people of a more inquisitive nature are not so easily pacified.

Since we were created by God, and since our knowledge of his existence is continually evidenced by all of nature, it is not surprising that by far most Americans believe in him.

Some are able to deny their intuition, and to reason sloppily enough to conceive of a world which came from nothing by sheer randomness; but they deny what we all instinctively know and what nature tells us so clearly - that God created our universe.

The mind of God and the state of man are explicated in the Holy Bible. That God created the world and created humankind in his own image. That we all cause evil and pain in the world. That instead of destroying us and our evil, God has instead paid for our evil by the crucifixion of Jesus, and that he has proven his payment through Jesus' resurrection. And that, contrary to Mr. Ward's world view, we can all live again with God, without pain, and in perfect happiness.

Some believe that the birth of a child is a "horror." Some consider trust and hope in God to be "infantile delusions." But I for one, with all of the Christians in the world, find hope and joy in Jesus' words, "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me...," and we say with the apostle John, "Amen. Come Lord Jesus."

Jonathan Rhoads
Computer Engineering Senior