WHAT IF THERE WAS NO GOD?

written by MelindaLaging October 9, 2017

Many people ask the question, “How do we know there’s a God?” But, why not ask the exact opposite question, “How do we know there isn’t a God?” To discover the answer to this question, we need to look at what the world would be like if God didn’t exist.

There would be no good

The very nature of God is good. He does everything for the good and wellbeing of His creation. On a very basic level, if there wasn’t a God, then there would be no good in the world – at all. It’s hard to believe that, but the Bible says we’re sinners from birth. Our natural instinct is to pursue our own pleasure and selfish ambitions while being concerned only for our own welfare.

Look at a young child. Her natural approach to life is to have everything centered on her. She wants everything for herself and wants total independence. Simply listen to her vocabulary. If she’s asked to do something, she says “No.” If she’s asked to share, she says, “Mine.” If she’s offered help, she says, “I can do it.” This isn’t the nature of someone who lives an open life drawn to the goodness of the Lord. Many people in our society still live in this selfish bubble, never coming to accept the reality that there’s a God.

If there were no God, we wouldn’t be concerned about how our actions, words, etc. impact other people. We would only be concerned about our personal success. It takes the goodness of God within the world for us to consider the thoughts, feelings and life of another person. Once we know Christ, this characteristic becomes natural instinct.

There would be more evil

If there were no God, then there would be a lot more hatred, fear and destruction in this world. There’s a lot of evil in the world as it is, but that’s our doing, not God’s. He gives us the choice to live our lives for Him (and to live in us) or to live our lives independently of Him. If we choose the later, then we’re under the influence of the evil one. But, if there was no opportunity to choose God, then evil would prevail and we would experience a massive increase of wickedness.

It’s easy to focus only on the evil in the world, because it’s overwhelming and we’re bombarded with negativity. But, God will always prevail and due to this truth, there will always be more good than evil. As evil increases, so does good, and it will overcome the bad.

The Lord gives us freedom, so if there weren’t a God, we would be living in captivity, even if this captivity were simply mental. There would be nothing to counter this negativity that circulates through our hearts, minds and soul.

There would be no religion

The fact that various religions have been formed over time demonstrates the existence of God. People turn to religions to satisfy the need of finding a purpose, self-worth, belonging and false love from others in what they perceive to be God. We were all created to be in a relationship with God. Therefore, if we’re all drawn to the existence of God, we’ll look to satisfy this need. Many people have found God through His Truth in Jesus Christ, but many still seek a higher power in hopes that other religions will fulfill this longing within. If we weren’t created to be in community with God, then people wouldn’t feel the need to pursue a higher power in other religions. Religions wouldn’t be fabricated to satisfy a need that wasn’t there.

There would be no foundation for our life

If believing in God were all nonsense, we wouldn’t have a foundation for our life. We wouldn’t have any purpose or desire greater than ourselves. If being a Christian were absurd, then we’d be doing more than just wasting our time on Sunday morning. We’d be entirely lost, which is actually how much of the world lives when they aren’t willing to follow the Lord’s intentions for their life.

There would be no heaven or hell

If we question the existence of God, we have to factor the afterlife. If there were no God, there would be no eternity. There would be no heaven or hell. When we die, we would just be dead. Every day we live is one less day we have available.

We would have nothing to motivate or inspire us to pursue anything larger than ourselves, if this life was all we had. There would be no accounting for our behavior when we do leave this earth. That would give us the freedom to sin all we want, but would that really satisfy our soul? Events and occurrences would never make sense to each of us individually if there weren’t a God. We’d never be able to look back at life and see how God was in control or why certain things happened. We would never be able to analyze how we grew in strength, wisdom or compassion. We would never be able to realize goodness out of hardship. Our life would have no meaning and we would have little understanding of why our life matters.

Would we want to live a life without God?

Without God present in our lives, would we be able to handle our life? Would we be smart enough to successfully be in charge and know how to help and support others? Would we know what to do if we didn’t have God to rely on? Who would we turn to? If there were no God, there would be no one available to direct anyone. Our parents, coaches, teachers, etc. would only have their personal experience to use as a guide for their own lives as well as helping us with ours.

When we look at the world without the existence of God, it’s easy to see how and where He’s present. Living our life for God gives us hope. The Bible teaches that God is in charge of everything (even if we deny Him, He still works in our life). Here on Earth, God has chosen not to control every aspect of our lives. This means that there are many times when God’s will is NOT being asserted. That’s the difference between God being in CHARGE compared to Him being in CONTROL of our life. He is not a controlling God; we are not being controlled as if we were a bunch of robots. God doesn’t WANT to control our lives; He wants us to allow Him to come into our lives so He can lead us. This means that He not only impacts our life, but He also impacts the lives of others around us.

Regardless of our willingness to let God in, He WILL be glorified. The question we all have to ask is whether we’ll be a willing part of His glory? In the well-known Old Testament story of Moses, we see how, at Pharaoh’s expense, God is glorified. God’s will is going to prevail, not matter what. Are we going to be an active participant, or are we going to refuse or deny His desires for our life?