Do You Believe Only What You Can See?

SOMETIMES you hear people say: “I believe only what I can see.” What they really mean is that since they cannot see God they do not believe he exists. The fact that they cannot see him, they think, is sufficient justification for their lack of belief in God, and for their lack of interest in anything that points to God’s Word, the Bible, for an explanation of the reason for earth’s present difficulties. But is their position a sound one? No. Their statement is not even true. They believe many things that they cannot see.

As an illustration, take the example of electricity. Have you ever seen electricity? What does it look like? What color and shape is it? Can you watch the wires that bring it into your house and say: “Here comes some electricity now”? Well, then, if you cannot see it, why should you still believe that electricity exists? You believe it because you see its effect, you see the work it does. When you flip on the light switch, electric current flows through the wires, meets resistance in the bulb’s filament, and light is produced. The fact that the light is produced is clear evidence to you that electricity, which you have never seen, actually does exist, and therefore you accept and believe that fact.

Further, have you ever seen the radio waves that are at this moment passing through the room in which you are sitting, flowing between your eyes and this page, invisibly carrying sounds and voices and even television pictures? No, you cannot see them. They are invisible. But certainly you would not argue that just because you cannot see them such radio waves do not exist, and that the entire process of radio and television is a fabulous hoax to delude gullible people. Such an argument would be ridiculous. True, all you have seen is the evidence that radio waves exist, the result of their work. But the effect (the sounds and voices in your radio and pictures on television) must have a logical cause (the waves that bring them) and this leads you to accept the understandable explanation that radio waves actually are a reality, even though you have never seen them.

Then, too, how long ago was it that you last saw an atom, or the even smaller electrons, protons and neutrons of which atoms are composed? You never did? Many people who contend that they believe only what they can see are quite convinced of the existence of these minute particles, and frequently are heard expressing great fear over the way they believe something they have never seen may drastically affect the future of the world.

Thus, the statement “I believe only what I can see” is false and misleading. Everyone believes things he cannot see. He believes them because he sees the effects produced by these unseen things. Invisible electric current produces heat and light; unseen radio waves produce sound and pictures; minute particles within the atom can be made to release tremendous power.

But what does this have to do with belief in God? It has a great deal to do with God, for just as the effects produced by invisible electricity, radio waves and atomic particles prove that these things exist, so the fact that there is an invisible Creator, an Almighty One whose name is Jehovah, is proved by the equally clear observable effects of his power. What effects? The following article answers.

Why Believe in God

Is that belief logical? What are the evidences for it? Why should you accept the Bible as being God’s Word?

SOME people say they believe only what they can see. We reply most emphatically: Believe it! Yes, believe what you can see! The apostle Paul said the visible creation shows God’s power: “For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are understood by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship.” (Rom. 1:20, NW) Most people do believe that the things they see are proof of God’s existence. A Gallup Poll survey showed that even in presumably “materialistic” America 96 percent of the people interviewed said they believe in God. They have looked at the order and majesty of the world around them, at the existence of man and at the Bible itself and have seen convincing arguments that God does exist.

One writer put it this way: “If we start with an open mind, ready to believe or not believe according to the evidence, it is quite probable that we shall discover that it is easier to believe in God than to decide that plants, animals and man himself, body and mind, had their origin as the product of blind, purposeless chance. It is perhaps fitting to add that many persons do not wish to believe in God. They realize that it would rebuke their past and change their future to an unpleasant degree if they did.”a

What do you think about the origin of the universe itself? Was it pure chance, just an accident, a combination of many fortuitous events? Or does it bear witness to the existence of another mind that is higher, more intelligent, and that existed long before man did? Remember that the universe is not chaos, as it might well be if it were accidental, but is in order. Does this indicate to you that conscious thought is responsible for it? that it was designed by an intelligent creator?