"WHY" I Believe in God...

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful...the Best Knower.

Salaam (Peace) to all.

First, let's examine a few key definitions:

belief
a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing; something believed; especially : a tenet or body of tenets held by a group; conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence; A persuasion of the truth, or an assent of mind to the truth of a declaration, proposition or alleged fact, on the grounds of evidence, distinct from personal knowledge.

evidence
that which is evident; that which is clear to the vision or understanding, and satisfactory to the judgment; a means of ascertaining the truth of any alleged matter of fact under investigation; means of making proof; that which furnishes, or tends to furnish, proof; any mode of proof; the ground of belief or judgement; as, the evidence of our senses; your basis for belief or disbelief; knowledge on which to base belief.

proof
the evidence or argument that compels the mind to accept an assertion as true; the validation of a proposition by application of specified rules, as of induction or deduction, to assumptions, axioms, and sequentially derived conclusions; determination of the quality of something by testing; trial; that degree of evidence which convinces the mind of any truth or fact, and produces belief; a test by facts or arguments that induce, or tend to induce, certainty of the judgment; conclusive evidence; demonstration.

It is an easily observable phenomenon that each of us comes into this Life DEPENDENT on a Power or Being Greater than our own. We come into this Life in Need, therefore we have a Natural Need for Assistance from, and Interaction with, a Higher Power than ourselves.

This does not mean that we are necessarily born with a "God Consciousness", but we are born with that which is the Foundation of God-Consciousness, as stated above.

When I was a child, my Belief in God was based mainly on "tradition"...or "hearsay". I was never taught or advised to "prove" anything...to myself or anyone else. I was simply told by some elder I that Loved and Trusted, "you just have to believe"...and so I did. But what was the QUALITY of my Belief? Looking back, I can see that my "pre-awakening" belief was little more than "superstition"...which brings me to the core of my answer.

In my view, there is "intelligent" belief and there is "superstitious" belief. Any BELIEF that is not based upon one's own honest EXAMINATION of EVIDENCE, should more rightly be called "superstition"...or "supertitious". As Stevie Wonder once said, "When you BELIEVE in things you DON'T UNDERSTAND, then you Suffer. SUPERSTITION ain't the way."

BELIEF is not the "opposite" of KNOWLEDGE. We are born into the world knowing nothing, and therefore seeking to know everything. The more we know, the more we get the sense that there is more to know. The more we LEARN, the more we get the sense that there is more to BE LEARNED. This "sense" is what we call "Belief". Therefore, the BEST BELIEF is that which is supported by KNOWLEDGE or EXAMINATION of any related EVIDENCE.

So...WHY do I believe in God...now? Because my examination of the EVIDENCE at hand -- that portion of the UNIVERSE that is accessible to me, and the Laws and Dynamics at work within it (the Human Body included) -- leads me to the conclusion that ORDER cannot exist without INTELLIGENCE. Or, There cannot be a "design" without a DESIGNER. Therefore, I have concluded for myself that whatever BEING is responsible for the Existence of such a Superbly ORDERED and MAINTAINED Universe, must, by default, be "GOD".

This is an outline of "why" I believe in God.

What do YOU think?

RM